Car enthusiasts will soon get the opportunity to experience the goodness that is Eutechnyx’s Auto Club Revolution – a free to play racing game that features a host of customization options and its own social network.

The development team was kind enough to show off its latest build earlier this month which allowed us to see not only how it’s coming along, but also to go hands-on and get in a pair of races.

At first glance, it’s surprising to see just how good ACR looks. Seriously, if you were passing by, you’d think it was a AAA title for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as it looks that good. Car and track details were very high and lifelike. The best thing about it is that you won’t be required to use a gaming PC or laptop. In fact, the laptop we used was a pretty moderate one and still allowed the game to run pretty smoothly.

Upon its release, gamers will only need to download an 18MB client that comes with one track and one car. However, once you start playing, the rest of the game’s tracks and cars will simply stream into your game, so you won’t need to keep downloading more and more content. The game features some real world tracks such as Dayton and 40 car manufacturers such as BMW, Jaguar, Nissan, Bentley, Mitsubishi and Nissan. Though the game’s vehicles certainly have a European flavor, the development team did say that they were working on including some American muscle cars in the near future.

But while racing is all good and fun, the game really seems to shine with its editing tools. Hardcore fans can no doubt spend quite a bit of time customizing their vehicles, be it with a new coat of paint, decals, new parts and more; all while being able to do so easily and quickly.

Then there’s the game’s website (AutoClubRevolution.com will give fans a community page or hub, where they can discuss the latest vehicles and show off their own stuff, be it through forums or chat rooms. The team is also partnering up with Fox Sports in order to stream live news and a challenge bar will be present that gives you daily tasks to perform. Leaderboards will also be present, with each vehicle having a VPR (Vehicle Performance Rating) to let others know where you stand.

Certainly there are also monetization options that let gamers pay real cash to buy new cards, tracks and more. The development team however says that you can also use e-bucks or credits, so you don’t have to actually buy anything if you don’t want to. Eutechnyx says there will be monthly content drops so gamers will have something to look forward to on a consistent basis.

Auto Club Revolution is currently in a closed beta but an open beta is expected on Thursday, that will make 30 cars available and a few tracks. Racing fans will want to keep their eyes peeled for this one.

[jwplayer mediaid=”36369″]