Turn 10 Studios has been slowly letting people know about the rebirth of the long-running sim racing series as the next Forza Motorsport game comes out on October 10. Fans have noticed that the Nürburgring Nordschleife is missing, which is a big deal. New tracks, cars, a new safety grade system, and even new physics are coming. Even though the famous way will be available later as a free upgrade, it won’t be ready for launch. And thanks to Dan Greenawalt, the General Manager of Forza Motorsport, we now know why. Greenwalt told The Drive in an exclusive interview that almost every Forza Motorsport game has had the famous Nordschleife from the start, except Forza Motorsport 5. “The Forza community values the legendary Nordschleife and Nürburgring GP, especially in Rivals and Time Attack,” Greenawalt remarked. We focused on the Nurburgring GP track because it is part of the Builder’s Cup job level and Featured Multiplayer, which has been completely redone for Forza Motorsport. On the other hand, Builder’s Cup and Featured MP put more emphasis on practice or pit stops and shorter sprint races. At first, the long Nordschleife was less critical than the other modes in Forza Motorsport, where shorter races are more common and practice and qualifying take many laps around a specific course. Greenawalt said, “We chose the 20 tracks that best fit our mission and give our players the most interesting experience.” Before the game comes out, three more tracks will be revealed, bringing the total number of ways to 17 at the time of writing. Using development resources to create new types of Builder’s Cup banners makes sense, but this also gives Turn 10 time to change the track. Even though the Nordschleife has been redesigned with laser-scanned data in Forza Motorsport 5, experienced Forza players will know that the studio has never done a perfect job of making the track look real. It has mostly stayed the same since 2014, and an update has been needed for a long time. If you look between the lines, this wait could signify a significant change to the track. Greenawalt went on to say that the “iconic 12.9-mile (20.83-km) Nordschleife will be coming in Spring 2024” and that it “will be the most accurate Nordschleife ever made available in Forza Motorsport. This was a response to Nurburgring improvement pledges. We’ll have to wait a few months to determine if they were right. But if this delay means that Forza fans can finally play on the Nürburgring, it might have been worth it.
