Very recently, we mentioned that EA is striving to make Need for Speed Payback as polished as possible and the first step towards that was the Speedcross update that was released less than a month ago. Now it appears that the newest entry in the NFS franchise is getting an online free roam mode as well. To be precise, though, you do have this option already (technically) but you need to wait for the lobby to fill up in order to access it. This mode will give you the true online free roaming experience without having to compete in actual races.
It comes as no surprise really as this is something that most people wanted even before the game was officially released. Now, we don't know all the details yet as the only thing that was announced on their official Twitter account is that it is coming in 2018. We believe that it will be out pretty soon but, we will have to wait nonetheless. The great news is that this mode will be free for everyone so you won't need to spend any additional bucks to get your hands on it.
If you are still playing this game, here's another reason to keep that trend going. Otherwise, consider picking it up again once this update is released.