EA SPORTS™ WRC - The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide

Get ready to rally with our comprehensive tips and tricks for new players.

Driving a rally car is a thrilling experience, one that challenges the toughest of drivers to risk it all at high speed. 

Fortunately we’re here to get you from the starting line to the podium, with the ultimate Beginner’s Guide.

Whether this is your first rally game or you’re returning after a long break, we’re here to guide you through the wild and wonderful world of WRC.

Rally School: Your Starting Point

The best place to begin your journey is with the Rally School. 

Accessible from the main menu, Rally School is a series of short tutorials where you can learn the unique skills required to drive a rally car at high speed.

Each lesson comes with its own set of objectives and target times, and can be completed on gravel, asphalt, and snowy surfaces.

If you’re new to rally games we recommend starting with lessons on asphalt, before moving on to gravel and finally snow.

Pay attention to the co-driver’s advice at the start of each lesson, and you’ll quickly pick up the basics of rallying. 

You can repeat these tutorials as much as you like in order to learn the basics of driving a rally car.

Wheel or Pad?

The age-old question in sim racing: “Do I need a steering wheel to enjoy the game?”

The short answer is no. While the driving experience can be more immersive when using a wheel and pedal set, it is not a requirement to enjoy driving or even to be competitive.

EA SPORTS™ WRC has been built to accommodate players of all skill levels, with an authentic and challenging yet approachable handling system.

What this means is that wheel, gamepad and even keyboard players can all enjoy the world of rallying, and all have the ability to set fast stage times. 

We have seen players set World Record times with all three control methods, there’s no need to be concerned about not having a full “sim rig” before you play.

Pace Notes Explained

The standout aspect of rally driving is that there are two people in the car working together to drive as quickly as possible, the driver (you) and the co-driver.

The co-driver’s role is to paint a picture in your mind of the road ahead, so that you know what turns and challenges are lying round the corner.

They do this via a coded language called Pace Notes. Each note can be broken down into a few distinct elements:

• Number: This is the tightness of an upcoming turn, more on that below.
• Direction: Left or Right, very important!
• Modifier: These are additional notations providing more detail about the upcoming turn.

The number of a turn is the thing to watch out for most, here’s what they all mean:

• 6: Almost entirely straight, you can usually take these at full throttle.
• 5: Slightly tighter than a 6, but still fairly open and usually near full-throttle.
• 4: A mid to high speed turn, braking may be needed depending on your entry speed.
• 3: A moderately tight turn, most turns on a rally stage tend to be 3s, you definitely need to brake for these.
• 2: A very tight turn, taken at low speed.
• 1: The tightest “normal” turn, brake hard and focus on lining up your car for a good exit.
• Square: A 90 degree turn, usually found at junctions.
• Open Hairpin: A long, tight turn, usually U-shaped.
• Hairpin: A very tight turn, often very slow and taken in 1st gear.
• Acute: The tightest turn possible, you’ll definitely need to use the handbrake to rotate the car for these.

Modifiers are the last part of a Pace Note, here are a few common examples:

• Tightens: Corner gets tighter towards the end, a 4 Right might tighten into a 3 Right for example.
• Opens: Corner gets more straight towards the end, letting you exit the turn faster.
• Crest: The road rises upwards slightly before dipping down again, making it harder to see what’s over the hill.
• Bump: A sharp crest that may cause the car to jump off the ground if taken at speed.
• Jump: A larger jump that will certainly send the car airborne.
• 50, 100, 150 etc.: These are the gaps to the next turn, in metres. Usually informing you of a short straight coming up.
• Into: Links two turns together. A “3 Right into 2 Left” would indicate that the 2 Left immediately follows the 3 Right.

Pace notes can get quite detailed on the more technical stages, and if they become overwhelming we have a Simplified Pace Notes option available in Options & Extras > Game Preferences. 

This replaces the existing notes with an “Easy, Medium, Sharp” system, similar to classic rally games from the arcades of the 1990s.

