Project CARS 2

Project CARS 2 arrived on Xbox One in 2017 as an ambitious attempt to cram nearly all of motorsport into a single game. Alongside circuit racing spanning open-wheel machines, prototypes, and touring cars, you'll find rallycross, oval racing, and historic machinery, while the career mode lets you enter the system anywhere and progress your own way. The game leans hard into simulation — the handling model accounts for tire temperature, pressure, wear, and chassis behavior, and without proper setup tuning you won't get far with the twitchier cars. Driving aids can be switched on, but the core experience is aimed squarely at players who want to understand things in depth.

The most striking addition over the first game is its live weather and season-transition system. Tracks can dry out after rain, form puddles, or get caught out by snow and ice, and the car's behavior shifts dramatically as a result — tire lines remain and the surface evolves as the race progresses. On Xbox One the game looks good, especially in rain and at night, when reflections and lighting show off best; some compromises show up in stability with a full grid of cars. The audio is strong, with each type of powertrain sounding distinct, and inside the cockpit you can hear gearbox chatter and tire noise too.

Reviews praised the breadth of content, the weather system, and the depth of tuning, while criticism targeted inconsistent gamepad handling and minor technical rough edges that lingered after launch. For wheel users, though, it was one of the most compelling simulations of its generation, offering a combination of disciplines you couldn't find bundled together anywhere else. Its influence on the genre shows in the emphasis on variable track conditions, now taken for granted even by rival series. On Xbox One, Project CARS 2 remains a choice for patient racers who value depth and breadth over the instant accessibility of arcade rivals.