Here’s everything featured in Assetto Corsa Evo’s first Early Access build

Do you know what the best thing is about being in January 2025? With the greatest respect to the perishing cold and 3pm nightfall, it’s that Assetto Corsa Evo’s Early Access release on PC is imminent.

So imminent, in fact, that we’ve now got a precise list of what the very first version of that Early Access build will feature when it descends onto Steam from on high (aka the Kunos Simulazioni offices) on 16 January. Here’s what we’re in for [deep breath]:

• 20 cars
• Five tracks
• Single-player practice game mode
• Single-player quick race game mode
• Game economy step 1: car rental, car purchasing, experience points, rewards, driver profile, driving licences and driving academy
• VR support
• Triple screen support
• Car showroom
• Car customisation

This being an Early Access release, the plan is to gradually add features and refine the existing ones in a live environment, factoring in the community’s reception to it all. That said, there’s enough to be getting on with in that bushel of bullet points, isn’t there?

As for exactly which 20 cars will feature, Kunos is drip-feeding the names gradually. So far just four of them have been revealed: the Toyota GR86, Ferrari 296 GTB, BMW M2 CS Racing, and Abarth 695 Biposto. The latter feels like the continuation of a fine tradition - we spent many hours in the original Assetto Corsa sending that little Abarth around Monza, before the game became a modding haven.

The tracks that make the initial build are as follows: Brands Hatch, Imola, Laguna Seca, Mount Panorama and Suzuka. That’ll give ACC heads a good chance to contrast and compare the last game’s peerless recreations of Brands and Imola to the new game.

To our eye, though, the really interesting bit is that ‘step 1’ in-game economy. It gives a bit of insight into how the solo experience is structured, suggesting a Gran Turismo-like vehicle ownership fantasy in which you earn money to buy and customise cars, gradually building a collection. Previous AC games have been light on structured single player content, so this sounds like a big upgrade.

We’ll be digging into all of this and providing our impressions from 16 January.