⚠ This is still a work in progress, there's a lot to test. ⚠

Every build is viable for every event, but some will certainly test you more than others. If there's any events you're having particular trouble with, let me know so I can prioritise the harder ones. Happy to make route videos or just find you the best tuning for your driver.

Tier lists with just drivers are based on soft springs and grip tires.

Your speed stays the same when you're in the air. This means if you're under max speed and accelerating, you'll lose time getting air, so you want to prevent that as much as possible. It also means that if you're boosting above max speed, the boost will last longer. Sometimes it's worth delaying releasing your boost if you're just about to hit a jump so you get full power through the air.

When you're drifting, you can tap the brake to sharpen your turning angle. Your boost meter pauses when brake is held, so you want to do it as little as possible, but it's much better than hitting a wall.

Speed penalties:

• Cones: no speed loss
  
• Brake Tap: small speed loss
  
• Offroad / Wallhit: I think these are weight-related, it seems like offroad is worse for light vehicles and wallhits are worse for heavy vehicles
  
• Tire Stack / Rear-End Opponent: big speed loss

Your vehicle can be in two states when drifting, which I'll refer to as straight and angled. When straight, you don't accumulate boost, but you aren't locked into a direction yet. When angled, you're locked to a direction for as long as you continue to hold the drift button, but your boost meter charges.

Drift chaining takes advantage of these two states. When you release the drift button, you only boost if the vehicle is straight. If you're turned far enough to be angled, the boost won't activate until your vehicle returns to being straight, which it naturally rotates back towards when you let go. If you let go of the drift button and then repress it before the boost kicks in, you start a new drift with your meter continuing to fill. This means that if you're holding the opposite direction when you repress, you'll drift back the other way.

Event: 4 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~1:19.000)

Make sure you're getting at least orange boost around the first and last corner. You can also practice drifting through the middle section: either green right into green left, or getting at least orange by chaining two drifts.




Event: 5 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~1:15.000)

Your drifts here will be closer together, and the laps are very short.




Event: 4 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~1:42.000)

The trick to fast times on circuits is to get enough speed that it carries through to the next lap, but the corners get harder as you get faster, so the second u-turn might cause you some trouble. Given how early this race is though, if you're at that point you'll already be pretty far ahead.




Event: Rally
Gold: 1:10.000

This map is a lot of swapping your drift direction. Don't over-commit to trying to get a higher boost, or see if you can chain it through multiple corners.



Hi Bank Haven is 5 laps now, hence the time difference. The difficulty is relatively the same as what you've faced so far.

Event: Crash Course
Gold: 56 Cones (All)

This is an excellent event for getting used to how handling affects turning. Just hold gas, don't drift, and try a couple different vehicles.



Track: Boost Academy
Requires: 15 VP

Don't worry about winning at first, just learn the track. With clean driving you can beat him in one lap.

Event: 5 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~1:40.000)

The first corner can't always be drifted the whole way at a boost angle. It's better to alternate drifting sharp and shallow to build boost in chunks, rather than drift the corner smooth but not build boost at all.




Event: 5 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~1:50.000)

The winding road at the start is a great place for testing out how effective snaking is (quick drift boosts back and forth) versus just driving straight. How useful it is depends on your build.




Event: Rally
Gold: 1:10.000

Two time savers: releasing drift close to jumps to make the most of your boost, and doing a quick brake tap before you loop around the tower to stay close inside.




Event: 3 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~1:45.000)

No tricks here, just hit your drifts.



You shouldn't have any trouble here.



Event: Pole Dash
Gold: 22 Poles (All)

There's a lot of spare time in these events because you can't turn around, so the challenge is more about the poles and less about racing to the finish. If you're struggling, literally just slow down and line up.

Event: Obstacle Rush
Gold: 0:30.000

This is the first big test of your drifting skills. One or two cones isn't a big deal, but gold requires a level of precision you haven't needed yet.




Track: Duel Helix
Requires: 30 VP

If you need to carry your drift through the shallow corner and the u-turn before the jump to get purple boost, do it, it's worth it for the air speed. The rivals never get the airtime you can.

