CONTENT:

Added a new track designed for rough racing and epic crashes: Crash Canyon - fans of our earlier games will surely recognize the inspiration.
Added a new work-in-progress track, Mixed 7.
Replaced the garage with a new, more spacious garage, still work-in-progress though.
Implemented vehicle visual customization with parts such as wheels, bumpers, grilles and many more. Please note that for now visual parts do not have a gameplay effect, but in future, parts will affect the weight of the car and increase or decrease the strength of the car as well as the damage it causes to the opposing party in collisions. For now, parts are only available for American 5 and to some extent, American 3, but all cars will eventually receive them. If you have any suggestions for parts you'd like to be added please let us know!
Added more performance parts: engines, pistons, valves, camshafts and so on, to allow for more in-depth performance upgrading in the upcoming career. Note that engines are basically per class now, however, installing the best available parts will allow the engine jump to the beginning of the next class. In case the car has a separate banger variant, not all engines are available for all variants.
Improved American 3, European 2, European 3 (II), Asian 1 models and gave them a demolition racer makeover.
Added new skins for many vehicles and removed some older ones.

ART:

Replaced the user interface with a completely new, more modern one that's actually usable with a gamepad as well. Please note that the new user interface is still heavy being worked on, and for example animations are missing, the art is not final and there are temporary placeholders screens that will be replaced completely. Feedback is still very much appreciated already.
Replaced the old broken Sandpit 1 with a new, completely overhauled version.
Overhauled Tarmac 1 to open up the environment, add proper runoff areas and generally make it look more like a real race track.
Improved the environment art of Tarmac 3.
Speedway 1 Figure 8 layout now has ramps in the inner areas to allow for getting back on track even when reset is disabled by the host.
Improved low frequency ambient occlusion.
Added animated track officials.
Updated tire effects.
Updated weathers.

DESIGN/PHYSICS:

Increased the performance range of the cars and adjusted the class cutoff points. For now, the classes and class ranges are as follows:

Class C = < PP180

Class B = PP180 - PP260

Class A = PP260 >

Removed part wear and repair mechanic.
Removed crew mechanic.
Improved AI vehicle setups so that they make a better use of brakes now, making AI more challenging.
Crash landings (where the car would be rocketed in the air when touching ground after a jump) no longer occur.
Adjusted gearboxes and improved shifting logic to allow for more natural automatic shifting.
Improved stability control assist.
Improved force feedback for steering wheels.
In Elimination Race, maximum elimination interval is now 120 seconds.
It's now possible to select assists in the pre-race screen without going back to the garage.

TECHNICAL:

Optimized tire physics, reducing CPU load.
Improved acceleration estimation in the garage front-end.
Ragdoll now works properly.
Added clutter fade for grass.

KNOWN ISSUES:

Clutter shadows are not working.
Leaderboards are disabled for now.
The backfire effect of the exhaust remains in the original location even when the exhaust is changed.
Location and track preview images are placeholders and descriptions are mostly missing.
AI sometimes rams other cars right after the green light when trying to navigate to the proper racing line.
In extremely rough landings (like after a crash) one or more wheels of the car may clip below the ground.

TECHNICAL/USER INTERFACE:

Leaderboards are back online.
Server Browser no longer crashes.
Server Browser is now more responsive and correctly displays server info.
Mod Manager does not glitch anymore when more than one page of mods is installed.
Selecting Game Mode in the Quick Race Options now works correctly.
In Team Race, points are now correctly awarded for crashing.
Reset is no longer disabled in single player after playing online on a server with reset disabled.
Reset Car and Reverse Limiter options are now shown on their own rows in Lobby and Server Browser.
After toggling V-Sync in the Settings a game restart is now required menu to apply the setting.
Number of max players is now shown correctly in Lobby.
Lobby chat is now more responsive.
Replay UI is now correctly displayed.
Scroll bars are now displayed correctly in Lobby and elsewhere.
Background is now displayed correctly when using ultra wide resolutions.
THQ logo is now properly centered.

VEHICLES:

Vehicles imported from old save data are now automatically given correct replacement parts in case parts are missing or invalid, fixing the red exclamation mark error in multiplayer.
Reduced tire dust effects so that they are less intrusive and cost less performance wise.
Ragdoll model is now shown correctly instead of grey cubes.
American 3 roll cage no longer gets detached too early.

TRACKS:

Added Mixed 4 Main Circuit Reverse layout
Improved Mixed 7 checkpoints to prevent outrageous cheating.
Speedway 2 white tire barrier now has a proper collision.
Fixed Gravel 1 missing texture.
Fixed Tarmac 2 missing textures + improved environment art.
Fixed Sandpit 3 start camera.

TECHNICAL/USER INTERFACE:

Dedicated server no longer crashes randomly.
In Lobby, server name and server message are now displayed correctly and updated appropriately in the Options tab.
Admin can no longer get stuck in the Options tab when the race countdown reaches 10s.
Leaderboards and Spectate buttons now work on game controllers when waiting for others to finish the race.
In multiplayer, the rewards popup no longer flashes on the screen when loading the next track.
In Lobby, ESC icon now has the correct description "Game Menu".
In the Leaderboards screen, the tab highlight now works correctly.
In the Quick Race menu, it's now possible to rotate the camera when selecting the car.
In the Quick Race menu, AI Class now changes correctly even after changing car and AI Set repeatedly.
In the Quick Race menu, when returning to the Track tab the view now correctly centers to the previously selected track.
The game no longer crashes at the race start due to a missing AI Set start after playing a quick race with a custom AI Set from a mod, removing the said mod and then proceeding to a quick race again without manually setting the AI Set.
In Photo Mode and Replay, Spherical Camera zoom now works again.
In Replay, Play/Pause button now looks correct when toggling state.

VEHICLES:

American 5 cameras now match those of the other cars.
American 1 locked differential and American 5 open differential now have correct power distribution.
AI players no longer ram each other right after the green light on short tracks.

TRACKS:

Taking the joker shortcut on Mixed 4 no longer results in the position list going haywire – also fixes other similar cases where the alternative route is on the same stretch of the track as the starting grid.
Starting grid is now correctly sorted on tracks where the grid is located on an alternative route, Dirt Speedway Figure 8 being the most obvious example.
Small Stadium no longer has a mini Borg ship floating above the stadium.
Concrete barriers like found on Figure 8 now break up easier when hit.
Steel arm-cos on Mixed 4 now have proper collisions.
Improved checkpoints on Tarmac 1, Sandpit 1, Sandpit 2, Sandpit 3, Dirt Oval, Mixed 7 to prevent cheating.
Fixed obstructed Replay cameras found on Speedway 1 Oval, Sandpit 1, Sandpit 3.

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