ApexRivals Career Mode Shakes Up The Singleplayer Experience in Assetto Corsa & Automobilista 2

AR Cover Image.jpg
Image: Kunos Simulazioni
Are you tired of being shunted into the barrier at turn one in every single online race you do? Well, fear not. ApexRivals gives you the online ranking experience with ELO and a competitive environment but against Assetto Corsa or Automobilista 2's AI.

Within ApexRivals, created by modder EverLastingApex, you are not the main character. The AI does not pander to you, and the application does a fantastic job of ensuring each race you compete in has a consequence in the end if you have a terrible result. If you finish at the bottom of the table, you won't get an offer from a team in the higher division.

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Mid-season overview. Image: EverLastingApex

The variety of classes spans a tiered system, and once you have started climbing, you will come across more advanced machinery. You will start in karts, streetcars, and a handful of supercars before you get anywhere near GT or Formula cars.

The advancements through this career model are tailored to the experience you want to have. If you are racing in Assetto Corsa, you can adjust just about every getting to make the championship exactly how you want it to be.

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An example of a pre-championship setup within Assetto Corsa

Each AI is forced to be fully persistent throughout the career mode. This allows each AI driver to have an entire career, progression and stats, just like the player. Be aware that once you start reaching the heights of multi-class races, the load on your PC could become too much for some lower-end machines to load constantly.

Mods & Add-ons​

Unlike more generic career mode options, ApexRivals allows you to use your entire catalogue of mods and addons like liveries and sound packs. The scale of this championship builder is relatively extraordinary, and the racing is just as good. Each driver has a profile photo and an identifiable national flag to give the career mode a bit more depth, and these can all be customized.


It is not just Assetto Corsa you can enjoy this single-player experience through. The freshly updated Automobilista 2, in all of its 1.6 glory, is also an option. Of course, modding cars and tracks into Automobilista 2 is not possible as easily as with AC, but livery packs with accurate driver names, helmets and car liveries are! This next level of immersion is something unique that Automobilista 2 offers in droves.

There are so many routes you could take your career mode through. If you have a love of touring cars, there are plenty of mods to bolster your career mode appropriately. The same goes for formula cars, historic and GTs.

What do you think about this single-player career style? Is it something you would want to try? Let us know in the comments down below and join the discussion in our forums!
About author
Connor Minniss
Website Content Editor & Motorsport Photographer aiming to bring you the best of the best within the world of sim racing.

Comments

Thank you, glad you enjoyed the video. I did not want to make it just a "This is all bad and you should dislike it", especially the 3-wide passing of GT4, GT3 and LMDh was perfect, Opala 86 has some great moments, F-Retro Gen 1 overtaking of the player was amazing, there are good things there ! It needs some drastic adjusting and maybe push a bit over the edge with values to show them be more bold with moves instead of going in a train or passing through the grass.

I got into simracing just a few years ago and unfortunately never got around the Grand Prix series. But with the Codemasters series i have experience and can safely say that F1 22 and 23 are THE benchmark when it comes to quality AI racing experiences. Here from 1:23 watch how i have to pass the Alpha Tauri on the outside because they actively block the inside, then at 1:55 when i think i passed my teammate he comes back at me with ERS and goes on the left of the Alpine, which i know our cars are faster than Alpine so i slide behind him and we both drive away. Then at 2:20 i finally complete the overtake. I might have had the AI difficulty set too low in this video but it shows AI defending, attacking, changing lanes, not hesitating when they see an opening, exactly what i expect from AI in a racing game.
Very nice sample. Given that you are a lot into AI racing and Grand Prix 4 has been the golden standard for so long, I think it's worth a shot. And as it's basically abandonware, won't cost you a cent, just some time to get it up and running. Unless you are a VR only user that is.
 
ApexRivals is cool because you can create the AI drivers you race against. Name them, give them custom portraits, even adjust their skills. To me who only plays singleplayer, that's worth the price of admission on its own.
 

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