Digital Manual - Project CARS

RACE CENTRAL

Race Central is the hub from which you can access all of the features within Project CARS…

PLAY NOW

Playable items are categorised by Career, Solo, Online, and Community on the Play Now tab

Here you can start a new career or load a previously-saved one (up to four can be saved), or simply continue the one you’re involved in.

Quick Race Weekend allows you to make your own solo events with complete control over track and vehicle choice, track conditions, pre-race sessions and more – all unlocked from day one. Alternatively, head into Free Practice to get more familiar with a specific location in a non-competitive environment unimpeded by opponents.

Online is where you prove your skill against your friends and others from around the world. Search for a specific type of event, jump into the next available game, or create your own – the choice is yours.

The Driver Network connects all Project CARS players together – participate in regularly-scheduled Community Events for bragging rights and potential real-world prizes or challenge other drivers asynchronously in Time Trial. Want a hint on how a particular driver achieved their incredible time? Simply download their Ghost to find out and potentially improve your own!

MY HOME

Your Garage, Profile, personal preferences, and any add-ons available are displayed on the My Home tab

Here you can access your garage of cars, find out more information, take photos, and create tuning setups for them.

You can also access your Driver Network Profile which monitors how you play the game and your favourite things, tracks your progress throughout your career, and stores your proudest highlights and moments.

Project CARS is designed to be accessible by anyone so within Options & Help you can completely customise and personalise your experience to your particular skill level and preference. It’s also where you accessed this help, so please continue reading if you’re still in need of assistance! 😉

Finally, the Store is where you can discover great new content we’ll be adding to Project CARS over time – iconic cars, brand new locations, community-driven updates, and exciting new features!

CAREER

STARTING YOUR CAREER

Your career within Project CARS was informed by and follows the experience of real-life drivers. Start by creating the persona by which you want to be known – your name, social media handle, nationality, and preferred car number.

Next you need to choose a starting point. There are three Historic Goals in Project CARS inspired by the past glories of legendary race drivers…

ZERO TO HERO

Zero To Hero invites you to win the LMP1 World Championship within 5 seasons having started in the world of Karting. If you’re used to the traditional progression of other racing games then this will be most appropriate.

DEFENDING CHAMP

Defending Champ tests your mettle seeing if you can win the same championship title three years in a row. If you’re used to playing single-license racing games then you’ll feel most at home here.

TRIPLE CROWN

Project CARS Digital Manual Tripple Crown

Triple Crown is for those that are unsure yet what kid of car or motorsport they prefer. Try and win three different championships here to achieve this goal.

All three Historic Goals can be attempted in any order, concurrently, or not at all. Complete all three however and you’re on the way to earning Hall Of Fame status!

Choose your Starting Point based off whichever Historic Goal you feel like attempting first therefore and sign a contract with one of the welcoming teams.

RACE WEEKENDS

THE PIT BOX

The Pit Box is where you prepare for attacking the track in a pre-race session. Various features here allow you to make the best decisions and preparation possible during this time…

• The Monitor allows you to view any other cars out on the track from either broadcast or onboard camera angles. You can even pull up the telemetry of the car you’re watching and get a broader overview of the session so far with a live track map and timings info

• Car Setup allows you to tweak the tuning of your car specific to that track and car combination. Change everything from ride height and gear ratios to damper stiffness and caster angles, then go out on track to try it out

• The Pit Strategy Manager gives you full control over your potential tactics for the upcoming race session. Set your fuel levels based on the length of the event and potential number of pit stops necessary and determine whether to change tires or fix damage in certain scenarios.

• In online sessions you can also access the Pit Lobby where you can chat with other drivers and invite others into your non-race session

Non-race sessions can either be played the entire length through, accelerated up to 240x speed, or skipped to the end.

Final standings from the session are then shown once completed and you can then continue on to the next, or return to Race Central or your Dashboard.

CREATING YOUR OWN

From Race Central, you can create your own Quick Race Weekends. All cars and tracks are unlocked from day one within Project CARS so you can create any car/track/time of day/weather/session combination you want here.

Tracks and cars can be selected quickly using the initial Quick Lists but if you prefer to browse more leisurely and access additional functionality, simply select the Browse option instead.

Up to 4 different weather changes can be chosen for your race weekend and you have full control over the rate of how this progresses. Similarly you can set any time of day and control how fast this changes during the course of your event.

You also have control over the date of the event. Change it to a specific date and the game will set it as accurately as possible to that date in history or today’s conditions based on online data.

MY GARAGE

All cars are unlocked from day one in Project CARS and you own them immediately; no grinding for cash, no unlocking via XP, and no reputation needed with a certain ‘crew’. All cars can be browsed along with their stats and showcase info and can be taken out on the track freely in Solo, Online, and Driver Network game modes.

You can also create detailed tuning setups for each vehicle too that specialise your cars for either specific locations or groups of commonly-themed locations.

TUNING SETUPS

By tweaking and setting the parameters of parts installed on your car you can maximise its performance, potential, and characteristics for the track you’re going to tackle. Common areas to address based on the length of the track and event, and corner complexity include balancing top speed versus acceleration out of corners, understeer vs oversteer of the vehicle in various scenarios, stability whilst accelerating and braking, and balance between the front and rear of the car. Notes on each modifiable parameter as well as troubleshooting tips from your Race Engineer are included directly in the game.

You can also create detailed tuning setups for each vehicle too that specialise your cars for either specific locations or groups of commonly-themed locations.

