Dirt 5 maintains it's off-road racing identity albeit with some structural changes. Moving away from the familiar rally race style in Dirt 4, this generation takes a more traditional racing game approach with circuits, as well as 1v1 races known as throwdowns. Combining traditional racing with an off-road aesthetic gives Dirt 5 a unique flavor compared to its many predecessors.
As mentioned before, Throwdowns are a single racer vs racer competition where whomever of the two participants reaches the finish line first, is the winner. Throwdowns aren't available from the very beginning of the game and require some Career playtime to actually participate.
How to Unlock Throwdowns in Dirt 5
Rather than a specific activity or succession of activities, Throwdowns typically become available after "completing certain actions", as the game explains it. Throwdowns have their own dedicated section apart from the events tab which offers players a variety of race types to try out. More specifically, the events tab has guided pathways, that immediately set up a new race or activity after completing one. Rather than one though, two are offered up and down the path. See, Dirt 5 gives players a bit of choice on how exactly they make their way down the path and toward the end where the diversions begin to converge. Players can freely move up and down the pathways provided they've completed the previous task in order to move forward; but only to the events that are immediately connected. Of course, going back and completing a different pathway for activities missed is 100% possible for a full completion run. Just go back to an older activity, and choose the other alternative that splits off into a different direction.
This is where a bit of uncertainty lies since Throwdowns are unlocked by completing a certain action and not specifically an activity. There's no given way of telling when and where exactly along the path Throwdowns become available. If the action however is to complete a set number of events, or make it to a certain point on the pathway, Throwdowns should unlock where there are only two activity options to select from, period. Meaning further down the pathway, vertically, the number of races/activities start to decrease to the point where there are only two choices in total, and players have to pick one of them. To test this theory players can just move horizontally down the pathway without going back or, move up and down before progressing forward to see how many completions it takes to unlock Throwdowns. Players will know they've succeeded because AJ will randomly start speaking details about Throwdowns.
Dirt 5 is available on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.