Following the announcement of the brand new official World Rally Championship game, EA SPORTS WRC, earlier this week, the car list left us with more questions than answers.
Between now and the game’s release in early November expect to see the line-up fill and that process kicked off today, 8th September 2023, with an Electronic Arts The Racing Line presentation.
Jon Armstrong, Game Designer for the title and also the reigning European Rally Championship ERC3 championship, was on hand to reveal five cars to sit alongside those already showcased.
We say five, but really we think it’s four as the first – the Ford Fiesta Rally3 – was already seen in some of the announcement imagery and the confirmed car list. However, this time it was in a different livery design and registration number to that seen in the snowy Swedish image.
Perhaps the car is effectively duplicated, once in the ‘Rally3’ category, and once more in the ‘Junior WRC’ class.
Next up, though, come the heavy hitters, namely the 2003 Citroën Xsara. This was driven by Colin McRae – who lent his name to the eponymous rally games by Codemasters of yesteryear – in his final full season, but also used by the likes of Carlos Sainz Snr, Dani Sordo and Sébastien Loeb. The latter won three of his record-breaking nine world titles in the French hatchback.
The McRae R4 also makes an appearance. This was a prototype design by the late 1995 WRC champion himself, designed to showcase what the future of the sport could look like. A mid-mounted naturally aspirated engine screams behind your ears.
Virtually, this car made its debut in 2007’s Colin McRae: DiRT, the first game to use the Ego game engine. Now it will be in EA SPORS WRC, the first Codemasters game to use the Unreal Engine.
Another McRae-related car is the Mini Countryman, from the 1.6-litre turbo era, as in 2011, it was driven by his protégé, Kris Meeke. Armstrong also used one to win the Carryduff Forklift Down Rally in 2019.
Finally, for now, the front-wheel drive Fiesta variant – labelled the Rally4 – is also part of the roster. This is perhaps unsurprising, given how Armstrong used this with a DiRT Rally livery in the 2021 Junior World Rally Championship, finishing runner-up that season. It is, of course, that design that’s included. Three further Rally4 cars are expected in the final game.
The full car list is expected by the end of September, with the first gameplay and media impressions in October followed by the general release of EA SPORTS WRC 3rd November for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Images: EA, Jon Armstrong, Motorsport Images
