Campaigns are collections of small scenarios based on specific themes, including races, chases and stunts.

Players can utilize various objects ranging from road barriers to weapons such as cannons in order to inflict damage on other vehicles.

This gameplay mode features four career progress trackers: Motorsports, Laborer, Specialized, and Adventurer.

[citation needed] Vehicles in the game consist of a soft-body node-beam structure similar to those in Rigs of Rods.

[8] The physics engine simulates a network of interconnected nodes and beams, which combine to form an invisible skeleton of a vehicle with realistic weights and masses.

In terms of soft-body physics, vehicles realistically flex and deform as stress, such as impacts from collisions, is applied to the skeleton.

[9][10] Aside from body deformation, various other types of damage are simulated such as degraded engines, detached doors and shattered windows.

[citation needed] In 2011, some Rigs of Rods developers gathered and decided to improve upon the open-source software with a spiritual successor.

[14] On 28 May 2012, BeamNG released a YouTube video entitled "Revolutionary soft-body physics in CryEngine3" that featured the vehicle deformation technology.

[13][9] Originally, BeamNG.drive was to be based on CryEngine 3, but its use in a driving game uncovered numerous bugs, leading development to be rolled over to a modified version of Torque 3D.

[26][27] Automobile magazine praised the game for its diverse selection of vehicles and its realistic crash physics, saying that "the IIHS has nothing on BeamNG.drive.