Racing Games: Real Racetracks from Nürburgring to Laguna Seca

Jackie Stewart nicknamed the Nordschleife "the Green Hell", and racing games have been trying to recreate it ever since. The north loop in Germany is 20.830 km long with more than 300 metres of elevation change. Both the Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport series have featured multiple layouts of the Nürburgring, and the first Forza Motorsport licensed the Nordschleife itself alongside Laguna Seca and Silverstone.

Spa-Francorchamps is a 7.004 km circuit in Francorchamps, Wallonia, Belgium, home of the Belgian Grand Prix. Its Ardennes forest setting has made it a popular backdrop in video games going back to the 1980s. Forza Motorsport 5 shipped with Spa among its 17 circuits, and Assetto Corsa Competizione added a 2019 version of Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.

Built in 1922 near Monza, north of Milan, Monza has been the fastest on the Formula One calendar since 1991. It is also a sim-racing venue: the first round of the 2019 SRO E-Sport GT Series, played in Assetto Corsa Competizione, was staged here at Autodromo Nazionale Monza.

The Circuit de la Sarthe hosts the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Its best-known feature was the Mulsanne Straight, about 6 km long. Forza Motorsport 5 includes Circuit de la Sarthe, and the Le Mans 24 Hours video game invites players to race the entire 24-hour endurance course or try a simpler arcade mode.

Suzuka is the figure-of-eight circuit in Mie Prefecture, Japan, where the back straight passes over the front section by an overpass. It has appeared in racing games since the Final Lap series in 1987. Project CARS even built a Japanese circuit inspired by Suzuka, called Sakitto Circuit, with the Ferris wheel in a different place. The real circuit is operated by Honda Mobilityland.

Laguna Seca, near Salinas and Monterey in California, opened in 1957 and is famous for the Corkscrew, a blind crest with a 59 ft drop. It is one of two real circuits among the mostly fictional tracks of Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec. In 2005 Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson tried to beat his Gran Turismo 4 time of 1:41.148 in a Honda NSX on the real track.