The co-driver can also be set to call out notes earlier or later; experiment with various options to see what timing works best for you. This setting can be adjusted in Options & Extras > Game Preferences.

What car to start with?

EA SPORTS™ WRC features an array of cars, covering decades of rally history. This provides many options for new players, however some car classes are better suited to beginners than others.

Our initial recommendation is for players to start with the Junior WRC class. These are the same cars that many amateur drivers use in the real world to hone their skills, before they progress to faster categories.

The Ford Fiesta Rally3 (and its upgraded Evo variant, released in 2024) is a simple all-wheel drive car with a moderate amount of power.

Its relatively low speed makes it a good choice for beginners as it will be an easy car to keep under control, letting you focus on your cornering technique and the Pace Notes. It’s also an all-wheel drive car, similar to its more powerful WRC2 and WRC cousins.

Once you feel confident with your driving in a Junior WRC car, try out WRC2 next, or if you’re feeling brave go straight into WRC.

Useful Assists and Settings

EA SPORTS™ WRC features a wide array of assists and settings which can help ease you into the world of rally. Assists are located within the Options & Extras menu.

As with most racing games, you have the standard suite of assists available: Traction Control, Anti-Lock Brakes, Stability Control and Automatic Gear shifting.

On top of these, you have the Throttle Limiter. This cuts the amount of throttle applied to powerful cars in certain conditions, which helps prevent you from spinning out of control.

Another notable Assist is Off-Throttle Braking. This automatically applies the car’s brakes when there’s no throttle input, allowing you to focus on steering and acceleration.

As mentioned in the Pace Notes section, Simplified Pace Notes is an option that condenses the co-driver’s calls into more bite-size instructions. These are also the notes used in Regularity Rally mode, an alternative kind of event that lets you take on rallies at lower speeds.

As rally is for everyone, there is no “wrong” way to play EA SPORTS™ WRC. Feel free to use as few or as many assists as you like in order to have a fun experience.

That being said, the fastest stage times tend to come when skilled players turn off all the assists. Sliding a car is a fundamental part of rallying, and as you build up experience, you’ll learn to get more comfortable with intentionally sending the car sideways.

Finally, in Career, Championship and Quick Play, the speed of AI drivers can be adjusted with the AI Performance setting. This ranges from 0 to 100. We recommend starting at 50, before adjusting up or down based on your event results.

Camera Angles

EA SPORTS™ WRC features several camera angles, both inside and outside the car, so that everyone finds a comfortable view.

The camera angle you choose will depend on a variety of factors, but ultimately the right choice is the one that feels most comfortable when driving. There is no “wrong view” in this game.

Here are some brief notes on the most common views:

• Bumper: This is placed at the front of the car, low to the ground. Great for providing a sense of speed and a direct connection to the car’s movements, but offers a limited field of view.
• Bonnet/Hood: This is placed just in front of the car’s windshield, in the middle of the car. Provides a wide and slightly elevated view of the road, without the screen being covered by the car’s cockpit. This is the view most commonly used by competitive players.
• Cockpit: There are multiple interior views available. Best for immersion as you feel like you’re sitting in a real rally car. 
• Chase: These are the external views showing the entire car on-screen. They provide the best view of the car and the surrounding environment, and can help some players visualise the weight transfer effects their driving is placing upon the car.

The camera view can be changed with “Triangle” on PlayStation, “C” on a PC keyboard, and “Y” on Xbox. Field of View can be adjusted within the Options & Extras menu.

Weight Transfer - The Fundamental Driving Technique

There are many skills one needs to learn to become a high level rally driver, but there’s one factor that matters above all else, weight transfer. Weight transfer is what you feel when you place forces upon the car, as it accelerates, brakes and turns.

To understand weight transfer, we must first understand how the car’s tyres generate grip. The more weight placed over a corner of the car, the more grip that tyre can provide, letting you accelerate harder, stop sooner, or turn faster.

