In Ridge Racer 6, the Arcade-style handling is all about knowing when to drift and when not to. On simple corners, you need to keep the accelerator down and turn as normal. On tighter turns, a quick release of the accelerator as you turn will cause you to drift, then it's about maintaining the angle to guide yourself around the corner then straight-up on exit. If you use the brake, then you are doing something wrong. The cornering is a bit on-rails which is strange and looks ridiculous and jerky at times, and you can even get yourself in situations where you are facing the opposite direction to where you are travelling.
In most race types, drifting fills up your nitrous meter which is comprised of three segments. You can use nitrous when a segment is full, but saving up and activating two or three segments gives a stronger and longer boost. There's a technique called Ultimate Charge where you time it so the boost ends just as you are about to hit the corner. The extra speed from the boost allows you to speed around the corner, which adds extra nitrous to your meter. There's race types where you cannot use Nitrous at all, and races which you can only use nitrous gained from Ultimate Charge (which is bizarrely known as a Reverse Charge race).
A lot of the skill is knowing how and when to drift, and when to use your nitrous effectively. It is a huge advantage to use the boosts on straights, but time it so you can take advantage of Ultimate Charge. This comes with experience with knowledge of the track, or using your map effectively to gauge when it is advantageous to use it.
In the main World Tour mode, you are shown a web of races which form multiple branching routes, spanning an initial 111 races. Completing a race unlocks the adjoining races, and the paths can split to surround areas. Completing areas unlocks new cars and liveries. The position of the event in the menu indicates the class (horizontal) and the difficulty (vertical). Completing the events is a challenge because the difficulty is quite random at times, plus, reaching the end of the routes unlocks further areas which racks up the total races to shy of 200 events.
Instead of easing you in to the game, it starts of a bit ridiculous. You have access to only 1 race, and on my first time, I was struggling around 6 place out of 14 for most of the race but I managed to turn it around and finished 3rd. I was proud of my podium finish; until the game told me that I'd failed and had to race again. Only first place is good enough in this game, which is frustrating when you are learning how the game works and will ruin the game's fun for a lot of players.
As you race, you will notice that the cars are rather bunched up. There will be many driving slow, lingering behind, but the top 6 are usually pretty close, and half the time, the leader will be way in the lead. All too frequently, the race pans out where you struggle to overtake the bunched up drivers but manage to catch up in the end and miss first place by a second. Once I got past the first ten races or so, I did go on a massive winning streak on my first time, but then occasionally, you hit a really difficult race which takes multiple goes. It's easy to end up racking over 24 hours and only reach 50% completion like I did.
There are three different types of cars in terms of handling. There's Mild which don't drift easily, Dynamic that drift really easy, and Standard which is in between. The easier to handle cars have slightly lower speeds, but I found the Dynamic cars to be impossible to control because they swing out far too easy. Standard cars were my weapon of choice, allowing good speeds and drifting, without being prone to spinning out.
The announcer that provides commentary on the races becomes annoying almost instantly, constantly commenting that you have nitrous, are using nitrous, or your opponents are using it.
Ridge Racer 6 was a launch title on the Xbox 360. Although a bit dated now, it provides a decent amount of fun with it's straight-forward game-play, and plenty of content to keep you busy as long as you are patient and persevere. Although having a lot of content is usually a good thing, it does hold Ridge Racer back because it really drags on and lasts longer than it should.