Practice: finished. Warm-up: done. Checks: completed. It’s almost time to take your place on the GRID.

The brand new GRID is just a handful of days away from rolling out of the garage taking over the racing world, with Ultimate Edition launching on October 8 for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. We are incredibly excited to see you all on the track – but also very aware that you may have missed some of the game details we’ve been revealing over the past few months.

If you’re just joining the action, or want to make sure you’ve seen all there is to see on GRID, here’s a handy guide to all the ways GRID will Get Your Heart Racing, and be a racing experience #LikeNoOther.

What You’ll Be Driving

We’ve scoured the globe to bring you a hand-picked selection of iconic cars to race in GRID, spread across five classes (GT, Stock, Tuner, Open-Wheel, Invitational) and over 20 tiers. From official IMSA machines, to majestic Ferraris and Porsches, to classic touring cars (yes, that includes the Volvo 850 Estate!), every car in GRID has its own personality, its own charm, and its own reason to love racing it. Check out the full car list for GRID here.

Where You’ll Be Racing

Just like the car list, GRID’s selection of locations is bespoke and delivers big on variety, challenge and enjoyment. From real-world, race-ready tracks like Sepang, Sydney and Indianapolis, to stunning fictional circuits like the classic San Francisco or the brand new Havana, over 80 different routes are waiting for you to conquer – all playable in wet weather, in reverse, at night, and with any car you want. The scenarios and possibilities to race #LikeNoOther are almost endless.

Career

Think you can rise to the top of the motorsport world? Got what it takes to defeat the revered Ravenwest Motorsport, or take on Fernando Alonso and Jamie Chadwick? Career mode is your chance to prove it – our headline single-player mode that brings all the circuits, cars and content in GRID into an ever-intensifying journey.

Carve your own path across six different motorsport threads, purchase more cars as you earn more winnings, and hire and fire teammates with different demands and personalities. Win four of the six Showdown events at the end of each thread to gain access to the GRID World Series: a showcase of the very best racing in GRID, where Ravenwest are the team to beat. you. Good luck, kid.

Multiplayer

Fast-paced, action-packed, full of variety and choice: that’s what Multiplayer in GRID is all about, with two modes on launch designed to give you all the racing variety GRID has to offer.

Want to get onto the track immediately? Quick Match gets you racing within two button presses from the main menu. In Quick Match, you’ll be put into open lobbies where an event will be randomly selected from our slate of curated race scenarios, which cover GRID’s huge variety of environments and car classes. If you want to take full control of your online experience, Private Match gives you the keys to all the event scenario options, so you can design a custom lobby and invite others to compete. Choose any circuit, route and car class, create multiple rounds for a championship, introduce a qualifying system and so much more. It’s all in our Multiplayer deep dive, which you can check out here.

Between races, we’ve given you a little something to keep you occupied… Skirmish drops you and the rest of the lobby into GRID’s classic destruction derby circuit and car, so you can race around, crash, and let off some steam with no rules or consequences. Play nice… or, ya know, don’t.

Free Play

Our focus on giving you accessibility and choice is clear in Free Play, where we open up GRID to give you full control of your experience. With all circuits, routes and race options available on launch, and a loan system that ensures you can race any class of car (even if you haven’t bought a car in that class yet), use Free Play to design the GRID event of your dreams.

Want to throw Fernando Alonso’ Renault R26 down the hills of San Francisco? Do it. Want to hurtle down the side of an Okutama mountain in Super Modfied tuner cars in the middle of the night? Go for it. Adjust difficulty, race distance (up to 99 laps) and head to the track for your hand-crafted GRID event.

AI/Nemesis

Forget processional driving and predictable motorsport. GRID’s rich AI system has ensured that every race you jump into is action-packed, memorable, and unpredictable.

Over 400 AI personalities are attached to each driver in the game, each with their own strengths, weaknesses and tendencies – and they’re all going for the win. Expect different racing lines, mistakes, and action throughout the field. Those AI personalities to beat include Fernando Alonso himself and W Series champion Jamie Chadwick, repping the FA Racing Esports Logietch G team.

Make contact with an opponent too much and they’ll become your Nemesis, causing their personality to drastically change as they stop at nothing to ensure you don’t finish the race in front of them. After all, if you can dish it out…

#LikeNoOther

It’s more than a hashtag. GRID’s variety and unpredictable racing create an experience #LikeNoOther – but that’s only half the story. We allow you be racer #LikeNoOther, too.

Show your colours with over 250 livery designs, unlocked as you progress, tiered all the way up to Epic and Legendary liveries, and all open to colour customisation. Also, show ‘em what they’re against by putting together your player banner and player card – which appears before and after every race – with your achievements, milestones, or just a cool design or your national flag.

Ultimate Edition

We’re committed to making GRID an exciting and enjoyable racing game months, even years after launch day, and are putting in the work right now to ensure this is the case. GRID Ultimate Edition is your key to this, locking down your access to multiple seasons of brand new post-launch content. That includes 90 more career events, new car packs and new targets to race towards. You’ll also lead from the front with Ultimate Edition’s visual perks, such as exclusive GRID Edition liveries, player cards and player banners.

FAQs

Is GRID an ‘arcade’ or ‘simulation’ game?

GRID’s in-game options to adjust difficulty, assists, car tuning and event setup mean it can be played in the style of a sim racer, or a super-accessible arcade game. New to racing games and want some assistance? Use the dynamic racing line, keep the AI difficulty down, and make use of car assist to help you early on. Looking for something much more difficult? Whack the AI difficulty up, turn off assists, tune your car pre-race, switch off the HUD and settle in for a real challenge. The choice is yours.

Does GRID support wheels?

Yes, and then some. GRID has been built from the start to be equally enjoyable on both pad and wheel – and for wheel players, we’ve given you more options than ever before to optimise your experience. Check out our compatible wheel list HERE, along with details on new manual setup options for PC players.

Will you be adding free post-launch content?

Yes. For all players, we’ll be adding new content alongside the announced Ultimate Edition goodies. That includes new circuits, which will be free and available to race, regardless of which version of GRID you have.