Assetto Corsa Evo ditches its original career mode plans for a reworked ‘Driving Academy’

There’s been a big shift in direction over at Kunos Simulazioni, those purveyors of luxurious driving sims and developers of Early Access title Assetto Corsa Evo – the single player career mode as it was originally planned has gone in the bin, in favour of a reworked 'Driving Academy' that focuses more on teaching you how to sharpen your skills.

The studio announced on 4 February via the game’s official Discord server that it has “decided to move away from the current Career mode and in-game economy systems. This means features such as XP, virtual currency, and economy-based progression will no longer be part of the experience".

Previously, Assetto Corsa Evo’s career mode sounded like it would work a bit like the Gran Turismo games. You’d earn cash and XP by completing events, then spend them on more cars and unlock more events, giving you a sense of progression as you worked your way through.

But not everyone was happy about these plans. The Assetto Corsa franchise is just as well-known for its online PvP racing, particularly in GT3 racing sim Assetto Corsa Competizione, and in online racing it’s all about keeping a level playing field for all competitors.

It seems a challenge, then, to marry that online component to a single player experience which locks off vehicles until you earn enough in-game cash to buy them. Some community members voiced concerns along these lines about the original career mode plans prior to this change in direction.

“This decision wasn’t taken lightly,” the statement continues, “but it allows us to focus on building a clearer, more authentic experience that better reflects what our community values and supports the long-term vision of the game.”

Career mode isn’t just being hacked away to leave a gap in the experience though. Instead, the Driving Academy will be expanded to become the single player focus, and it’s all about helping you get quicker and helping you learn the nuances of different cars and tracks.

“While the original Career mode won’t be part of the final direction,” says Kunos, “providing meaningful structure for solo play remains very important to us. Our goal is to guide progression through skill, learning, and competition, rather than through an artificial economy, while continuing to support well-received features like vehicle tuning."

Meanwhile, online play is getting serious reinforcements. Following the introduction of ranked races in the 0.4 update, there’ll soon be special events, online leaderboards, hot stints and "other focused game modes" joining the multiplayer roster.