How to Drift in a Car Game: Handbrake, Controls and Cash Tips

To drift in a car game, build speed, steer into the corner and hold the handbrake until the rear of the car swings out. With a keyboard that means W to accelerate, A or D to steer and the space bar for the handbrake. We tried exactly this in our own Apex Drift Garage, wrote down what the on-screen Drift counter showed and worked out how many drift points it takes to earn the cash that pays for a paint job.

The controls that matter

Apex Drift Garage prints its controls at the bottom left of the screen (Esc shows or hides the panel). These are the ones you use for drifting:

The game also has keys for the low and high beams (L and K), the indicators (Q and E), the hazard lights (Z), the horn (H), the engine (I) and a ramp (T).

How to drift, step by step

1. Pick the Drift mode. Three buttons at the top of the screen switch between Simulator, Drift and Arcade while you drive. The Drift counter and the cash it earns appeared when we used Drift mode.
2. Build speed on a straight road. Hold W. The speedometer in the top right corner shows your speed.
3. Steer into the corner. Tap A or D toward the turn you want.
4. Hold the handbrake. While you steer, hold Space. The rear tires lose grip, the car turns sideways and tire smoke trails behind it. The Drift counter starts to show points.
5. Keep the slide going. Keep W down and keep steering. The longer the slide lasts, the more the counter shows.
6. End the drift. Let go of Space and steer the other way to straighten the car. If it spins out, press R to put it back on the road.

Pick the camera that fits the job

C cycles through four views: behind the car, inside the car, beside the car and from above. Behind the car is the easiest for steering. From above you see the whole slide, the angle of the car and the line it takes, which makes it the best view for learning how far to turn before you release the handbrake.

How drift points turn into cash

While the car slides, the top of the screen shows Drift, a points number and a green cash amount. We held W, A and the handbrake through one long slide in a test session and wrote down the counter at six moments while it climbed.

Every reading shows about $1 for every 20 points. We read the numbers from the screen in a single session, so treat them as a guide, not a rule.

What to do with the cash

You start with $1,000. In the garage a new paint color costs $500, and the car changes color on screen before you buy it. At about $1 for every 20 points, one paint job is roughly 10,000 drift points. The garage has seven tabs: car color, window color, wheel color, neon color, smoke color, caliper color and suspension.

A practical order: spend your first $500 on the color you like most, then keep drifting for the next one. The counter kept climbing for as long as the slide lasted, so one long, controlled slide is the quickest way to fill it.

5 drift tips that hold up

• Speed first. Start the slide at speed, not from a stop.
• Handbrake while steering. The slide starts when you hold Space and steer at the same time.
• Look from above while learning. Switch to the top view with C to see your angle.
• Straighten early. Release Space and counter-steer before the car points the wrong way.
• Use R. Resetting the car is faster than driving back from a spin.

Where to go next

Once the handbrake slide feels natural, drive the same car in Apex Drift Garage in Drift mode and watch the counter while you vary your speed and angle. If you want a drift game with nitro, rival races and a career on three tracks, Car Drift Racer 2024 is the other drift game on the site.