SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - Review: TOCA Race Driver 3

The damage physics seem to be somewhat unevenly distributed across the different cups and series. In the Stock Cars on the ovals I suffered very little damage from slamming into the wall with the side of the car. There was little in the way of visual damage and the handling of the car was not impaired. In fact I proceeded to drive my fastest lap after hitting the wall. Crashing head-on into the pit-lane wall killed the car of course, but the visual damage was underwhelming. The visual damage seems more impressive in the Nissan Off-roaders, the type of cars used in the Paris-Dakar Rally. Fenders and panels are bent, and doors hanging on by their hinges slam shut and open as you accelerate or decelerate, once you've ruined the door lock.

These cars I could not roll over, in spite of a very pronounced tendency for them to go up on two wheels in sharp turns. I did manage to roll an Indy Car however. As a result the car lost the frontwing, kept the rearwing, and suffered a bit of suspension damage which meant that it didn’t track right after that excursion.

Crashing a DTM car at the top of Spa’s Eau Rouge, the visual damage was not severe although the car didn’t drive very well for the rest of the race. Then I proceeded to write-off a Ford in the Bathurst race and a Group N rally car, and these latter cars did suffer some quite severe visual and physical damage.

All other considerations aside; The damage in TOCA Race Driver 3 is not bad, as tires, suspension, mechanical components and bodywork are all susceptible to abuse and damage which will manifest itself in the visuals and in the handling of the car. If only it was more evenly developed all across the different racing series, and far more unforgiving.

The AI according to Codemasters are tuned for fighting for positions and for aggressive driving. And this they are. In fact they are so aggressive that they don’t shy away from attempting to drive over you if they happen to be nearby. It seems that they very quickly will develop a grudge, if you accidentally bump into them. As a consequence they just drive into you and push you in front of them, or lock wheels with you without any consideration or regard for what this might mean to their own finishing result. They’d much rather try to push you off the road. Apparently the AI drivers never get penalized for overaggressive driving. The human driver does. This leads to some frustration along the way as the racing becomes more intense and the cars more difficult to control.

Telemetry

The telemetry screen consists of one solitary screen and I have to say that I have not felt the need at any time to look at it.

Set ups

Basic set up adjustments are possible. You can change brake-balance, rideheight, stiffness of the suspension, toe, camber and downforce, amongst other things.

However it is not possible to make independent adjustments to either side of the car as you would need to when building a proper set up for oval tracks. Asymmetrical set ups are just not an option in RD3.

You may need to adjust your setups to gain the last hundredths of a second to be ultra competitive, there may be a benefit on tracks like Indianapolis Motor Speedway by taking off the rear roll-bar, but in general the cars are extremely fast and grippy with the default setups A tuning option is also available in certain championships. You can either accept the suggested upgrades at the start of the championship or go into the individual tuning sub-menus, deciding which upgrades to apply. Some of these upgrades make sense, like increasing braking strength with a brake kit, but others look a bit odd: How is installing a racing seat going to increase structural stability I wonder?

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