Forza Horizon 5: Mexico in Seven Stops

The arch is the very first shot of the Forza Horizon 5 trailer, and the studio worked to capture it. Playground Games hired a boat to explore the area and take photogrammetry data, and Mike Brown says the boat itself still floats around the arch in the game. The Spanish site 3DJuegos listed it among places whose in-game copies show a high level of fidelity. In real life the granite arch is three stories tall, shaped by erosion, at the southern tip of Cabo San Lucas, where the Pacific Ocean becomes the Gulf of California. Sea lions gather around it.

Location precision: The game places a close copy of the arch on its condensed map; the pin marks the real arch at Cabo San Lucas.

Visitor guidance: The arch can be reached by land or by boat.

Guanajuato is the one big city on the map. Forza's own blog points to its winding streets and an underground aqueduct system, and its tunnels, about 2 km long, form the most extensive network in the game, though none lead into the city from outside. In one Showcase you race the Horizon Cargo Plane, whose hold drops a team of motorcyclists as you descend into Guanajuato. The real city has thoroughfares that run underground along old drainage ditches, and its historic centre has been a UNESCO site since 1988. 3DJuegos reported on a comparison that put the Plaza de la Paz beside its in-game version.

Location precision: The game builds its own Guanajuato on a condensed map; the pin marks the real Plaza de la Paz that 3DJuegos compared with the game.

Visitor guidance: The Plaza de la Paz sits in the historic centre, surrounded by the basilica, other churches and former mansions.

The map reveal flagged the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan, and GTPlanet thought it saw a drag strip down the Avenue of the Dead. Later, a Treasure Hunt chest sat between small temples near the Teotihuacan airstrip, just north-northeast of the Pyramid of the Sun speed trap. The real site lies 40 km northeast of Mexico City and was once the largest city in the Americas. Its Avenue of the Dead is a 2 km road, 45 m wide, and the Pyramid of the Sun rises 65 m.

Location precision: The game recreates Teotihuacan on its condensed map; the pin marks the real site at the Pyramid of the Sun.

Visitor guidance: A UNESCO World Heritage Site about 40 km northeast of Mexico City.

In the Tulum Expedition, your guide Ramiro leads you through a tropical storm from his plane, then onto the ancient ruins of Ek' Balam. Here you can tackle optional objectives for extra Accolades and even uncover a Barn Find clue. RacingGames noted that the developers took some license with the site, whose ruins look small on the map but are large in the game world. The real Ek' Balam is a Yucatec-Maya site 25 km north of Valladolid, noted for the plaster preserved on the tomb of Ukit Kan Lek Tok'.

Location precision: The game takes some license with the site and places it on a condensed map; the pin marks the real Ek' Balam in Yucatan.

To kick off road racing in Mexico, the developers built the Horizon Apex site at Tulum, and you reach it by completing an Expedition. In the game, head south from Playa Azul and the big temple cluster beside the road is Tulum; a Photo Challenge once asked players to photograph a 1994 Nissan Fairlady Z there. The real Tulum was a walled Maya port city serving Coba, its ruins standing on 12 m cliffs above the Caribbean. It was most prominent between the 13th and 15th centuries, and the Spanish expedition of 1518 was the first to spot it.

Location precision: The game's temple cluster stands on a condensed map; the pin marks the real ruins of Tulum on the Caribbean coast.

Visitor guidance: One of the best-preserved coastal Maya sites, and a popular tourist stop.

Uxmal sits on the southern edge of the map near the Gran Puente bridge, and its pyramid is clearly visible from the winding country road through La Selva. No events are held here, but the Festival Playlist sometimes sends you to find it, as in the #Uncovered Photo Challenge, which asks you to park an off-roader anywhere in Uxmal and snap a photo. 3DJuegos counted Uxmal among the sites copied with a high level of fidelity. The real city, 62 km south of Mérida, is a UNESCO site whose Pyramid of the Magician has five levels.

Location precision: The game places Uxmal on the southern edge of a condensed map; the pin marks the real Pyramid of the Magician in Yucatan.

Visitor guidance: The ruins lie 62 km south of Mérida and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In the northeast of the map, near the Rush Horizon Outpost, Copper Canyon holds PR Stunts, races and Photo Challenges. The road runs alongside a railway, and in the Catch Me if You Can Showcase you race a Lamborghini Countach against a freight train. The developers say the canyon echoes more than any other biome. The real Copper Canyon, Barrancas del Cobre, is a system of six canyons in Chihuahua, 65,000 square kilometres in size, with copper-green walls. Brown has said the map mixes faithful copies of real places with invented ground.

Location precision: The game's Copper Canyon is a compact stand-in for a vast canyon system; the pin marks the canyon region in Chihuahua.

Visitor guidance: Mountain temperatures are moderate from October to November and March to April, while the canyon bottoms stay humid and warm all year.