Career Mode: Opening Up Shop

Welcome to our weekly series of tips and tricks on World of Outlaws: Dirt Racing! Each week, we’re going to share with you some expert strategies and how-tos that will help you get the most out of your gameplay experience. For our first few articles, we’re going to walk you through Career Mode and put you on the path to becoming a World of Outlaws legend.

Getting Started

Career Mode is the heart of World of Outlaws: Dirt Racing. You’ll start from the bottom and work your way up to the upper echelons of the sport in hopes of becoming a World of Outlaws champion. But before you can reach the summit, you’ll begin at the bottom of the mountain as a Local—and how much you succeed at this level, and how quickly, is crucial to helping you get there.

IMPORTANT NOTE: PlayStation 4 Career Mode save progress is NOT transferrable to the PlayStation 5. If you start Career Mode on the PS4 and upgrade your copy to a PS5 version, you will have to start over on the PS5.

When you start out as a Local, you’ll have the choice of either the 305 Sprint Car or Street Stock. It’ll take up your entire starter budget, so choose wisely! However, once you earn enough money to buy the other, you can jump into it right away and run dual seasons at the same time.

Before you turn your first lap, you may also want to go to Career Options and run through options like Gameplay, AI, and more. If you’ve never driven anything on dirt before, or just want to make as much money as possible as fast as you can to get to the highest levels quickly, you may want to select a lower difficulty level; likewise, if you’re experienced or purposely looking for a greater challenge, you can turn the difficulty up!

Your First Season

Your first Local season consists of nine races (11 with the Limaland Motorsports Park DLC). You’ll start in the midwest on a mix of officially licensed tracks and real-world inspired tracks designed for the game. In subsequent seasons, you’ll have the opportunity to choose 1/2 length, 1/3 length, or licensed only schedules—a good way to keep racing as many cars as you’d like and progressing through seasons without overloading your schedule.

As you progress through your first season, you’ll begin to unlock staff to work on your team. They come in three types: Sponsor Agent (gets you paid more on sponsor deals), Mechanic (lowers your repair bills and part costs), and Crew Chief (ups your Proficiency bonus). Each staff member costs a little money to hire upfront, but they quickly pay for themselves with savings! As you unlock further staff, you can replace them on each of your cars as you please.

The more fans you earn, the higher levels you’ll be able to race at. Once you crack the 7,500 fan threshold, the Regional level opens up, but you’ll need to hit 50,000 from there to get to the National level. Your Proficiency also rises the more races you run (and win) in any given class—this stat gives you fan and sponsorship bonuses that keep everything running smoothly.

Tips and Tricks

• Seasons operate independently of one another for each car. If you decide you’re going to pull double duty, you won’t be entering the second championship late—Season 1 in your second car will still be a full-length campaign.
• Choosing a shorter schedule when setting up a season will allow you to tick off the seasons faster, but it’ll also take you more seasons to earn enough money to upgrade your car. If you want a real shot at winning a title in Season 1, be sure to run a full-length campaign.
• If you plan on running multiple cars, be strategic about which staff you assign to which car. The more prestigious the series and vehicle, or the higher priority it is to you, the more valuable of staff members you may want to assign to it to pick up the largest bonuses in bigger-money races.
• Struggling to pass cars and lay down hot laps? Consider making Tires your first upgrade as a Local rookie. They’re one of the cheapest upgrades out there, and they can make all the difference. Remember that all the horsepower in the world won’t do you any good if you can’t get that power to the ground effectively!
• Remember, if you’re switching back and forth from sprint cars to street stocks or late models, the cars drive completely differently! You may want to focus on completing the season in one car before diving into another, so you’re not adjusting your driving habits from race to race. This may not be any more evident than when you’re going between the 305 and the Street Stock!