Super Star Car

Summary

Strap in for some intense open-wheel action as you prepare to embark on a world tour of iconic Formula 1 circuits. Right from the start, you’ll begin a career where you’ll fight your way up from the back of the grid to become the world champ while battling your aggressive rivals who will do anything to stop you from clinching the title.

You’ll be flying down straights at over 300 km/h, threading through tight chicanes, and white-knuckling your way through corners that demand precision. Meanwhile, the AI drivers will happily ram you into the barriers at any opportunity if you give them half a chance.

With a selection of tracks based on real-world circuits, team cars featuring some familiar-looking driver names, and a career ladder that gets increasingly difficult as you progress, Super Star Car is one of the best Formula 1 browser-based driving games.

You’ll need to get your race suit zipped up and prepare to showcase your best driving skills, as there’s no nitrous, DRS, catch-up assists, or shortcuts to the podium here. It’s unforgiving, and even the most minor mistakes will potentially cost you the pole position.

Super Star Car features

• Release date – April 2021
• Difficulty – Intermediate
• Levels/environments – 14 tracks
• Number of vehicles – 9
• Vehicle customization/upgrades – No
• Multiplayer – No
• Mobile – No
• Developer – Barnzmu

Physics

As you’d expect (and hope) from a formula racer, the cars are ridiculously grippy and handle like they’re on rails. Once you’re used to the planted feel, you can carry huge speed into most corners just by lifting off the throttle slightly, and only the tightest hairpins demand a tap of the brakes. If you’re coming straight from drifting games, the handling will take a little getting used to at first, since the back end barely ever steps out.

As you start building up confidence, you’ll notice there’s a subtle speed and cornering assist working behind the scenes that prevents you from smashing into barriers at full chat (which can’t be turned off, unfortunately!).

You can technically hold full throttle through the corners, but it’ll slow you down since it makes the car harder to control, and big steering angles scrub off speed quickly. You’ll want to practice the smoothest inputs possible, since the game rewards precision driving over throttle-mashing.

Be warned – the rival AI drivers are absolutely relentless, and the front-runners barely make mistakes. If you fall behind, there’s no DRS to bail you out. You’ll need to actually outdrive them (assuming you can get past without getting rammed!), but this is all part of the fun that makes it a challenging racing game.

Graphics

The visuals are decent, with an old-school charm. They’re not going to rival the browser-based heavy-hitters like UNBOUNDED, but they’re still decent enough to make it fun and engaging. Those who grew up with 90s F1 games (just me?) will feel right at home (and probably get a little nostalgic in the process).

There are no settings to adjust, but the basic performance lets it play smoothly even on lower-spec devices. If you’re on a lower-spec machine and want something equally lightweight, the classic Drift Hunters is a great pick that runs well on just about anything if you fancy a bit of sideways action.

Contact with other cars or barriers produces sparks and kills your speed, but there’s no actual damage. If you fancy some satisfying crash carnage in a racer, Deadly Descent is a popular pick among Drifted fans, sending you down insane downhill courses where your body panels crumple and rip off, and sometimes just crawling across the finish line on two wheels is enough to bag a win.

Controls

PC/laptop/Chromebook

• W/Up arrow – Accelerate
• S/Down arrow – Brake/reverse
• A/Left arrow – Steer left
• D/Right arrow – Steer right
• C – Change camera
• Space – Respawn (reset car)

Controller support is also available, including Xbox controllers.

The selection of camera views is worth checking out. We found the cockpit view, which sits slightly above the driver’s head (GoPro on the helmet, of course), works best since you can see over the halo without the restricted view of the lower cameras.

Mobile/tablet (iOS/Android)

Super Star Car isn’t available on mobile devices. Grand Extreme Racing is the perfect mobile-optimized F1-style alternative, with on-screen touch controls. Alternatively, our mobile games collection has loads of options, including motorcycle games if you fancy switchin’ it up to some two-wheeled action.

How to play Super Star Car

Initial setup

When you first load the game, you’ll land in your garage where you’ll be chillin’ on your Williams starter car.

Your bank balance (100,000 to start) sits in the top left. Along the bottom are four buttons: ‘Career’, ‘Customize’, ‘Profile’, and ‘Home’. Head to ‘Profile’ first to change your driver name from the default ‘Player’. The ‘Customize’ menu is where you’ll find the team cars (not actual tuning, upgrades, or customization, unfortunately), with Williams Racing unlocked at the start.

Getting started

Hit ‘Career’, and you’ll see a world map with all 14 track locations. Only ‘Lansdowne Circuit’ is unlocked initially (which might look familiar to F1 fans). Click it, and you’ll see the specific race details. For this one, there are four laps, nine drivers (including you), each lap is five kilometers, and it defaults to easy difficulty in the early stages.

You won’t find any practice or time trial modes in Super Star Car. You’re thrown straight in, and the sole objective is to finish on the podium (top three positions) to unlock the next track and progress.

When you begin the race, you’ll see the basic controls at the bottom center. A mini-map in the bottom left shows current driver positions and upcoming corners, which is a lifesaver at high speeds. In the top left, you’ll see your current position, current/remaining laps, and the current top three drivers. On the right side, you’ll see your best and current lap timings, along with the speedometer in the bottom corner.

Career mode

The entire game revolves around the career since there are no other modes on offer.

You’ll fight your way through 14 circuits, each unlocking when you finish the previous race in the top three. Both the track lengths and lap counts increase as you progress, making the later races longer as well as harder.

