Keyboard: W/↑ accelerate, S/↓ brake and reverse, AD/←→ steer, Space handbrake to drift, N nitro, C camera, R put the car back on its wheels, Esc pause.
Phone: use the on-screen buttons. Steer on the left, gas and brake on the right, and Drift for the handbrake. The round N2O button is your nitro.
Nitro: a 2 second burst that lifts your speed by half again, with blue flames from the exhausts. The dial fills up in blue like a clock hand; when it reaches the top and glows, nitro is ready. It recharges in 30 seconds on the test track and 15 seconds in the smash arena, and is switched off in the other races.
Engines: each engine drives differently. The V12 is quickest down long straights, the Rally four and Turbo four are sharpest through corners, the V8 and Electric shove hardest off the line, and the Rotary loves high revs. Over a mix of tracks they all end up level.
Park in a green circle for 3 seconds to start a race. At the far end, the right circle is the oval race (sports cars and hypercars are a little faster) and the left circle is the off-road race (other cars are faster, and soft suspension with a lifted ride helps on the bumps). Near the start, the front-left circle is the drift race: a twisty tarmac stage where every car is equal. Drift suspension makes sliding easier. In the drift race and drift time trial it’s all about drift points, not speed: the drift leaderboard ranks the most drift points scored in one run. Points only really count in the corners: start the slide before the orange apex marker, keep a good angle, slide the right way into the bend and follow the faint orange racing line (outside, apex, outside). Drifting on straights, the wrong way or too late scores almost nothing.
The front-right circle is the smash arena: no rivals and no menu, just a 3 second countdown and 60 seconds to smash as much as you can. Fences, hay bales and barriers are worth 10, barrels, tyres, crates and cones 5, and walls and portaloos 25. Everything is scattered somewhere new each time you go in. Fences and walls come in lines of 5. A bull bar stops you slowing down when you hit things.
Choose a full race against AI drivers or a time trial against the ghost of your best run. Pick sunny, rainy, night, snowy or random weather in Settings (pause menu). Rain and snow mean less grip, and time trials are always sunny.
Accounts are optional. You can play as a guest, or make an account to keep your username, scores and saved cars on every device you play on.
Signed in as . Your scores and saved cars follow you to any device where you sign in.
Accounts need the online leaderboard, which isn’t connected right now. You can still play as a guest.