I keep reading all these comments on people requesting certain circuits, but i keep wondering what actually made these circuits so great. Are there certain turns that made the track great? was it the flow of the circuit that made it such a memorable one for you? Was it the atmosphere that came with the track? If we can put together what we liked about certain tracks and what we didn’t like about them, we can get a better picture about what we want and what we don’t want.
Good question - I’ll pick an example from a track that is currently in the game (added originally in FM5). Maybe not my favourite but definitely one which a like a lot.
Spa Francochamps - Coming down the hill is pure adrenalin. Taking every turn with every ounce of knowledge I’ve picked up at speed with momentum.
I watched a friend of mine on twitch tv in B Class a couple of weeks ago. He’s capable of getting to the top of the leaderboard with a clean lap in a race. I said that it was like watching an avalanche
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Flow and elevation changes. Tracks with tons of 90 degree corners like Yas Marina are a waste of space. Dubai Autodrome should be in this game instead, it is soooo much better.
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I agree with this. As mentioned earlier, Spa is a great example of what make a track great. It has elevation changes and diverse corner types/track widths, etc.
^^^This^^^
A lot of the fantasy tracks have great flow and lots of variation in elevation (which I think is why we see the old fantasy tracks requested so often).
New additions like Lime Rock Park, Brands Hatch, and Watkins Glen have great flow.
The more modern tracks that have been added (COTA, Yas Marina, etc.) don’t have this flow, and I find that in Free Play and Multiplayer I dread races on these tracks.
Elevation simply keeps the track interesting and adds additional challenge. Daytona, Indianapolis, and Sebring are all great tracks with decent flow, but they’re fairly flat and as a result feel a little boring.
Nurburgring’s Nordschleife layout is so famous for a reason. It’s a super demanding track with fantastic flow and a variety of elevation changes.
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Enough straight for a stock Exotic GT to hit >150mph and lap time 100 to 120 seconds
Flat s-curve
Elevation s-curve
High speed sweeping bend
First corner in 3rd gear
No more than one corner in 1st gear
Multiple 3-wide straights and corners
Final corner minimum 90 degrees
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One that you don’t get smashed into the first turn.
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For me personally:
#1 - Flow of the track
Verry important factor for me. Thats why i want suzuka and mugelo back, i so miss those tracks!
#2 - Sentimental feeling
Due to living in europe I’ve visited some tracks, for me le mans is #1, spa is #2. Due to being public roads when there is no race, i’ve driven on pieces of the circuit with a vw transporter van and an octavia. I still have a lap on the Nordschleife IRL on my bucketlist.
#3 - Relation with current racing leagues like F1, DTM, WEC
Was phyced to find out the lotus F1 was in F5, also for the spa circuit. Bummed suzuka was gone would love to try out that combo!
Some tracks changed since F5. I know Silverstone got changed IRL, I dont like the new layout although it might be accurate. I loved the flow of the Silverstone track in F3&F4.
I’d like to see a return to circuits where gravel was king…if you went in there you stayed in there. It would certainly solve the problem of racers abusing track limits. 1990s Suzuka springs to mind as being an almost cut-free circuit
I’m a big fan of Sebring, it’s just such a fun circuit to race on. I also liked New York from Forza 3 as that was a mix of pure power and precision braking. Brands Hatch has always been a favourite for me since the TOCA Touring Car games, and of course, Silverstone. The old circuit was good, but the new one is even more fun. COTA is ok, as long as you can get your line the first and third sectors, just right. And Watkins Glen, it just flows really well. Have also fallen in love with Spa Francochamps.
The ones I’m not so fond of: Maple Valley, I always felt that it was very low on grip, Fujimi Kaido, As I’m hopeless at drifting, it never appealed to me, Indianapolis GP, I was never a fan of the layout.
I agree, it is all about the flow and hitting the break and turning in points. Modern F1 tracks are brutal with too many very sharp turns, I find Yas Marina and Nurburgring particularly not enjoyable and not fun at all. The vintage F1 tracks wouldd be more fun, Spa, Monza, original Silverstone, Kylami, Zandvoort, A1 Ring. Also many moto GP tracks would be good along with UK BTCC courses. Love the US road courses Sonoma and Lime Rock are big favourites
Street circuits can be fun if you pick the correct cities, PGR and MSR got this spot on.
