What Can You Upgrade on a Car? Every Upgrade Explained
Every car you own has its own set of upgrades, and it is easy to pour credits into the wrong ones. This guide lists everything you can upgrade on a car and explains what each upgrade actually changes, so you spend on what wins races and not on what just looks good.
Upgrades fall into four groups: three performance axes, four nitro axes, a paid prestige tier that extends them, and cosmetics that change how the car looks but not how it drives.
The three performance upgrades
Power raises your top speed and how hard the car pulls, acceleration sharpens how quickly you get up to speed out of corners, and handling sets how precisely and predictably the car changes direction. These three are the ones that matter most, and they are the only upgrades that raise your Performance Index, so tuning them moves the car up through the PI classes.
Spread them to suit the track. Favour handling and acceleration on tight, technical circuits, and lean into power where there are long straights. See the tuning guide for how to balance them without making the car nervous.
The four nitro upgrades
Nitro has its own four axes, separate from performance. Capacity extends how long each boost lasts, recharge shortens the wait before the tank refills, power makes each boost hit harder and pull to a higher speed, and yield increases how much you top the tank back up as you drive and drift.
None of the nitro upgrades touch your Performance Index, so they are effectively free capability inside a PI class. On boost-heavy tracks a fully tuned tank is a real edge, and it never counts against a lobby PI limit.
The prestige tier
Each of the seven axes has a standard tier and, above it, a paid prestige tier. Standard levels can be paid with credits or covered by the free tuning points you earn by mastering a car. Prestige levels are credits only, give smaller gains per level, and are gated: you have to fully master that car and reach a minimum driver level before you can buy them.
Prestige is a deep late-game credit sink and a flex, not a shortcut. The bulk of a car's real gains come from the standard tier, so finish that before pouring credits into prestige.
Cosmetics: looks, not speed
The rest is purely visual and changes nothing about how the car drives. You can repaint the body any colour, apply a paint finish such as a different sheen, and fit a neon underglow. Finishes and underglows are unlocked once for your whole account, then applied to any car you own for free.
Cosmetics never affect performance or Performance Index, so buy them because you want the car to look the part, not to go faster.
Domande frequenti
- Which upgrades raise a car's Performance Index?
- Only the three performance upgrades: power, acceleration and handling. The four nitro upgrades and all cosmetics leave the Performance Index untouched, so you can improve your boost and looks without moving up a PI class.
- Do I have to pay credits for every upgrade?
- No. Standard-tier upgrades can be covered by free tuning points earned from mastering a car. Only the prestige tier is strictly credits, and it is gated behind full car mastery and a minimum driver level.
- Do paint and underglow make the car faster?
- No. Colour, paint finish and underglow are cosmetic only. They change how the car looks and nothing about how it drives or its Performance Index.