gta-online

Grand Theft Auto Online Now Features Open Wheel Races

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So… Grand Theft Auto Online has added open wheel racing, featuring 2 brand new open-wheel ultra-performance vehicles (Progen PR4 & Ocelot R88), 7 high-speed tracks, pit stops and more.

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While visiting Los Santos Customs, you can fine tune your car with front wings, tires, engines, brakes and spoon wings.

This is in Grand Theft Auto V. This is nuts.

Here are some of the details on the 7 new tracks.

Height of Society

Forget the purpose-built track. For true open wheelers, it’s all about the historic street circuit. The narrow straights, the winding hairpins, the sun-drenched glamour of the French Riviera. Or in the case of the Vinewood Hills, the chubby insurance brokers doing yoga on their roof terraces.

In Due Course

Sure, Europe gave the world underage drinking and open-wheel racing. But America showed the world how to do them at the same time. And now, courtesy of City Hall, Los Santos has a city circuit custom-built to showcase the kind of visionary synthesis that makes this great nation what it is.

Lap it Up

In light of the recent spate of preventable drownings at the Port of Los Santos, the Port Authority’s audacious rebranding emphasises the stunning possibilities for exhilarating open wheel racing on a windy dockside with no safety barriers. It’s all a question of optics. Especially if you’re underwater.

Brace for Impact

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Los Santos International Airport. The runway is clear for departure. Please note, in the likely event the cockpit catches fire, the emergency team have been dismissed due to budget cuts. Turbulence is expected so fasten your seatbelt and familiarize yourself with the emergency exit. Clue: it’s straight out the top.

More Haste More Speed

With the kinetic energy recovery system in your R88 propelling you with all the force and stability of black-market cluster munitions, you might wonder if there’s enough room for a conventional racetrack in Fort Zancudo. There’s not. Enjoy the S-bends.

Urban Renewal

Some say that Davis could never host an open wheel series. But a state-of-the-art pit stop is surely just the kind of public investment that an underprivileged neighborhood needs. So don’t think of the track as “poorly funded”. Those potholes and concrete blocks are the natural obstacles that separate the weekend racers from the real pros.

New Wave

Close your eyes, breathe in deep, and go to your happy place. Is there an ambience more soothing than waves gently lapping at your chassis, gentle breezes whispering through your air intake, and the violent explosion of your PR4’s oxidised carbon-carbon disk brakes?

Kotaku has sat down with the new mode and mentions it will be tough for many players.

Crashing into other players in previous GTA Online race modes is common. But usually, a simple bump or grind won’t do too much. It might spin you out or, worst case, knock you off the track. But a quick respawn can fix that. In these new F1-like races, crashes can be disastrous. These open-wheel cars are like rockets made out of toothpicks and paper. Pieces break off after simple collisions and this can make your car less stable and harder to control. Tires can pop and get destroyed, too, which makes driving even harder.

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Steve Noah
Steve is the Editor in Chief at Operation Sports. He's been here since the year 2000 posting news, features and interviews, along with keeping the hardcore sports gaming community alive and well for over two decades. He covers almost every game related to sports but enjoys basketball, football and baseball games the most.