Race: Injection Review

Released in 2011, Race: Injection is the final expansion to sim racer Race 07. The original Race 07 launched in 2007 to mixed reception. Most critics agreed that it didn’t do much to innovate sim racing. Developer SimBin Studios continued to support the game and added several expansions.

With a final total of six expansions, it was getting expensive to access the full package. Race: Injection followed, sold as the definitive edition packaged with the core game and all its expansions.

Content

On paper, Race: Injection looks as though it offers more content than just about any other racing sim out there. There’s an impressive 66 unique cars and 68 unique locations, but these numbers don’t tell the full story.

Many of Race 07’s expansions didn’t actually add new content but rather add varieties of existing content. There’s 2006, 2007, and 2010 versions of Brands Hatch that all feature very minor changes. It’s much the same for Curitiba, Valencia, and Monza. When variants and duplicates are considered, the track list is cut down to just 32.

There are some significant omissions from the track list that I was particularly disappointed in. Most notably, there’s no Laguna Seca, no Nürburgring, no Le Mans, and a tragic lack of Indianapolis. A modding community does exist which can help alleviate this issue, but it’s not an optimal solution.

A total of 25 race series covered isn’t too bad until you realize that nine of them are just variants of Radical and Caterham CSR racing.

Race: Injection does do an excellent job if it’s touring cars you like. Possibly the best in the industry. Despite this, I can’t help but feel that, at least in the content department, Race: Injection is slightly below average. Even after six expansions, other racing games of the time, such as TOCA Race Driver 3, offer a more complete package.