Note that apparently this issue does not happen to everyone since the protondb entry for the game has one bronze and one silver reports that don't mention it: https://www.protondb.com/app/493490
I gifted the same game to my wife and the problem did not appear on her PC. All menus in portuguese. Same distro but slightly different hardware configuration (GTX 1050, 8 GB RAM, monitor is not ultrawide).
Found out that the game obeys partially to one setting (the language.txt file from steam) and partially to another one (the LANGUAGE environment variable), so to fix the language disparity I just went to properties -> launch options and used LANGUAGE=en_GB.UTF-8 TZ= %command% (the TZ is somehow needed, also you can't use en_US). All is good now.
note: confirmed with game developer that this is indeed a bug of the game, and they are trying to fix it. I am collaborating with them by testing.
The game no longer launches with Proton versions newer than Proton 8.
Hello @Rosentti, please add PROTON_LOG=1 %command% to the game's launch options and attach the generated $HOME/steam-$APPID.log to this issue report as a file. (Proton logs compress well if needed.) Also, please copy your system information from Steam (Steam -> Help -> System Information) and the contents of Steam Runtime Diagnostics from Steam (Steam -> Help -> Steam Runtime Diagnostics) and put them in a gist, then include a link to the gist in this issue report.
The game no longer launches with Proton versions newer than Proton 8.
Just tested with proton 9.0-2 and it worked for me.
Name of the game with compatibility issues: City Car Driving
Steam AppID of the game: 493490
Game wont launch on proton experimental
"Bazzite" (64 bit)
Kernel Name: Linux
Kernel Version: 6.17.7-ba14.fc43.x86_64
X Server Vendor: The X.Org Foundation
X Server Release: 12401009
X Window Manager: KWin
Steam Runtime Version: steam-runtime_1.0.20250929.168578
Processor Information:
CPU Vendor: GenuineIntel
CPU Brand: 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-12400F
CPU Family: 0x6
Driver: NVIDIA Corporation NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050
Driver Version: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 580.105.08
proton experimentalx1 2025-11proton 9.0-2x1 2024-08PROTON_LOG=1x1 2024-08
Compatibility Report
System Information
I confirm:
steam-493490.log
Symptoms
Game starts, everything seems to work except most text and buttons appears in russian. Of course english localization is selected on steam, but nevertheless russian is used. Image of main screen: https://imgur.com/a/aTKj8O1
There is a discussion with the developer here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/493490/discussions/0/1290691308580373995/
Reproduction
Select english localization (or any other non-russian, like portuguese) and start the game, or install it with english as default.