Arcade mode

If you're tired of just playing GT mode for a bit, then arcade mode is the perfect option for you. Even though at first glance it might seem that this is just your average quick race mode where you simply pick a car and off you go, you'd be wrong.

This mode will net you some unlockable cars for this mode, and also it will help you complete even more the game, but let's not get ahead of ourselves already.

How this mode works

Once you have selected this mode, you'll be granted a couple of modes for you to choose from.

With the exception of Time Attack, all of the modes will simply let you pick a car and a circuit, with the nuances that each mode might bring into the table.

If this is your first time picking this mode, you'll realize something: there's barely any circuits whatsoever to choose from! Not to worry though, as it is not like Polyphony Digital decided to lock out some circuits from this mode in order to incentivize players from skipping this mode, far from it.

What have they done is very simple: they added a progression system for this mode. If now you're asking yourself on how this unlocking process works, it is pretty simple. To make it more understandable, going to the "Bonus Items" option will help to make everything more visual.

As you can see, there's the entire list of circuits listed in different packs and with some labels for the difficulties. What this means, is that in order to unlock the rest of the circuits locked in this mode you must first win at least one race in each of the circuits unlocked already in single player mode. Said races can be done in any difficulty one may wish to do them, but doing those in harder difficulties will grant you access to new cars to choose from (check the "Walkthrough of this mode" section for more information on the matter).

Walkthrough of this mode

Like we stated in the first section of this page, the progression system is pretty simple. Beat a series of races in some specific courses, and you'll unlock the next set of races to race on.

Down here you have the list of each block of circuits that the game will throw at you alongside the rewards given for winning those races in each difficulty.

Area A

Circuit	Direction
Super Speedway	Normal
Mid-Field Raceway	Normal
Smokey Mountain	Normal
Swiss Alps	Normal
Trial Montain Circuit	Normal
Mid-Field Raceway	Reverse

Area B

Circuit	Direction
Smokey Mountain	Reverse
Tokyo R246	Normal
Grand Valley Speedway	Normal
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca	Normal
Rome Circuit	Normal
Tahiti Circuit	Normal

Area C

Circuit	Direction
Swiss Alps	Reverse
Trial Mountain Circuit	Reverse
Deep Forest Raceway	Normal
Special Stage Route 5	Normal
Seattle Circuit	Normal
Test Course	Normal

Area D

Circuit	Direction
Tokyo R246	Reverse
Grand Valley Speedway	Reverse
Rome Circuit	Reverse
Tahiti Circuit	Reverse
Tahiti Maze	Normal
Apricot Hill Raceway	Normal

Area E

Circuit	Direction
Special Stage Route 11	Normal
Deep Forest Raceway	Reverse
Special Stage Route 5	Reverse
Seattle Circuit	Reverse
Cote d'Azur	Normal
Complex String	Normal

Area F

Circuit	Direction
Special Stage Route 5 (Wet)	Normal
Apricot Hill Raceway	Reverse
Special Stage Route 11	Reverse
Tahiti Maze	Reverse
Special Stage Route 5 (Wet)	Reverse
Complex String	Reverse

Rewards (Easy)

Area	Reward
A	-
B	-
C	-
D	-
E	-
F	Ending A

Rewards (Medium)

Area	Reward
A	Mazda Eunos Roadster (NA) '89 [NTSC-J], Mazda MX-5 (NA) '89 [PAL], Mazda MX-5 Miata (NA) '89 [NTSC-U]
B	Audi TT Coupe 1.8T quattro '00
C	Mazda RX-8 Concept (Type-I) '01
D	Nissan Z Concept
E	RUF RGT '00, TVR Tuscan Speed 6 '00
F	Dodge Viper GTS-R Concept '00, TVR Cerbera Speed 12 '00, Ending B

Rewards (Hard)

Area	Reward
A	Nissan C-WEST RAZO SILVIA (JGTC) '01
B	Lancia DELTA HF Integrale Rally Car '92
C	Gillet Vertigo Race Car '97
D	Pagani Zonda LM Race Car
E	Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Race Car '98, Nissan R390 GT1 Race Car '98
F	Toyota GT-ONE Race Car (TS020) '99, Mazda 787B Race Car '91

Once you have completed all of the races in hard mode, congratulations! Now you can go back to GT mode and finish the game once and for all! (unless you also want to do the time trials)

Time attack

Putting the other modes aside, there's also the Time attack challenges, which is basically its own set of time trials on some specific courses with some preset cars. The times set for those trials are done by members of the Gran Turismo 3's development team; in fact, the best time for the 10th time trial is done Kazunori Yamauchi himself, the president of Polyphony Digital.

As for how this mode unfolds, it is as basic as it can be: beat the best times on all of the courses. The particularity of this mode though, is that the reward is for the GT mode, and not the arcade one, in this case being a Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Race Car '98 and an increase of percentage of in-game completion.