Driving skills
How to Drift in a Racing Game: A Beginner Guide
In short
The simple mechanics behind a clean drift: how to break traction on purpose, hold the slide, and get back on the throttle without spinning.
Key takeaways
- A drift has three stages: break traction, hold the slide, exit clean.
- A slide scores only above 35 km/h, and counts as a Drift skill after 0.6 seconds.
- Link drifts within 2.5 seconds to climb the chain multiplier, up to five times.
- Every counted drift refills 18 percent of your nitro tank.
A drift is a controlled slide: the rear tyres lose grip on purpose while you steer the car through the corner at an angle. Drifting is the fastest way to make a corner look good, and once it clicks it is also a genuinely quick way through tight, low grip turns. The trick is that it is a sequence, not a single button. Get the order right and the car does most of the work.
This guide breaks a drift into three stages you can practise one at a time: break traction, hold the slide, and exit clean.
Every tip here works in ApexMidnight, a free racing game that runs right in your browser.
Start racing freeStage one: break traction
A drift starts by deliberately losing rear grip as you turn in. The two reliable ways to do it are lifting off the throttle sharply as you steer (a lift off), or tapping the handbrake for a beat (Space on a keyboard, X or Square on a controller). Rear wheel drive cars step out the easiest, which is why they are the classic choice for learning, and most of the car roster is rear wheel drive.
Do this before the apex, not at it. You want the car already rotating as you reach the tightest part of the corner.
Stage two: hold the slide
Once the back steps out, steer into the slide (countersteer) and feed in just enough throttle to keep the rear spinning without snapping straight or spinning fully around. This is the part that feels like balancing, because it is. Small, constant corrections beat big ones.
Keep your eyes on the corner exit, not the wall. You tend to go where you look.
Stage three: exit clean
As the corner opens up, gradually straighten the wheel and roll on the throttle so the car hooks up and fires down the next straight. Snapping off the throttle here is the most common way to spin, so be smooth.
Practise on a slower car first. A lower powered, well balanced car is far more forgiving than a hypercar while you learn the rhythm, and the best cars for beginners are exactly that kind of car.
Clean drifts also pay. A long, controlled slide banks skill score as you hold it, and that score converts into Apexons at the end of the race, which makes drifting one of the most direct ways to earn more per race.
How drift scoring works
A slide only scores above 35 km/h, and the points grow with both its angle and your speed: a wide slide at pace scores many times more than a shallow one at walking speed. Points build every moment you hold it, and a slide that lasts at least 0.6 seconds also counts as a Drift skill on the HUD.
Keep it on the tarmac. Running wide onto grass or run-off scrubs speed fast, and a slow slide is a low scoring one.
| Rule | Value |
|---|---|
| Minimum speed for a slide to score | 35 km/h |
| Minimum hold to count as a Drift skill | 0.6 seconds |
| Time to link the next skill into a chain | 2.5 seconds |
| Highest chain multiplier | 5x |
| Near miss that also feeds the chain | Within about 6 m of a rival, above 60 km/h |
| Nitro refilled per skill | 18 percent of the tank |
Chain drifts into a combo
Every counted Drift raises your chain multiplier by one, up to five times. The chain stays open for 2.5 seconds after your last point, so the goal is to link corners: come out of one slide and into the next before the timer runs out. When it lapses, the chain banks its points multiplied by the multiplier you reached.
Drifts are not the only way to keep a chain alive. A near miss, passing a rival within about six metres above 60 km/h without touching, feeds the same chain, and so does running flat out close to your top speed. A lap that mixes all three is how big scores happen.
Drifting refills your nitro
Every skill that lands, each counted drift included, refills 18 percent of your nitro tank. That changes how a technical section plays out: drift cleanly through a run of tight corners and you can leave it with more nitro than you went in with, ready to spend on the straight that follows.
A ten minute practice routine
Pick a slow, tight circuit, where the corners come quickly and a mistake costs little: Akuma no Tōge and Midori Jigoku have the lowest par speeds in the game. Take a rear wheel drive beginner car, not your fastest one.
On the first lap, practise only the initiation: lift or tap the handbrake, feel the rear step out, then straighten up. On the second, hold every slide past the 0.6 second mark and watch the multiplier tick up. On the third, try to link two corners inside the 2.5 second window. Once that is routine, you are ready to drift in a real race without losing places.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the easiest car to learn to drift in?
- A rear wheel drive car with moderate power and good balance. Too much power makes the slide hard to control, and front or all wheel drive cars resist stepping out in the first place.
- Why did my drift not raise the multiplier?
- It was either too short or too slow. Any slide above 35 km/h adds points, but only one that lasts at least 0.6 seconds counts as a Drift and raises the multiplier. Below 35 km/h a slide scores nothing at all.
- Is drifting faster than gripping?
- Usually not on a wide, fast circuit, where holding grip is quicker. On tight, low grip or technical sections a controlled drift can carry more speed through the corner and looks far better doing it.