If you want to take part in a practice session, which gives you time to get used to the track and tune your car, it will last for at least 30 minutes. I noticed early on that there isn’t any flexibility with the session lengths during career mode other than the race itself. The inclusion of the historic circuit layouts of Spa Francorchamps and Monza was great to see, taking players back to what it would have been raced in Formula 1 during the 1960s. 20 new tracks have been added to bring the overall total to 60, with over 130 individual layouts overall.
What truly got me excited as a motorsport fan was the choice of circuits on offer, and that a lot of detail had been put into each one. The number of cars for each of the championships is impressive here, too, with 180 cars included in the game from recent Rallycross cars to the 1988 Ford Sierra Cosworth.
There are five routes of championships, each with their top-tier competition featuring some licensed real-life series that motorsport enthusiasts will appreciate like the Renault Clio Cup, Pirelli World Challenge, and Ind圜ar. Although you can choose to start anywhere in the first few tiers, the top championships are unlocked through progression. While the first game had seven tiers with 16 series with fairly generic names, two of which were for two different karting championships, you will now have 29 different series to choose from.
I can only praise the extra amount of variety that the developers have put into the styles of racing and the choices that you have to choose from compared to the first Project CARS. You also have manufacturer and invitational events that you unlock along the way which, like in F1 2017 and the Forza Motorsport series, help break up the regular championships that you undertake. The career mode works just like it did before, with six tiers of racing that you slowly make your way through. Slightly Mad Studios does a lot right with Project CARS 2, its take on the racing genre that focuses on giving the player a realistic and challenging experience.