Assetto Corsa Rally burst onto the sim racing scene as arguably the biggest surprise of 2025.
A well-disguised development cycle meant that it arrived on the market smoothly thanks to another studio being part of the process, with highlights including a variety of classic and modern machines.
For the first time outside of modding for the original Assetto Corsa or the classic Richard Burns Rally, laser-scanned rally stages are here as well.
In this article, we’re going to look at how to get up to speed on a controller as quickly as possible in AC Rally, allowing you to enjoy sim rallying’s latest to its full extent from the gravel of Wales to the snow-covered Italian hills and the tarmac rivers of France’s Alsace.
The Different Controller Settings for AC Rally
Before setting up your controller, it is helpful to understand what each of the settings represents. This is because, even though the settings may be familiar to you in other sim racing titles, the unique demands of rallying and the implementation of some of these settings in Assetto Corsa Rally may be slightly different to what you are familiar with.
Steering Linearity: This is perhaps one of the most important settings to understand. AC Rally’s Linearity scale goes from 0.5 to 2.0, increasing in 0.1 intervals. Think of this as a multiplier effect on steering strength – a lower value requires more input to steer the car compared to a higher value. This means a lower value deals with oversteer, a higher value with understeer.
Steering Deadzone: This is something that you might use with an older or more well-worn controller. Putting a deadzone on your steering means that a certain amount of input near the centre is not recognised by the game, reducing the impact of any nasty stick drift.
Throttle and Brake Deadzones: AC Rally features 2 deadzones each on the throttle and the brake. These are known as “low end” and “high end” deadzones. You would usually use these like with the steering deadzone, with the “low end” deadzones raising the minimum input recognised by the game and the “high end” deadzones lowering the maximum input.
Assetto Corsa Rally also has a separate menu for Force Feedback effects. The offers are:
Rumble Intensity: This is set on a scale of 0-100, with the higher values meaning more pronounced rumble effects (and potentially feedback on newer controllers)
Effects Type: There are two settings here, “Enhanced” and “Legacy”. Legacy is designed more with rumble motors in mind, and can be helpful if Enhanced does not work for you. Enhanced works with the technology inside the controller to give you a more immersive experience.
Control Bindings: This refers to the button assignments for various car functions on the controller itself, such as ignition, shifting gears up or down, the pit speed limiter, etc.
The Default Controller Settings
AC Rally’s default settings are a very good starting point. It’s designed to mimic the experience of driving on a wheel whilst using a controller, with linear inputs and the most immersive experience available to your controller.
The default controller settings look like this:
Steering Linearity: 1.0
Steering Deadzone: 0
Low End Throttle Deadzone: 0
Top End Throttle Deadzone: 0
Low End Brakes Deadzone: 0
High End Brakes Deadzone: 0
Rumble Intensity: 100
Effects Type: Enhanced
Assetto Corsa Rally Recommended Controller Settings
Recommending the best controller settings for AC Rally is actually incredibly difficult. This is because AC Rally features so many changing variables.
The default settings generally work for four-wheel-drive cars, but will induce understeer in front-wheel-drive cars and oversteer in rear-wheel-drive cars.
These effects will become more pronounced on different surfaces too, with rally cars being more responsive on tarmac as it allows the cars to put their power down more effectively and less responsive on gravel (and especially snow) due to the more loosely-packed surfaces.
Our recommendations are as follows:
Steering Linearity: 1.0 (down to 0.6 for RWD, up to 1.5 for FWD)
Steering Deadzone: 0
Low End Throttle Deadzone: 0
Top End Throttle Deadzone: 0 (though you may vary this car-by-car)
Low End Brakes Deadzone: 0
High End Brakes Deadzone: 0 (use this and the ABS assist to prevent lock-ups)
Rumble Intensity: 100
Effects Type: Enhanced (switch to Legacy if you don’t feel any Force Feedback)
Now Enjoy AC Rally
With these new controller settings, you should be well on your way to enjoying AC Rally more than ever. You might not become the next Sebastian Loeb, but you’ll sure have lots of fun trying to nail those Scandy flicks!
