The street racers of Hong Kong put their rides, their lives, the lives of others, their money, and their pride on the line in highly illegal and very dangerous races held throughout the city. You’re introduced to this secret world as part of the “Hotshot” Case, and are able to race in other events if you’ve got a ride fast enough to meet the class requirement of those races. Outside of story-related races, there are ten car races, divided into three speed classes, and five motorcycle races, divided into two classes.
Once you’ve joined the racing scene, you’ll have access to the C-class car races after inheriting a formerly impounded race car, and B-class bike races after you earn your first safehouse and receive your starting motorcycle. For higher racing classes, you’ll have to buy a car from one of the dealers in the city, which requires both the right amount of cash, and the right Face levels.
In order to pass these events, you must come in first place. Typically, you must follow the course laid out by the red roadside flares. In some cases, certain courses have side streets that run alongside of the main route, which can act as a shortcut. Most of the time, however, significantly deviating off the outlined route disqualifies you from the race. Flipping over or otherwise rendering your car undrivable is also an automatic loss, as is exiting the vehicle purposefully or by accident.
Car Races
1. No Sweat
A fairly simple race course, with no difficult corners to manage. Watch out during the final stretch, just past a thin alley that leads back into the city. Many an embarrassing loss has come to drivers who stubbornly stick to the center of the track, only to smash headlong into the immovable trees of the center divide.
2. Mailman
The entire racing grid here is filled with small tricked-out Bisai cars, and for good reason. The early part of this race has you tearing though the tight single-lane streets around Soho before taking you north into Central. You don’t need to take a Bisai yourself to win, so long as you handle yourself well during the first half of the race.
3. Lost
This first B-class race is a taste of real speed after the C-class races. The course is filled with curves, many of which are populated with some traffic. Taking the curves poorly can keep the competition nipping at the heels of even the fastest B-class ride you can afford to buy. The early parts of the race are filled with opportunities to flip your car over off of stairways, so keep your ride off the sidewalks as much as possible.
4. Detour
A loop through Aberdeen that starts on the streets near the harbor and ends on the harbor itself. Detour is a short course that takes you onto the freeway for a short duration before thrusting you back into the city proper. The final stretch is a frantic ride though the pedestrian-filled harbor, over stairways, and between buildings.
5. Crippling Road
The first half of Crippling Road is dominated by four-lane streets, providing you plenty of freedom to just hold down the pedal and take the curves at full speed. The second half puts you back on two-lane roads on the west side of North Point, racing past the temple with sidewalks filled with parked cars, and a final dash though an alley into the freeway and to victory.
6. Midtown
The busier east side of Central is the stage for Midtown, rough A-class loop that demands drivers have fast reaction times to avoid hitting all of the potential obstacles that crop up during the race. A brief trip onto the freeway acts as a fast way to lose the race, as the entrance and exit to this course section are relatively close to each other and only consist of a single lane each. The latter half takes you on four-lane streets, but is no less dangerous, with plenty of show-stopping obstacles dotting the center divides and sidewalks.
7. The Queen
A grueling trip up and down the mountain road between Aberdeen and Central, the majority of the race is hairpin turn after hairpin turn, with occasional side paths that let you cut the turns much tighter, but at the risk of being disqualified. Expert driving is required, as A-class cars tend to be fairly fragile, and you do not want to try riding the walls through every turn. There’s also plenty of civilian traffic to contend with.
8. Unconventional
Another loop through Central, Unconventional features a perilous jump a third of the way into the race, taking racers through an alleyway that requires you to hit the stairway preceding the alley perfectly lined up. Failing this, you’ll be sent flying into one of the nearby buildings. It’s possible to recover from this, but the race doesn’t get any easier, including an area underneath an overpass that is filled with sturdy support pillars to crash into.
9. Summit
Summit takes racers through the mountain road between Central and Kennedy Town. Shorter than The Queen, it is no less dangerous and difficult. Once in Kennedy Town, the final stretch is relatively straight, but takes racers down a series of stairways that can easily result in flipped cars or ejected drivers. The path to the finish line involves the use of a stunt jump ramp to fly directly onto a freeway to cross the line.
10. Wall Street
The aptly named Wall Street course is filled with dozens of small “walls” that can put a stop to any first place bid. The last half of the race is where it can be definitively won or lost, with sharp lefts and rights coming in rapid succession. If the competition is too close, they can ram right into you mid-turn and possibly force a restart.
Motorcycle Races
1. Dock Yard
Motorcycle races are a different beast from car races. The risk of being torn free from your ride is much higher, and the small size of motorcycles often inspires much tighter courses to weave through. Dock Yard is a good introductory race to the biker half of the circuit, taking racers though much of the city and into the docks. Watch your speed through the turns, and do your best to avoid anything solid.
2. Indecision
A short loop through much of the Aberdeen mainland, Indecision stresses good control of your bike through turns, and it throws plenty your way throughout the race. The biggest obstacles on the track will only come into play if you lose control and end up on the sidewalks or going up against traffic.
3. Starboard
Starboard begins on the Central docks, one of the toughest places to race through on an A-class bike, with plenty of ways to get sent flying off into walls or into the water. Survive this rough opening third, and you’ll have to barrel through a shopping center and thread the needle on a pair of tough stair jumps before hitting the main streets. The race ends in relatively relaxed fashion on the main freeways, where you hopefully have time to open up a lead, or at least catch up with the leaders.
4. Alley Press
It’s called Alley Press for a good reason. This race opens up immediately with a barrage of alleys, where the space is tight and the margin for error is minimal. A good early strategy is to try to avoid getting caught up in the pack during the alley portions. If you see an opening caused by a pileup of bikers, try to thread your way through them. Eventually the race opens up into the streets once more, having riders pass through the east side streets to the finish.
5. Early Grave
The cemetery is where this final A-class bike race starts. After the vicious opening to Alley Press, this course feels rather tame by comparison, but don’t let the lack of an absurdly narrow track lure you into a false sense of security. There are plenty of tight turns that can have you end up off course in an instant if you approach them wrong.