Project CARS 2: Complete Guide

A practical guide to Project CARS 2 on PC in 2026: its delisted status, how the career ladder works, controller and wheel setup, tuning with the Race Engineer, weather and LiveTrack, online racing, and achievements.

Researched September 2026 — current as of the final PC update 1.7.1.1 (December 2018). Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Status check: Project CARS 2 was delisted on 21 September 2022 because of expiring car and track licences. The Steam page now reads "Project CARS 2 is no longer available on the Steam store." If you already own it, it remains in your library and playable. The last PC patch was 1.7.1.1 (Tobii eye tracking support, 4 December 2018); development moved on to Project CARS 3 (August 2020), which plays very differently.

Online in 2026: there has been no official shutdown announcement for PC multiplayer, but online services have degraded. In February 2023 owners on the Steam forums reported that Time Trial (and its leaderboards/setup downloads) stopped working and that Online Reputation safety grades had reset — everyone showing as U-rated. Treat player lobbies as "may work, sparse" and anything tied to online rankings as likely gone. Single-player career, Custom Race and local tuning are unaffected.

Quick Start

1. It is a simulator first. Even on a gamepad, braking in a straight line and being smooth on the throttle matters more than anything else.
2. Start the career low. Tier 6 is the entry level, Tier 1 the top. Starting at the bottom teaches you car control and unlocks the "Zero to Hero" lifetime goal.
3. Use the Race Engineer in the tuning screen. Answer its questions about the car's behaviour and it suggests setup changes — much easier than raw numbers.
4. Set up your controller before your first race. The default gamepad settings feel twitchy for many players; spend ten minutes in Controls.
5. Turn on assists that match your input device. Stability control and ABS are realistic in many road and GT cars anyway.
6. Respect the weather. LiveTrack 3.0 changes grip lap by lap: rain, puddles, rubbering-in and temperature all matter.
7. Practice and qualify. Practice sessions let you learn a track and tweak the setup; qualifying well avoids first-corner chaos.
8. Use pit strategies for long races. Build them in advance so you are not changing tyres manually under pressure.
9. Treat online as a bonus, not a feature. Time Trial and reputation ratings reportedly stopped working in early 2023; lobbies with friends or a league are the only realistic online option.
10. Try the classics in Custom Race. With 189 cars, a lot of the joy is outside career mode.

What's in the Game

Free additions over the patch life included the Ferrari 488 Challenge and new Porsche Leipzig layouts (update 1.5).

Career Mode

The career is a motorsport ladder rather than a single story.

• Tiers 6 to 1. Tier 6 is the entry tier; Tier 1 contains the top motorsports. You can start in a lower tier and work up, or jump in higher if you already know what you are doing.
• Contracts and seasons. You sign with a team for a championship, complete the season, and earn access to higher tiers.
• Licences. You progress through licences (Rookie, Amateur, Pro-Am, Pro, Veteran) as your career grows.
• Accolades. Awarded for achievements within the career; they lead to Invitational Events.
• Manufacturer affinity and Factory Drives. Racing a brand's cars builds affinity; enough affinity unlocks Factory Drives events for that manufacturer and eventually makes you a Brand Advocate.
• Lifetime goals. Long-term objectives such as Zero to Hero (start in Tier 6, win a Tier 1 championship).

Career tips:

• Pick a discipline you enjoy for the first season. A GT or touring path is forgiving for pad players; open-wheel cars are twitchy.
• Rallycross is its own skill; save it until you are comfortable with loose surfaces.
• The Triple Crown achievement (Indy 500, Le Mans 24 Hours and Azure Circuit Grand Prix) tells you where the big career milestones sit.

Controller and Wheel Setup

Gamepad

The goal is to make steering less sensitive around centre so you do not saw at the wheel.

• Steering deadzone: keep it low so small inputs register.
• Steering sensitivity and speed sensitivity: lower values make high-speed steering calmer. Adjust in small steps and test at a fast track.
• Controller filtering/damping: some smoothing helps pad players avoid snap oversteer.
• Throttle and brake: map them to the analog triggers; brake progressively rather than full-on to avoid lock-ups (ABS helps).
• The Steam community has several popular gamepad settings guides (see Sources) if you want a starting preset.

Wheel

• Run the in-game wheel calibration and set the steering lock/rotation to match your wheel's range.
• Force feedback in Project CARS 2 is detailed but can feel busy. Start from a preset, then lower overall gain until you are not clipping (the wheel should not be maxed out constantly).
• Community force feedback explainer and improvement guides on Steam are worth reading if the wheel feels numb or overly heavy.

