What Project Motor Racing Can Learn From Project CARS

With Project Motor Racing releasing for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC in late 2025, Luca believes it is perhaps a good time to look back at its spiritual predecessors to see what lessons could be learned.

I remember more than a decade ago when picking up my copy of Project CARS for the PlayStation 4, I did not even have a PS4 compatible wheel so I made do with a controller for the longest time. I must say even on a controller the driving felt very good. Fast forward a few years and I got Project CARS 2, and I remember feeling a bit perplexed with it.

Around that time, I finally had a wheel that I would run until finally getting a direct drive wheel. I would play Gran Turismo Sport and GT7, the F1 games, both of the Assetto Corsa titles when they came to console and many more. But I almost did not buy GT Sport as I thought Project CARS 2 would be all the driving game I needed, and for some reason it did not deliver.


Of course, we all know where this story ends with Project CARS 3, a game I did not even bother to buy. But for me, I was already slowly getting off the Project CARS hype train long before the infamous third installation, and I want to believe that Project Motor Racing will be a much needed return to form.

With all this in mind, I am reminiscing about all my memories with the Project CARS games and wondering what can be learned from those games ahead of Project Motor Racing's release.

Handling Model​

This may sound odd, but I genuinely feel like I may have been playing a different game to everyone else. When I had my old wheel - a Logitech G29 - I recall on Project CARS 2 feeling immensely disconnected with the cars I was driving, one particularly poignant instance was when I was attempting a race in my career mode.

I had done the Formula Rookie (Formula Ford) races and had jumped up to Formula C, and the first race was on the Brno circuit. Turn 1 at that track is a long sweeping corner that tightens gradually, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why but no matter what I did, I could not get past the first corner at racing speed. The steering just went light for me and the car would spin.

This video below showing an onboard lap of the Formula C at Brno I believe demonstrates my point.


For years, I could not quite put my finger on what the issue was but now having experienced a lot of PC sim racing titles, I can quantify it now. Project CARS 2 seemed to depict a car going around a corner in such a way that any input would be enough to make it slip - or some of them, at least. In my experience, trying to turn in a number of cars on PC2 was immensely frustrating, it felt like it had no connection to the road.

My main sim now is iRacing, and many people claim that feels very disconnected to the racing surface. Compared to Project CARS 2, iRacing feels like a terrified toddler clutching their parent's hand in terms of gripping to the surface. On that note, I was so put off of "sims" because of Project CARS 2 (and also the F1 games) as I was convinced it would never be worth the expense of getting onto more advanced sims on the PC.

Surely if Project CARS 2 is a sim and therefore "realistic", what hope do I have of being able to handle realism? If I knew that other sims on PC were not like that, I would have been here a lot sooner!

Accessibility​

For me, Project CARS should be a great gateway into sim racing, which is why I - like many of you - was disappointed with the whiplash-inducing different direction of the third game. Gone were the likes of qualifying, tyre wear or fuel depletion, not even being able to go into the pits, which for a game where the name Project CARS stands for Community Assisted Racing Simulation, feels like a bit of a slap in the face.

I for one would not have objected to the option of having those things being able to be switched on or off. Yes it is not completely simulation but just having it as an option can help a lot of novices, who for the most part are the ones buying it on console. But that is the most miniscule of all the issues that come with a racing title of course, as there is something else that the games have done which hopefully Project Motor Racing will follow.


For players who are not so setup savvy, the Race Engineer feature could help figure out how to improve the car. Image: Slightly Mad Studios

I wrote an article last year talking about an idea for a tool that would help those who do not know how to tweak the setup to their liking, as it was a feature that was in Project CARS 2. I did not really get much benefit from it myself as I just could not get along with the handling model in many of the cars, but I firmly believe in the brilliance of the concept and helping ease more casual players into learning about these complex methods.

Ultimately, Project Motor Racing should be an accessible entry point sim racing as much as it should be a proper simulator. Whilst a lot of casual players on console are not going to get into serious sim racing, what prevents loads of players from doing so is how vast and complicated it appears to be. Assetto Corsa and ACC are currently the only titles considered to be racing simulations available for console, but both Rennsport and PMR will expand the sim racing title market immensely for PlayStation and Xbox users.

Having said all that, there is one thing that Project CARS did that many other platforms seem to be following the example of.

Career Mode​

When I heard that the title of this game had gone from GTRevival to Project Motor Racing, I was reminded of the career mode from Project CARS 2. There are six tiers, with the player able to begin in the Formula Rookie cars, karts or a Ginetta tin-top entry level car and from there, players can choose whether to go down the open wheel, sports prototype, grand tourer or touring car career path.

Even with the array of options available though, you could never do that many races in each series and I wish there was a way of having full-on seasons. Imagine having a list of entry level series available and full seasons that can be done, maybe even attempting to do multiple races if there are offers. This is what I hope to see from Project Motor Racing, a career mode that truly reflects what drivers in real life go through.


Whichever career path you went down, the progression system was extensive and very deep. Image: Slightly Mad Studios

I may not be so much of a single player person myself, but there are plenty of people who are and to have an extensive career mode akin to the Project CARS games would be fulfilling a void in the market. I hope with a name like Project Motor Racing, the career mode is reflective of the path that real life aspiring and established pros end up taking.

For me, I would love to take on a lot of different disciplines at the same time. Ensuring the majority of events do not clash, you can take on as many as you can, maybe having to take on sponsors early on to compete in lower categories but as your reputation raises, paid drives come in. I really hope this is something that will be in PMR, as it would truly set it apart from many other offerings in the sim racing market.

What do you hope is carried over from the Project CARS games into Project Motor Racing? Let us know in the comments below and join the discussion in our PMR forum!