Road cars can also be turned into race cars via a race modification feature, the kind you may recall from the original Gran Turismo games (or the ‘Works Upgrade’ option in the Need for Speed Shift games). Stuffing enough upgrades into a Tommi Mäkinen Edition Lancer that it can go toe-to-toe with a Bugatti Chiron has a certain charm to it reminiscent of the original Gran Turismo and the great many games it subsequently inspired, but it feels pretty weird in what used to be a realistic love letter to the otherwise regulated world of authentic racing. Tyre and BridgestoneYou can upgrade your first ride to take on the best Project CARS 3 has to offer, with performance and visual customisation featured for the first time in the series. It borders on pointless unless you’ve also got the adequate driver level and cash to splurge on an eligible car, but with enough upgrades even entry-level cars can compete and win in the top tiers. Access to higher tiers requires a lot of completed objectives, though you can also buy your way directly into tiers with in-game cash. It is arguably a better solution than conventional racing lines but the braking markers are regularly too cautious considering how effectively overpowered the braking seems.

Corners are now marked with digital indicators for entry, apex, and exit à la GT Sport, though that can be toggled off. Others are often related to perfecting corners, Project Gotham-style. Some combine drafting and overtaking, but I can never get those ones to register. Some are overtaking quotas and some are drafting challenges.

Moving up and down tiers with a single car is a little inelegant, too if your car’s not currently eligible you have to shuffle all the way back to the main menu, which is ill thought-out.Each event has a trio of objectives to meet in order to unlock further events, many of which are straightforward enough to be completed without really paying attention to them. It rapidly becomes a bit of a grind, though, and the initial payouts are a little too stingy to completely support the number of cars you’re asked to continuously buy to complete specific events. There are a few other event types, like a block smashing event type akin to those you’d find in Dirt games, and two slightly different time trials that would be more fun if they let you spend more time lapping continuously and less time hammering through menus for another shot. You can generally gobble up half the field by the first corner. “The races are pretty typical of the catch-the-rabbit style of racing that works in most other arcade racers and semi-simulations that is, sprint from last to first in a few laps.

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