The first lesson is understanding how your car behaves on the tracks. What it is good at and what it is bad at. Most cars will perform great in a few fields but suffer in others. Overall the cars to choose from are fairly well balanced, but that doesn't mean you should only be driving one car on every track! Many cars will favor certain tracks over others depending on the layout.

1. Speed
Speed is how fast your car can go. Speed build cars tend to have high speed but low handling. Because of this, you will usually need to let off the accelerator when making turns or even brake to avoid hitting obstacles. This makes them great for straight sections or on tracks with very few to gentle turns. As the tracks become more wild and complex, you may find these cars difficult to keep on the track.

2. Acceleration
Acceleration is how fast your car gains speed. In other words, cars with better accelerations tend to reach their top speed sooner than cars with slower acceleration. For example, a car with 4.1 secs to 60 mph has a better acceleration than one with 5 secs to 60 mph. The first car will reach 60 miles per hour .9 seconds faster than the second car. This may not seem like much, but every second matters when you are chasing down the leaders. Not only does acceleration affect how quickly your car launches off the starting line, but it also affects how quickly your car recovers from a crash or when bumping another driver.

3. Handling
Handling affects how well your car turns and sticks to the track. Cars with high handling tend to have lower top speed. Because of this, these cars are able to maintain their speed around turns far better than cars with low handling. Often times you don't even need to let off the accelerator when turning. Making them very quick on tracks with lots of sharp twists and turns. This also helps with navigating around other drivers. Allowing them to reach the front of the pack with minimal bumping.

4. Fuel
This is pretty straight forward. A car with more fuel will be able to drive longer without needing to refuel. Cars with less fuel will need to pick up fuel cans more often to avoid running out. This stat is not super important, but there are certain tracks that have very few fuel pick ups that you may need to watch out for.

5. Nitro
Nitro affects how your car boosts forward. Cars with higher nitro will benefit more from the boost/turbo than other cars. The stats of nitro specialty cars tend to vary from one to another, but I have noticed that they tend to have slightly lower speed and low handling (aside from the Gentleman). With this in mind, cars that specialize in nitro tend to fair better on tracks with less turns so that they can take advantage of their turbo boosting.

While progressing through campaign or endurance races, it is important to know which upgrades your cars need that best fit your driving style. Often times you want to cover your car's weakness while other times you want to improve certain areas that you feel need improvements. Get a feel for your car and notice how it behaves on the track.



Take the above screenshot for example. The Night Rider's greatest weaknesses is its handling and fuel tank. It does fine on straight tracks with its speed and acceleration, but suffers greatly around turns and runs out of fuel fast. Since it didn't feel like it needed anymore speed or acceleration, I focused on the handling and fuel upgrades mainly while slowly upgrading the others.

If you still are unsure what upgrades you should focus on, try upgrading handling and speed first, followed by acceleration and nitro, then fuel like I have listed below.

1. Handling
2. Speed
3. Acceleration
4. Nitro
5. Fuel

Handling and speed is your main focus. Later tracks will get more complex so handling is very important if you want to stay on the track and maintain turning speed. Speed will help you catch up to the leaders faster. Keep in mind that balancing handling and speed is important. Do not focus on one or the other. Having too much speed will cause your car to slide on the turns while having too much handling will not only make your car slower, but take away stat upgrades that would be better used in other areas.

Acceleration and nitro, though less important, should still be upgraded when you can or have no other option to. Fuel should only be upgraded if you notice that you are running out of it too often.

Now that we have discussed the strengths and weaknesses of each car, we will now go over some tips and tricks that you can take to improve your performance on the tracks. Got some tricks or tips that you would like to share with the class? Put a comment down below and I may add it to this list with your name!

Patience is the key to victory!


A wise racer once told me "What good is speed when you can't keep it on the track? Racing isn't all about how fast you can go. It is about being in the right position at the right time." This is true for most racing. If you bump or rear end another driver, not only are you loosing speed, but you are loosing time to catch up to the leaders. Learning when to be patient, and when to be aggressive is the true art of racing!

1. Slow down when you are unable to pass. Wait for an opportunity to open up for you. Waiting may sound like a strange thing to do in a race, but it is often times better than rear ending other drivers or causing a crash.

2. Do not boost on lap 1. On the first lap, the pack is still fighting for positions so boosting now will often times limit the full potential of your nitro if you make contact with someone. Wait until lap 2 when everyone is more spaced out.

3. Use your nitro wisely. It is best to use your nitro on straight sections or on gentle turns. High handling cars can sometimes get away with a boost on a turn, but doing so always risks crashing.

Fight back!


Lets face it. Some of those drivers out there are nasty. They will block you from passing or move to the side to push you into a wall. But that doesn't mean you can't do the same. It might be more difficult, but hey if they can do it so can you!

