Racing and motorsport

Racing has been part of Grand Theft Auto for as long as the series has had cars worth stealing, and Rockstar has confirmed it for Grand Theft Auto 6 twice over: in its own words to Game Informer, and in play in the Extended Look it published in August.

Two races on tarmac

About 17 minutes 40 seconds into Rockstar's Extended Look there is a circuit race: sixteen cars in sponsor liveries on a street track lined with catch fencing and palm trees. The readout in the corner shows lap 1 of 2, the player in 10th of 16, and a running timer. The car being driven is a white race saloon with a big rear wing.

About three minutes later comes a night street race through ordinary Vice City streets, six cars, the player's wrapped coupe running purple underglow. This time the readout gives progress as a percentage rather than laps, and 5th of 6, which reads like a point-to-point sprint rather than a circuit.

Laps on a closed circuit, and a sprint through traffic. Neither clip shows how the race was started, what it pays, or whether it was a mission or something found in free roam.

Two lists, read carefully

Rockstar's designers gave Game Informer two separate lists for the issue 382 cover story. The first was activities, and it includes street and off-road racing. The second was features of the map, and that is where the rest of the motorsport sits: ATV trails, mud parks, demolition derbies, mountain biking and motocross.

That split is worth keeping. An activity is something Rockstar is telling you that you do. A map feature is something it is telling you is there. A demolition derby on the map might be an event you enter, a venue you drive past, or a set piece in one mission. Rockstar has not said which, and anyone describing derby races as a playable mode is ahead of the evidence.

PC Games Hardware's summary of the cover story adds that motocross takes place on coastal dunes and the ATV trails run through the northern wilderness. We have not seen that wording at source, so treat it as reported.

Where it would happen

Mud parks are the easiest to place. The Thrillbilly Mud Club has been in the marketing since the first trailer and is, on the evidence of the screenshots, exactly that: a pit, trucks buried to the axles and a crowd. It appears to sit in or near Ambrosia.

Our inference is that the derbies, trails and motocross belong to the same interior and to the northern countryside Rockstar also listed, because that is where the real versions are. Florida's county fairs and dirt speedways are where demolition derbies happen, and the off-road parks are inland, well away from the coast.

Street racing is the reverse. It belongs to Vice City, which is where the Extended Look's night race runs, and the launch trailer's lime green supercar in a racing livery, pursued through a junction by a police cruiser, fits the same picture.

The series history

San Andreas is the obvious precedent. It ran street races, off-road races and stadium events including a destruction contest in the derby mould and a dirt bike course, and they were a large part of why that map felt busy. Grand Theft Auto V cut that back to street, sea and off-road races and stunt plane time trials scattered across the map. Grand Theft Auto Online then built years of updates around racing, which suggests Rockstar knows exactly how much players will do it.

The vehicles shown so far fit. The Vapid Dominator buggy at the top of this page is a classic muscle car cut down for mud, and the official set has dirt bikes, lifted trucks and ATV-ready country.

Motocross, in play

The Extended Look also shows a motocross race: a pack of riders on dirt bikes on a dirt course cut into a hillside, the readout giving lap 1 of 2 and 11th of 12. That moves motocross off the list of places and onto the list of things shown being played, at least as a race.

What is not known

• Whether the races shown are free-roam events, missions, or both, and whether there are entry fees or prizes
• Where the circuit is, and whether it is a permanent venue or a temporary street course
• Whether derbies and mud parks are playable events or only places on the map
• Whether mountain biking means bicycles the player can ride, which Grand Theft Auto V had and the marketing has not shown clearly
• Whether racing feeds the evidence-based wanted system when police see it
• Whether either character can race, or both

Rockstar has named all of this, and shown three races: circuit, street and motocross. The rest of the list has not been seen in play.