Dev log #4: Let’s talk about Career Mode pt.2

Hello, players!

We’ve seen your reactions to our previous dev diary and we’re honestly blown away by the interest Track Day is generating. Thank you! As we mentioned before, Career Mode is a vast topic - we could go on about it for ages... so we’ve decided to do just that and talk about it some more.

We’d like to clarify a few things you’ve raised in your comments and articles.

Car Repairs

Let’s be very clear: we are not making a car mechanic simulator, nor a survival-style “live with your car” simulator. Players will not be manually fixing their vehicles, unscrewing bolts, or disassembling individual components.

There will be no first-person walking in the game. All vehicle maintenance will be handled in a classic, streamlined UI - simple, fast, and convenient. And importantly, we’re making sure not to overdo it with too many windows. In other words, we don’t want micro-management to take the spotlight away from what really matters: driving. After all, this is a racing game - it's about competing on the track.

Licenses

Our mention of licenses brought up associations with various other games. We originally wanted to keep this part a surprise for later, but it’s better to clarify now that our approach here will be different.

Instead of the usual challenges - like completing a section of a track within a time limit - we want licenses to be a sort of educational tool, teaching players how to behave on the track in different scenarios. For example: how to react to a blue flag, when you're in a slower car and need to let faster, higher-class drivers pass. That’s likely to be a common situation in this game...

We’re planning to split licenses into three main disciplines: circuit racing, rallycross, and drift, with lessons tailored to the specifics of each. One more important difference compared to other games: in Track Day, unlocking new lessons will come with a cost - just like in real life, where racing instructors don’t work for free. (And as a side note: participating in races will also require paying an entry fee.)

The Balance Between Fun and Grind

Some of you expressed concern that gameplay might become frustrating if constant expenses and car repairs keep players from progressing in their careers. We hear you - and we’re planning several solutions to this potential issue.

The most important is that difficulty in Career Mode will be highly configurable. This doesn’t just cover how fast the AI drives, but also various aspects of the in-game economy - like reward payouts, service and product prices, car durability, and even details like whether you’ll be charged for damaging barriers on the track…

We’ll also group these settings into presets - from beginner-friendly modes to the hardcore “Life is brutal” level. And let us emphasize: Track Day will never hit you with a “game over” screen. Even if your car turns into a smoking wreck and your repair budget is gone, you’ll have lifelines.

Your character is meant to be an adult in the prime of life (their name and background is for you to be determined if you want), who races on weekends to escape from the grayness of everyday life, and works a regular job during the week. That means they earn money, which in turn means every few weeks you’ll receive a payment (after living expenses... and maybe a cut for your spouse). You’ll just need to advance time to get back on your feet - though that might mean missing a few championship rounds and losing your shot at the title. Trade-offs.

Another fallback if things go really sideways: the marshal mode, which lets you participate in races as a kind of “active observer” - but it’s too early to go into details on that system.

One last note: we want Career Mode to offer high replayability. You’ll be able to start multiple playthroughs with separate save files, each time facing a different starting scenario: different used cars at the dealership, different events in the calendar, etc. This way, you can try a new path in each run - maybe spending your hard-earned cash on different things, like going for a license in another discipline.

In Summary

We hope this dev diary gave you a clearer picture of how Track Day’s Career Mode is shaping up. We’ll keep reading your comments (the more, the better - we love reading them!) and in the future we’ll dig deeper into the aspects of Career Mode (and other parts of the game) that you’re most interested in.

Poznań Game Arena 2025

At this point it’s pretty much tradition that each Steam post ends with a mention of where you can meet us next... and yes, once again, that place is Poznań, Poland.

This time, we’re inviting you to Poznań Game Arena, where we’ll be sharing a large booth with our friends from Sim-Center and Drive Squad. It’s a fantastic opportunity not only to learn more about Track Day directly from the developers, but also to try out a wide range of simracing hardware across more than dozen of stations - including full-blown 5DOF motion rigs.

Naturally, there will be competitions and a chance to win valuable prizes. For the fastest drivers, Drive Squad is once again offering an incredible reward: an invitation to drive their race cars (240hp Mini Cooper S) on an actual race track. Who knows - maybe that could be the start of your real-life motorsport career…

See you there - and until next time!