BeamNG.drive: Complete Guide

Everything a new BeamNG.drive driver needs: controls, game modes, the maps, tuning cars in the parts configurator, Career mode basics, mods, and performance settings. It also covers what changed in the big v0.39 update.

Researched September 2026 — current as of v0.39.4 (hotfix, August 7, 2026). Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Status: BeamNG.drive is still in Early Access on Steam. v0.39 (July 29, 2026) is the biggest update the developers have shipped: an overhauled UI and pause menu, HDR, volumetric clouds, a new aero system, and the Cherrier Ardente. Mods written for older versions may break after major updates.

Quick Start

• Start in Freeroam on Gridmap or West Coast, USA. Gridmap is a flat test area. West Coast has highways, a city, a track and dirt roads. v0.39 adds a Freeroam tutorial for new players.
• Learn the three "undo" buttons. Insert recovers (rewinds) your car, R resets it where it is, and Home takes you back to your saved home position (set it with Ctrl+Home).
• Press J to pause physics. Then fly the camera around the wreck or line up a shot.
• Use a controller or wheel if you can. Keyboard works, but analog throttle and steering make the physics far more enjoyable. Adjust steering filtering in Options > Controls.
• Open the Vehicle Config early. Every car has swappable engines, suspensions, tires and body parts, plus a Tuning tab for gear ratios, suspension, brake bias and more.
• Try the Radial Menu. It gives quick access to vehicle functions, AI traffic, powertrain toggles and "fun stuff" (fire, explosions, breaking things).
• Scenarios, Time Trials and Missions teach driving. Start on the easiest difficulty and work up.
• Career Mode is an early preview. It's fun, but still in development, so expect changes between versions.
• Back up your user folder before big updates if you rely on mods.

Controls (default keyboard)

From the official beginner's guide:

Key | Action

Arrow keys | Throttle / brake / steer

Space | Temporary parking brake (handbrake)

P | Toggle parking brake

Left Shift | Clutch

X / Z | Shift up / down

Q | Toggle gearbox mode

V | Engine starter

H | Horn

N / Alt+N | Headlights / fog lights

, / . / / | Left signal / right signal / hazards

M | Lightbar

R or I | Reset vehicle physics

Shift+R | Reset all vehicles

Insert | Recover vehicle (rewind to a safe point)

Home / Ctrl+Home | Load / set home position

Tab / Ctrl+Tab | Switch vehicle

C | Cycle camera (1–7 jump to a specific mode)

Shift+C | Free camera

J | Pause / resume physics

Alt+U | Hide UI

Other long-standing defaults: Ctrl+E opens the vehicle selector, Ctrl+W opens the vehicle configurator, Ctrl+R reloads the current vehicle (useful after config edits), and F11 opens the World Editor. Walking mode (getting out of the car on foot) is also available; find its binding under Options > Controls. After v0.39 you can also do most of this from the redesigned pause menu. If a bind doesn't match, check Options > Controls.

v0.39 UI changes to know: the pause menu was fully redesigned (and is easier to use with a gamepad). There's a new vehicle management tab for spawning and removing cars. UI apps are now called "HUD apps" with custom layouts. Replay management moved into the pause menu, and the Options menu was rebuilt with live graphics previews and a confirmation countdown for display changes.

Game Modes

Mode | What it is | Good for

Freeroam | Any car, any map, no rules | Testing, crashing, exploring, AI traffic

Scenarios | Scripted challenges (chases, deliveries, stunts) | Learning car control with goals

Time Trials | Pick car, map and route, then beat your best time | Tuning practice

Missions (on maps) | Arrive, drift, rally, delivery and other challenges placed in the world, with leaderboards | Structured skill-building

Rally (NGRC) | Rally stages with pacenotes | Precision driving

Career Mode (early preview) | Earn money, own and repair vehicles, buy parts, do jobs | Longer-term progression

Bus routes | Drive a bus on a timetable | Relaxed, precise driving

Rally in v0.39

• New NGRC Rally Utah 2026: the first all-gravel rally loop, four stages totalling 16.4 km.
• Three pacenote styles: Pro (written and voiced by Alex Kihurani, 2024 British Rally Champion co-driver), Enthusiast (nearly 200 unique calls) and Casual (simplified for newcomers).
• Virtual Competitors with their own driving traits show up in the stage results, so you have rival times to beat.

Career Mode basics (early preview)

• You start with little money and a cheap car, and earn cash from jobs, deliveries and missions.
• Damage costs money: repair and insurance matter, so crashing is no longer free.
• Buy parts, tune your car, and move up to better vehicles.
• It is explicitly labeled Early Preview, so systems and balance can change between versions and older saves aren't guaranteed to carry over. Keep a separate Freeroam habit for experimenting.

Maps (official levels)

Map | Best for

West Coast, USA | All-rounder: city, highway, race track, hills. Updated materials, LODs and night lighting in v0.39

East Coast, USA | Small-town roads, forests, lakes

Utah, USA | Desert canyons, road racing, rally, rock crawling

Italy | Coastal roads, villages, vineyards. Great for spirited driving (expanded in v0.38)

Johnson Valley | Rocky desert off-roading and dunes

Jungle Rock Island | Tropical island with roads and trails

Small Island, USA | Coastal roads and open terrain

Industrial Site | Industrial areas with several race tracks

Hirochi Raceway | Circuit racing

ETK Driver Experience Center | Driver training facility and handling tests

Automation | Test track for cars imported from Automation

Derby Arenas | Demolition derby and dirt racing

Cliff | A huge mountain in the ocean, made for jumps

Gridmap / Grid, Small, Pure | Flat testing grids

Showroom | Studio for photos

Vehicles and Tuning

BeamNG's official lineup covers everything from economy hatchbacks (e.g. Ibishu Covet) to pickups (Gavril D-Series), trucks (Gavril T-Series), buses and heavy equipment (Hirochi HT-55 haul truck and WL-40 wheel loader from v0.38).

