You can jump into quick play races, scheduled events or build a custom lobby of your own. Project Cars 3 also has a multiplayer mode, which is fairly standard stuff for games of this genre.
As far as the career mode goes - it’s not exactly what fans of the series were likely looking forward to, but it’ll suit newcomers just fine. Some tiers will have you do timed solo laps, and participate in other unique game modes. It’s not all racing against other cars, either. Project Cars 3 has an insanely impressive amount of tracks (130 variants) and cars (more than 200), and that translates to a career mode with tons of variety. Most of the rules that come with real-life racing apply here, so a little bit of practice might be necessary before you get settled in. You might bounce from Crash Team Racing to this and think you have it all figured out - only to spin into grass after turning your very first corner. Playing with a controller feels great, though it definitely takes getting used to. These little game-y additions are thankfully subtle enough to keep your immersion intact. As you race, you’ll find little icons on the road that notify you of when to tap the brakes or avoid driving into a nearby car. A racing game with an identity crisis, in a series desperately trying to break out into the mainstream. It’s not an arcade game either - more of a weird cross between the two. None of it makes Project Cars 3 feel like anything close to a racing simulation game, however. It still features a couple sim-like aspects, such as having to brake at just the right time when rounding corners. Project Cars 3 has raised the ire of fans for removing simulator-like features like tyre wear, fuel depletion and pit stops. You’ll probably see a couple of cars in the store that you really want - but find that it’s more worthwhile to spend your credits upgrading existing cars instead of buying new ones. While the races you play through are generous in XP (which helps you unlock more cars), they’re not as generous with currency.
It will take you a really long time to garner enough currency for a new car, and an even longer time to have enough currency to buy and upgrade multiple cars at once. There is an unfortunate amount of grinding involved in Project Cars 3. It’s a good way to keep things fresh as you play through the career mode, but it does highlight the game’s problem with currency. Slightly Mad Studios has thankfully injected a lot of variety into the career mode’s racing events, to the point that certain races require cars of a certain quality tier, or from a particular model or country. You’ll probably want to upgrade it instead of swapping it out for different cars, but expanding your garage is something that will be forced upon you as you go. Your first car is kind of like your first Pokémon. After that, you can either upgrade it - and eventually even convert it into a racing car - or buy better vehicles as you play through all these races. The idea is that you start small, with a fairly humble road car to take into beginner races.
This is a series of themed racing events, separated into different tiers of difficulty based on your in-game progress. The second you start playing Project Cars 3, you’ll find that most of your time is best spent in its career mode. If you’re a newcomer to the series however, this is a perfectly fine racing game - albeit one with its fair share of problems. If you’re a fan of Project Cars and its sequel, you will likely be let down by the series’ sudden and dramatic shift into more arcade-y gameplay, which is a far cry from the simulation fare it was previously known for. Whether or not you end up liking Project Cars 3 largely depends on your interest in the franchise.
Project Cars 3 is Slightly Mad Studios’ third installment in their racing simulation game series, but it might appear borderline unrecognisable to its fans. Project Cars 3 takes the racing series in a strange new direction