Event: 4 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~1:44.000)

Take the jumps so you land towards the outside of the track to line you up for the next corner.




Event: 5 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~1:25.000)

The turn before the spiral is difficult if you're already boosting - try to chain your previous drift through it. The timing to turn back right can be tricky at first.




Event: Rally
Gold: 1:20.000

Enjoy your time on this track, you're gonna hate it later.




Event: 3 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~1:50.000)

The first u-turn is akin to Knight's Path in how the angle is just a bit too shallow for some builds. I tend to drift sharp enough to get green, straighten out (still drifting) so I don't hit the inside wall, then turn sharp again and boost when I hit orange.



Remember: you get the gold for finishing first overall, you don't have to win every event.



Event: Boost Gates
Gold: 12 Gates (All)

There was some confusion when the game first came out as to what counts as a boost for the gates - you need to be in boost mode, which just means above max speed. You can hold a drift indefinitely and then just boost the moment you're in front of a gate, provided you don't hit anything and slow down too much. None of them are placed in difficult places on this map, so you should be able to drive it normally.




Event: Passing Contest
Gold: 35 Passes

Hitting opponents from behind slows you down and gives you a time penalty and you don't get a point when you pass them. Take turns as wide as you need to.



Event: Drift Attack
Gold: 5,000 Points

The points multiplier is dependent on what level of boost you have. You can chain a drift for a whole lap and then triple all of those points at once if you really want to. You get 2 laps.



Track: Sideways Cyclone
Requires: 54 VP

Clean driving drops Renzo to zero on the first lap.

Event: 4 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~1:23.000)

Here's where you'll really notice how your steering is affected by the track tilting, and the chicane can really throw you off until you figure it out. You can actually just drive straight - the car will wobble back and forth but the tilting makes it correct itself.




Event: Rally
Gold: 1:20.000

Your speed is extremely important as you enter a sequence of jumps. Build that boost.




Event: 3 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~1:36.000)

The tires will eat all of your speed, keep in mind that you don't want the inside of the corners before them.




Event: Rally
Gold: 1:38.000

It'll take some time to learn the corners here, it's a long one.



Event: Obstacle Rush
Gold: 0:32.000

Hit your drifts, don't boost until you're sure you won't hit the tires, and don't forget to brake tap if you're swinging wide.




Track: Hogg Wash
Requires: 72 VP

Hawk is a lot harder than the other rivals you've raced. Take the time to learn the track, learn the drifts, and then beat him by racing clean.

Event: 5 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~1:39.000)

You can start drifting before you land from a jump.




Event: 3 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~1:36.000)




Event: 5 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~2:33.000)

Yeah, 5 laps. Gives you plenty of time to get ahead though.




Event: Rally
Gold: 1:15.000

There's some blind corners on this track, including one where you need to be ready to turn right immediately or you'll fly straight over the corner.





Event: Pole Dash
Gold: 28 Poles (All)

This one can be weird with the tilting roads and blind jumps, but you have spare time, you can slow down if you need to.



Event: Drift Attack
Gold: 4,500 Points

Just don't hit the cones.



Track: River Raid
Requires: 96 VP

Lots of quick sharp turns. Hit your boosts and you'll leave her behind quickly.

Event: 3 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~1:38.000)

Lots of back-and-forth corners here for chaining drifts.




Event: 4 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~1:38.000)

Something you might not have noticed yet becomes very obvious here: sharp turns pull your car in the turn's direction. It's just a quirk of how the game was designed. The right-angle turns will swing you around, building boost quickly but also testing your reflexes.




Event: 5 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~1:31.000)




Event: Rally
Gold: 1:12.000

You'll have a hard time with some of the corners here if you're still having trouble with chaining drifts. Don't be afraid to slow down just a little to make sure you don't jump off the track.



Pepe's time in the first race is ridiculously fast relative to pretty much every other event in the game, and the last race is no pushover either. You get gold even if you tie for first overall, so two firsts and two seconds is enough here.



Event: Passing Contest
Gold: 45 Passes

Hitting opponents gives you a time penalty. Hitting tires doesn't.



