Some time back we told you about Electronic Arts’ plans to make over the Need For Speed franchise. The first effort in the plan was the release of Need For Speed: Shift, which received excellent reviews and sold pretty well. Now, the next game in the NFS reboot is finally set to start closed beta testing.

Need for Speed: World will represent a significant departure from the previous Need for Speed titles, as Need for Speed: World is what is being billed as an MMO racer. Need for Speed World will feature a persistent-world that you are connected to with other players that resides on EA’s servers or in the cloud, if you like.

Beyond knowing that the game will arrive this summer, many of the specifics are still unknown about the title beyond the fact that it will offer an extensive progressive leveling system with a variety of power-ups; and, of course, there is the racing experience, which will be at the heart of the game. If you are a racing enthusiast you can head over to the Web site and apply for your chance to get into the beta, but since it is exclusive to the PC, only PC users can apply.

Apply for the NFS: World beta here.