Backwards

Backwards (oftentimes shortened to B) is a gamemode in TrackMania Nations Forever map style, as well as a game mode taking advantage of the game's tomfool mechanics to create "the most original trackstyle ever imagined". The player goas is to complete tracks specifically built to be driven backwards (gear stick on “R”).

History
Backwards driving was invented quite late compared to other gamemodes due to it's non-existent use in regular maps. The first intended backwards map ever published to tmx is "Unnamed1backwards" by the now legendary builder aronfisken.

Specificities
Since driving backwards is way slower than forwards, the mappers had to come up with convoluted ideas to make driving backwards faster, such as using the booster bug, using the DirtSlide (patched since 20.7a) or simply by threatening the player by displaying mean messages to forwards drivers.

While driving backwards, the car does not shift gears, and instead shifts "raegs", a gears variant specific to backwards driving. The first player to ever enter 1st raeg, and thus drive backwards, was the now legendary builder aronfisken. While forwards driving grants accession to 6 gears, backwards driving lets you shift up to the 9th raeg (400-440 km/h). Further raegs may exist but are yet to be discovered.

Online
Regular servers are not encline to host games on backwards map, mainly due to the extreme dificulty of entering 1st raeg. To successfully play backwards maps online you'd have to boot the game in version 20.8b (to be able to perform DirtSlides) and the join the only backwards server still running : NASCAR WORLD.

Side note : Keyboards and Spaniards are banned from this server, no reason specified.