I was having the same issue. Navigated to the executable file, opened properties and added "Run as Administrator" and its working now.

ok i did not need to do that, i got it working on my laptop without doing that (i guess it does not like windows 10)

I cant get it to work at all and idk how to 'Run as Administrator"

thegreatwolf14, try running it on a bad laptop or it might work on a good laptop

google "18 wheels of steel extreme trucker 2 game crashes on startup" and go to the Forum. someone made a guide on how to make a config file which fixes the crashing issue. I did it yesterday and it worked but i dont feel like looking it up again to copy the config text

decided to make a guide since this seems to be a common problem now. Follow This to fix your game.

I've tried doing all of these but it still doesn't work. I have windows 11 so it might be the cause but idk.

Type this to your config.cfg in: C:Documents\18 WoS Extreme Trucker 2 or create config.cfg if you don't have it.
# prism3d variable config data

uset g_profile "1"
uset r_gamma "1.09"
uset r_msaa "8"
uset r_fullscreen "1"
uset r_mode "1920x1080x32x60"
uset r_device "dx9"
uset g_developer "0"
uset g_flyspeed "100.0"
uset g_lang "en_us"
uset g_colbox "0"
uset g_cache_vlimit "16384"
uset g_ignore_low_fps "0"
uset g_minicon "0"
uset g_console "0"
uset g_texture_usage_stats "0"
uset g_fps "0"
uset g_stream_exts ".ogg;.mp3"
uset ds8_mix_channels "2"
uset ds8_mix_depth "16"
uset ds8_mix_rate "44100"
uset ds8_reverse_stereo "0"
uset s_acceleration "0"
uset s_mix_channels "2"
uset s_mix_depth "16"
uset s_mix_rate "44100"
uset s_device "ds8"
uset r_vsync "2"
uset r_anisotropy_factor "1"
uset r_texture_detail "0"
uset i_device "di8"

Sorry, but this is one of my older posts. I don't try to play this game anymore.