Arcade rally racing games are having a moment on the PC, as two games are being released months apart and vying for the same audience. The first is Old School Rally, which was released in Early Access last month and has been favorably compared to the likes of the old Colin McRae Rally titles. The other game hits next month: #DRIVE Rally.

Like Old School Rally, #DRIVE Rally is aiming for a slightly more arcade-like take on Colin McRae Rally, so don't expect something like Sega Rally, which provides other opponents to race against in real time on the same track. It's just you alone on the track vying for the fastest time while your co-pilot barks out important things, such as upcoming directional turns and their severity. You see a ghost car to give you a faint idea of how you're doing as well as occasional checkpoint updates to tell you if you're going faster or slower than par, but that's about it.

For a preview build, #DRIVE Rally has a basic number of modes. Quick Race is exactly what it sounds like, while Championship has you choosing a company to drive for and then taking on all of the tracks in that company's country. What's interesting is the breadth of tracks on display. There are three maps in the game so far, but each map contains around 48 different tracks each. As you would expect, those tracks do overlap in terms of some turns and areas it goes through, but few would complain about having too many variations from the get-go. Alongside that, roughly 36 cars are available; a decent number are unlockable through Championship mode, which gives the game the classic feel that many players clamor for nowadays.

The number of cars and tracks is nice, but what really matters is the car handling, and the game seems to have nailed that down quite well. This is pure arcade physics, which mean that you'll be prevented from oversteering, so you don't spin out and face the wrong way. You don't get to step on the gas the entire time, since you can run into barriers and trees that immediately kill your forward momentum and force you to hit reverse to put yourself back on track. Your handbrake becomes essential for taking tight turns, and while the controls are still a little touchy, it won't take long before you pick up on the driving nuances and achieve high-level finishes. For those not well versed in arcade rally racing, the easy-to-pick-up style of the game makes it a perfect jumping off point for those who want to learn with a good sense of speed to make the gameplay feel punchy.

As for hitting other objects, you can freely hit a few things like fences, checkpoint markers, and a few flimsy barriers, and you won't suddenly spin out due to bad physics. However, doing that will incur a time penalty, and we're not aware of another rally game that does this. The penalty is only fractions of a second, but it adds up with the more objects you hit. This does encourage you to be a cleaner driver, but it's still an odd gameplay element that goes against decades of tradition.

At the moment, there are a few bugs. Some are small, such as seeing some animation stutters in pre- and post-race screens when using a controller. There are also moments when the countdown sound is missing or the co-pilot calls out jumps that don't exist. Other issues feel like a product of game design, such as the inability to replay any of the tracks you've raced on in the Championship mode or the lack of a dynamic leaderboard while you're driving so you have an idea of how you're doing against the competition. There's nothing big at the moment that pulls down the game, and that's a good sign for a title that's still far from its release date.

Graphically, #DRIVE Rally tries going for a retro aesthetic, albeit partially. You'll see a very low-polygon look when viewing co-pilots, and the textures on your car are intentionally blurry even though they're trying to come close to making the vehicle look like famous rally roadsters without the proper license. Everything else is fairly modern but stylized; the environments sport some nice fake lighting thanks to the deep use of colors, while the details are all cleaner than expected for a game with a '90s vibe. The frame rate is excellent on both high-end machines and the Steam Deck, while ultrawide monitors are also supported.

The overall audio is quite good. The soundtrack is pretty low-key stuff, as you're only going to hear it in the menus. It's fine overall, but most of your time is spent hearing the roar of the engine and the various sounds made when driving over tarmac and dirt, all of which sound really nice. The voice work of your co-pilots also sounds good, but you'll have to be OK with the fact that your German co-pilot sounds more like an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator — including somewhat nonsensical quotes based on your performance.

So far, #DRIVE Rally does a good job of handling like an arcade title in a traditional rally setup. It can still be touchy compared to other racing games, but players won't struggle mightily to get through a track. The amount of content already available is enough to keep one occupied for a while, with the promise of more to come if the roadmap holds up. There's a month to go before the Early Access build is released and a year before that transforms into the full game. Based on this preview build, what's curently available in #DRIVE Rally will already please arcade rally racing fans.