The Ashtray

Your Way

 * Checkpoint Race
 * 10 Entrants
 * Dirt Roads / Trails & Off-road short-cuts
 * Buggy
 * Each Difficulty ... +1 Star, +X FUEL
 * Any Difficulty ... Oil-skinned Cropped Pants design, Vista Doppler
 * Your Spider Wraith will tear this one up, even on Legendary. Don't get too carried away with short-cuts early on. Early check-points lure you into short-cuts riddled with boulders, trees & deep dips that can cause more trouble than it's worth. You can cut a few corners through the weeds and trees, but generally follow the course. You'll need to watch out for annoying AI on this one, as they randomly slow down or swerve around like drunk drivers for no reason getting in the way. From about checkpoint 5 to 8, you'll on a dirt road that weaves back-n-forth across a deep, dead-drop stream. Be very wary of short-cuts here, because if you fall into that stream you automatically wreck. After about checkpoint 9 the terrain is more forgiving, providing ample opportunity to cut through trees and fields to straighten the path towards checkpoints. Your Spider Wraith will glide around the trails on this one like it was built for it, and keep ample speed through the short-cuts. So, just use some good, solid driving and own the competition. This race contains 2 pieces of scenery which are not present during Free Ride: Giant wind turbines and a ruined village.

Woodstock

 * Checkpoint Race
 * 9 Entrants
 * Dirt Roads / Trails & Off-road Short-cuts
 * SUV
 * Each Difficulty ... +1 Star, +3050 FUEL
 * Any Difficulty ... Wild Fangs (Moto)Cross Helmet, Liveries Doppler
 * The Dreadnaught can win this on Legendary. The Knightmare  might be able to, also, but it could get tight. The annoyances on this race are: 1) idiot competitors slowing down for no reason and getting in your way, 2) ramps slowing you down with air time, 3) no really good short-cuts. From the start you'll probably need to swerve to the right in order to keep from rear-ending the guy in front of you (the two guys in front of you seem to be laggards). Follow the dirt road, and in a short while you'll come to some trees you can cut through to get to another checkpoint. Not much of a short-cut, but it might help you pass a few idiots instead of getting plowed into. You'll round a corner, and after the 4th checkpoint there will be a tanker truck in the road that the competitors love to get caught up on. If you can deftly swerve to the right around the mess you should be able to take a lead. You'll head down a hill, and hit your first ramp. Might as well hit this one just to straight-shot the checkpoint. You'll head down more roads, but you'll come across 2 more ramps. Try to avoid them if possible, that way you don't slow down and waste time in the air. From there it's just a matter of following some trails and dirt roads to the final checkpoints and Finish line.

Ashes to Ashes

 * Checkpoint Race
 * 10 Entrants
 * Mostly Off-road
 * Truck
 * Each Difficulty ... +1 Star, +3350 FUEL
 * Any Difficulty ... Classic Moto Jacket, Challenges Doppler
 * The Bullfrog can blow through this even on Legendary. You start off-road, and most of this race is just bee-lines through off-road bits and a few on-road bits when you can find them convenient. Don't be afraid to short-cut, because the terrain is fairly forgiving. The only issue is it has lots of bumps that the Bullfrog seems to love to jump off of instead of hugging. Try to aim between hills or for flat spots as much as possible in order to keep your wheels on the ground. Towards the end of the race, stick to the dirt road towards the finish. Because, if you try to bee-line there you'll get stuck at a steep incline at the foot of the hill.

Challenges
Warning: While the career races in The Ashtray are cake walks, the challenges are some of the most frustrating, if not impossible, ones in the game. It's as if a single, unforgiving developer at Asobo designed all the courses for the region to either troll the player or give them a giant middle finger. Get ready for tight time limits, cheap terrain that has little to no short-cuts and auto-wrecking death-traps, and competitors that blatantly get in your way and cheat their little asses off. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Speed Run

 * 1 Entrant
 * Motorcycle (Easyrider)
 * Mostly Asphalt
 * This is a ridiculously difficult challenge that requires perfect riding. The Easyrider has great acceleration and top speed, but it corners like a pregnant cow. This course forces you to try to corner on roads you can't see ahead of very well. It's a disaster waiting to happen the first few times you run (and fail) it. Then, it's just a lesson in frustration as you keep running out of time before you can hit the Finish. Good luck finishing this one.

Chopper Chase

 * 2 Entrants (You & Chopper)
 * Mostly Off-road
 * SUV (Dreadnaught)
 * This may seem impossible the first couple of times you run it, since the helicopter keeps such a crazy pace (even at the finish). The helicopter doesn't bother sticking to roads much, so plow through the weeds to keep up. You'll be able to run a few roads, but don't go out of your way to hit them. You'll eventually see the helicopter veer to the right of a watch tower. Head after it, an you should have a straight-sight of the road in the distance that has the Finish on it (although the game probably won't render the Finish at your distance yet). Instead of following the helicopter, you're going to need to bee-line towards that finish line. (This will require running, and failing, this race once before to know exactly where the Finish is). If you do follow the chopper then you'll most likely realize it doesn't slow down enough at the Finish to give you a chance. That's why it's important to bee-line it towards the Finish. Let the chopper go out of its way and waste time while you bee-line it.

