it's an easier recreation of mafia 1 classic's race mission.

Just beat it on classic difficulty with simulation driving after a few tries. If you're used to something like Forza or any other simcade racer it's honestly not too hard.

Yeah, it's absolutely ridiculous. Almost right at the beginning of the game too, but just about enough to be past the 2 hours needed for a refund, lmao.
There's a mod on nexus mods which makes the race a cakewalk; "Easy Race"

Or alternatively you could just keep trying for about 20 or more attempts until you literally perfect it, at every turn, in that crappy car, against the rubberbanded AI. (In a race track which is only used in that 1 story mission and never again)

Originally posted by ●ColdBolt:

(In a race track which is only used in that 1 story mission and never again)

i spent more time at the motordrome in extreme free ride than in the "fair play".
good place to test new cars.

Originally posted by Hopper-King:

Originally posted by ●ColdBolt:

(In a race track which is only used in that 1 story mission and never again)

i spent more time at the motordrome in extreme free ride than in the "fair play".
good place to test new cars.

Yes, only used once in the actual story, still. Not sure what's there to really test anyway, you get the "feel" of the car in about a minute after driving it. The only ones that are good are a few hidden cars, Celeste Mark 5, and Eckhart Elite. Few others are mid but majority are quite trash.

more of a challenge type deal since the other racers get the same car you do.
plus extreme races have a mario kart type pick-ups.
i think the one i liked messing around with the most was something like the flaming spear.

It is beatable even w/o mods, just give it some time. Cut across the grass after first turn, do not smash break button — press it rapidly but gently, evade collisions and you'll beat it. You can do it!

there's a few other techs that make victory assured. like, you can hard brake for 1.5-2 seconds if you release all directional inputs. there's an added bonus in that this tech seems to make cars behind you pile up.

everyone knows ram assisted turns from the first mission, but most people don't know that racecars are special in that you can stoke the ram button every half second (on straightaways, without directional input) to maintain top speed (normal cars get slowed down at high speed, but it's a good tech to quickly get from 0-to-30 after you crash).

another good one is, if you're sliding off the track, like in that wide left turn, you can let go of directionals, hit the ram button, and the car will be launched where-ever the nose is pointed. essentially blasting you out of a slide off.

Originally posted by Hopper-King:

there's a few other techs that make victory assured. like, you can hard brake for 1.5-2 seconds if you release all directional inputs. there's an added bonus in that this tech seems to make cars behind you pile up.

everyone knows ram assisted turns from the first mission, but most people don't know that racecars are special in that you can stoke the ram button every half second (on straightaways, without directional input) to maintain top speed (normal cars get slowed down at high speed, but it's a good tech to quickly get from 0-to-30 after you crash).

another good one is, if you're sliding off the track, like in that wide left turn, you can let go of directionals, hit the ram button, and the car will be launched where-ever the nose is pointed. essentially blasting you out of a slide off.

What you wrote at first definietly doesn't happen.

The ram assist is closer to every 1-3 seconds and also doesn't work if you're below 40, using it on turns will often rather crash you then anything else (at least on classic, on anything below there's not really any tricks needed so not sure if it helps there, I only know that it spins you out pretty much instantly - tried it for about 7 rounds before realising it doesn't help in the slightest and at best makes matters worse).

I'll just say that the race is near impossible on classic difficulty, I'm not sure if it's FPS depended (which it shouldn't be as that'd make the race on lower difficulties impossible as well instead of one of the easiest races in existence) or if it's simply buggy. I just read some other tips online after trying it on classic and one of the tips was to "just floor it at the start and get first" - which you also guessed it: Is impossible, simply because the AI drives ~7-15% faster (depending on what pre determined place they got) than you do on straights (acceleration and max speed). The fact that they can pretty much drive around corners on rails doesn't help the race either, especially as they can drive around them faster than you do and spin you out like you don't exist.

So I do understand on why OP hates the race, in my "humble" opinion: If you don't play on classic check if you got the driving mode set to simulation, if so switch to arcade - simulation seems to be busted in the race.
I for once am not sure if I further want to try playing through classic or if I just call it, as there's no real point in trying to win a bugged race for ages just to play on a higher difficulty - and yes, I'm certain it's bugged, unless their goal was to make "classic" way harder and unfair than the "classic" game had been if it comes to the race.