1. Speed bumping. In the screenshot above, you want to throw the corner of your rear bumper into the corner of another driver's front bumper. This will result in a forced push and accelerate your car forward while slowing them down. This manuever is very difficult to pull off. Requiring you to make contact at just the right angle. I have only been able to pull this off a couple of times. The other times I was able to get this to work were all on accident.

2. Blocking. Making an opponent rear end you will give you more speed, especially if they are boosting. Because we can't look behind us, it is difficult to know when another driver is trying to pass. But knowing where they are driving or by taking certain track lines can make blocking easier. Driving down the middle of narrow track sections or driving on the apex of turns are your best opportunities to block.

Strategies and other tips.


1. Look for a path. When starting at the back of the pack, look for openings or gaps between cars that you can squeeze between. Look for driving patterns and also be mindful of drivers changing lanes.

2. Stick to the inside. Still having troubles on the turns? Try to stay on the inside of a turn. This will allow your car to have more room to slowly slide outwards without hitting something. For chicanes (a sharp left/right turn followed by a right/left), stick to the middle of the track.

Overtaking other drivers is usually not very difficult. However as you progress through the tournaments, you will begin to notice the lead drivers will start to become very aggressive or defensive against you. They will actively get in front of you or try to push you off the road. Especially in master tournaments! This will force you to create certain maneuvers just to get around them. There are three maneuvers that I used.

1. Juke to the inside


When you are behind someone that is giving you troubles, wait for a turn to come up. Stick to the outside of the turn so they are forced to block you and watch for when that driver just begins to enter the turn. At that moment sharply turn to the inside of the corner. Often times the AI will slow down on corners and do not move from side to side very fast. With them now on the outside lane, it is more difficult for them to block you, giving you the faster inside lane. This maneuver will work with high handling cars, but it is best for high speed cars as they often times want the inside lane.

2. Sliding to the outside


This maneuver is fairly similar to the first one, only instead we will be starting on the inside of the turn. Stay close behind the leader and follow them into the turn. Right before you rear end them, quickly slide to the outside lane. Again, the AI will have reduced speed and turning so it will be slightly more difficult for them to block you. This maneuver is often best suited for high handling cars since they are not only able to maintain a higher corner speed, but have the grip to slide to the outside lane to make a pass.

3. Boosting


Sometimes no matter what you do, you just cant pass that annoyingly stubborn leader. That is where nitro comes in. In master tournaments I always saved one boost to pass the leader on the last lap. Do not rush it! Get behind him a couple times and let him waste his boosts to get away from you. Catch back up to them and when the opportunity strikes, hit the nitro! Zip around them and use that speed to stay ahead!

If you are still having troubles and are following everything above, maybe it isn't you. Maybe it is the car you are using. You need to find the right car that fits with your play style. Finding that one car can completely change the course of a race. So here is my top ten cars to choose from. Keep in mind this is my own opinion. You may find a car better or think something that I picked out is garbage, but these are the cars I had the most success with.

#10. Specter

This car has a great amount of speed with a fair amount of handling. It would be higher on this list if it had better handling. Also it has very little nitro so don't rely on that very much.

#9. Explorer

The Explorer is a decent all purpose car. It is fairly slow, but most of its strength comes from its very high nitro.

#8. Bliss

The Bliss is another decent all purpose car that you unlock very early. It doesn't perform overly well at anything, but it also doesn't have any short comings either.

#7. Macchina

This car has high speed, a fast acceleration, and great handling! However its low fuel means you will be picking up fuel cans a lot and its nitro is one of the lowest in the game.

#6. Infinity

One of the cars you start off with. You can't go wrong in picking this car. Has decent speed, acceleration, and handling with plenty of fuel to burn!

#5. Deju Vu

Though slightly on the slow side, it has great acceleration to make up for it. It also handles quite well and has a fair amount of nitro to go along with it.

#4. Orient

I used this car quite a bit in early campaign. It has decent handling and plenty of fuel so you almost never have to worry about running out.

#3. Minuano

The Minuano is a great mid campaign car. With good speed and decent handling, I often times used it on the more straight tracks. Its acceleration is pretty poor however, so try and maintain your speed the best you can.

#2. Dustdriver

I love this car! It got me through some very tough campaign races. Great acceleration and handling with a decent amount of fuel and nitro to go with. It suffers at top speed but aside from that it is a good choice!

#1. Nano

And finally the Nano. It does everything the same or better that the Dustdriver does. It does have the slowest speed out of the top ten picks, but every other stat on it is too good not to ignore.

I truly hope that this guide has helped in some way. As a reminder, if you have any tips and tricks that you would like to share, please leave a comment below. If I like it or think it fits with this guide, I will add it to the guide with your name on it. Also please point out any mistakes I may have made so that I can make the corrections. Now get out there and show those racers what you are capable of!!!