New in v0.39: the Cherrier Ardente, a two-door coupe on the FCV platform. It comes with FWD/AWD petrol, diesel and RWD/AWD electric configurations, plus racing and street liveries. Every vehicle also got movable sun visors and a reworked lighting system (light patterns based on bulb type and wattage).

Using the configurator

• Parts tab: Swap engines, transmissions, suspension, wheels and body parts. Parts are hierarchical, so a different engine can open up different intake and exhaust options.
• Tuning tab: Adjust tire pressure, gear ratios, final drive, spring/damper rates, anti-roll bars, brake bias, and turbo/supercharger boost where fitted.
• Save configs to keep your builds, and look at the factory configs first. They're good starting points (e.g. "rally", "drift" or "track" trims).

Tuning rules of thumb

Problem | Try

Understeer (car pushes wide) | Soften front anti-roll bar, stiffen rear, lower front tire pressure slightly

Oversteer (rear steps out) | The opposite, and more rear downforce if you have a wing

Bottoming out | Raise ride height or stiffen springs

Wheelspin | Smoother throttle, traction control on, longer 1st gear

Brakes locking | Move brake bias toward the axle that isn't locking, or enable ABS

v0.39 aerodynamics: A new system simulates air interactions between nearby cars (and objects), including slipstreaming, bump drafting and side drafting. Tucking in behind someone on a straight now actually helps.

Graphics and Performance

v0.39 brought a big visual jump and memory optimisations, but the developers note that framerate may drop on some systems.

• Renderer: Vulkan and Direct3D 12 both support the new HDR output if your monitor handles HDR. If you have stutter or crashes, try the other API.
• New visual features: volumetric clouds, a physically based night sky, more stable shadows (including a VR fix), GTAO improvements, auto exposure and inverse-square light falloff. Clouds and shadows are the first settings to lower if FPS is low.
• CPU matters most. Every soft-body vehicle is physics-heavy. Limit AI traffic count and parked cars on weaker CPUs.
• Photo Mode (overhauled in v0.39): camera/scene/effects panels with presets, a flash, Motion Capture for motion-blur shots, and an in-game gallery.
• The official docs keep performance tips and a list of incompatible software that's worth checking if the game crashes.

Mods

• Get mods from the in-game Repository (official) or the BeamNG forums. Be careful with random sites.
• Since v0.37 the default user folder is AppData\Local\BeamNG\BeamNG.drive\current\. Use Manage User Folder in the launcher to open it instead of hunting for it.
• After a big update, disable all mods first, then turn them back on in batches to find any that break the game. The launcher's safe mode helps here too.
• Multiplayer isn't part of the base game. The popular community option is the third-party BeamMP mod. It isn't official, and its compatibility can lag behind new game versions.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Keyboard-only driving at high speed. Digital steering overcorrects. Lower your speed or use a gamepad.
• Resetting with R when you meant Insert. R resets physics in place. Insert rewinds you to a moment before the crash.
• Spawning dozens of AI cars on a mid-range PC. Each one is a full physics simulation.
• Updating with outdated mods enabled. This is the number one cause of UI errors and crashes after a patch.
• Treating Career like Freeroam. Repairs cost money, so drive carefully when you're broke.
• Deleting the whole user folder to "fix" issues. Clear the cache instead (launcher option) and keep your mods and configs.

Advanced Tips

• Slow motion and replays: Use the replay system (now managed from the pause menu) to review crashes. Slow motion is great for seeing how the physics deforms.
• Node grabber: Freeroam lets you grab and drag vehicles with the mouse, which is handy for setting up stunts.
• Rally pacenotes: If you're new to rally, use the Casual style and move to Enthusiast or Pro once you know the call format.
• Drafting (v0.39): In races, set up passes by sitting in someone's slipstream on the straights.
• Achievements: v0.39 added more than 50 new achievements. Missions and the tutorial knock out a lot of them.
• World Editor (F11): Build your own tracks or edit existing maps. The official documentation covers the editor and JBeam vehicle modding.

FAQ

Is BeamNG.drive finished? No. It's still in Early Access (v0.39.x as of September 2026), and big updates arrive a few times a year.

Does it have multiplayer? Not officially. BeamMP is the community multiplayer mod.

Does it support steering wheels and VR? Yes. Wheels with force feedback are supported (configure them in Options > Controls). VR is supported, and v0.39 fixed shadow alignment in VR.

Why did my mods break after updating? Major versions change the UI and vehicle systems. Update the mods, or disable them until their authors do.

What's the best map for beginners? Gridmap for learning the controls, then West Coast, USA for a bit of everything.

Is Career Mode worth playing? Yes, if you like progression, but it's an early preview. Expect rough edges and changes between versions.

How do I fix low FPS after v0.39? Lower clouds, shadows and GTAO, reduce the AI traffic count, and try switching between Vulkan and DX12.

Sources

• BeamNG devblog — Long Time, Now See v0.39
• BeamNG news (release list)
• BeamNG.drive on Steam — v0.39 hotfixes, v0.38 and v0.37 announcements
• BeamNG documentation — Beginner guide & controls
• BeamNG documentation — Official levels
• BeamNG documentation — Performance tips