Finishing races earns money and stars. You’ll unlock new team cars after podium finishes, though they still come with hefty price tags, which will come out of your earnings. If you find a track you’re good at, you can replay it to farm cash to unlock cars quickly (though the payouts are smaller than progressing to new circuits).

The dirty AI drivers (you’ll soon see what I mean!) use a mix of real-world first and last names with some quirkiness.

Getting smashed into from behind in the cockpit view is a regular occurrence, so keep your eye on the radar to see if they’re coming up behind you since there’s no rear-view camera. The drivers also crash into each other fairly often, which can work in your favor if you’re patient enough to let the carnage unfold and thread your way through the gap.

There are no online multiplayer modes. If this is what you’re after, give Drift King a try. It’s one of the most popular free online multiplayer drifting games for browsers, along with a great variety of tracks, including a massive mountain touge. Or, JDM fans who’d rather be sideways in the likes of an Evo or S15 Silvia, Drift Hunters Pro is made by the same team, but with a focus on the golden-era Japanese car roster.

Car list

There are 9 cars to unlock throughout your career. You start with Williams Racing, and podium finishes unlock new teams and cars as you progress.

Even once unlocked, you’ll still need to pay out millions from your earnings, unless you’d rather watch an ad, so you’ll need to decide whether to save up or keep racing with what you’ve got. Thankfully, even the Williams car is quick enough to win races once your skills are up to scratch.

The full roster includes the following teams:

• Williams Racing (free starter car)
• Alfa Romeo

• AlphaTauri
• Alpine (BWT)
• Ferrari
• Haas
• McLaren

• Mercedes

• Red Bull Racing

There are no performance upgrades, tuning, or visual customizations beyond selecting your team car. If you’d like this aspect, be sure to check out Force Drift Racing: Aussie Burnout, which has the most advanced tuning system of any browser game, from forced induction tuning and upgrades to Ackermann geometry adjustments and even a variety of tire compounds (which would be even better suited in this game!). 

Track list

All 14 tracks are based on real-world circuits from across the globe. You unlock them through career progression.

Early circuits like Lansdowne and Motukarara ease you in with more forgiving, shorter layouts, while later tracks like Allandale, Lyttleton, and Heathcote demand near-perfect racing lines as the difficulty level ramps up. Each track comes with a preview flyover before the race starts, giving you a chance to scope out what’s ahead.

For fans of precision lap-chasing, Polytrack is the most popular browser-based racing game, offering over 100 community-built tracks, with global leaderboards and a built-in track editor. Don’t be fooled by the simple low-poly graphics. It’s all about the physics, and it’s the perfect game for shaving milliseconds off your personal bests.

Super Star Car vs Grand Extreme Racing

Since both games put you behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car in the browser, Grand Extreme Racing is the obvious comparison that fans are interested in.

There’s no doubt that Grand Extreme Racing has more on offer. You get engine, brakes, handling, and turbo upgrades with four tiers, along with six tire compounds to choose from, and a nitrous system (similar to DRS). On top of that, there’s local two-player split-screen PvP, mobile support, and separate Championship, Challenge, and Practice modes.

Super Star Car strips all of that away. You won’t find upgrades or even a practice mode here. And, if you fall behind, you’re forced to put your skills to the test as there’s no catch-up. The assists also slow you through corners rather than letting you bin it into the barriers, which might not suit everyone. It rewards smooth driving, but it can feel frustrating when you just want to go full send in an effort to catch up with the leader(s). Grand Extreme Racing doesn’t have that restriction.

Super Star Car edges it on track count (14 vs 10) and team selection (11 real-world F1 teams vs 5 fictional cars), while Grand Extreme Racing wins on features and accessibility.

If you want career progression, Super Star Car delivers. If you want more variety, Grand Extreme Racing is the pick. 

Alternatively, if you fancy a change from open-wheel racing altogether, Drift Hunters MAX is the ultimate browser-based drifting game, offering 39 drift cars, 13 tracks, and a unique ‘Drift Attack’ mode with clipping points, judged scoring, and online leaderboards for a completely different kind of precision driving.

Advanced tips & tricks

Tap the steering rather than holding it

The single biggest mistake is pressing the steering keys for too long when you’re pushing the limits of the tires through the corners. Quick, light taps keep the car stable and let you maintain speed. On tighter corners, try alternating rapid left-right taps to find the perfect balance and racing line.

Lift off the throttle instead of braking for smaller corners

The brakes are super sensitive, and combined with the auto braking assist, you’ll often find yourself slamming on the anchors while your rivals speed past. For most corners, simply releasing the throttle is enough, even at 300+ km/h. Save the brakes for the tightest hairpins.

Keep an eye on the radar when it’s safe to do so

In cockpit view, you can’t see what’s behind you, and the AI will ram you without warning, leaving you wondering what the hell is going on. The bottom-left radar tells you exactly how close they are. If someone’s right on your tail, try to keep your lines clean and don’t give them room. If they’re coming through, try to avoid them as you’ll rarely come out on top in a side-by-side tussle.

Keep your distance if the F1 cars are fighting with each other

When the rivals are battling it out ahead of you (which will happen more than you think), don’t dive in or get involved. Be patient, lift off the throttle, and let them sort it out (they’ll often crash into each other), and cruise through the gap when it emerges. Patience wins more positions than joining in the fight in these situations.

Don’t be afraid to restart if things don’t go to plan early on

Catch-up mechanics don’t exist here. If you’ve dropped to the back after a first-lap incident, restarting is often smarter than spending four laps trying to claw back positions against AI drivers who barely put a wheel wrong.

Super Star Car FAQ