Edit: Locking the FPS to 60 does make the race possible on classic, it doesn't feel great (and causes graphical issues) but it at least slows the AI down enough to make it possible if you drive perfectly.

yeah, you have to let go of the directional inputs for most of these techs. which is why you're spinning out.
edit: actually, i reread my post, and all of these required letting go of the directionals while hitting brake or ram.

Originally posted by livEUnknown_Genius:

The ram assist is closer to every 1-3 seconds and also doesn't work if you're below 40, using it on turns...

on turns...

Originally posted by Hopper-King:

but most people don't know that racecars are special in that you can stoke the ram button every half second (on straightaways, without directional input)

(on straightaways, without directional input)

without directional input

this tech is why you think the other racers are faster than you. they're also stoking their engines on straightaways, just at a slower pace. "1-3 seconds" and "below 40" are also tied to not letting go of the direction buttons.

Originally posted by Hopper-King:

yeah, you have to let go of the directional inputs for most of these techs. which is why you're spinning out.
edit: actually, i reread my post, and all of these required letting go of the directionals while hitting brake or ram.

You may want to read the edit again:

Originally posted by livEUnknown_Genius:

Edit: Locking the FPS to 60 does make the race possible on classic, it doesn't feel great (and causes graphical issues) but it at least slows the AI down enough to make it possible if you drive perfectly.

The race is bugged. Same as the original Mafia 2 requiring a FPS lock (not sure if it does in the remaster, haven't played the remaster of that yet) to not get stuck in slow motion when first lockpicking a car. Without a FPS lock, none of it works, you just spin out even at 20 with slow inputs and the ram barely does anything all while the cars CAN'T be caught up to without actually cheating.
And both cases (M2 and M1:DE) are extremely weird with that as the FPS seemingly affect nothing else in the game - I'd even argue M1:DE is the weirdest of the 2 as lower difficulty races don't seem to be affected by FPS either (or they are and are just designed to be so simple there that FPS affecting it isn't noticeable).

holy cr*p, that brutal. i mean, not only are they running with pretty much unlimited speed, but if i'm right about the enemy ai going aggro whenever (normally) you('d) make a mistake and let them get close enough, i'd assume their aggro behavior must've been triggered all the time. yeah, i couldn't beat it. no matter how big the bag of tricks.

Originally posted by Hopper-King:

holy cr*p, that brutal. i mean, not only are they running with pretty much unlimited speed, but if i'm right about the enemy ai going aggro whenever (normally) you('d) make a mistake and let them get close enough, i'd assume their aggro behavior must've been triggered all the time. yeah, i couldn't beat it. no matter how big the bag of tricks.

Yeah, I only came back to the idea of FPS locking it after watching a video if there's anything else missing and seeing the AI not take off like they got 2 jet engines strapped to them and driving like 150+ on every straight while I'm breaking out immediately, never would've guessed that FPS would be an issue after my initial playthrough on normal - almost done on classic now and so far it seems like it's actually the only part that requires an FPS lock.

Not sure how much FPS you can have without it breaking tho, I primarily set it to 60 as it's my go to number for anything that was released past ~2007. But I still deem it a weird bug that it'd only break during the race, it should've broken when bringing the other car across the city already - not to say it should always break cars physics. Got to try out if being on normal with driving set to simulation is breaking the race aswell or if it's actually only specific to classic after Im done with the campaign.

I feel that this race is really weighted against the player. This is my second playthrough and I really wanted to get to the race as to see if I had really "got" the driving. It annoys me because the AI is able to do things on track it is not possible for the player, including good lines through corners at higher speed than can be managed, accelerating quickly ahead in some next level gear to overtake you, being able to stick to their line no matter what, especially if they crash or spin out, and quickly recover. The race car we have is also really bad and spins out so easily. I think the player should have a more capable car akin to the ones the AI has, or the AI should be a little less able/a little more real. I also think there should be a failure quest line because it takes a lot to master this race against these max AI opponents.