🚛 Truck Racing Championship 3D

Big rigs on a race track

Truck Racing Championship 3D takes the biggest vehicles on the road and puts them on a proper race circuit. You drive a lowered race truck, a cab-over tractor unit with no trailer, a covered rear, a big wing on the back and your race number on the doors and roof. Five rival trucks line up with you on the grid, the five red lights come on one by one above the start line, and when they go out it is three laps of flat-out racing to the chequered flag.

It plays in your web browser in full 3D, on a computer, tablet or phone, with nothing to download and no sign-up. Each race lasts a few minutes, so it is easy to have one more go to find a better line or a later braking point.

Why every truck has a 160 km/h limiter

Real race trucks are huge, heavy machines with enormous engines, and in real truck racing they are all held to a top speed of 160 km/h for safety. This game does the same. Every truck on the grid has exactly the same top speed, so on the long straights nobody can simply drive away from the others. Races are won and lost in the corners and, above all, in the braking zones in front of them.

That makes truck racing very different from racing cars or bikes. You cannot rely on a faster engine to save you. If you brake too early, the truck behind gets past. If you brake too late, a five-tonne truck does not stop in time and you run wide onto the gravel, where it slows down to a crawl. Finding the perfect braking point for every corner is the skill the whole game is built around.

Hot brakes and the water spray

Brakes turn speed into heat, and a heavy truck makes a lot of it. Every time you brake hard from high speed, the BRAKES gauge in the corner of the screen climbs. Once it passes 100 percent the brakes start to fade: you press the pedal just as hard, but the truck slows down less, and the glowing brake discs on the front wheels start to smoke. Fade is how most people end up in the wall on the second or third lap.

Real race trucks deal with this by spraying water onto the brakes, and so do you. Hold E or Space, or the 💧 COOL button on a touch screen, and a mist of water sprays from the front wheels and the temperature drops quickly. The catch is the tank: it only holds about fourteen seconds of spray for the whole race, and the percentage is shown next to the lap timer. Use it in short bursts on the straights after the hardest braking zones and keep a little back for the last lap.

The brakes also cool down on their own when you are not braking, a little faster at high speed when air rushes through them. Smooth driving, braking once firmly instead of dabbing the pedal again and again, keeps them cool for longer.

Slipstream and overtaking

A big truck punches a huge hole in the air. Drive close behind a rival, roughly between one and five truck lengths back and lined up with it, and you are in its slipstream: a 💨 appears next to your position and your truck pulls noticeably harder. The limiter still caps your top speed, so the slipstream helps most out of slow corners, when everybody is accelerating back up to 160 km/h.

The best place to pass is going into a corner. Use the slipstream to get right up behind a rival on the straight, pull out to one side and brake a fraction later than they do. Trucks bump each other if they touch, and both lose a little speed, so a clean move is quicker than barging through.

The four championship rounds

The championship has four rounds, and every circuit is open from the start. Round 1, Riverside Ring, is wide and fast, with long straights and gentle bends: the perfect place to learn where to brake. Round 2, Sunset Hills, has long sweeping curves that reward a smooth line and one tight hairpin that punishes a late brake. Round 3, Desert Speedway, is a long lap through rocks and cactus with several heavy braking zones close together, so looking after your brakes and your water matters most here. The season ends with Round 4, the Night City Final, a street circuit of tight right-angled corners under the floodlights, where the rival drivers are at their best.

Your best finish in each round scores championship points: 25 for a win, then 18, 15, 12, 10 and 8. The setup screen shows your total out of 100. Win all four rounds to take the full hundred and the title.

Four race trucks to unlock

Finishing races earns stars: three for a win, two for a podium finish in the top three and one just for finishing. Stars unlock new trucks. You start in the Red Rocket, number 7. Four stars unlock the Blue Volt, eight the Green Viper and twelve, the maximum, the Gold Titan, number 1. Every truck is held to the same 160 km/h, but the later ones pull harder out of corners, grip better, stop shorter and heat their brakes more slowly.

Tips for winning races

Look ahead. The minimap in the corner shows the whole circuit and where every truck is, so you can see the next corner coming. Brake in a straight line before the bend, then turn in, rather than braking and steering hard at the same time.

Use the whole track. Swing out to the opposite side before a corner, clip the inside kerb in the middle of it and let the truck run out wide on the exit. That straighter line lets you carry more speed and get back on the gas sooner.

Do not panic at the start. You start at the back of the grid and the trucks take a while to get going. Most places are gained in the first few corners while the pack is still bunched up, and with the slipstream behind every truck.

If you do run onto the gravel, steer back gently towards the track. If you are really stuck, press R to be put back on the racing line, which costs a little time but less than crawling through the gravel.

Controls

On a computer: W or the up arrow is the gas, S or the down arrow is the brake, A and D or the left and right arrows steer. E or Space sprays water on the brakes, C changes the camera between chase, far and roof views, R puts you back on the track and P pauses. On a phone or tablet, use the on-screen GAS, BRAKE, steering and 💧 COOL buttons.

More truck and racing games

Want to drive a truck with a trailer on the open road instead? Try Truck Simulator USA 3D or Euro Lorry Simulator 3D. For stadium action with jumps and backflips, try Monster Truck Freestyle 3D, and if you like circuit racing on two wheels, line up for Superbike GP 3D. You can find every truck and lorry game on our truck games page.

Frequently asked questions