Assetto Corsa EVO Mods: The Complete 2026 Guide

Assetto Corsa EVO is now moddable, and unlike the original there is no Content Manager to hold your hand. This is the complete process: installing cars, using them online, running a modded server, and building your own with the official SDK.

For most of its Early Access life, Assetto Corsa EVO had no mods at all. Kunos Simulazioni originally said modding would arrive only after the v1.0 release, and even then through a vetted, tightly controlled pipeline. That plan is dead. The tools are here, they are official, and the studio has publicly committed to shipping them without limitations.

The result is a modding system that works nothing like the original Assetto Corsa. There is no Content Manager, no Custom Shaders Patch, no drag-and-drop launcher. There is one folder, a set of rules, and a few traps that will waste your afternoon if nobody tells you about them.

Here is everything, in order.

What changed, and when

Three updates matter, and knowing which one introduced what will save you from following outdated instructions.

• Update 0.7, 3 June 2026. The ACE SDK arrives, distributed through the Tools section of your Steam library. Car editing only. Mods work in single player exclusively.
• Update 0.8, 9 July 2026. Multiplayer mod support lands, alongside Kyalami, three new cars and a significant VR overhaul.
• Update 0.8.1. Server-side handling is formalised. Crucially, mods must be re-exported to generate a JSON file before they can be configured as compatible server content. Any mod built before this update needs redoing.

We covered the strategic decision behind all of this in our piece on why Kunos went all-in on modding, and the full 0.8 changelog in our 0.8 update coverage.

What you can and cannot mod right now

This is the section that prevents disappointment. Be clear about the current scope before you go looking.

You can: install and drive community-made cars, both entirely new vehicles and modified versions of existing ones. You can use them in single player. You can use them in multiplayer, provided the server allows it. You can build your own cars with the official SDK.

You cannot: install track mods. The SDK’s first release covers cars only, with track tools confirmed for a later update. There is also no equivalent to Custom Shaders Patch, no third-party graphics extensions, and no app or plugin ecosystem of the kind that grew around the original game.

If you came here expecting the full original Assetto Corsa experience, adjust your expectations. What exists today is roughly where the first game was in its opening months, which is to say: real, functional, and early.

Before you start: two things that break installations

Antivirus and firewall exclusions. Kunos explicitly recommends adding both your Steam installation folder and the Saved Games\ACE folder as exceptions in your antivirus software, Windows protection and firewall settings. Security software routinely quarantines mod files without telling you, and the symptom is a mod that installs cleanly and simply never appears in game.

Know where your user folder is. Everything in this guide happens in your Windows user directory, not in the Steam installation folder. This trips up everyone coming from the original game, where mods lived inside the game directory. In EVO, they do not.

Installing a car mod

The process itself takes about thirty seconds once you know the path.

• Step 1. Navigate to the following location, replacing the username with your own:
• C:\Users\[YOUR USERNAME]\Saved Games\ACE\mods
• Step 2. If the mods folder does not exist, create it. This is normal on a fresh installation and is not a sign that anything is wrong.
• Step 3. Download your mod and extract the archive. Do not copy the compressed file itself.
• Step 4. Copy the folders from inside the extracted archive into the mods folder.
• Step 5. Launch the game. The car should appear in the in-game vehicle hub, complete with whatever liveries the creator included.

That is the entire process. There is no enabling step, no launcher, no configuration file to edit.

The folder-inside-a-folder trap

This single mistake accounts for most failed installations, and it carried over from the original game.

When you extract a mod archive, you may end up with a folder containing another folder of the same name. The one you want is the inner one, the folder that directly contains the mod’s data files and subfolders. If you copy the outer wrapper, the game will not find anything and the car will silently fail to appear.

The quick check: open the folder you are about to copy. If it contains a single folder with the same name, go one level deeper.

Where to find mods

The scene is young but moving quickly. The first wave was, predictably, chaotic, and included a driveable banana. What followed has been more serious.

• Link: Modland

Notable early releases include the Abarth 1000 TCR by Pessio, a known modder from the original game who described it as a beta made largely to learn the new SDK. There is also a Porsche 992 GT3 RS Manthey Racing pack from Ceky Performance, a BMW M3 Touring 24h, and a set of Formula 1 models plus a 499P LM Hypercar from SimDream.

