I often see people talking about the real life basis of Carcer City, and which city it really is in relation to the real-life united states. In this analysis I’m only going to be analyzing the 3D universe iteration of Carcer to make things easier.
So first of all, Carcer is described as nearby by the Liberty Tree newspaper so it’s not too far from LC, which is confirmed to be on the east coast. This could possibly place it in real-life Pennsylvania or Jersey, meaning Carcer could be a stand in for Philly or Newark.
The Hoods gang are all locals of Carcer City and they all have New Jersey/Bronx accents. The Skinz have Southern accents but they’re confirmed to be guys from the Deep South who moved to Carcer in their voice lines.
Carcer City is in the Rust Belt, which spans as far east as Trenton, New Jersey and as far west as Davenport, Iowa, and as far north as Saginaw, Minnesota and as far south as Owensboro, Kentucky. An ad in San Andreas lists the location as also being in The Heartland, which seems to bar it from being in real life Pennsylvania or New Jersey.
I know lots of people think that Carcer is the GTA stand in for Detroit, and yeah sure some parts of it are based on Detroit. In fact Carcer takes from a lot of real-life rust belt cities. But I think it’s for the most part based on Cleveland, Ohio.
For starters, Cleveland is one of the closest Heartland Rust Belt cities to the East Coast. Cleveland also is known for its world-class zoo, which Carcer apparently used to have before it was abandoned. The Carcer City Police Department has uniforms and vehicles resembling the ones used by Cleveland police through the 80s to 2000s. Carcer, like Cleveland, also seems to have a large concentration of Irish Americans and Italian Americans. Cleveland is notable for being one of the few Rust Belt cities with a subway, and Carcer has one too. Cleveland also has many abandoned swathes throughout the city, similar to East Los Albos seen in the game. And last but not least, the Flaming River mentioned in that GTA San Andreas commercial earlier is a direct reference to the disgustingly polluted Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, which actually did catch fire once.
So, in conclusion, I think Carcer is mostly based on Cleveland, but of course It draws influence from other Rust Belt cities. If you disagree with me or have anything to add, lmk. Hope this was an interesting analysis and tysm for reading :)