Download

The desktop version.

The quick way in is the browser: nothing to install, just press play. The desktop build is the same online game, and it runs better. It spreads the physics over every core of your processor, so it reaches higher frame rates and draws twice the tire smoke, dust and sparks. It uses a direct connection to the server that a browser cannot open, so other cars move more smoothly in multiplayer. It also makes your controller rumble. Both sign in with the same Google account and share your campaign progress, your settings and the ladder. One zip per platform.

Windows

Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. Unzipping it gives one netracer folder: open it and run NetRacer.exe. The exes are unsigned, so the first launch shows a SmartScreen box: click "More info", then "Run anyway".

Download 26 MB

sha256 0b340270d584

Linux

Any 64-bit desktop distribution from about 2022 onwards. Unzipping it gives one netracer folder: open a terminal there and run ./NetRacer. After that first start it is in your app search. Nothing else is installed. The line below does all of it for you.

Download 28 MB

sha256 87601ff1baf4

On Linux one line is the whole thing: it downloads the zip, unpacks the game into ~/netracer, and starts it. Paste it into a terminal. It uses curl and unzip, which a desktop Linux almost always has.

cd ~ && curl -fLO https://netracer.alex-wilkinson.ca/downloads/netracer-linux.zip && unzip -oq netracer-linux.zip && rm netracer-linux.zip && cd netracer && ./NetRacer

After that, starting the game is cd ~/netracer && ./NetRacer. Running the long line again installs a new build over the old one, and your account keeps your progress either way.

There is no Mac download. The game draws with OpenGL, which Apple deprecated, and a Mac app would have to be signed by Apple to open at all. On a Mac NetRacer runs in the browser instead: press play. It is the same game, the same tracks and the same account.

Build 2026-11-11, published 2026-11-11

01Getting a run going

Sign in, then drive.

NetRacer is played online with a Google account, on the desktop exactly as in the browser. The first time you start the game it opens your browser at the NetRacer sign-in. Sign in with Google, pick your driver name, and go back to the game, which is now signed in and opens on the campaign.

Every finish is checked

Every finished run goes to the NetRacer server, which drives the run again from its inputs. Only a run that reproduces counts. The server keeps the replay of every run that places in the top five on a track. A kept replay is never deleted.

One account, everywhere

Your campaign progress and settings live on your account, so the desktop game and the browser pick up where the other left off. There is no LAN play, no guest play and no server to host: NetRacer is one online world.

Nobody around? Find people in the NetRacer Discord. That is also where bug reports and questions land.

02Controls

Default keys.

The game's Controls screen lists every key, and your settings live on your account. A gamepad works out of the box: left stick steers, the triggers are the pedals, the bumpers shift, A is the handbrake, X respawns, Select restarts and Start pauses. A racing wheel and pedals get their own column on that screen, and Settings, Driving, Racing wheel binds them step by step.

Throttle and brake: W and S, or the arrow keys
Steer: A and D
Steer cap: 1 to 5 cap the keyboard steering at 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 percent of full lock, the way an analogue stick can hold part of its travel. They are toggles: a cap stays until another is pressed, and pressing the active one again returns to full lock. Use a smaller cap on ice and dirt, full lock on asphalt.
Shift up and down: E and Q, or right shift and right control
Clutch: C, held
Handbrake: Space
Respawn at the last checkpoint: Backspace
Restart the run: Delete or Enter
Camera: V
Leaderboard: Tab
Chat: T

03What it needs

Modest hardware is fine.

Operating system: Windows 10 or 11, or a 64-bit Linux desktop from roughly 2022 onwards. Both builds are the same game compiled twice, with no feature differences.
Graphics: Any GPU with working OpenGL drivers, integrated included. The tracks are a few hundred thousand triangles with baked lighting, and the game renders at full settings.
Processor: The physics runs two hundred ticks a second for your car and for every other car on the server, and is cheap enough that the server verifies a one minute lap in about half a second.
Disk: Roughly double the size of the zip once unpacked. Most of it is tracks and sounds.
Network: An internet connection. NetRacer is always played online, and there is nothing to configure.
Input: Keyboard, gamepad, or racing wheel and pedals. Anything the system recognizes can be bound.
Account: A Google account. We ask Google for a sign-in identifier and nothing else, and you pick a driver name once.