Quality varies enormously, which is expected this early. Read the mod description before installing. If a creator describes their work as a beta, treat it as one.

Using mods in multiplayer

Multiplayer mod support arrived with 0.8, and there is one rule that catches people out constantly.

Every driver must have the mod installed locally. The server does not distribute content to clients. If you want to join a modded server, the modded car must already be sitting in your own Saved Games\ACE\mods folder before you attempt to connect.

This is different from how many sim racing platforms handle it, and it means joining a modded lobby requires knowing in advance what content it runs. Check the server description or the community running it.

Running a modded dedicated server

If you host for a league or a group of friends, the process is slightly more involved and the 0.8.1 changes are mandatory reading.

• Step 1. Re-export the mod through the SDK if it was created before 0.8.1. This generates the JSON file the server needs. Mods without it cannot be configured as compatible server content.
• Step 2. Place the modded car into Saved Games\ACE-Server\mods\
• Step 3. Place the accompanying [modded_car].json file into the same Saved Games\ACE-Server\mods\ folder.
• Step 4. Launch ServerLauncher.exe and configure your car restrictions to include the modded content.
• Step 5. Launch the server.
• Step 6. Tell every driver who wants to join that they must place the same modded car in their own Saved Games\ACE\mods\ folder.

Update 0.8.1 also allows cars to be loaded from the Saved Games\ACE-Server folder directly, which simplifies content management for anyone running multiple configurations.

Creating your own mod with the ACE SDK

The SDK is free to anyone who owns the game and is distributed through the Tools section of your Steam library, alongside the game itself.

What it currently offers is a car editor. You can add, remove or adjust individual parts on existing vehicles, or build one from scratch. It runs on a PBR material pipeline, the same physically based rendering standard the Kunos development team uses internally, which is a meaningful signal: community creators are working with production-grade tooling rather than a cut-down version.

One honest caveat from Kunos themselves: this first release is aimed at technically skilled creators, not casual users. If you have never worked with 3D models, material pipelines or physics files, the learning curve is steep. This is not a livery editor.

Livery and track tools are confirmed to follow in later updates. Custom liveries have also seen improvement, with external liveries reworked for garage sharing and a livery linker integrated into the car customisation menu in 0.8.1.

Troubleshooting

When something goes wrong, the diagnostic files are in a predictable place.

• The mod does not appear in game. Check the folder-inside-a-folder issue first, then confirm your antivirus has not quarantined the files.
• The game will not start after installing a mod. Remove the mod from the folder and relaunch. If the game starts, the mod is the cause.
• Persistent startup failures. Kunos recommends deleting the entire Saved Games\ACE folder and trying again. Back up your car setups first, since they live there too.
• Reporting a problem. Always attach the log.txt file from Saved Games\ACE\. For crashes, zip and attach the whole crashdumps folder from the same location.
• Server rejects a mod. Almost always the missing JSON file. Re-export through the SDK.

What is still coming

Track modding is the big one, and it is confirmed rather than speculated. Livery tools are expanding. The wider question is whether EVO develops the kind of ecosystem the original game has, where community tooling eventually surpassed anything the developer shipped.

That is not guaranteed. The original benefited from a decade of accumulated momentum and from third-party tools that Kunos neither built nor sanctioned. EVO’s version is official, which means better integration and slower, more controlled evolution.

What has changed is the direction of travel. A studio that planned to gate modding behind a vetting process is now shipping unrestricted tools during Early Access. Whatever else you think about EVO’s development, that is a genuine reversal in the community’s favour.

Useful links

• The official Kunos Simulazioni forum hosts the SDK documentation and the AC EVO support subforums.
• acevo.gg is the official Daily Racing platform introduced with 0.8.
• If you do not own the game yet, Assetto Corsa EVO is available on PC, and the original Assetto Corsa Ultimate Edition remains the reference point for what a mature modding scene looks like.

One final note for VR drivers. Update 0.8 brought foveated rendering and a substantially reworked VR pipeline, which makes running heavier community content considerably more viable than it was. If you are pairing mods with a headset, a Pimax Crystal is the most common pick among EVO drivers running high resolutions.

See you on the track!