How to Play

There is no steering

Throttle Track is a free party game that runs entirely in the browser — nothing to install. A laptop or TV shows a slot-car circuit. Everyone in the room joins with their phone, and each phone becomes a throttle and nothing else.

The car is in a slot, so it goes where the track goes. Pull the top of the phone back towards you to accelerate, push it away to brake, hold it flat to coast. That is the entire control scheme, and it is the whole game.

You can see a corner coming for about a second, and you are already going too fast for it. Lift now and you give up the straight you just earned. Lift late and you leave the slot, spin, and lose two seconds getting put back. Nobody is ever confused about why they crashed.

Ready in 30 seconds

1. Open the game on the biggest screen you have — a TV's browser, a laptop, or a projector: that's the host screen.
2. Everyone else points their phone camera at the QR code on the screen — it opens the controller with the arena code already filled in. (Or type the address and enter the 4-letter code by hand.)
3. Type a name, tap JOIN. iPhones will ask for motion access — allow it, that's the tilt sensor.
4. The host picks CO-OP or VERSUS. Countdown. Go.

Calibrate before you race. Throttle is a held angle, not a nudge, so a phone zeroed at the wrong tilt sits at part throttle for the whole race. Hold the phone however you are actually going to hold it and tap 🎯 CALIBRATE. That pose becomes flat.

Play it with your hands instead

If nobody has a phone to spare, a webcam will do. On the host screen, switch PHONES to HANDS at the top, and allow the camera when the browser asks. There is no QR code and nothing to join — the screen with the camera on it is the whole setup.

1. Hold a fist and lower it to open the throttle — down for power, up to lift off. That is the entire control.
2. There is no steering and no card. The car is in a slot and changes lane by itself; sideways movement does nothing at all here, so you can rest your arm however suits you.
3. Straight ahead is re-taken when a race starts, so wherever your hand is on the grid counts as coasting.

A small preview appears in the corner. It puts a ring on the hand it is following and a cross where straight ahead is, so you can see both that the camera has you and which way it thinks you are leaning.

One axis makes this the easiest of the six to play by camera and the hardest to be good at: there is nothing to blame but how early you lifted.

Co-op by camera is one player. One camera follows one hand — put your other hand down or it will simply be ignored, marked with a faint dot in the preview. VERSUS is two, one each side of the picture. Hand games keep their own leaderboard, so they are never ranked against a room of phones.

Three ways round the same six circuits

Solo — you against the clock

All six circuits in order: Round Table, Doglegs, The Kettle, Washboard, Corkscrew, Bootlace. Three laps each, and the clock never stops between them. Your score is the whole campaign, not a single lap.

CO-OP One train, every throttle averaged

One long train with a carriage per phone, and its throttle is the average of everyone aboard. A full train is physically heavier: slower to wind up and slower to haul down. One person losing their nerve costs the room about a fifth of its speed — which is to say they get outvoted.

VERSUS A lane each, same corners

Same circuit, one lane per phone. Points for placing, and nobody is ever knocked out — last place still finishes and still scores. Lanes mean no contact: your race is yours to lose.

The track tells you when

The corner ahead lights red the moment it would throw you at the speed you are carrying right now. It is not a fixed marker on the track — the leader gets the warning earlier than the tail does, because the leader is arriving faster.

Leave the slot and the car tumbles, an invisible hand puts it back, and you carry on about two seconds later. You have lost the corner, not the race.

Solo and versus put you back where you fell. A co-op train is too long to leave draped across a corner, so it restarts from the last checkpoint it passed — the same two seconds, plus whatever ground that costs.

One link, whatever they open it on

The host screen has an INVITE FRIENDS button with a single link. Opened on a computer it mirrors the race live, about a tenth of a second behind. Opened on a phone it explains the missing half: a phone can't be the arena, so it offers to pass the link to a TV or laptop and then scan the QR that screen puts up.

Small print, big font

My phone doesn't do anything.

iPhones need the motion permission — it's asked when you tap JOIN. If you declined it, close the tab, reopen, and allow. Both phones and the game need HTTPS, which this site always uses.

I'm at full throttle without tilting.

Your phone was calibrated at a different angle. Hold it the way you mean to hold it and tap 🎯 CALIBRATE again — it can be done between circuits, not only at the start.

My phone screen rotated and the throttle inverted.

Android phones lock their screen when you join. iPhones can't be locked by a web page — use the 📱 orientation button, or turn on iOS rotation lock.

How many can play?

Six phones per arena, in every mode: co-op puts all six on one train, versus gives each a lane. Watchers: 5 per arena.

Why can't I steer?

Because then it would be a driving game, and a driving game needs a thumb on a screen. One axis means a phone held flat is a real controller, and everybody in the room already knows how to use it.

Does it cost anything?

No. It's a free browser game. If it made your evening better, there's a ❤️ button on the host screen.