There are four sets of race tournaments in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: three involving road vehicles and one involving aircraft.
Description[]
Each race follows a different course. The main goal is to pass through a succession of markers, and passing a marker will automatically unlock the next one. In order to successfully complete a race, Carl must finish in first place. With the exception of the races featured in High Stakes, Low-Rider, Wu Zi Mu and Farewell, My Love..., each race has a reward of $10,000. The storyline mission races are Lowrider Race, Badlands A and Badlands B respectively.
Finishing all races in first place gives the player an additional $1,000,000; doing so is also necessary for achieving 100% completion. The air races are an exception, as they are considered "won" as long as the player simply completes the set course - there are no competitors and there is not a time limit. The races can be completed in any order and at any point once they are unlocked. No entry fee is supposed to be paid either, so multiple attempts will not lead to a financial setback.
All race tournaments are marked on the map with a black and white checkerboard finish flag. The Los Santos race tournaments can be found in Little Mexico. The San Fierro race tournaments can be found behind Wang Cars in Doherty/Downtown (just north of the Doherty garage save point). The Las Venturas races can be found at the LVA Freight Depot. The checkpoint air races, meanwhile, can be accessed at the Las Venturas Airport, just inside the main access gate. The race tournaments are unlocked after the completion of Verdant Meadows (Deconstruction in the mobile versions and The Definitive Edition), but only when the driving school has also been completed.
When Carl enters the marker for a tournament, a selection of races is shown, with maps indicating length and location. Choosing a race automatically teleports Carl to the starting line (which may be a considerable distance from the marker), and places him inside a vehicle (usually a different one for each race, with a mix of cars and motorcycles for the road races). The selection screen also indicates best time and position for the race after the first attempt.
The road races place the player's car at the "back of the pack". Moreover, most road races offer a variety of hazards ranging from collisions with obstacles like poles, to driving off cliffs and into rivers. If the vehicle the player is driving is destroyed, or Carl intentionally destroys an opponent's vehicle, Carl is disqualified from that attempt at the race. If Carl exits his vehicle, he has 25 seconds to re-enter it, or the race will fail. The quickest way to abort a race and start over is to destroy the provided vehicle.
Regardless of where the race begins or ends, the player will be transported back to the original starting location after completing or quitting a race. However, Carl will spawn in front of a hospital (or Katie Zhan's house she is Carl's [[Girlfriends in GTA San Andreas|girlfriend) if the player dies in a race. It is also possible to obtain wanted level during a race, and it is possible to be busted or even wasted by police during the course of a race.
Note: three races offered from Los Santos are identical to ones undertaken during various missions. When the race tournaments are unlocked the player is given credit for these races and does not need to do them again; they're made available in order to allow the player to better his time, but this has no bearing on the overall completion of the tournaments. The major difference between the replay races and the original missions is that Carl is assigned a vehicle and cannot bring his own as he did originally.
Any vehicle brought to the race trigger point is guaranteed to disappear after the races, so it is advised, as with most other missions, not to bring a prized vehicle to the location.
Street Races[]
Los Santos Race Tournaments[]
| Race name | Given vehicle | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Lowrider Race | Blade | Race is featured in High Stakes, Low-Rider |
| Little Loop | NRG-500 | |
| Backroad Wanderer | FCR-900 | |
| City Circuit | FCR-900 | |
| Vinewood | Sunrise | |
| Freeway | Super GT | |
| Into the Country | Bullet | |
| Badlands A | Sabre | Race is featured in Wu Zi Mu |
| Badlands B | ZR-350 | Race is featured in Farewell, My Love... |
San Fierro Race Tournaments[]
| Race name | Given vehicle |
|---|---|
| Dirtbike Danger | Sanchez |
| Bandito County | Bandito |
| Go-Go Karting | Kart |
| San Fierro Fastlane | Alpha |
| San Fierro Hills | Phoenix |
| Country Endurance | Bullet |
Las Venturas Freight Depot Race Tournaments[]
| Race name | Given vehicle |
|---|---|
| SF to LV | Banshee |
| Dam Rider | NRG-500 |
| Desert Tricks | FCR-900 |
| LV Ringroad | Turismo |
Video[]
Air Races[]
Las Venturas Airport Checkpoint Races[]
- Note: these races differ from the others in that Carl is not pitted against any opponents, although obstacles like trees and buildings can make them tricky.
| Race name | Given aircraft |
|---|---|
| World War Ace | Rustler |
| Barnstorming | Stunt Plane |
| Military Service | Hydra |
| Chopper Checkpoint | Maverick |
| Whirly Bird Waypoint | News Chopper |
| Heli Hell | Hunter |
Video[]
Trivia[]
- To obtain any vehicle used in any race, simply drive the vehicle to a safehouse garage and park it there. Exit the vehicle and allow the timer to count down to zero. The race will be abandoned but the vehicle will be preserved in the garage. In theory this should also work for the aircraft, if flown to the Verdant Meadows safehouse and parked in the hanger garage.
- It has been noted that vehicles often behave differently in races than they do during regular driving, such as more violent reactions to hitting obstacles, greater tendency to flip, or less resistance to damage. So if a player is intimately familiar with, for example, the NRG-500 bike, he should be prepared for the bike to handle differently during the Little Loop race, such as the added tendency to do wheelies when accelerating. Having a high skill in riding motorcycles will minimize the chances of Carl being thrown should he collide with something during a race.
- It is dangerous to "rest on one's laurels" should other competitor vehicles be seen to overturn or go off cliffs. Either through glitch or design, these vehicles will usually respawn. So a race with 6 cars in it will always have 6 cars in it and the player cannot win by default by the other cars being destroyed or rendered inoperable in some way.
- In Dirtbike Danger, there's an NPC sharing the model with Michelle Cannes.
- The map used to search for races is a beta map, but looks closer to the final. Several differences can be spotted.
- If the player recruits a gang member before entering a race, the gang member will spawn at the starting point and attempt to enter the player's vehicle.
- Sometimes, a car that is submerged in water might not cause instant mission failure as long as Carl does not leave the vehicle.