I would love to have some kind of freelance racing career eventually. This is definitely not something I think needs to be a priority right now or even necessarily implemented before full release, but I think it could give cars much more purpose later on.
Important
I am fully aware that the NPCs would need better driving behaviour to make this even possible. As aforementioned, this is an idea for later when inZOI is in a more stable state. Please keep that in mind
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Right now, at least in my experience, buying a more expensive car doesn’t really change that much gameplay-wise. We have all these different vehicles, including more expensive cars, but there isn’t much we can actually do with them besides driving from A to B.
So I thought it could be fun if racing became an optional freelance activity/career. It would go well with the future implementation of better car physics and collisions, which are already planned.
Similar to other freelance jobs, we could check our phone for available races and decide ourselves when we want to participate. phone → browse available races → enter race → travel to starting location → actually drive → placement determines prize → gain racing reputation → unlock harder/better-paying events
Here are some ideas for example events:
- Amateur races
- Circuit races
- Point-to-point races
- Time trials
- Higher-level competitions after gaining more racing reputation
We could travel to the event, which will then be scheduled in our calendar, with our own car, participate actively and earn prize money depending on our placement.
I don’t think this needs to become an overly complicated racing simulator either. A relatively simple progression system would already be enough for me: start with smaller local events, improve your reputation (per example like the freelance delivery job, that gives better and higher paying tasks to choose from), maybe buy a better vehicle and eventually unlock more difficult races with higher prizes.
I would love to see motorcycle races too. Different events could simply require either a car or motorcycle.
Vehicle performance could also matter a little more through things like acceleration or handling. That would finally give us another reason to save money for an expensive vehicle instead of the difference mostly being visual.
I also don’t think this necessarily needs an entire map expansion just to add a race track.
A smaller solution could be an instanced racing area that we travel to when participating in an event. One track could even have several layouts, so it could be reused for different races without requiring a huge new area.
Another possibility could be occasional organized races inside the existing city. Barriers and checkpoints could temporarily appear along a predetermined route while we participate, with normal traffic being restricted during the event. This might be harder to implement though since Zois would require rerouting. So I think the instanced location would be the easier way. That also gives KRAFTON much more control over NPC routing, checkpoints, starting positions and collisions. They wouldn’t have to worry about Grandma Eunji casually driving her sedan through Turn 4 while six racers are approaching at 180 km/h 
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Personally I would mainly focus on legal/organized motorsport rather than illegal street racing. Optional underground races could maybe be interesting someday if the crime system develops further, but they don’t need to be the focus. My main point is racing as legal sport.
Maybe a small vehicle DLC later instead?
Another possibility would be to keep the basic version relatively small and, if there is enough interest in vehicle gameplay later, expand it through a smaller cars/motorcycles DLC or gameplay pack.
The basic game could perhaps have:
- a simple freelance racing career
- one reusable racing location
- basic car and motorcycle competitions
- prize money and racing reputation
While an optional vehicle-focused pack could expand this with things like:
- additional race tracks or environments
- more race types
- deeper vehicle upgrades/customization
- additional sports cars and motorcycles
- motorsport clothing/helmets
- sponsorships or bigger championship events
- perhaps more detailed vehicle maintenance or tuning (which has been requested by some players already)
That way racing wouldn’t need to become a huge base-game system, but players who really enjoy cars and motorcycles could eventually get a more detailed version of it.
I also don’t think having some more specific gameplay for a certain career would automatically turn inZOI into a racing game. We already have things like running our own businesses, where the job itself has its own management and gameplay systems, and Kjun is also planning to expand the idol career with performances and other specific gameplay.
Different careers having their own activities is actually something I would like to see more of. It gives them an identity instead of every job basically working the same way. Racing could simply be one of those options for Zois who are interested in cars or motorcycles.
Kjun has also already mentioned a competitive system where interactions can determine a winner and loser, so I was wondering if something like that could eventually provide part of the foundation for racing competitions. Of course this does not mean racing itself has been announced, just that a general competition system is already planned:
Again, I don’t think this needs to be huge or a priority right now. It could easily be something added much later. I just think it would be a fun additional lifestyle and way of making money while also giving vehicles more gameplay purpose.
And larger maps.
I’m not suggesting that Zois should just race through normal traffic, because we need to keep Grandma Eunji safe. That’s also why I suggested an instanced race track as probably the easier option. 