FIA European Truck Racing Championship

Racing trucks is a lot different to racing cars, you know.

- James Martin

If N-Racing’s FIA European Truck Racing Championship (I’ll refer to it as ETRC for short thank you very much) does one thing right, it’s letting you know this fact.

There are 15 practice runs you’ll have to go through before starting your career, and trust me, you will need them. ETRC does a fantastic job of giving these five-ton trucks with real weight, along with a much-increased stopping distance. You certainly can’t fling them around the 14 Formula 1 tracks (unfortunately, none in the UK) included in this game as you would a Subaru Impreza, modified to 800bhp.

One of the important aspects that this training takes you through is using water to cool your brakes, which is an interesting dynamic I personally have never seen before. You see, in a truck, brakes are very important, because all that weight needs to be stopped effectively. In the bottom right of the HUD, next to your speed, you have indicators for each corner telling you the remaining life of each brake, as a percentage.

Failure to properly cool your brakes and keep them roughly in the range of 250500 degrees C will inhibit their effectiveness. The water tank isn’t an endless well either, so careful planning should be required – however, I have never run out of water in any race, even the long 12 lappers, so I never had to plan my use.