Event: Boost Gates
Gold: 12 Gates (All)

Below is a gold medal run of this event with inputs. I wanted to show off two things: how much time you have left even if you don't fully drift most of the corners, and how you can just hold a boost until you reach a gate. I used Krissi because she has the best handling of the characters that are unlocked by default.


Event: Crash Course
Gold: 90 Balloons (All)

This is my favourite event. There are 90 balloons scattered across the track, colour-coded by their position on the road, and you get three laps to pop them all. Again, time is on your side, you can slow down and aim. An effective strategy is to just focus on one colour per lap.



Track: Hangar Havoc
Requires: 120 VP

Despite his performance in the GP, you can absolutely dunk on him in the rival battle thanks to the two huge jumps. Air speed wins you this race quite easily.

Event: 4 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~1:35.000)

The snow affects the way your car handles. As far as I can tell, your vehicle's momentum doesn't change directions as quickly when you turn, so exiting corners makes you slide wider for example.




Event: 3 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~1:31.000)

Don't forget to turn left.




Event: Rally
Gold: 1:28.000

The twists and turns through the trees are a true test of your reflexes. At the very least you'll want to try to memorise where the u-turns are so you don't boost into them.




Event: Rally
Gold: 1:06.000

Remember brake taps.



Event: Crash Course
Gold: 90 Snowmen (All)

The trickiest of the three Crash Courses. Because of the influence snow and the curves in the track have on your steering, you might find yourself over/under-correcting when aiming for snowmen, especially when your boost kicks in after a turn. Experiment with different driving lines that give you room to line up.



Track: Side By Side
Requires: 144 VP

Event: 4 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~1:33.000)

Play around with which corners you should boost after and which you should keep chaining.




Event: 3 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~1:17.000)

The last turn before the finish line feels like it was designed to test how well you handle drifts that start in midair.




Event: Rally
Gold: 1:12.000

Air speed.




Event: Rally
Gold: 1:12.000





Event: Pole Dash
Gold: 42 Poles (All)

There are a few poles that the curves in this track will pull you away from. Learning from frustration experience is the only way to get gold here.



Event: Passing Contest
Gold: 50 Passes



Track: Marina Madness
Requires: 175 VP

Three jumps.

Event: 3 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~1:40.000)

The most important part of this track is having a purple boost coming out of the u-turn before the finish line. You need that speed all the way down the following straight.




Event: 4 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~1:40.000)




Event: Rally
Gold: 1:09.000

This is probably the hardest track to learn. A lot of blind corners, a lot of sharp corners, and it all looks the same. Brake taps are better than nudging the outside wall.




Event: 3 Laps
Gold: 1st Place (~2:29.000)



Small mistakes are very costly in the first race. Lucy will always rocket off ahead of you at the start, don't let it phase you.



Event: Drift Attack
Gold: 6,000 Points



Event: Boost Gates
Gold: 8 Gates (All)



Event: Obstacle Rush
Gold: 0:12.000

This is the hardest event in the game, not because you need to nail it perfectly, but because the time pressure makes you push yourself harder than you should and then you make a mistake and panic. The video below has a gold medal run with inputs, again for two reasons: I don't drive optimally and intentionally ignore certain drift boosts, and I can (barely) make it even with a crash.

The UFOs cover half the track, and it's always one of three positions: either side or the center. You can tell where they'll be when they fly past and they're always the same run to run. The perspective in this game can make it difficult to tell which way the red UFOs are moving, but you have room to slow down a little.




Track: Twisted Timbers
Requires: 201 VP

Lucy can get away from you incredibly quickly, and that will almost certainly happen until you learn the track, so don't worry about it at first. The way the track tilts makes building boost through drifts rather precise, but you have one advantage here: you can cut the last corner by jumping straight to the finish. The last u-turn is followed by a banked right turn, which is perfect to use as a ramp.

The final GP is a bit of a letdown, unfortunately. It consists of the last track from each tour, but you don't race the other 11 rivals, or even just 1 - it's 11 generic opponents that can finish anywhere in the standings, giving you a ton of leeway in how many points you need to get gold.