Rallying is the best kind of auto racing because it's basically a slightly faster version of bombing down fire trails to get to a big bush bash: The roads are treacherous, you don't know where you're going but your buddy's giving you directions, and if you get there before everyone else you get first crack at the refreshments. All of which is to say that even though I don't actively follow World Rally Championship or other circuits, I like the style a lot and I think the minimalist racing game Art of Rally, announced today, looks like it could be a lot of fun.
Developed by Absolute Drift creator Funselektor Labs, Art of Rally is set in "the golden era of rally" from the 1960s to the introduction of the super-fast, super-dangerous Class B cars in the early '80s. More than 30 cars from the era will be available, with racing taking place across 50 stages in Finland, Sardinia, Norway, Japan, and Germany. A career mode will be offered, and there will also be daily and weekly challenges with leaderboards.
The game is highly stylized visually but it sounds like the driving element is being taken seriously: Handling and car physics have been "completely overhauled" from Absolute Drift, damage modeling will impact performance, and developer Dune Casu said he's driven 1990s-era WRC cars in New Zealand and also attended the DirtFish driving school "to gain a better understanding of rally cars and also the learning process that goes into learning how to rally."
Art of Rally is listed on Steam and expected to be out sometime this year. A closed beta that you can sign up for through the Discord server is set for later this summer.