Project Motor Racing released only a few weeks ago, yet the reaction from the sim racing community has been overwhelmingly critical. While the game arrived with ambitious goals and a clear vision, many players feel the final product failed to meet even the most basic expectations for a modern racing sim.
The core issue is not that Project Motor Racing is fundamentally broken. It is that the experience players expected simply is not what they received. Trailers, developer messaging, and early previews positioned the game as a serious simulation focused on realism, immersion, and competitive racing. What players encountered instead felt unfinished and inconsistent.
This gap between expectation and reality has fueled much of the frustration currently surrounding the game.
One of the most common criticisms centers around force feedback and handling. For a sim racing title, this is about as serious as it gets.
Many players report that force feedback feels inconsistent across cars and tracks. In some situations, the steering communicates grip and weight transfer clearly, while in others it feels vague or disconnected. This inconsistency makes it difficult to build confidence over longer stints.
Handling behavior has drawn similar criticism. Certain cars feel believable and engaging for a few laps, only for the experience to fall apart as tires heat up or conditions change. Snap oversteer, unpredictable grip loss, and awkward recovery behavior are frequently mentioned on forums.
The result is a driving experience that can feel excellent momentarily, but unreliable over the course of a full race.
The AI driving has become another major point of contention.
Players describe AI opponents that make erratic moves, brake unexpectedly, or fail to respect racing lines. Side by side racing often devolves into contact rather than clean competition, which is especially frustrating in longer races.
The penalty system compounds this problem. Many players report receiving penalties for incidents caused by AI behavior, while obvious mistakes by computer controlled drivers go unpunished. This creates a sense that races are decided less by skill and more by unpredictability.
For those hoping to enjoy offline championships or endurance races, this has been a major disappointment.
Even players willing to tolerate rough edges have struggled with performance.
Frame rate drops, stutters, and inconsistent frame pacing have been widely reported across a range of systems. Some players experience smooth sessions initially, only for performance to degrade mid race.
These issues are especially damaging in a sim racing environment where precision and consistency matter. Losing smooth feedback or visual clarity at speed immediately breaks immersion and confidence.
While patches have addressed some problems, performance remains one of the game’s most persistent weaknesses.
Beyond driving, presentation has also drawn criticism.
Menus are frequently described as unintuitive and unfinished. Navigating setups, sessions, and race options often feels more complicated than it should. Visual feedback within menus is limited, and important information can be difficult to find.
This lack of polish reinforces the perception that Project Motor Racing launched before it was ready. Even players who enjoy the driving at times struggle to stay engaged when basic usability feels underdeveloped.
Content is another area where expectations played a major role in the backlash.
While Project Motor Racing does include a very respectable selection of cars and tracks, many players feel the lineup lacks depth and cohesion. Car classes can feel uneven, and certain tracks highlight the game’s weaknesses more than its strengths.
There is also limited structure around progression. Career and championship modes lack the depth many players expect, making the experience feel more like a sandbox than a complete racing platform.
In a market filled with established sims offering years of refinement, this has made Project Motor Racing feel thin by comparison.
On Reddit and other community platforms, long threads break down frustrations in detail. Players share clips of AI incidents, inconsistent handling moments, and performance drops.
The tone of these discussions is not purely hostile. Many posts acknowledge moments where the game shines. Strong sound design, flashes of excellent physics, and a solid core concept are frequently mentioned. The choice of content is good, the execution is where the game lacks.
However, those positives are overshadowed by frustration that such potential was released prematurely.
Despite the criticism, not everyone has written Project Motor Racing off completely.
A smaller but vocal group within the community believes the underlying physics model shows promise. When conditions align, the driving can feel immersive and rewarding. Sound design has also been widely praised for adding intensity to on track moments.
These players argue that with enough updates, refinement, and polish, the game could evolve into something genuinely competitive.
The challenge will be whether the development team can regain trust and deliver meaningful improvements quickly enough.
Ultimately, Project Motor Racing is not being criticized because of its vision. It is being criticized because of its timing.
In today’s sim racing landscape, players expect stability, polish, and depth at launch. Releasing a game that feels unfinished invites comparison to far more refined competitors. We saw the same with Assetto Corsa Evo. AC however seems to have picked itself up, and is now doing better than ever.
The backlash reflects disappointment more than malice. Many players wanted this game to succeed.
Project Motor Racing’s rough launch has placed it under intense scrutiny. Inconsistent force feedback, erratic AI, performance issues, and unfinished presentation have all contributed to the negative reception.
At the same time, flashes of quality suggest that the game is not beyond saving.
Whether Project Motor Racing can recover will depend entirely on how quickly and transparently the developers address these issues. For now, the criticism serves as a reminder that ambition alone is not enough without execution.
