About
Project CARS 2 is a motorsport racing simulator and the second entry in the Project CARS series. Built on Slightly Mad Studios' proprietary Madness Engine, it features the LiveTrack 3.0 system that dynamically simulates weather, seasons, and evolving track surface conditions across a race weekend.
It shipped with a large roster of cars and circuits spanning many motorsport disciplines and was well received for its depth and physics. It was delisted from Steam in 2022 after the car and track licenses underpinning its content expired.
Screenshots
Official store screenshots from Steam — deckport links them, never rehosts. Hover to pause; click to preview.
Identity
Launch
- Binary
- pcars2.exe
- Needs files
- none beyond the binary
Proton
- Version
- proton_experimental
- Winetricks
- —
- ProtonDB
- ProtonDB Platinum runs flawlessly
⚙ Setup notes
DRM: Delisted Steam game (appid 378860), retired from Steam 2022-09-21 over expired car/track licensing. No invasive DRM (no GFWL/Denuvo). Windows racing sim, ProtonDB Platinum.
Proton: Use proton_experimental — other Proton branches have been reported to mis-launch the game (Steam shows "running" with a spinning logo and no window).
Launcher: A separate Launcher.exe splash may show first; the main game executable is pcars2.exe — let the splash pass through to the game.
Controller: Native XInput gamepad and racing-wheel support, so the Deck's built-in gamepad works out of the box for driving. A Steam Input layout is not required to play, though paddle/touchpad bindings and in-game Steam Controller config are limited.
Install: deckport only configures the prefix; it never bundles or links the game files.
The one thing to know
Supply your own copy. deckport links nothing.
Delisted: Removed from Steam 2022-09-21 (publisher retired it over expired licensing — no longer for sale).
Status: Community ProtonDB reports rate it Platinum (156+ reports, strong confidence) and confirm it runs on Linux/Proton; not yet verified on a Deck for this exact recipe.
Proton: Requires proton_experimental; other Proton versions have been reported to fail to launch (spinning Steam logo, no window).
Controller: Native XInput controller + wheel support, so the Deck gamepad works for driving without a custom Steam Input layout (paddle/touchpad bindings are limited).
Online: Multiplayer/leaderboards may be degraded post-delisting; single-player and career are unaffected.
Community guides
Write-ups and threads from people who got this (or a similar) game running. deckport links to them — it doesn't reproduce them.
Get the artwork
deckport never hosts game images. Open this game on SteamGridDB, pick
the cover / hero / logo / icon you like, and drop them into the
game folder under .deckport-art/ before you push it to the
Deck. The importer files them under the right names automatically.
Run it on your Deck
Two files: the one-time importer (deckport.py) in your
Deck's home folder, and this game's install helper. Copy the game
into ~/Games and run the helper with Steam closed — it
writes the recipe (binary, launch options, Proton version)
and registers the shortcut with artwork.