Assists

Tuning with the Race Engineer

• Open Tuning Setup and use the Race Engineer. Describe the problem (for example understeer on corner entry, oversteer on exit) and it suggests which settings to change.
• Save separate setups per car and track. You can have several saved setups for a single car (the One-Man Show achievement asks for 3).
• Time Trial used to let you download other players' setups, but owners reported the mode unavailable from February 2023. Share setups with friends instead (saving a friend's setup is its own achievement, What's Yours Is Mine).
• Wet races: raise ride height a little, soften the car, and go to wet tyres early rather than late.

Weather, LiveTrack and Seasons

• Track grip changes as rubber is laid down and as rain falls or dries.
• Puddles form in realistic places and move as the track drains.
• Seasons and the 24-hour cycle change temperatures and lighting, so the same track can feel very different in winter versus summer (All Year Round asks you to race one circuit in all four seasons).
• Snow and ice are available on some layouts (for example the snowy Nordschleife and the Mercedes-Benz ice tracks).

Online Racing

• Online races are hosted lobbies (the game supported both player-hosted and dedicated servers). The delisting means no new players are arriving — expect few or no public lobbies in 2026. Organized leagues and friend groups are where any action is; test a private lobby before planning an event.
• Online Reputation was designed to track safety and competence, but owners reported in February 2023 that safety grades had reset to U for everyone, so don't count on earning grades now.
• Hosts can set penalties, assists, weather and damage.
• Spectator mode lets you join a race in progress.

Useful Community Tools

• CrewChief — a free spotter/engineer voice app that calls out cars alongside, fuel and more. Popular with Project CARS 2 players.
• Car mods — there are community guides for installing car mods; back up your game folder before trying them.
• VR clarity guides — for headset users, community guides cover super-sampling settings.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Driving with default pad settings and deciding the game "handles badly".
• Jumping straight into top-tier open-wheel cars. Start with slower cars to learn the physics.
• Ignoring tyre temperature. Cold tyres have little grip; push gently on the out-lap.
• Staying on slicks in the rain. Change earlier than you think.
• Using the full racing line forever. It becomes a crutch; switch to braking-zone-only.
• Bumping AI or players online — it damages reputation and gets you penalized.

Advanced Tips

• Trail-brake into corners to rotate the car, but ease off the brake smoothly.
• Short-shift in the wet to reduce wheelspin.
• Use manual pit control once you are comfortable (Manual All The Way is an achievement).
• Tune diff and brake bias first before springs and dampers; they have the biggest effect on balance.
• Practice at Nordschleife in snow for car-control training (Winter Soldier asks for a clean lap under 8 minutes).

Achievements Worth Knowing

The online achievements are the hardest now. Done One Online, I'm Just Here To Watch and Results Are In, You're Clean! only need a lobby (organise one with friends). I Want To Know Your Secret (download a setup in Time Trial) and Safety First (B safety grade) depend on online services that owners reported broken since February 2023, so treat them — and One More For The Road — as possibly unobtainable.

Full achievement plan (47 achievements)

Update and DLC History

Because the DLC was sold separately (or via the Season Pass) and is now delisted too, what you can race depends on what you bought before September 2022.

FAQ

Can I still buy Project CARS 2? Not on Steam. It was delisted on 21 September 2022 due to expiring licences. Existing owners can still download and play.

Does online multiplayer still work? Partly. No official PC shutdown has been announced, but in February 2023 owners reported Time Trial unavailable and online safety ratings reset. Lobby racing with friends is the realistic option; public lobbies are rare. Test with a friend before relying on it.

Is Project CARS 3 a replacement? It is a sequel with more arcade-leaning progression and car upgrades; many sim fans preferred Project CARS 2.

What is the best starting tier? Tier 6 for learning and for the Zero to Hero goal; higher if you are already comfortable with sim racing.

How do I fix twitchy gamepad steering? Lower steering and speed sensitivity, keep a small deadzone, and add some filtering.

Does it support VR? Yes, including Windows Mixed Reality support added in update 1.7.

Sources

• Steam store page — Project CARS 2 (delisting notice)
• Steam news — Project CARS 2 updates 1.5 to 1.7.1.1
• Steam global achievements — Project CARS 2
• Steam Community guides — Project CARS 2
• Wikipedia — Project CARS 2
• Steam Community thread — "Time trial unavailable" (Feb 2023 owner reports)