The Drag Car Racer Guide

What The Drag Car Racer is

The Drag Car Racer is a free quarter-mile drag racing simulator that runs in your web browser. There's nothing to install and no account to create. You line up against a CPU opponent (and, once you have three clean runs in a class, against your own 3rd-best time), stage your car at the start line, watch the Christmas tree, and race to the finish stripe 1,320 feet away. First to the stripe wins.

It's modeled on real NHRA-style bracket racing: a real staging procedure, a Pro tree, a five-speed manual gearbox with paddle shifting, and timing that shows reaction time, elapsed time and trap speed, just like the time slip you'd get at a real track. Races only last 11 to 13 seconds, depending on your class, but a lot happens in them, and small mistakes cost tenths.

Choosing a class

Cars are grouped by power-to-weight ratio, the way NHRA Stock classes are. Fewer pounds per horsepower means a quicker car that's harder to drive well.

Each class keeps its own leaderboard, so a good C/Stock run isn't buried under A/Stock times.

Staging and the Christmas tree

The "Christmas tree" is the light tower between the lanes that starts every race. Before it will start, both cars have to stage, which means rolling slowly up to two light beams across the lane:

1. Pre-stage: creep forward until your top blue bulb lights. You're about seven inches behind the start line.
2. Stage: creep a few more inches until your second blue bulb lights. You're now on the line.
3. Once both cars are fully staged, there's a short random pause, then all three amber lights flash together, and the green comes on 0.4 seconds later. This is called a Pro tree.

Two things end a race before it starts:

• Red light: leaving before the green is an automatic foul. No time is recorded and the race is over.
• Taking too long to stage: once your opponent reaches a staging beam, you have seven seconds to reach it too, or it's a foul.

The burnout

Before you stage, you can do one burnout per run (B). Real racers spin the rear tires to heat and clean them for more grip. In the simulator, a burnout gives you a small launch-power bonus right after the green light. It happens before timing starts and has no downside, so there's no reason to skip it.

Launching and shifting

When you leave the line, the throttle goes straight to wherever you're pressing, whether that's the key, the on-screen pedal or a controller trigger, so every way of playing launches the same. Floor it on the green.

The car has a five-speed manual gearbox with paddle shifters. Getting the most out of it comes down to knowing where the engine makes its power:

• Peak torque arrives around 3,000 RPM, but that isn't where you want to shift.
• Peak power is at about 5,300 RPM, but the quickest shift is a little past it, at about 5,600 RPM. Each upshift drops the revs, so you hold the gear until the power you're losing matches what you'd get back after the shift. The shift light on the dash turns amber at 5,600, and in the 2D view the tachometer needle turns amber.
• The rev limiter is at 6,000 RPM, and the shift light flashes red when you hit it. Sitting on the limiter wastes time.
• Shifting too early (short-shifting) drops the engine below its power band in the next gear, which also costs time.
• Each shift has a brief moment with no power, so there's nothing to gain by shifting more often than you need to.

Reading your time slip

After every finished run, a time slip pops up over the track, for both lanes, laid out like the one a real track hands you. Close it with its ×, Esc or T; press T (or the panel's Time slip button) to bring it back. If you beat the other car to the stripe, its side of the slip fills in as it finishes.

The race itself is decided by who reaches the stripe first, which is R/T plus ET. You can have a quicker ET and still lose if you were slow off the line. There are no points here. Your best ETs for each class go on the top-5 leaderboard, which is saved in your browser.

If you switch to another tab or window in the middle of a run, the run is stopped and nothing is recorded, since there's no fair way to pause a drag race halfway down the track.

Controls

To use a game controller, turn it on in the Input section of the setup page. The setup page tells you when your controller has been detected.

3D driver's view and 2D track view

Every race opens in the 3D driver's view, from the left-hand seat, with the hood, dash, shift light and the tree ahead of you. You'll see the grandstands, the distance boards at 60 feet, 330 feet, the eighth mile and 1,000 feet, and the scoreboards at the finish. The car squats on launch, kicks on every upshift and shakes during the burnout.

Press H at any time to switch to the 2D track view, which shows both lanes from above. It's handy for seeing exactly where you are against the other lane. Both views show the same race, so switching doesn't change anything about your run.

