How To Install Assetto Corsa Mods – Complete Guide

Assetto Corsa is one of the most popular and most versatile sim racing games available today. In 2024, you can pick up Assetto Corsa relatively cheaply, but it still remains one of the best racing sims you can play.

One of the reasons why Assetto Corsa is so widely loved by sim racers is because of the ability to quickly and easily install mods. Unlike many games, the developers of Assetto Corsa encourage the community to create and install mods to the game.

There are so many mods available for Assetto Corsa, including graphics mods, car liveries, tracks and even completely new cars. Modders are still regularly creating and publishing new mods even in 2024, a full seven years after the game’s initial release.

Why should I install Assetto Corsa mods?

Out of the box, Assetto Corsa is a fantastic racing simulator. It features a selection of great cars and tracks and has a brilliant physics model. However, over time racing games always suffer from the lack of new content.

After over seven years since Assetto Corsa was released, there have been a plethora of new cars in the real world. Mods are a fantastic way of adding these new cars into Assetto Corsa to keep the game fresh.

Fancy racing in a 2022 Formula 1 car? There is a mod for that. Want to add more tracks to the game to compete in a full GT3 championship? Mods can enable you to do this.

Other than adding new content to Assetto Corsa, mods can also add new features and drastically affect how the game looks and runs.

There was never a full weather system included in Assetto Corsa by the developers. However, mods like the popular Sol mod have added a fully dynamic weather system. And mods such as Custom Shaders Patch look to boost the graphical fidelity of the game putting it on par with modern racing games.

Read our buyers guide on the best Assetto Corsa racing wheels.

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How to install Assetto Corsa mods with Content Manager

If you are looking to start installing multiple mods to Assetto Corsa, then Content Manager is a tool that will save you a lot of time!

Other than Content Manager being very helpful for installing and managing mods, it is also a great tool to use as a replacement game loader. Essentially it is a new UI for Assetto Corsa, which allows you to do everything you can within the game.

You can configure and launch race sessions directly from Content Manager, access career mode and change your game settings. Plus the UI is much nicer than the base game’s menu. So I’d recommend downloading it even if you aren’t using mods.

But let’s jump into how to use Content Manager to install Assetto Corsa mods.

Step 1 – Download and install Content Manager

The first step is to download and install Content Manager. You can download it completely free at Assettocorsa.club.

There is a premium version as well as the free lite version if you fancy it. This gives you access to some cool new features which aren’t released in the Lite version, and it supports the developers of Content Manager directly.

Once you’ve downloaded Content Manager, go ahead and unzip it, and then install it.

The first time you boot up Content Manager you will be asked to locate your Assetto Corsa directory. If you know the location of this, great.

If not, head over to Steam, click library and then right-click Assetto Corsa in the left bar. Here you can select manage, and then browse local files. This will open up the directory where AC is installed.

Once you have installed Content Manager, you can quickly and easily install a couple of mods which are fantastic. These are the Custom Shaders Patch and Sol.

Essentially these mods add a host of new settings and features to Assetto Corsa, such as improved graphics settings to make the game look much more impressive.

To install Custom Shader Patch, click the settings button in the top-right menu, and then Custom Shaders Patch in the left menu. Hit the green install button and this will install automatically. Job done.

To install the Sol mod, you will need to head over to Race Department and download the mod. Then you can install it like any other mod using the steps in this video.

Step 2 – Download any mod you fancy

So, step 2 is to start finding mods that you fancy installing. You can find mods from a variety of places, but by far the best is RaceDepartment. You can create a free account and start downloading mods right away.

When you download a mod from RaceDepartment, it will be downloaded in a zip folder. For now, don’t unzip this.

Step 3 – Install the mod using Content Manager

The third step is a really simple one. Boot up Content Manager and locate the mod you have downloaded using Windows Explorer.

Then simply drag the zip file for your mod into the Content Manager UI. Drag and drop it anywhere and Content Manager will start unzipping and installing the mod.

You can view the mod download progress by clicking the hamburger menu in the top right of Content Manager. You will see the mod installation progress in the dropdown.

Once the installation has been completed, the mod will immediately be accessible within Content Manager. You don’t even need to restart the application.

Step 4 – Enjoy the mod

If you are installing a car, track or livery, you can locate them immediately in Content Manager and start using them. If you have installed a new app, you can find the settings for the new app in the settings menu.