Placing more weight over the front of the car generates more grip for turning and braking, and placing more weight over the rear of the car helps with acceleration.

An easy way to demonstrate this is to try taking a turn at full-throttle. Notice how the car doesn’t turn as much as you may like; this is because the weight of the car is being sent towards the rear tyres.

Try the same corner again, but lift off the throttle completely before turning. You should feel a noticeable difference in how the car wants to rotate, making it easier to take the corner. This is because the weight of the car has been pitched forward over the front wheels, making the nose go down.

This is just one basic example of how weight transfer can be used to make you go faster. For a more in-depth look at the technique, check out this real-world instruction video; the core principles are the same in-game.

Understeer and Oversteer Explained

Another key factor to be aware of when driving is how oversteer and understeer affect how the car behaves during a turn.

Understeer is when the front wheels don’t have enough grip to make a turn at a given speed. This is normally caused by entering a corner too quickly, or by incorrectly setting up weight transfer before the turn.

Oversteer is the opposite, where the rear of the car is sliding and rotating the car at a dramatic rate. 

To put it even more simply: understeer is when you hit the tree with the front of the car, and oversteer is when you hit it with the back!

In rally, most cars are set up to slightly oversteer, as this is often the fastest way to maintain momentum through turns. 

You can induce oversteer with aggressive weight transfer, and once the car starts to slide you can counter-steer (by turning the steering wheel in the opposite direction of the corner) to control the rate of oversteer you want the car to provide.

Learning to be comfortable with oversteer is a key skill in becoming a fast driver. It may be an uncomfortable feeling if you’re used to circuit racing, but over time you’ll learn to master the art of going sideways.

Rallying on Different Surfaces

One of the most unique aspects of rallying is the sheer variety of road surfaces one can experience across various events.

Here’s a simple breakdown of what to expect for each:

• Asphalt: These are your traditional roads and streets, with a relatively smooth, high grip surface and sticky tyres. These are the rallies that get closest to circuit racing, where minimal oversteer is required. Examples include Monte Carlo, Japan, and Central European Rally.
• Gravel: These are dirt roads, surfaces with less grip, more undulations and jumps at high speed. Moderate oversteer is required through many turns to set the fastest times on gravel events. Examples include Finland, Poland and Greece.
• Snow: Snow and ice rallies may seem like the toughest of all due to their slippery surface, however most rally cars feature studded tyres designed to dig into the road and claw out grip from it. Events are characterised by their narrow roads lined with snow banks, Sweden is the obvious example.

Risk and Reward

Rallying is a challenging sport due to the diverse and unpredictable nature of racing on countryside roads. Where a circuit racer sees a single corner a thousand times, a rally driver may see a thousand corners once. Thus an element of risk vs reward is always at play in rally.

When learning your way through EA SPORTS™ WRC, it is often a good idea to leave a little “margin” when approaching each turn. This boils down to a few things, such as not being on the extreme edges of the road, not braking as late as possible, and not trying to shift the weight of the car too much.

An important fact to be aware of is that a driver who finishes slowly will always finish ahead of a driver who doesn’t finish at all. 

Start by leaving a moderate margin between the edges of the road and your driving ability, and as you build up the skills and confidence, you can make those margins smaller over time. It’ll be worth it in the long-run when you finally know how and when to go “flat out”, experiencing the greatest thrills in motorsport.

Next Steps - How to Get Faster

With the tips and tricks above, you should be well on your way to becoming a fast rally driver in EA SPORTS™ WRC.

Your journey has just begun however, here’s a few more ways in which to get even faster in the future:

• Talk to faster players: Our Discord server has a Driving Tips channel where many experienced players can give you lots of helpful advice.
• Compete against the community: Clubs is a great way to test your skills and use Racenet’s tools to improve even further. As a starting point we’d recommend the Weekly Power Stage in our Discord server.
• Watch onboards and find tutorial videos: Sometimes the best way to learn is to watch the experts in action. Seek out high quality gameplay videos on YouTube, as well as tutorials from the WRC community.