Project Motor Racing Review: Is This the End of the Road?!

Project Motor Racing feels less like a finished product and more like an unfinished early access title, a pale imitation of its 2017 predecessor, Project CARS 2. The warning signs were there from the start. As I sat nervously at the back of the grid on Mount Panorama, awaiting the race start, several cars ahead were inexplicably facing the wrong way. A bizarre glitch, maybe, but it foreshadowed the chaos that was to come.

Project Motor Racing Review: Is This the End of th...

And chaos it was. As expected, pandemonium erupted when the lights went out. The race descended into an utter mess almost immediately, a fitting microcosm of the entire Project Motor Racing experience. Think bumper cars meets demolition derby, but with less intentionality and more sheer dumb luck.

On paper, Project Motor Racing is exactly the kind of racing game I crave. It boasts a diverse selection of vehicles, including some delightfully underrepresented models in modern racers. It commendably avoids the insidious pitfalls of free-to-play mechanics and monthly subscriptions, prioritizing a single-player focused experience. All of this sounds incredibly promising, right?

Sadly, in practice, however, Project Motor Racing just fails to deliver on its initial promise, leaving me utterly disappointed in its current state. It arrives as a spiritual successor to Slightly Mad Studios’ now-defunct Project CARS series, which, as many will remember, unfortunately met its end after Codemasters acquired Slightly Mad (and EA subsequently purchased Codemasters). A sad story for racing game fans, to be sure.

While the loading screen may feature different logos, developer Straight4 Studios essentially represents a reborn Slightly Mad, albeit with a slightly altered identity. So, expectations were understandably high. They aimed to reignite the spark, but it feels like they only managed a damp squib.

The campaign mode, once you've assembled a team and car, simplifies into selecting a championship or event, paying the entry fee, and competing. The objective mirrors that of a real-life race driver: spend your days at high speed on 18 world-famous tracks, striving for victory (or at least avoiding bankruptcy). Honestly, this streamlined approach really appeals to me. I'm all about jumping straight into the action.

Or, it *would*, if Project Motor Racing wasn't so frustratingly irritating to actually race. The core racing experience teeters precariously on the edge of decency, but is ultimately undermined by its aggressively oblivious AI opponents. They are, to put it mildly, lunatics behind the wheel.

On PS5, the single-player opponent count is limited to a mere 15 (crossplay multiplayer allows up to 32). Frankly, 15 feels insufficient for a racing sim of this type; I like a crowded field. But, truthfully, given their erratic driving, perhaps fewer lunatics on the track is a blessing in disguise.

To be clear, I'm a big fan of old-school Super Touring and V8 Supercars in real-world racing, and I appreciate some aggressive, panel-bashing action in my games. But this is simply excessive. It's not skillful racing; it's just chaotic and unfair.

I even experimented a little, deliberately ramming into the back of opponents to see what would happen. To my surprise, they continued cornering without losing position, while I was left stranded in the gravel, wondering what I’d done wrong. It's as if the game has a vendetta against the player.