Rallying
Rallying is also unique in its choice of where and when to race. Rallies take place on all surfaces and in all conditions: asphalt (tarmac), gravel, or snow and ice, sometimes more than one in a single rally, depending on the course and event. Rallies are also run every month of the year, in every climate from bitter cold to monsoonal rain. As a result of the drivers not knowing exactly what lies ahead, the lower traction available on dirt roads, and the driving characteristics of small cars, the drivers are much less visibly smooth than circuit racers, regularly sending the car literally flying over bumps, and sliding the cars out of corners.
A typical rally course consists of a sequence of relatively short (up to about ), timed "special stages" where the actual competition takes place, and untimed "transport stages" where the rally cars must be driven under their own power to the next competitive stage within a generous time limit. Rally cars are thus unlike virtually any other top-line racing cars in that they retain the ability to run at normal driving speeds, and indeed are registered for street travel. Some events contain "super special stages" where two competing cars set off on two parallel tracks (often small enough to fit in a football stadium), giving the illusion they are circuit racing head to head. Run over a day, a weekend, or more, the winner of the event has the lowest combined special and super special stage times. Given the short distances of super special stages compared to the regular special stages and consequent near-identical times for the frontrunning cars, it is very rare for these spectator-oriented stages to decide rally results, though it is a well-known axiom that a team cannot win the rally at the super special, but they can certainly lose it.
Power Drive Rally
In the single-player mode, players have to compete in a racing season across multiple regions and countries around the world such as England, Finland, Italy, Arizona, France, Sweden, Kenya and Corsica by facing three types of events at the beginning such as special stage, rally cross and skill test in order qualify for the next race and earn funds to keep competing. Special stage events pits the player racing against time while facing multiple obstacles, each one consisting of three-laps, while rally cross events are races against a CPU-controlled opponent and they also consists of three-laps as well. Skill test involves the player testing their driving abilities to start and stop, backing up and other skills in specially designed courses with obstacles against time, which can be penalized if any traffic cone is dropped. Endurance, a fourth type of event is introduced later in the game and involves the player in five-lap races before the time runs out. Failing to qualify for the next race results in the player paying a re-entry fee to try again and the game is over once they run out of money. In some tracks, there are items available to pick-up such as money, stopwatches that freezes time for five seconds and nitrous that gives the player a boost in speed. On night tracks, players have to turn their headlights by pressing 2 on the controller's keypad. Returning from "Power Drive" is the damage system, where if any component of the car takes too much damage will lead a change in the vehicle's in-game behavior, increasing the difficulty to race on the track and after finishing the race, players can choose or not to repair a specific part of their vehicle. There is also a practice mode where players can test their driving skills on any of the four selectable tracks, each with their own pre-set obstacles and a multiplayer mode where two players race in a head-to-head match on any of the single-player tracks but items are not available.