Seek-n-Destroy

 * 3 Entrants (You & 2 Opponents)
 * Buggy (Superfly)
 * Asphalt
 * 5 minutes to catch 2 opponents. Easy, right? Well, one competitor loafs down the road, and is easy to catch. The other darts down the road like a bat out of hell, leading you on a long, wild goose chase. From the very start the opponents make a hard-left onto another asphalt road. If you can slow to 1/2 speed and cut this corner without wasting too much time drifting (or flying off into the weeds), your life will be much easier. Why? Because the fastest opponent seems to corner very poorly, slowing a lot, but then takes off on long stretches. So, the better you can corner, the easier you'll catch him. The first guy is a non-issue. Just run up next to him and knock him out. After that, prepare for some fast driving to catch up to the second guy. The terrain is somewhat flat, so tilt your camera to be able to see swerves and curves coming up. The Superfly gets enough speed to straighten out curves by hitting the dirt shoulder without losing too much momentum. Just don't fly into the weeds. If you do, the race is pretty much a restart. Keep an eye on the mini map as the second opponent likes to switch roads. Mostly he seems to just go left, left, left. It's very do'able with the alloted time and the Superfly. Just prepare for 2-3 minutes of nail-biting street action as the second opponent really gives you a run for your money.

Raid

 * 9 Entrants
 * Muscle Car (General Custer)
 * All terrain types
 * This will require some precision driving to pull off.  The course consists of several checkpoints before it finally gets to the finish. Starting out you can cut across the field with the competitors, then cut across the switchback to get right to the asphalt early. This should give you a bit of a lead. However, don't get cocky. The competitors in this race have precision driving and know how to short-cut very well. Generally follow the course and try to cut as many corners as possible. Later checkpoints will provide alternate routes to make a bit of time, but there's just so many trees that heading off-course can prove more fatal than helpful at times. You'll just need to use your map and plot your short-cuts and alternate routes carefully. You should be able to pull a decent lead on 3 checkpoints or so, but you'll end up hitting crappy terrain that causes you to lose it. Towards the very end at the Finish, it looks like you can take a quick short-cut to the Finish. It's actually a major drop-off down to an asphalt switch back in a ravine. The General Custer will almost always wreck if you head down that way. So, you're going to have to fight the competition on this one.

Blitz

 * 1 Entrant
 * ATV (Quadram)
 * Asphalt & Dirt roads/trails
 * This one gives you very tight time limits between checkpoints. Even with near-perfect running you will find your time hitting the red very often. The problem is there's very little in the way of short-cuts, and the course itself is littered with ditches, bumps, trees and other crap to slow you down when you deviate in the slightest. Like the Easyrider challenge, I'm not sure if this is meant as a trolling joke or if the challenge designer purposefully designed it this way as a huge middle finger to the player.

Checkpoint Run

 * 1 Entrant
 * Truck (Tiger Shark)
 * Off-road / Dirt then Asphalt
 * This can be a tight race due to the time limit, so you'll need near-perfect driving to win. The race starts with some dirt road action, however you can bee-line through the weeds to the 1st checkpoint. After that the rest of the race is asphalt without much opportunity to short-cut. You can smooth out the curves by just tap-tap-tap'ing the turn keys to prevent drifting. Just hit each checkpoint as fast as you can, and hope for the best.

Knock-Out

 * 8 Entrants
 * SUV (Sabretooth)
 * Dirt roads/trails & Off-road short-cuts
 * The only way to win this one is to leverage the Sabretooth's hill-climbing to your advantage. The checkpoints are scattered about in a way that you can climb right up several steep slopes to cut major amounts of time (and competitors) from the race. Once you get a decent lead, just cut a few more corners and you should be able to win.

Wild Track

 * Entrants
 * Motorcycle (Shuriken)
 * Dirt Roads/Trails
 * Your Shuriken will chew through this faily easily due to the shortcuts.

Checkpoint Race

 * Entrants
 * Muscle Car (Scorpion)
 * Mostly Asphalt + some Dirt Road
 * The Scorpion has great acceleration and is fast. Unfortunately, its grip sucks and it seems to enjoy getting pushed around by the competitors when ran into. This race will be pretty tight, because all the bozos will keep up with you or prevent you from going around for a bit. The first major obstacle is a right-hand turn. You need to hit the brakes to slow to 1/2 speed in order to turn carefully. Otherwise the Scorpion will go flying past it and spin its tires for what feels like an eternity trying to get going. There will be several hair-pin switchbacks, but they're going up hill, so aren't too difficult. It's the downhill turns that will be the problem (due to more momentum). You'll probably have to run this race a few times before you beat it.

Endurance

 * 10 Entrants
 * ATV (Quadram)
 * Mixed Terrain / Roads
 * This is a long race, so set aside a good 15-20 minutes. From the Start to 1st checkpoint you should probably follow the plotted course. There's some areas to shave off distance and pass opponents here and there. But, drastic bee-lines to the 1st check-point will just find you mired down in weeds & woods while only keeping up with the competition. After hitting the 1st checkpoint, you can keep following the (safe) course to the 2nd, or you can now take a more adventurous (dangerous) off-road bee-line to the 2nd. If you make good speed, you'll end up at the 2nd check-point with a sizeable lead over the competitors by taking the riskier route. From 2nd to 3rd, just stick to the plotted course. It's almost all asphalt, and little to shave off. So, bide your time and make speed. After the 3rd checkpoint you'll start with a mix of dirt roads / trails then end up on asphalt. You can bee-line through the dirt stuff to shave off more distance, but once you hit the asphalt it's once again better to stay on it to make good time.