rFactor 2 was built for race cars. If you search the Steam Workshop for road cars, you find a lot of GT3s, prototypes and single seaters, and very few cars with number plates.
So this is a short list. The good news is that the few street cars the sim has are done properly, and every one of them is free.
One thing before the list. Most of these are not mods in the strict sense. They are official cars that Image Space Incorporated, the original developer, released for free, and that Studio 397 kept available. You install them the same way as a mod, so for you the difference does not matter much. If you want the full picture on mods in this sim, start with my rFactor 2 mods guide.
The short answer
| Car | Made by | Price | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Honda NSX (1991) | Image Space Incorporated | Free | The road car and the lighter NSX-R, with 28 options for engine, gearing, suspension and tyres |
| Chevrolet Corvette C6 | Image Space Incorporated | Free | 2012 Coupe and Grand Sport, Z06 and the 638 hp ZR1 |
| Panoz AIV Roadster | Image Space Incorporated | Free | 305 hp V8 in a 1,170 kg aluminium roadster |
| AC 427 | Image Space Incorporated | Free | The big block Cobra, one version on street tyres and one competition version |
| Caterham Academy | Studio 397 | Free | The entry level Caterham race car, which is road legal in real life |
| Nissan 2000 GT-R and Datsun 240Z | Benjamin Exell (community) | Free | Two classic Japanese coupes, built from scratch in 2014 |
If you only install one, install the NSX. If you want speed, take the Corvette ZR1. If you want to learn something, take the Caterham.
Honda NSX (1991)
This is the one I would start with.
The pack gives you two cars. The standard 1991 NSX road car, and the NSX-R, the lighter track version Honda sold in Japan a year later. It comes with 28 configuration options: engines, gearing, suspension, tyres and more. That means you can build the car you want before you even open the setup screen.
It started life as a well known rFactor 1 mod by Niels Heusinkveld and Siim. Image Space Incorporated licensed it and reworked the model and the physics for rFactor 2.
Why it works as a first road car: it is mid engined, it has no real downforce and it sits on road tyres. Lift off the throttle in the middle of a corner and the rear moves. Not violently, but enough to teach you to be tidy with your feet.
Chevrolet Corvette C6
The Corvette C6 pack came out in November 2014 and it is the muscle of this list.
You get the 2012 model year cars: the Coupe and Grand Sport, the Z06 and the ZR1. The ZR1 is the big one, with 638 hp from a supercharged V8. The Z06 includes the Z07 performance package and the ZR1 includes the PDE package, the same options Chevrolet sold on the real cars.
Do not confuse this with the Corvette C6.R. That one is a GT2 race car and it is a different download.
The ZR1 on road tyres is hard work. You have far more engine than grip, so the throttle is not a switch. I would start with the Coupe or the Z06, get the braking points right, and only then move up.
Panoz AIV Roadster
The Panoz AIV Roadster was the first street car Image Space Incorporated released for rFactor 2.
It is a strange and likeable thing. An American roadster with open front wheels, built mostly from aluminium, with the V8 from the 1996 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra. That is 305 hp in a car that weighs about 1,170 kg. Only 176 were made.
In the sim it is the easy one. Front engine, rear wheel drive, plenty of torque and a chassis that tells you what it is doing. If you want a road car for relaxed laps, this is it.
AC 427
The AC 427 is the big block Cobra, and when it came out it was one of the most detailed car models in the sim.
You get two versions. One sits on street tyres. The other is the competition car on racing tyres, with adjustable springs and dampers.
Take the street tyre version if you want the real road car experience. A huge engine, a short wheelbase and narrow tyres from the 1960s. You brake early, you turn in gently and you wait a long time before you go back to full throttle. It punishes impatience more than any other car on this list.
Caterham Academy
Studio 397 added the Caterham Academy for free in August 2022, with 25 liveries.
Strictly, it is a race car. The Academy is the first step of the Caterham racing ladder. But the real car is road legal, it has a small Ford engine, and it does about 115 mph flat out. Nobody will ever be scared of the power.
That is exactly why I like it for learning. With so little power, every mistake costs you speed for the whole next straight. You learn to carry speed through the corner, which is the same lesson a kart teaches you. A full grid of these is also some of the closest racing you can have in rFactor 2.
Community road car mods
Here I have to be honest. The community road car scene in rFactor 2 is thin.
The one I can point to by name is the Nissan pack by Benjamin Exell from July 2014: the Nissan 2000 GT-R, known as the Hakosuka, and the Datsun 240Z. Both were built from scratch, models and physics, as a university project, and both are free. They are old now and I have not checked a current download for them, so treat them as a bonus, not a must have.
