Project CARS 1 and 2 To Be Delisted

Project CARS 1 and 2 Delisted.jpg
Project CARS and Project CARS 2 will soon be unavailable for purchase due to expiring car and track licenses.

Players who have yet to add Project CARS 1 or 2 to their collection now have a limited time to do so.

The Slightly Mad development team have announced that some licenses associated with the title will be expiring soon. Project CARS 2 will no longer be available for purchase as of September 21st, and the first Project CARS will be removed from sale as of October 3rd.


Current owners, or players who purchase either title before the dates listed previously, will still be able to play the games.

Slightly Mad also made vague reference to "the next Slightly Mad project", though no details have yet been shared on what that project may entail.

Project CARS 1 was initially released in 2015, and was the title most true to the acronym nested in its name (Community Assisted Racing Simulator). PC2 was released two years later, and divided fans of the previous title as its development placed less emphasis on community interaction.

Both games featured large car and track selections spanning many auto racing series and world locations.

What are your best memories of these titles? Would you look forward to another Slightly Mad racing project? Let us know in the comments below.
About author
Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

Comments

Premium
PCars 2 had its moments.
One day all those million sliders for ffb alingned and I had a fantastic experience with the Clio Cup car at Oulton Park. And I thought „Holy shiat, that feels excellent.« And then, one car and track later I felt lost again.

Consistency was missing in this title. A lot.

Content wise it is still one of the best sims available. Wish Reiza could take all those content and bring it for AMS2.
 
What a stupid comment. You cannot say that if you are a simracing fan, PCARS was not the best, but it was important for our small community, and, as a simracing fan, I like to support everyone that makes out niche hobby possible.
I have to agree with what you've said. pCars en pCars2 are far from perfect but I and many others enjoyed them. Even though I do not play them anymore and I moved over to AMS2 (what pCars3 should have been) rFactor 2 and Assetto Corsa (Competizione), I still am great full that these games were made. You can also thank them for creating the Madness Engine which power AMS2 and has amazing capabilities in terms of simulation. Without pCars 1&2, there would be no Madness Engine and there would be a different AMS2, likely in Unreal Engine which can be terrible for performance. Just look to the mess Assetto Corsa Competizione is in terms of performance on some pc.
 
That's a shame. No matter their downsides, it (PC2) is still one of the more popular sim racing games on Steam right now (only AC, F1 22, ACC, F1 21, DR2.0, F1 20 and rf2 have more players at the time of writing)
 
PCars 2 had its moments.
One day all those million sliders for ffb alingned and I had a fantastic experience with the Clio Cup car at Oulton Park. And I thought „Holy shiat, that feels excellent.« And then, one car and track later I felt lost again.

Consistency was missing in this title. A lot.
Inconsistent experiences. Not something we ever see in other sim racing titles, eh? No, nada, never, not at all, I'm sure... :p

I'm sure PC2 has its frustrating issues. I wouldn't know – I don't own it! :laugh: But I doubt it deserves the outright hate I see heaped upon it here whenever it comes up. And I, for one, am sad to see it delisted.

I always thought I'd pick it up on sale one day for cheap. So I could enjoy a few of the better experiences in the game. Most likely I now won't. That's a shame.
 
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Some people think they will look cool if they say PCars and Pcars2 have no value, small people.
One might prefer an other racing game, Hum! sorry, race simulator, as god forbid, we are talking about video games here.

Fact is, Pcars had a lot to offer, particularly if you like to drive in VR, plenty of features, that are announced as developments, in many other driving games still in 2022. Tons of content, even more tons in PCars2.
Was it perfect, even if announced as such, by the most hated developer, the real villain of the sim world, Ian Bell, no, not perfect. But still has a lot to offer.
I still indulge in Pcars and Pcars2 today, for many reasons, features and content mainly.
Not if I am after the upmost simulation either in driving or championship recreation, but for the many times I am just into racing again some AI on a very well rendered track, in a great car interior with superior driver animation in VR, in ever changing weather, season, time of day in great graphic lightning, those SMS title will do very nicely for me, thank you very much.

We are all sharing the same hobby here, which is not the same as saying we are all after the same exact thing, We may not even want the same thing from day to day.
Thank you SMS for offering some advance software to drive with, I have enjoyed the many hours spent driving your tiles and still do enjoy them in the present.
 
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Can someone explain to me this "expiring licenses" thing? First time I hear about a racing game that is "retired" for this reason. Is this a common thing?
 
Was it perfect, even if announced as such, by the most hated developer, the real villain of the sim world, Ian Bell, no, not perfect. But still has a lot to offer.
The problem with Mr Bell's reputation is that prior to PC he was part of the team that released GTR2. Probably one of the most complete & well respected racing simulators out there, especially for it's time in the marketplace. The projects that came after GTR2 always promised to expand up that title's positives, but he always seemed to allow gamers to sway decisions at the expense of simmers.
 
