ToCA Race Driver 2: The Ultimate Racing Simulator

Where this game succeeds in terrain and car damage modelling it utterly fails in racing physics (and this is supposed to be greatly improved over the first game). Get to the first Cart racing track and you'll know what I mean. 180 degree spinouts are common place evenwhen you should be going way too fast to get into this sort of wipe out. How do you advance in position while racing? Simple you crash your way through. The rewards far outway any consequences (even at the risk of totalling your car). This is only fair though because eventhough you've placed a good standing in a previous race (a requirement to advance in the game) you're put into the dead last position at the start of every new race. So to get anywhere in the game you now have to pass almost all other racers and maintain a good position. This has to be done in a relatively short time. Opportunities to pass cars correctly are few. There is no room for finese here. Basically if you can catch up to other racers you plow through them to hopefully gain position. Hopefully after that you can avoid any wipeouts to stay ahead to advance in level.

My 2 brothers also tried this game free of any bias and concluded basically the same thing about the physics. This title was promptly sold back to the vender at a reduced cost of coarse.


good game, but crippled   May 21, 2004
Mark Nicosia
4 out of 7 found this review helpful

This game is advertised as having dozens of different types of cars and many, many tracks to play on. What they don't tell you is that you only get a couple cars and tracks... you have to play through a very long and tedious single player campaign to "unlock" all the cars and tracks. And, trust me, it will take a lot of time. So if you think you can just buy the game, and only play it occasionally, and use whatever car or track you want, you're wrong. The game is crippled until you either spend a lot of time with it, or, unbelievably, you can call their 900 number to pay them more to let you unlock the cars and tracks. Wow... what a scam.

Otherwise a GREAT game... the prefect balance, IMHO, between a realistic driving sim and a fun arcadey sim... what a shame.


great driving model   December 16, 2004
Orthogonal (Western Washington)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

This is one of THE BEST, most accurate driving models on consoles today.

It's not easy, and the interface isn't the greatest, but the driving on the track is top shelf. Lack of replays, locked cars, and all that is annoying enough, but; if you are a driving enthusiast and find console games lacking in realism - GET THIS TITLE! The on track racing is the best on any console I have seen so far, which is most of them.


this thang rox!   July 18, 2004
maks (san francisco,CA,USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

this is so realistic the cars are great,the racing tracks are great,the controls are so realistic it seams like you are actually driving notice its not nascar in circles but real race tracks.this goes the same with the mighty xbox..online multiplayer,championships real cars its the worth if you like racing not tracks in circles but long and short racing tracks that are fun.


Fine racer, not for wimps   February 1, 2005
Chris White (Taylor, British Columbia Canada)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

I own both versions of this game. I find the handling physics reasonably realistic (With two choices, Pro-sim and regular)
Great graphics, very clean off-line play. Online in my experience is better on the playstation possibly because my computer isn't quite up to the task, (more lag on the computer, very little on the ps2)
also PS2 is more fun because of USB headset for chat.
The fist version had better interface and many of the cars are gone in the second, although they have been replaced by some pretty awsome substitues. All in All, good, challenging, fun racing.