Racing techniques

Hi folks!

Just realised I've spent already quite some time talking about various strategies, without actually mentioning the racing itself. Goes to show how I perceive the game, I guess. So let's go through this today.

Controls

Your car has three "capabilities": max speed, acceleration and nitro boost. There is no acceleration / brake control, all you can do is "steer left", "steer right", "nitro boost" (swipe up) and "drift" (swipe down). That sounds simplistic, but it's actually quite fun, and can be challenging. Think rush hour at night with narrow roads.

The basics are that you go faster by staying on the road, and nitro-boosting. You go slower by hitting stuff (streetlights are fine, kerb or other cars, not so much) or steering through curves.

Nitro

The single most important asset you have is the nitro boost. Depending on your start (if you keep the needle in the green RPM space), you initially get maybe one third or half a fill. 

Nitro fills up while you drive, but you can speed up the refill significantly by:
* "near missing" (pass by another car closely without hitting it, except police cars)
* "airtime" (ramps etc) 
* "drifting" (swipe down and steer to get into drift, straigthen the car to get out again)
* "drafting" (closely following an opponent's car)
* "avoiding blockade" (getting through a police blockade without crashing into it)

Drifting

If you observe the "easy drive" autopilot, you'll notice that she's pretty good at micro-steering (doing the smallest possible adjustments, to keep as much momentum as possible) and at finding the ideal (shortest) path. The one thing she does not do is drift. I don't know if the nitro refill rules are the same for the computer player, but this is the one way how you can beat them.

I'll repeat, drift always, everywhere, as much as you can. Besides giving you nitro refill, it allows you to go around corners faster, and you collect quite a neat amount of cash as well. Did I mention you get cash for the nitro-refilling actions? Well, you do, and it can make quite a difference. One reason not to use easydrive for farming.

So how much difference does drifting really make? For me, I'm usually able to beat the computer player by a full second on a 30s track with some longer strips, which translates into about 50 PR above me that I can comfortably take. It's quite important to know these stats for tournaments, where you have to decide which opponent to challenge.

The further you bend into the drift, the more you slow down, so try to keep it shallow. Generally, driving in a straighter line allows for higher speed. When it comes to corners, try to drive them "tightly", i.e. drift around as closely as you can. This shortens your track - on a 30s tournament race, I can usually squeeze out about a second towards my initial time by optimising the corners. 

Mind you, the risk of crashes increases, since you have less steering control while drifting, and while a scratched car gets "forgiven" after the race (no repair or anything required), it will absolutely cost you the victory, if the opponent is anywhere near you in PR.

That's it for now, I may elaborate on some items later down the road. Keep speeding!