Project Motor Racing throws itself onto the track with the confidence of a seasoned contender, aiming to deliver one of the most authentic racing experiences on console. Built for players who crave realism and intensity, it blends high-fidelity visuals, razor-sharp handling and a deep career mode that lets you live in the full motorsports fantasy we all crave, well, what I crave. Does it keep the race going or crash?

Project Motor Racing really delivers a solid mix of single-player and multiplayer experiences, each with its own flavour. Race Weekend is perfect for jumping in and experimenting: you can pick the track, car, weather, and difficulty, which makes for a great experience if you’re learning new circuits or just having a bit of fun without commitment.

Career Mode is where the game’s depth shines. You can build your own team, and in true form, I created MKAU Gaming, and you build the team from the ground up, manage sponsors, and buy cars to enter different championships. The race weekends are broken down to practice, qualifying and race sessions, giving it that full motorsports weekend feel. The difficulty can be adjusted, but I strongly recommend not starting on “Authentic” unless you’re far braver (or better) than I am.

In true racing fashion, Multiplayer brings absolute chaos in the best way possible. The experience is broken down into three different social sections, ranked and custom lobbies, and there is a welcome screen for blocking trolls on the track, so my mate Brain_Dead_Troll would make his way onto that list before I even get the chance to race him.

I did run into some issues when trying to join lobbies, though. A few times, the session countdown would begin and count down to zero, then glitch out when joining the lobby and fail to join. Not sure if this is a launch-day teething problem, but it was frustrating because online is where the madness unfolds.

The audio in Project Motor Racing absolutely delivers. The car sounds are fantastic and realistic, with engines growling, screaming, and popping exactly as they should. The team commentary is sharp and useless, calling out time remaining in sessions, track limits being exceeded, and other essentials, so you don’t need to worry.

I did have to turn the audio down a little after my first race in a Mazda MX-5; the volume almost blew my eardrums out, but it shows how punchy and detailed the vehicles are. The one thing I wish they added was some spectator noise, hearing fans’ cheers as you black down the main straight of Mount Panorama or flying around the bend in Daytons, it would have lifted the atmosphere in the game to that next level. The suspenseful music in the menu really was down perfectly to really get you pumped up for the new race to do some red-hot shit.

This was easily the most realistic experience I’ve played on console to date. The handling is brutally authentic, every input matters, and the car reacts exactly as you would expect in real life. One slight mistake and you’re either spinning out or meeting head-on with the closest wall.

I loved being able to throw cars around and genuinely feel the difference as tyres degrade and heat up, thanks to their True2Track system, which means the track evolves as you race, adding another level of realism to the game’s handling.

Puddles can form, dry lines appear, and you can get marbles on corners, which I absolutely loved. I also loved it when you clipped the Skyline at Mount Panorama a little too hard and bounced between the barriers like you were playing ping-pong. The game is super unforgiving, but in the best, most rewarding way possible.

Project Motor Racing delivers a genuinely cinematic visual experience, from its dynamic lighting and beautifully detailed car models to the shadows that fall naturally across the track while you’re putting down some laps. The interiors looked so good they almost felt better than real life, with working gauges, authentic displays and small details like the windscreen wipers in an old Porsche rattling when you hit high speeds or coming flying around the corner and seeing heat haze coming from the track, it almost felt like I was sitting in a car putting times down around a track which was a big plus for me.

Numerous small details effectively sold the title’s immersion. If there’s one downside, it’s that the spectators and some of the infield vehicles at tracks like Daytona stand out as super low detail compared to the rest of the game, so that little bit more polished would have just created an absolute masterpiece.

Project Motor Racing sets out to create a true-to-life racing experience, and for the most part, it absolutely nails it. The combination of razor-sharp handling, cinematic visuals, and a deep, rewarding career mode has made it the most immersive racing experience I have played on console to date. When everything clicks, the tyre wear, the realistic physics, the interior details and the intensity of the race weekends, it delivers an experience that had me hooked.

Written by: Hayden Nelson