As mentioned previously, following the first race in the Audi R8 5.2 FSI quattro, you can start your career by choosing your first car. There are seven cars to choose from:

• 2009 Chevy Avero5 LT
• 2008 Toyota Yaris S
• 2009 Scion XD
• 2009 Ford Fiesta Zetec S
• 2009 Honda Fit Sport
• 2009 Citroen C4 VTS
• 2009 Nissan Versa SL

 

There's no cost to the starting car, so you can't just choose the cheapest car and try to buy upgrades for it.  this leaves the decision open, to let the player choose the ride that simply appeals to them most.

 

After you choose your starter car, you are sent to the main menu which offers the following options

 

Main Menu 

1. Go Race
2. Upgrade
3. Paint
4. Storefront
5. Leaderboards
6. My Profile
7. Set Difficulty

You are prompted to select Go Race when you are ready, which offers the following options:

1.0 Go Race

1. Season Play
2. Event List
3. Multiplayer

1.1 Season Play

Season Play presents a dynamic career mode that offers 6 seasons of career races that will adapt to the kinds of cars and race types that you select from the options available.  You select the events to fill up your career calendar. In the first year, the player will race in 5 events, each of which will include 3 to 6 races. Every second weekend, there are weekend championships to test your progression as a driver. At the end of each season, the player is presented with a summation of the statistics for the season.

At the end of six seasons, the player will have completed 55 events, raced about 60 hours and likely levelled the player up to Level 50, but there will still be another 165 events to be completed following the season play, through the event list.

1.2 Event List

Choosing event list at any time provides the player with a grid of 220 events to choose from (22 columns by 10 rows). Access to the events is indicated by one of three colours; grey, blue or green.  Grey means that you do not have a car that qualifies for that particular race in your garage.  The grey squares may also have a lock symbol to indicate that they will need o be unlocked, likely through the levelling up of the player's driver.  A blue event indicates that you have a car in your garage that would be eligible for the race but you need to switch cars to race the event.  A green event means that the car you are in meets the requirements of the event. 

The events are sorted in to ten columns based on their genre, likely increasing in difficulty as you go to the right: 

• Testing (10 events) 
• Amateur (30 events) 
• Manufacturer Races (50 Events) 
• ? (40 Events) 
• ? (30 Events) 
• ? (10 Events) 
• ? (10 Events)  
• ? (20 Events) 
• ? (10 Events) 
• ? (10 Events) 

Here's a sample of some of the events that are included in the 220. 

1.3 Multiplayer

Discussed here: LINK

2.0 Upgrade

1. Quick Upgrade
2. Upgrade Shop
3. Tune Setup
4. Benchmark
5. Test Drive
6. My Tuning Setups

2.1 Quick Upgrade

Quick Upgrade provides the player with a quick way to modify their car to be competitive in a given race. The game will present an option to you for the upgrade, display the cost, and provide details on what changes will be made to the car if you should decide to accept the proposal.  This will enable those not familiar with car upgrading to quickly modify their car without going into the menus to figure out how to maximize the potential for their car for each event. 

2.2 Upgrade Shop

With 50% more upgrades than Forza 2, FM3 offers 175 upgrades through a familiar approach to car upgrades under the following categories:

• Engine and Power
• Platform and Handling
• Steering?
• Wheels/Tires?
• etc. TBA

2.3 Tune Setup

With more upgrades and a dedicated leaderboard system, tuning the cars is set to become increasingly important in FM3, like painting was in FM2.  Fm3 includes a risk and reward structure for creating the optimal tune for any given track.  While the average user will be thankful for the auto tune option, experience tuners, will tinker with their cars to develop something better than what the AI came up with.  However, the risk part of the equation may become a factor, as apparently you can really mess up the car with a bad tune.

2.4 Benchmark

Likely similar to FM2 with enhanced options.

2.5 Test Drive

Likely similar to FM2 with enhanced options.

2.6 My Tuning Setups

Likely similar to FM2 with enhanced options.

3.0 Paint

A number of enhancements to the very popular paint features of FM2 will be found in FM3. One significant change is the inclusion of a full color spectrum, providing creators a much more powerful tool.  

4.0 Storefront

Discussed in the Community Section 

5.0 Leaderboards 

Discussed in the Community Section 

6.0 My Profile

Like in FM2, FM3 contains an RPG element, your driver will level up based on your experience in the game.  A driver will rank up to level 50 based on the race earnings in the game. FM3 is even more generous than FM2, gifting the player a new car for each level they increase.

While I have yet to see any video of this section, I suspect there would be information on the player's current rank, race earnings, perhaps a link to their garage or a link to leaderboards, or sponsorship agreements (e.g. 10% off Pirelli tires), similar to the "right bumper button" in FM2.

7.0 Set Difficulty 

Discussed here: LINK