TUNING SETUPS

YOUR DRIVER NETWORK PROFILE

Your Driver Network Profile defines the journey you’ve taken throughout Project CARS.

YOUR PROJECT CARS LICENSE

Your Project CARS License identifies how you play the game – the hours you’ve logged and the areas you most like visiting. Did you jump straight behind the wheel in online games or do you prefer to be under the car tinkering with its engineering?

It also shows your affinity with specific cars, tracks, and motorsports – the disciplines you love playing but could do with improving on, and the ones you dominate in. It also showcases your Signature Car, Favorite Location, and Preferred Realism. Your Affinity therefore defines what kind of driver you are offline.

When you play online, Project CARS is continually monitoring both your performance and reputation. Not only are your wins and podiums and average finishing position important, but so is your dedication to finishing events rather than rage-quitting them, your behaviour in respects to the number of yellow flags you’ve involved with or penalties you’ve incurred, and listing of any disqualifications you picked up. Project CARS aims to place racers with those of similar competency and behaviour so these stats are something dedicated players will definitely want to keep an eye on.

CAREER

The Career tab shows your progression through your currently-loaded career.

Progression towards any Historic Goals is listed here along with any towards overall Hall Of Fame status.

When you win any Championship or Series within your career, you earn an Accolade. Accolades are divided into Gold, Silver, and Bronze categories based on the motorsport tier they belong in. Scouts for other teams will be on the lookout for drivers that have earned either specific Accolades or a certain number of them so the choice is yours whether to push for a Gold one or do two Silvers instead.

Endorsements are recognition from various brands and companies that are earned by reaching certain milestones of Gold accolade earning. Start winning and making a name for yourself and people will come knocking on your door wanting to be associated with you(!)

As you become more famous and prove your skill out on the track you’ll also get invited to special events outside of the normal motorsports calendar. Want to participate in a historic race recreation or test drive a supercar for a manufacturer? These are the kind of opportunities a real race driver encounters and it’s up to you whether your schedule can fit them in amidst your regular season 😉

HIGHLIGHT REEL

Your Highlight Reel contains any replays you’ve saved and any photos you’ve taken – either out on the track or in My Garage. Why not stream an event via Twitch or share a proudest moment using Upload Studio, PS Share, or the Steam Screenshot Gallery? Check out our YouTube and Flickr accounts for the best moments shared by the Driver Network community!

DRIVER NETWORK CHALLENGES

COMMUNITY EVENTS

These are regularly-scheduled opportunities for players to compete in specific scenarios, try to climb the rankings, and gain bragging rights – and in some cases real-world prizes!

Participate in the SMS-R Driver Network Championship to see if you have what it takes to be inducted into the Hall Of Fame!

COMMUNITY EVENTS

Time Trial allows players to challenge each other asynchronously for record times. If you need a little assistance on how to improve or desperately need to see how a particular player achieved their time, simply opt to bring their Driver Network Ghost in with you (up to three can be included) and try to shave seconds off and beat them at their own game 😉

ONLINE

In addition to searching for a particular track or car combination, or jumping into the next available event, you can also create a custom event with a number of different styles.

• Public events can be entered by anyone and utilise an automated lobby countdown timer and ‘vote to start now’ mechanic to ensure players get into events quickly and without being at the mercy of a single player. They are findable by any other players from around the world.

• Private events however are designed for you and your friends or Xbox Live Party to participate in. There’s no lobby timer yet players can still show they’re ready for the host to start it. Private events are only findable using the search function for a particular lobby name.

Regardless of which, you can invite other players into both online events or choose to fill empty driver spaces with AI opponents.

Not happy with the track that the host has chosen? You can even vote to force them to change it!

Uniquely in Project CARS, you can also create not only races but full race weekends meaning you can allow any combination of practice, qualifying, rolling start, or warmup laps you want. Got a friend that’s running a bit late for your game? You can even set the times for these pre-race sessions, start, and then have them join mid-session!

And of course it goes without saying that any car, track, and time of day/weather combination are possible here – in addition to also being able to set restrictions on particular driving assists, camera views, and gearing. We can’t wait to see the variety of games you create.

OPTIONS & HELP

PLAYER TAILORING

Whilst Project CARS is a technically-advanced, authentic simulation of real-life motorsports racing, we’ve ensured that you can customise and personalise the game to your own experience and comfort level. Player Tailoring therefore will dial all aspects of the handling model and assists, damage and degradation, regulations and opponent challenge to the preset you feel most accustomed to – and they can each individually be tweaked at any later date.

CONTROLS

Project CARS supports a wide variety of controllers and wheels. Here you can configure and calibrate them, as well as change button assignments.

VISUALS

Here you can personalise the visual aesthetic of the game – toggle rain drops on the camera, the flare from sunlight, heat haze and much more.

GAMEPLAY

Here you can set the authenticity of the game; the assists and driving aids you want turned on, the strictness of the motorsport rules & regulations, and the degradation of fuel and tire wear in addition to any onscreen guides such as guiding lines and turn indicators you’d like visible whilst racing.

AUDIO

Allows you to adjust individual areas of the game’s audio landscape.

CAMERA

Project CARS utilises a number of stylistic techniques to provide a convincing sensation of speed. Here you can adjust the field of view based on your proximity to your television screen and how it changes when driving at speed, as well as how the camera moves in certain situations and whilst viewing from Helmet Cam.