With WRC 9, the developers have pulled out all the stops to once again meet the high expectations of rally fans by providing even more realism and challenges.

Hailed as one of the best Career modes in any racing game, WRC 8 was a hit with rally fans. It returns in WRC 9 with enhanced gameplay mechanics, new opportunities to upgrade your team, a wider variety of events and a stronger link to what the real-world championship teams are doing throughout the year.

WRC 9 again includes extensive content with three new events added to the calendar: the return of Kenya's iconic Safari Rally, Rally Japan and its challenging narrow asphalt roads, the beautiful scenery of Rally New Zealand and two other rallies with completely redesigned environments. Fans will also be able to take the wheel of new classic cars that have left their mark on the history of the WRC.

To improve and refine certain vehicle behaviors, the developers have again focused on the realism of car physics – including suspensions, braking and mass transfer – to take authenticity to the next level. This attention to detail faithfully reproduces the vehicles' responsiveness on all surfaces and in all conditions found in the real championship. A special focus on sound also provides deeper immersion.

NACON, KT Racing and the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) are delighted to unveil their brand-new collaboration for the first worldwide program to discover future rally drivers: FIA Rally Star. It will be available this December through a DLC for WRC 9, the official video game of the FIA World Rally Championship.

The eSports WRC Championship already provides many talented players the chance to compete throughout the year in a virtual competition that mirrors the World Rally Championship, WRC 9 is taking the next step to become the exclusive platform for this innovative new program that aims to unearth the drivers of tomorrow.

Open to all players between 17 and 26 years old, this multi-phase selection process gives the most promising drivers the opportunity to take part in a training and coaching program supervised by the FIA. Seven finalists, including one female driver, could ultimately start their international career before aiming to join the FIA Junior WRC.

Attention drivers! The first FIA Rally Star qualification phase starts in 2021 in WRC 9. The program is available to anyone who owns the game on consoles or PC as part of the FIA Rally Star DLC, available in December.

As the latest version of the WRC’s popular video game, WRC 9 is the best game for young drivers to reveal their skills. Giving access to more than 800km of special stage from all 13 schedules rounds of the 2020 season, WRC 9 is the most realistic rally simulation ever made.

“Being innovative and global, FIA Rally Star’s ambition is to develop new solutions allowing young drivers from all over the world to reveal their potential. As soon as we introduced the project to NACON and KT Racing teams, they showed great enthusiasm and we couldn’t have hoped for better platform than WRC 9 to select the most promising candidates.” declares Yves Matton, Rally Director at FIA. “The FIA World Rally Championship brings together fans from every continent. Many of them dream to get behind the wheel and our wish is to make our sport more accessible. Through FIA Rally Star and its digital version in WRC 9, living this passion is simpler than ever.”

"The idea that the future stars of rally will start their professional driving careers because of WRC 9 is a great pride for the entire team and one of the best rewards for all the work we have put in over the last few years," said Roman Vincent, founder and CEO of KT Racing development studio. "After the success of eSports WRC, which has already unearthed hugely talented players, we can't wait to find out who will be the finalists of FIA Rally Star!"

More details will be shared very soon!

In WRC 9, players are thrust into the heart of the new FIA World Rally Championship season with all content in the yearly calendar and much more:

• 3 new rallies: Japan, New Zealand, Kenya
• Over 50 official teams and their livery from the WRC, WRC 2, WRC 3 and Junior WRC
• Over 15 bonus cars that have left their mark on the history of the WRC

NACON and KT Racing are also taking this opportunity to announce the continuation of their licensing agreement with WRC Promoter until 2022 for the development and publishing of WRC 10 and WRC 11.

WRC 9 will be available for Xbox One, PS4 and PC (Epic Games Store) on September 3, 2020, with release timing for Xbox Series X, PS5 and Nintendo Switch to be announced at a later date.