[Solved] Game crashes when trying to load (damaged) saved profile (PC)

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Hello guys, I recently bought Cars on Steam and started it.

Story mode did not work on my notebook but on my desktop computer with nvidia graphics - it worked.
After playing for like an hour or so I frequently saved it on the hard drive (as it wanted me to do so every few minutes in the game). I then closed it.

After starting the game again, it asks me if I want to load a profile from the hard drive. When I press "Yes", it shows one profile with the message that it is damaged and can not be used. When I try to load it, the game crashes.
When I wont load a profile, the story mode starts from the beginning again.

How could I fix this? Or should I have better not saved it on "hard drive"?

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And I already tried the "Scened.pak replacement tip" from "Robert - NFS" from 21.04.2019 but it did not help.

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And also setting the compatibility mode to Windows XP Service Pack 2 did not help.

Could it be that the files of the profile are so damaged that I have to create a new one and that now it should work?

[Tap W]

This is an issue that has been known for a long time but currently has no solution.
Who it affects is seemingly random.
Disabling Steam Cloud saving (which the game uses) has no effect, and pretty much anything else has been tried and failed.
Your best bet at this time is to just complete the game in one sitting, or to try your luck with emulating on Dolphin.

However, if you're willing to help in finding a solution, please add me.

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Found a acceptable solution (for me) - hopefully it works for you too. You find it at the bottom.

Unfortunately the save game you achieved until you can create a profile that wont get damaged, gets lost... This one I could not fix for me.

For me, the problem was that I started the game first with no setting in compatibility and later with windows xp service pack 2.

I tried starting it with windows xp service pack 3 too, then with the option "start as administrator" enabled but this one ended in a loop asking for the admin password.

Solution: Set the compatibility to "Windows 98 / Windows Me" and do not enable start as administrator (should not be activated normally).
Now, it will not ask you to load your (damaged) profile anymore (because there is no one). You are then able to create a new one and when you start the story mode new again and e.g. finish the first race, save the game on your hard drive and when you later restart the game, it will ask you to load your profile and now it should find one.
I believe that no one other than me has tried this solution by now so please let me know if it works or unfortunately not.

How to change the compatibility can be found here in the answer of "Tomomimi" from 3rd Jan 2016.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/331160/discussions/0/494632338488145589/