Hello fellow racers and wreckers!
 
We are working on the next update like there is no tomorrow. In fact, this new update is by far the largest one we have ever created. We are going to release it before Christmas, and we are more than happy to share with you that the update will contain:
• Many new cars, including front-wheel drive cars for the first time
• Preview of the upcoming series based career mode
• Polished tracks with all-new variants
• New, enhanced HUD
• Paint job customization
• Better AI with adjustable difficulty
• Improved vehicle physics and manual clutch
• Mechanical vehicle damage
• And a lot more
 
Stay tuned for more info on this huge update!

This update represents a significant step towards the final release of the game, and what that means in practice is that this update contains a plenty of new as well as polished content and features in addition to a host of other improvements, the highlights being:
 
EIGHT NEW CARS
That's right – eight completely new cars, including our first ever front-wheel-drive cars, classic bangers, demolition derby heavy-hitters as well as something pretty unique! In addition to the new cars, many old cars have been refreshed.
 
PREVIEW OF THE CAREER
Two championships with many themed series – battle for championship points and earn experience, increase your rank and unlock new parts and cars! This preview is just a taste of things to come, with more varied series and challenges being introduced later on.
 
PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATIONS
Better performance thanks to the new LOD (Level of Detail) models for all vehicles, optimized grass performance and collisions with dynamic objects, improved V-Sync for smoother framerate.
 
POLISHED TRACKS
Say goodbye to the old work-in-progress tracks.
 
PAINT CUSTOMIZATION
Customize your car with a variety of paints and liveries, also supported over multiplayer.
 
MECHANICAL DAMAGE
Engine, gearbox, suspension, brakes and wheels can get damaged in crashes, resulting in performance degradation. And yes, wheels now get torn off too!
 
VEHICLE TUNING
Adjust suspension stiffness, differential type, brake bias and gear ratio to suit your style or the track, even between every race – also in multiplayer lobby.
 
GAME MUSIC
Songs from the Audiodraft game music contest that you voted for are in!
 
AUDIO IMPROVEMENTS
Unique engine sounds for all cars, most completely new, as well as better situational audio, new spatial effects and improved countdown behaviour.
 
NEW, ENHANCED HUD AND USER INTERFACE IMPROVEMENTS
All-new, more modern HUD. New main menu and some cool neat functionality such as car icons that update automatically.
 
BETTER AI WITH ADJUSTABLE DIFFICULTY
Increased awareness and more variation in the driver profiles with some racing cleaner and some being more prone to making mistakes, as well as a difficulty setting that can be adjusted to your preference – try beating it on hard difficulty!
 
RIVALS
New work-in-progress feature: someone can become your rival by crashing into you, and you can earn bonus score by showing them who's the boss.
 
IMPROVED CRASHES
Crashes feel more vigorous than ever, and visual damage is improved.
 
ENHANCED VEHICLE PHYSICS AND CONTROLLER
Improved tire model as well as suspension physics and updated controller implementation for better handling and easier playing with a gamepad or a keyboard. Don't forget to test different assist combinations to find something you like - with no assists the game is meant to be more authentic experience especially with a steering wheel, while with full helpers you can simply pick up the pad and let it rip!
 
MANUAL CLUTCH
For the ultimate immersion – you asked for it, and here it is!
 
And those are only the highlights: the update contains plenty of other goodies, some more significant and some more minor, but we invite you to take a look yourself. These couple of last months have been hectic for us, and we hope you'll enjoy the update. There are still many little bits and pieces missing as you'll no doubt notice, but we were hell-bent on getting this update out so that you can already have a chance to check out what we've been working on and give us feedback that we can then use to fine-tune whatever you feel is wrong or off. In other words, don't forget to let us know what you think!

TECHNICAL/USER INTERFACE

Fixed a case in which the dedicated server might crash due to console buffer overflow.
Fixed a random client crash when entering spectate mode.
Invalid mod preview image (such as a .gif camouflaged as a .jpg) no longer causes the mod manager to crash.
Having certain controllers plugged in will no longer cause the mouse cursor to vanish indefinitely.
To prevent bogus controller bindings, automatic binding of DirectInput controllers is now disabled.
It's no longer to get locked out of the game by unbinding ESC and Enter keyboard keys.
Input to Steam Overlay chat no longer flows into the game's chat.
Audio no longer gets cut off when the player gets wrecked (would manifest in spectate mode as well).
Exiting any of the Garage sub-views after playing multiplayer no longer results in the bogus "Exit Game?" popup.
Market, Tune and other sub-views now have Back buttons.

VEHICLES

Lawnmower is back!
Fixed Firefly in-car camera offset as well as other minor camera issues.
Roadcutter is no longer indestructible with certain customization parts.
Dominator no longer loses its engine audio sporadically.
Sunrise Super has new engine audio.
Increased handbrake power for a number of cars.
AI with Tristar should no longer get stuck on the track.
Improved positional audio.

CAREER/GAMEPLAY/HUD

AI is no longer as murderous towards the player in Demolition Derby.
It's now easier to pull a pit maneuver on AI (remember it's still difficult to pit a heavy car with a light car).
Extreme high-speed collisions now cause less gameplay damage.
A number of cars now have more gameplay health.
Player tags are no longer displayed for wrecked players to make them easier to distinguish.
Player tags are displayed at a farther distance in Demolition Derby and Team game modes.
Press (X) (or a custom binding) to reset is now displayed correctly when using a controller.
Player Rank 17 is now displayed correctly as 17, not 16.
Game no longer crashes in the post-race experience screen if the player gains experience when on the last rank.
Experience and credits accumulation from playing custom events and multiplayer is now the same as that of career events.
In career, events featuring multiple sessions now have the correct number of laps for semifinals and finals.
Revenging a rival now nets 200XP instead of 1XP.
Final lap notification is now displayed correctly.
Career events now have more weather variation.
Player stats in the top right now feature a progress bar towards the next rank.
Upgrade parts received as rewards now use correct car names.

TRACKS

Updated the environment images in the environment selection slider.
All routes now have proper minimaps in the track selection slider.
Improved ad banners on a number of tracks.
Fixed Mixed 3 Short Route and Short Route Reverse AI driving line.
Fixed Dirt Speedway trackside cameras.
Improved Mixed 3 trackside cameras.

NOTES FOR CONTENT CREATORS

Runtime ambient occlusion is now automatically disabled for custom vehicles so vehicles should render correctly again.
Old style _ns maps can only be used with blend materials, and using them with standard materials will cause visual glitches.

Also, leaderboards will be reset shortly.