Beyond that, you will find road cars on the Workshop that were converted from other games. Quality goes from fine to terrible. Before you subscribe, I would check three things:
- When the mod was last updated. rFactor 2 changed its tyre model and graphics several times, and old cars can look and drive wrong.
- The comments. If people report broken force feedback or a missing cockpit, believe them.
- Who made the physics. A car with a great 3D model and invented physics teaches you nothing.
If street cars are the main thing you want from a sim, rFactor 2 is the wrong tool. Assetto Corsa has hundreds of them and a huge mod scene around road driving. I compare the two in Assetto Corsa vs rFactor 2.
Cars that sound like road cars but are not
This catches a lot of people, and the old version of this page got it wrong too.
- Nissan 370Z. In rFactor 2 this is the GT4 race car, in a European and a Dutch version.
- Nissan GT-R. This is the GT1 race car.
- Chevrolet Camaro. A GT3 car.
- Chevrolet Corvette C6.R. A GT2 car.
- McLaren Senna GTR. Paid, and a track only car in real life too.
They are all good. They are just not street cars.
If you want something in between, look at the race cars that are built on a road car shell: the Renault Clio Cup, the Mini Cooper S Group 2 and the Honda Civic BTCC are free, and the BMW M2 CS Racing and the newer BTCC cars are paid. You can see what is free and what is paid in the rFactor 2 cars list and in the DLC guide.
How to install them
All of it goes through the Steam Workshop.
- Open the rFactor 2 page in your Steam library and go to the Workshop.
- Search for the car by name.
- Press Subscribe.
- Start rFactor 2. The launcher downloads and installs the car for you.
- Pick the car in the single player menu.
If you download a car from somewhere else, you get a file that ends in .rfcmp. Put it in the Packages folder of your rFactor 2 install, then install it from the content manager in the launcher.
I go through both ways step by step in how to install car mods on rFactor 2.
How I would drive a road car in rFactor 2
A road car is soft, heavy and on tyres with a fraction of the grip of a slick. Drive it like a GT3 and you will hate it.
- Brake earlier and for longer. Road brakes and road tyres give you less stopping power, and the car dives a lot. Let it settle before you turn.
- One input at a time. The body rolls and pitches. If you brake, turn and downshift all at once, the weight goes everywhere.
- Be patient on the throttle. With the ZR1 or the AC 427, half throttle is often faster than full throttle out of a slow corner.
- Turn the force feedback down a little. Road cars load the wheel differently from race cars. If the wheel feels dead or too heavy, check my rFactor 2 force feedback settings.
This is the part I find useful as a coach. A road car on street tyres shows you weight transfer in slow motion. What you learn there, you take back to the race car.
Is rFactor 2 still worth modding in 2026?
Yes, with open eyes.
Studio 397 belongs to Motorsport Games now, and the team works on Le Mans Ultimate. rFactor 2 has had very little news since Le Mans Ultimate went into early access in February 2024. Some content has even left the store: Le Mans and the two Ferrari 488s were delisted on 1 January 2025, although owners keep them.
So do not expect new official road cars. What is on the Workshop today is what you have, and it still works.
FAQ
Does rFactor 2 have road cars?
Yes, but only a few. The official free ones are the Honda NSX, the Chevrolet Corvette C6, the Panoz AIV Roadster and the AC 427. The Caterham Academy is a road legal race car and it is free as well.
Are rFactor 2 road car mods free?
Yes. Everything on the rFactor 2 Steam Workshop is free. The paid content is sold as DLC in the Steam store, and it is almost all race cars.
What is the best road car in rFactor 2?
The Honda NSX. You get the standard car and the NSX-R, it has 28 configuration options, and it is the best one for learning how a car without downforce behaves.
Is the Nissan GT-R in rFactor 2 a road car?
No. The Nissan GT-R in rFactor 2 is the GT1 race car, and the Nissan 370Z is the GT4 race car.
How do I install a road car in rFactor 2?
Subscribe to it on the Steam Workshop and start the game. The launcher installs it. For a manual download, put the .rfcmp file in the Packages folder and install it from the content manager.
Can I use road cars online in rFactor 2?
Yes, if the server runs them. Your version of the car has to match the server. When you join a server with Workshop content, the game can download what is missing.
Is rFactor 2 or Assetto Corsa better for road cars?
Assetto Corsa, by a long way. It has far more street cars and a much bigger mod scene around them. rFactor 2 is stronger for race cars, tyres and long races.