IMO, one thing PC2 DID manage to get right was multi-surface physics and feel of the RallyCross content.

I also had a fantastic time racing in a casual league in PC2 for a while.
Biggest fail was the small limit to the number of drivers the game could handle on a server (22-ish?). We had to split up into different groups and it kind of took the fun out of it.
 
Am I wrong or this is the first time that a game such this is removed from the stores because of this reason?
I mean, wtf is going on? Pcars 1 was released in 2015 and Pcars 2 in 2017, but their licenses expired at the same time? How is that even possible if the sequel has different tracks and cars?
They paid for a 7 years license for the first title and for a five years license for the sequel?
I guess that Pcars 3 will be removed from the stores pretty soon then. Not that this would be a bad thing, but you guys have to admit that it's kinda ridiculous.
Come on, GTR2 was released a century ago and it's still on sale. And was done by the same developers.
The games are gonna be delisted for some other reason.
 
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Premium
Some people will never change their tune and will always think of Ian in the worst light, but I still think PC2 was one of the best purchases I've made in sim racing, right after rF1 and GTR2. My Steam playlist shows PC2 and PC1 as my #1 played sims. (mostly b/c since having kids I don't race online anymore)

Buy the deluxe pack before it goes away! The DLC was some of the best I've purchased. Particularly the Spirit of Le Mans pack that includes 1970 La Sarthe and plenty of historic prototypes. But there are some true gems in the Porsche and Ferrari packs, like the 924 and the 961, as well as the older Ferrari Challenge cars. Not the same recycled GT3s that we're stuck with. The content has always been my favorite thing. A Full slate of Grp.C/GTPs, 90's GTO cars, late 90's LMPs. There's almost no era left out.

I just played this again last night (I created two Career modes that you can d/l here) and it still looks phenomenal and, some refuse to believe it, feels excellent on my TX base. There's not much between AMS2 and PC2 how I have it set up. Sounds are underrated too, cars sound raw and angry.

Sad that it will disappear on PCs soon.
My experience is much the same with PC2, with a TX, an updated handling file (download at racedepartment) and tweaked in-game, and it feels fantastic. Yesterday I tried it with cars from different eras and it was great. On the other hand, the content is fabulous and it looks amazing (sun and shadow contrast, day, night, all kinds of weather, including snow...). In addition there are still people playing it online. I think it cannot be missing from the catalog of a simracing fan.
 
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Premium
I just saw pcars 2 on Steam for 60 euros, and the full version for 90... Ufa... I find it very ugly...
 
Ahhh PC2. The game that got me into Sim Racing, because it was one of the only sims available on console (alongside DiRT Rally and AC, and the F1 games but they were even less of a sim then than they are now). What attracted me to PC2 was the variety, and it still has a lot of tracks and content to offer. I can't think of any other game/sim that offers 60+ tracks natively, with no mods or DLC. And the weather and time progression system is amazing. Had so much fun on PC2. And as a couple of others have said, buy the deluxe edition if you can. I'd argue its worth it just for the Le Mans and Porsche packs, but I enjoyed the Rallycross and Ferrari packs as well. But there's nothing like taking the 917K around 1970 Le Mans at sunset in PC2, even on console. Or even better, a 919 around 1970s Le Mans if you're up for a laugh!
 
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Premium
This finally gave me a reason to pick up the first one, I've always been curious about it. Project Cars 2 is definitely a mixed bag but I've had some great experiences on it. I imagine the first one will be similar. It's a shame the series turned into what it became. As far as I'm concerned the more sims available the better in this niche category of games.
 
Never played PC1, have had PC2 for a few years - bought it during a Steam sale. Not my favorite but looks great, has a good selection of cars and tracks, kind of a spectacular (and frustrating) weather system. I don't tend to get too into the weeds with FFB tuning (yes, I know, I should) but generally felt it drove "OK". But, I never took it too seriously or expected it to be the ultra uber king of sims, so in that context did I have fun with it (offline single player)? Yes, I did. I still fire it up and do a race weekend here and there.
 
Premium
PCars 2 had its moments.
One day all those million sliders for ffb alingned and I had a fantastic experience with the Clio Cup car at Oulton Park. And I thought „Holy shiat, that feels excellent.« And then, one car and track later I felt lost again.

Consistency was missing in this title. A lot.

Content wise it is still one of the best sims available. Wish Reiza could take all those content and bring it for AMS2.
This sums up Pcars2 perfectly IMO, Pcars 1 got me into sim racing, I was a backer and made a bit of money out of it too! As for Pcars 1 and 2 the content and graphics were really good and still are, I use Popracers FFB files and they really transform the Sim, I still dip in and out of it as there's certain car and track combo's i like.
 
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