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How to install Assetto Corsa mods without Content Manager

If you don’t fancy installing Content Manager, and you would rather install the mods independently, no problem. This is still relatively simple, but not quite as quick or easy as the Content Manager approach.

Step 1 – Locate your Assetto Corsa installation path

To install mods manually, you’ll need to copy them directly into your Assetto Corsa installation folder. So the first step will be to locate this.

If you have recently installed Assetto Corsa, you may remember exactly where you installed it. If you have installed Assetto Corsa via Steam, it will default to your Steam library location.

For me, I have a dedicated Steam folder on my SSD called SteamLibrary. Inside here are all of my Steam games and their data. So my folder path looks like this;

SSD > SteamLibrary > steamapps > common > assettocorsa

This folder named assettocorsa is my main install location for Assetto Corsa and is the path where I would install my mods. If you don’t know the install location of Assetto Corsa, you can find it easily via Steam. Simply launch the Steam app.

In the top menu bar, navigate to Steam > Settings > Download and then click the button titled Steam Library Folders.

This will open the Steam storage manager where you can see the installation path for all of your games. From there, follow the path above.

Step 2 – Download any mod you fancy

Much like the method above, simply download any mod you fancy using in Assetto Corsa. Once you have downloaded your mod, open your downloads folder and open your Assetto Corsa installation fold, so you have both folders side by side.

Step 3 – Unzip your Assetto Corsa mod

With your downloads folder open, you can now open up the mod, which should have been downloaded as a zip file. You can either unzip it to your computer, or you can drag the mods straight out of your zip explorer.

Step 4 – Copy the mod to your Assetto Corsa installation folder

With your mod unzipped or the zip folder open. You should now see a selection of folders that mimic those in your Assetto Corsa installation folder.

If you have just downloaded a new car, track or livery you will see a single folder called content. If you have downloaded a more complex mod such as Sol, you may see more folders within the zip such as apps, extension, system and more.

The idea now is to simply copy these folders directly into your Assetto Corsa folder.

You can drag and drop these from your zip file, or copy and paste them from the mod folder. Just ensure you are copying them into your main Assetto Corsa installation folder, ensuring that the files are being copied to the correct location.

With some mods, you may be asked to overwrite or replace certain existing files. This is normally OK to do, but always check the installation instructions or readme file if there is one supplied.

If you are nervous about replacing installation files, you can always make a backup of your whole Assetto Corsa folder or the files individually.

If the mod you have downloaded doesn’t have a folder that matches a top-level folder in your Assetto Corsa installation folder. For example, if the mod simply has a folder called tracks, and no content folder. You may need to navigate further into your installation folder.

All of your car and track files are located within content, so you should easily be able to find the correct folder to copy your mod into.

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Where to find Assetto Corsa mods?

There are plenty of places to locate mods for Assetto Corsa, but hands down the best resource is RaceDepartment.

Race Department has around 1,000 pages full of mods, with a lot of the most popular mods being listed. These mods are broken down into the following categories;

• Apps
• Career
• Cars
• Skins
• Sounds
• Tracks
• Misc

Assetto Corsa Apps are new additions to Assetto Corsa. Within AC itself, you can find a whole selection of pre-built apps accessible from the sidebar during a race session. Mods add more of these apps, which all do various things. From adding visor graphics to HUD overlays and new timing screens. Apps allow you to do things in Assetto Corsa that the base game doesn’t.

Career downloads add preset championships into the game. These can include championships such as the 2022 Formula 1 championship with all tracks and drivers, through to V8 supercars, Nascar and more. These often require you to download certain mods for these to work, such as new cars or tracks.

Car downloads are fully modelled new cars that can be added to Assetto Corsa. These cars are often custom models, with unique driving physics and sounds.

Skins are new liveries for either existing or downloaded cars. These can add liveries such as the full Formula 1 grid for certain seasons, as well as custom or fantasy liveries.

Sounds are new sound packs for certain areas of Assetto Corsa. These can be new ambient sound packs through to updated car sounds to improve realism.

Track mods add brand new tracks to the base game. In the original AC game, there are less than 20 tracks with multiple configurations. This means that most championships aren’t fully represented, meaning there are tracks missing. If you fancy taking part in a full Nascar season, for example, you’ll have to download a selection of track mods.

Misc includes all mods which don’t naturally fit into the categories above.

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