2026-09-05 IN THE NEXT BUILD

FAMILIAR NAMES. PROPER FACES.

Arthur has spent seventy years teaching people to brake. Until now, his portrait looked as though we had given him about twenty pixels to explain himself. Catherine, June and Mabel were waiting for their proper pictures too.

Arthur, Catherine Wheeler, Juggernaut June and Mach Mabel in their previous simple game portraits — The old paddock. Arthur was already judging your corner entry.

We checked the whole illustrated cast before drawing the missing four: bold faces, chunky outlines, bright backgrounds and that thin silver frame. The first pass had too much fine detail, so we redrew them with bigger pixel clusters and simpler shading, like portraits from a Mega Drive cartridge. That is the look we are keeping.

Mabel also looked a little too familiar beside the other silver-haired veterans. Meet Mach Mika: a young Japanese motor-builder with a messy bun, a kimono-inspired racing jacket and a stopwatch that never gets a rest. Gloria has been back to the drawing board too: blonde ponytail, round glasses, oversized lab coat, oil on the sleeve. She is far too busy thinking about gear ratios to notice.

Arthur, Catherine Wheeler, Juggernaut June and Mach Mika rendered in the game with chunky 16-bit portraits and smaller dialogue-size examples — June offers a sweet. Mika wants your split times.

All seventeen named characters now have four expressions. A rival who knocks you off gets a pleased face. Knock them off and they have feelings about it. Nigel is nervous even when things go right; Gordon seems to regard another crash as a lovely afternoon out.

Mad Maude, Nitro Nigel, redesigned Gearbox Gloria and Crash Gordon showing normal, happy, frustrated and shocked expressions in the game — Four moods. Gordon is having a good time in all of them.

Little sparkles, sweat drops and temper marks pop beside their faces, bob for a moment and fade. Surprise has a face now too, when sabotage lands or a corner goes wrong. The portraits stay out of your way as the race carries on.

Gearbox Gloria smiling in a reaction portrait after taking the player down on the real race track — Within tolerance. Yours, apparently.

Racing stats, championship places, rewards and existing career progress stay the same. The player's portrait still follows the chosen car colours.