Video games are the best alternative to being a racing driver, there’s nothing quite like pounding around your favourite race track at full speed. With racing games however come the occasional fantasy track, which sadly, even if we did become racing drivers, we’d never ever get to race on them in real life.
Here are five of the very best video game tracks that really need to be made in real life.
Grand Valley Speedway – Gran Turismo
Gran Turismo’s Grand Valley Speedway is the daddy of all fantasy video game circuits. Being Japan, I’m surprised they’ve haven’t gone about building it in real life, they really should do! The track has a beautiful flow to it and some fantastic corners, the only downside is – which you can see from this video – there’d end up being big debates over track limits.
Mills Metropark – rFactor
Sim racer rFactor had some pretty nice fantasy tracks, including the crazy Lienz Festival circuit, but Mills was the best of a great bunch. There was something very Imola about the track, particularly the quick chicane where you’d get insanely close to the walls.
In true F1 fashion, the circuit changed for rFactor 2 and while it was turned into a proper race track with multiple layouts, it missed out the best corners on the track. Shame.
Prague – Forza Motorsport 5
There’s not been that much to shout about in Forza 5 but one nice thing about the Xbox One racer is the stunning Prague track. Not only does it look beautiful, it’s also a crazy high-speed track – rare for a street circuit as they usually consist of slow 90 degree corners. Hook up a lap in the Lotus (like the video above) and you’ll see just how fast this track really is.
Sunob – F1 ’97
One of the many cheat modes from the brilliant F1 ’97, unlocked by changing Jean Alesi’s name into all sorts of things. Sunob (yes, that’s Bonus backwards, well done you!) was a fantastic layout, with the final corner like a backwards Eau Rouge. Then there’s the fact that the circuit map is the shape of a Formula One car and when you’re eight years old that’s really freaking cool!
Egypt – Jacques Villeneuve’s Racing Vision
So this is why you never got to play as Jacques Villeneuve in racing games! Jacques Villeneuve’s Racing Vision was, as the name suggestions, a futuristic look at Formula One. The best thing about the game was the tracks however, set in a number of famous locations like Paris, New York and Egypt.
Tracks with famous backdrops and in a country with no fans? It sounds like a track perfect for modern Formula One.