RaceRoom: «Historic Update 2026» — classics and historic tracks on October 20

The biggest update yet

KW Studios has revealed the contents of "Historic Update 2026" — the release is scheduled for 20 October. The details were shared by studio head Jean-François Chardon and director of strategy and sales Christian Wacker-Baur in the Grid Talk video blog on the RaceRoom channel. In addition, an extended presentation of the update will be held on stage at the SimRacing Expo in Frankfurt.

Four new cars

The main theme of the update is classic cars. The release will include:

• Peugeot 406 (1998): a representative of the Super Touring era. In the British BTCC, the modest funding of the factory programme did not allow it to achieve high results, but in the German STW the car regularly fought at the front against Audi, BMW and Opel, while Laurent Aïello took the title in the 406 a year earlier and finished second in 1998. The game will feature BTCC, STW and Championnat de France de Supertourisme liveries.
• Ford Mondeo (1999): a car created with the involvement of Prodrive. It was its development that led the team of Anthony Reid, Alain Menu and Rickard Rydell to domination in 2000, although the 1999 version has only a couple of podiums and a win at Knockhill to its name. The pack includes liveries from the 1998 and 2000 seasons, including the Nigel Mansell, Will Hoy and Rydell versions.
• Fiat Abarth 1000 TCR: a rear-engined, rear-wheel-drive model with a permanently open engine cover. It will join the Group 2 class, where the NSU TTS and Volkswagen Scirocco already compete.
• Mini Cooper S Mk3: produced from 1970, it featured front-wheel drive and a 1275 cc four-cylinder engine. It also goes to Group 2.

With their addition, the Super Touring class in RaceRoom will grow to ten models — the newcomers will be joined by the Alfa Romeo 156, Audi A4, BMW 320i E36, Honda Accord, Renault Laguna, Volvo 850, Volvo S40 and Opel Vectra.

A return to the past

The update will also bring historic track configurations:

• Spa-Francorchamps (1985): the Grand Prix and Endurance layouts are available, with the latter accommodating up to 99 cars. The Belgian classic differs from the current version with the old Bus Stop chicane and a much smaller margin for error due to the modest run-off areas.
• Laguna Seca (1980s): the historic configuration of the famous American track.
• Fliegerhorst Wunstorf: a German airfield track that hosted DTM and STW races in the 80s and 90s. Racing was held here from 1964 to 1998, and in character the surface resembles the Diepholz track already in the simulator — the main challenges are the bumps and kerbs.
• Glasbachrennen: a 5.3 km German hill-climb course running through Bad Liebenstein. It is part of the real FIA European Hill-Climb Championship and was recently used in the FIA Esports European Hill Climb Cup.

Interface, physics and VR

After installing the update, players will find a reworked interface: the menus will be more convenient, and the new version should be noticeably more stable than the previous one, which often suffered from bugs after updates. Navigation is now also possible with a gamepad. The force feedback system has been rebuilt from scratch, loading times have been reduced by distributing AI physics across several CPU cores, and VR performance has been improved by adding OpenXR support. In addition, the tyre contact model has been reworked and the gyroscopic effect calculation has been updated: hydraulic, electro-hydraulic and fully electric power steering are now simulated, as well as different types of steering racks. A Gyro Damping slider will appear in the settings.

Starts, statistics and achievements

The release will also include a manual rolling start procedure, the return of detailed driver statistics and the first stage of the "RaceRoom Achievements" system.

So how do you like this serving of classics? Share your opinion in the comments and keep an eye on updates at nfs.place!

👉 Source: Traxion.GG