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Work outwards from the device rather than from the settings. First find out whether the machine sees the device at all — a browser can enumerate connected pads and wheels, and if nothing appears there the game will not see one either. If the device is seen but the game ignores it, the usual causes are a compatibility layer overriding the mapping on a storefront release, a driver or firmware version older than the game, or another device holding the first slot. Only after the device is confirmed present is it worth changing anything in the controls menu.

Connect it by cable rather than wirelessly for the test, plug it directly into the machine rather than through a hub, and check whether anything else is connected that also reports as a game device. A wheel, a pedal set and a pad can all be enumerated, and which one arrives first decides which one some software treats as the main device. Our lab lists the order your own machine reports, which is the same diagnosis the official troubleshooting asks you to perform by unplugging things one at a time.

Space on a keyboard, and A on the default controller layout. It is listed in the game as the e-brake. On a keyboard it is the one driving input that is genuinely better than its controller equivalent, because a handbrake is a yes-or-no action and a key is a yes-or-no control.

Set the transmission to Manual, or Manual with Clutch, in the difficulty menu first — the shift bindings do nothing while the transmission is automatic. On a keyboard shifting is E and Q with the clutch on Shift. On the default controller layout shift up is B; shift down is the one row published sources genuinely disagree about, with two printing it as unbound and one tested write-up reporting X, so check what your own layout shows.

Yes, in two different ways, and they are worth separating. The controls menu offers numbered layout presets that rearrange the driving controls for you — several move accelerate and brake off the triggers entirely, and one puts steering, throttle and brake on the same stick. Separately, every action can be remapped by hand, and the game stores up to five custom profiles.

Yes, and the publisher maintains a tested device list covering roughly sixty models across eight brands with separate columns for PC and Xbox. The distinction that matters is not supported versus unsupported but full versus partial: a partial entry means something like force feedback working while the button mappings are absent, and seventeen models on the list are marked as waiting on further support.