Every oval and endurance racer knows the feeling of screaming into pit lane only to wonder what the crew is doing with the right-front tire. A viral new indie game called CATCAR Pit Crew flips the camera around: instead of sitting comfortably behind the steering wheel, you and your friends are the pit crew trying not to set the stall on fire. Developer ESGalore opened the game's first free public playtest earlier this week on Steam, running from October 29 through November 2, 2026 with instant access for anyone who clicks request on the store page.
Originally planned as a quiet, small-scale test before clips of botched tire changes started blowing up across racing feeds and YouTube, ESGalore removed the approval queue so entire sim racing leagues can jump straight into the pit box together.
When the stock car slides into the box, nothing is automated. You pump the jack by hand, zip off lug nuts with an impact wrench, haul fresh rubber to the hubs, and refuel manually. Your impact gun runs on a rechargeable battery that has to be plugged into the yellow cubicle terminal between stops before it hits zero percent mid-race.
Rushing a four-tire stop has immediate consequences. Forget to tighten a single lug nut and your driver will watch the wheel roll past them on the oval banking. Overfill the fuel cell and gasoline pools on the concrete, turning one spark into a full pit stall fire.
While balanced around 1 to 5 players, ESGalore left no hard-coded player limit on lobbies. You can let an AI drive the car while everyone crews, or put one friend behind the wheel and another in the control tower calling tire compounds and fuel windows.
Stealing Rival Tires and Deploying Shock Sentries
Between championship rounds, your team spends race winnings on faster jacks, upgraded guns, and pit stall defenses. If your crew runs out of fresh rubber late in a race, you can even sprint into a rival team's pit stall to steal their spare wheels as a desperate backup plan, provided you dodge the battery-powered shock sentries guarding their equipment. You can download and try the free playtest on Steam through November 2.
