Assetto Corsa EVO: Beginners' Guide

This guide will help you get started with Assetto Corsa EVO quickly and easily.

Assetto Corsa EVO: Beginners’ Guide

In Assetto Corsa EVO, you earn experience points (XP) and virtual credits by engaging in various activities, such as the Driving Academy, practice sessions, quick races, and completing in-game actions like obtaining a new driving license, purchasing a vehicle, or simply logging into the game. Your rewards are based on both the activity type and your performance.

For instance, winning a race will reward you with far more XP and credits than finishing in last place.

Starting Cars

You can choose from six starter cars, each offering different visual and mechanical presets.

Visual Presets: Variations in appearance only, with potential price differences due to trims or optional parts. Performance remains the same.
Mechanical Presets: Cars with different performance levels, indicated by the Performance Index (yellow value). Higher numbers mean better performance.

Car Selection

Below is an image from the dealership screen which has been labelled to explain what each of the different graphics mean on screen.

Manufacturer and Model: The car’s brand and model.
Preset Options: Available preset configurations.
Performance Indicator: Shows the car’s performance potential (numerical value).
License Requirement: License needed to purchase the car.
Cost Range: The car’s minimum and maximum price.

You can choose from six starter cars, each with various preset options:

Abarth 695 Biposto
Alfa Romeo Junior
Ford Escort RS Cosworth
Honda S2000 AP1
Hyundai i30 N Hatchback
Volkswagen Golf 8 GTI Clubsport

Before purchasing, you can test drive and customize the car’s appearance. Once you finalize your first vehicle purchase, the game will start, and you’ll be in the Main Menu with your new car. From then on, you can play freely, with the following limits:

Driving licenses are required for higher-level vehicles.
You need enough credits to buy vehicles, or you can rent them for a low virtual credit fee.

Main Menu

After selecting your starter car, you’ll be directed to the main menu of Assetto Corsa EVO. From here, you can explore several options:

Drive – Begin your racing adventure, with additional details provided later in this guide.
Vehicles – Purchase, customize, or manage your cars.
Academy – The training grounds for Assetto Corsa EVO, designed to hone your skills.
Driver – Modify your character profile (limited functionality in EA1; not available on launch day).
Settings – Adjust game settings to suit your preferences.

Drive

Single Player

Game Mode

Initially, there are two game modes to choose from, each offering different variables for your racing experience:

Practice

Practice Duration: Set the length of your practice session, ranging from 1 to 90 minutes.
Practice Start Time: Set the in-game time to your desired starting point.

Quick Race

Use Quick Race to jump onto the track with other AI cars quickly.

Race Type: Choose whether the race is limited by laps or time (e.g., a 5-lap race or a 10-minute race).
Race Start Time: Set the in-game time you wish to start the race with.
Time Multiplier: Adjust the speed of the in-game time from 1x to 48x. For example, 1x means 1 minute equals 1 minute in real-time, while 48x means 1 minute will pass in 1.25 seconds.
Grid Starting Position: Set your starting position on the grid.
Grid Type: Currently disabled, this feature will later control gridding methods like normal or reverse gridding.
Number of Opponents: Choose how many AI opponents you want in the race.
Opponent Skill: Adjust the difficulty of AI opponents, ranging from 80% to 100%.
Single Make: Decide whether you want the race to feature only one make of cars (matching your car) or a variety of vehicles.

Track

Choose your preferred track and layout.

Car

Select a vehicle from your garage or rent one for specific races. When renting, only cars for which you have the required driving licenses are available. Rental costs are applied once you hit the “Drive” button in the session. The rental duration depends on the game mode settings. When you return to the Single Player Menu, your car will be reset to the last activated owned vehicle.

Weather

Customize the weather conditions for the race using the presets on the left. Dynamic weather enables random weather transitions within the session. Additional weather options will be available in future updates.

Assists

Adjust the assist levels to match your driving skills.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer is currently disabled and will be added in a future Early Access update.

Vehicles

Garage

The Garage serves as your management hub for all the cars you own. It allows you to view, sell, or manage your collection of vehicles.

Dealership

The Dealership is the exclusive way to purchase cars. You will only be able to buy cars in the same manner they were sold by dealers in real life, which means customization options are limited at this stage. Once you own a vehicle, however, you can customize it further.

Note: The list of manufacturers is not final and more will be added throughout Early Access and beyond.

Customize Vehicle

The customization system in Assetto Corsa EVO is highly detailed. Currently, you can personalize your cars down to the finest details, including body kits and even handbrake stitching. After purchasing a vehicle, exit the dealership and head to the customization menu. This area offers more options than the “Configure” section found in the dealership, where you’re limited to original equipment options. The customization menu is your personal space for deeper vehicle modifications. As the game progresses through Early Access, more features and customization options will be added.

Academy

The academy is where you prove yourself by completing challenges and earning medals to unlock better licenses which as a result will unlock faster racing classes.

Licenses

Licenses are tiered, and some require you to earn lower-level licenses before progressing to advanced levels. By completing these challenges, you’ll steadily climb the ranks toward becoming a professional racer.

Driver

Here you can see an overview of your driver profile as well as some ratings for various categories in your driving.

Configuring your Wheel

Getting the right feel in a racing game is very important in order to feel all of the detail in the force feedback, customising the button layouts to match your wheel setups and getting the correct inputs for your pedals.

1. Go to Settings and then click Controls.

Along the top you will see the inputs that have been detected.

Depending on your setup, you may have two separate inputs for steering wheel and pedals.

Let’s start with your Steering Wheel.

2- Click the Steering wheel at the top and then click steering, then turn your wheel. You should now see an icon on the right hand side of the bar to show it has now been bound.

You can customise the rotation and other settings by clicking either:

Properties:

Settings:

You can change these settings in the menu whilst in a session to make it easier to find the right settings for you.

3- After you have found the right wheel setup for you, next we need to bind the other key inputs. We recommend that you bind the following:

Shift Up
Shift Down
Toggle Wipers*
Pit Limiter*

*Depending on your assists settings you may not need to bind these as they can be set to automatically come on.

Next you need to bind your pedals.

Depending on whether your pedals connect directly to your PC or they connect to your wheel base will depend on how you bind the pedals. In this example the pedals are connected directly to the PC so they’re shown as a separate input.

4- Click on the relevant option at the top and then click “Throttle”, press your throttle pedal and then repeat this process for the “Brake”.