Racing your 3rd best

Your first three clean runs in a class are against the CPU car. After that, the other lane becomes Your 3rd Best: a replay of the third-fastest time on your leaderboard for that class. It leaves the line at that run's reaction time, crosses the stripe at exactly that run's time, and posts that run's trap speed, so its time slip matches the leaderboard row. The tree, the scoreboards and the result panel all label it, so you always know who you're racing.

Your 3rd best is picked again every time you reset. Beat it, and your new time goes on the board, so your next opponent is a little quicker. Before each run, the dashboard tells you how many clean runs you still need to unlock it, or exactly which time you're racing. Red-light runs are never saved, so every rival comes from a clean pass.

Bracket racing

Pick Bracket under Race Type on the start page to race the way most amateur drag racers do. Instead of racing for the quickest time, you race to run closest to your own prediction. The full rules are in Bracket Racing and Dial-Ins; here's how they work in the simulator.

• Set your dial-in. Before each run, a card over the track shows your dial-in: the ET you predict you'll run. Type it, use the buttons, or press - and = (a controller's D-pad up and down). It starts at a suggestion a little under the average of your last three runs in that class, and it's remembered per class.
• Handicap start. The CPU bracket racer dials too, about 14.46 in a quick-shifting car. The slower dial gets the green first, by the difference between the two dials, so if you both run your numbers you meet at the stripe. Bracket races use the full tree: the three ambers count down half a second apart, then green. Your R/T is counted from your own green, and leaving on the CPU's green instead of yours is a red light.
• Don't break out. The first car to the stripe wins, unless it ran quicker than its dial-in. That's a breakout, and it loses to a car that didn't break out. If both break out, the smaller breakout wins. The CPU breaks out now and then too.
• Your package. The time slip adds your dial-in, how far over it you ran, and your package: R/T plus how far over your dial you ran. Lower is better. In bracket mode the dashboard board ranks your best packages; breakouts don't count. Your ETs still go on the regular ET board.

Tips for a quicker ET

• Always do the burnout. It's free launch grip.
• Stage, then lift. Get completely off the gas as soon as the second blue bulb lights, and stay off it until the green.
• Anticipate the green, don't guess it. On a Pro tree the green follows the ambers by 0.4 s. Go when the ambers flash and you'll often be early and red-light. Learn the rhythm instead.
• Shift on the amber shift light, not on the limiter and not early.
• Stay on the gas through the stripe. Lifting before the finish line costs trap speed and ET.
• Learn in C/Stock, then move up. The same habits work in every class; the quicker cars just give you less time.

FAQ

Is The Drag Car Racer free?

Yes. It runs in your browser with no download and no sign-up. The site is supported by advertising.

Why did I get a red light when I left on green?

Once you're fully staged, any touch of the throttle before the green actually lights is a foul, even by a fraction of a second. If you were still holding the gas when you staged, let off first. Holding it all the way to the green is a red light too, because a real car would have rolled through the beams. Then watch for the green rather than leaving on the ambers.

Why won't the tree start?

Both cars have to be fully staged, with both blue bulbs lit in each lane. The other car waits at pre-stage until you get there, so ease onto the gas and roll forward until both of your blue bulbs light.

Is my best time saved?

Yes. Your top times for each class are saved in your browser on this device. Once you have three clean runs in a class, those saved times also become your opponent: the other lane races your 3rd-best run.

Are there other simulators like this?

Yes. The Boat Docker teaches docking a power boat, The Trailer Parker teaches trailer backing, The Driver Tester covers road-test maneuvers, and The Train Yarder rounds out the set.

Further reading

Want to go deeper than the controls? These articles explain the real-world drag racing behind each part of the simulator:

• How the Christmas Tree Works
• Reaction Time Explained
• How to Read a Drag Racing Time Slip
• Bracket Racing and Dial-Ins
• Shift Points: Power, Torque and When to Shift
• Burnouts and Traction
• Power-to-Weight and Your Quarter-Mile ET
• Drag Racing Glossary

Suggestions and feedback

Found a bug, or want a new class or track feature? Email theboatdocker@gmail.com.