Forza 2-4 had great tracks loved pretty much all of them.
TL;DR old tracks good, new tracks bad.
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tracks like Nurburgring and fujimi kaido are very high value to me… I love to focus on long tracks as many people don’t have the patience to learn them properly. I guess I kinda feel special when I hit a good time. fujimi kaido in FM4 were the track in the forza series I have spent my most time. both drifting and hot lapping. such a challenge and a greater appreciation when I managed do drive a good lap 
just my opinion!
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My favorite track that has appeared in Forza is the Suzuka Circuit. What made that track special for me was the layout of the track among other contributing factors. It had elevated sweeping corners that linked well for transitional transfers, decent long straights, fair kinks between long straights, and a tight chicane to test your brakes with. Environmental wise, Id have to say the bridge and ferris wheel were an added bonus (given the real track has that environment). Back in FM2 I got to be apart of tons of good races within that track alone. On the contrary however, the track was unforgiving, not that I’d want it to be more forgiving, but once you screwed up, you were in the sand and in the back.
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In real terms? History, and design. If your track is classic and wasn’t designed by Hermann Tilke in the last decade-and-a-half then chances are looking good. But sometimes the way it’s translated onto the game might not be so great. For instance, I really don’t like Bathurst on here. I can go balls to the wall like Accept did in 1983 but I’m still quite slow compared to other things I do.
Contrast that with Silverstone which I love. It’s obviously a great track, massive history, but the corners are sublime, especially Maggots, Becketts and Chapel. I love that section! I’d have definitely said on Forza 4 that I would be one of the quicker ones in the lap running up to Stowe, before I probably lost time in Club and Abbey.
There are also some tracks on the game that I know well enough to do well on. Sebring is a prime example, I’ve done probably thousands of hot laps around it by now. And now in the wet and night too! I know the lines around there, even now having to give lots of respect to the kerbs. There I can gain time by being tidy and knowing what works. Similar with Nurburgring GP, I can do a job there too.
To be fair on Tilke, it’s the FIA who are butchering track layouts with their safety regulations. Even with them interfering he’s designed some nice layouts, Sepang and Istanbul Park are a couple of really good ones imo.
That flow of corners mixed with straights at Suzuka, all time favorite track. Maple Valley with those momentum sweepers up and down, feather braking and keeping the speed. Tsukuba, in and out of those corners with crucial braking and acceleration.
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In many ways it comes down to one thing that many people have mentioned already, flow. Tracks that flow are great to drive, yet this does not mean they’re good for racing. There may be no overtaking possible, for a variety of reason, lack of overtaking zones, the track may lend itself to only one optimum line or it may be to narrow. The scientific approach that Tilke and Apex use however often leads to a lack of flow, with long straights leading into designated overtaking zones often breaks up the flow, giving the track start-stop feel. This also leads to bad racing in my opinion, as evident with tracks like Yas Marina or COTA. In the end it’s creating flowing sections with ample opportunity for overtaking and line choice that creates the truly great tracks.
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For me, I like tracks that have a nice flow to them. Tracks like Nurburgring, Sonoma, Bernese Alps, Laguna Seca, Spa, Maple Valley, Camino Viejo, etc. I also enjoy the “original” tracks on Gran Turismo for the same reason (Trial Mountain, Grand Valley, High Speed Ring).
I don’t have much use for tracks like Yas Marina or the GP Circuits on the oval tracks.
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Flow, fast corners, history. Oddly enough, I seem to do really well on courses I’ve been to (well, good for me. Nowhere near the top of the leader boards), even though I’ve never raced on them… Watkins Glen, Lime Rock, Daytona, Indy. Utterly hate Yas Marina. No flow at all.
My criteria on a “great” track is quite generous. The overall flow, beauty, and challenge of a track are definitely symptoms of an amazing track. Oddly I even like Tiikedromes, but not as much as I do Le Mans, the Nurb, Sebring, Spa, and numerous other historical tracks.