If your menu shows a rival is defeated but you still need their progress:
: Having more than one save file in your Documents/NFS Most Wanted folder. nfsmw blacklist defeated bug fix patched
Sometimes data corruption occurs because of modern Windows (10/11) file permissions. If your menu shows a rival is defeated
: Using mods like Extra Options and accidentally enabling the "Unlock Everything" (F5) feature in Career mode. nfsmw blacklist defeated bug fix patched
If your save is already "corrupted," you can use the NFS Extra Options mod to manually fix the flags.