Which Circuit Would You Like to See Digitalised in a Game or Mod?

bridgehampton.jpg
While researching racing circuits around the globe, I have come across many circuits without any digital representation. And that's a shame. Whether hosting races now or in the past, circuits should be digitalised to preserve a bit of history. So, I would like to ask you, which circuit without digital representation would you like to see featured?

I have talked about this topic before. My first article on RaceDepartment, "The Importance of Modding in Sim Racing", already mentioned that digitalisation means preserving a bit of history.

How Developers Could Benefit from Historic Venues​

However, it is not only the modders who can keep historic venues alive. The game developers themselves could take a good look at past circuits to feature in their works. At the moment, Reiza seems to be the only professional development studio somewhat focusing on historical content.

And thinking about it, that is weird.

Racing game developers have one massive pool to drown their money in: licensing costs. Licensing cars, licensing circuits, and those licenses are not cheap! This begs the question of how smaller development teams could save a lot of money by not licensing those expensive modern circuits.

Solution 1: Fictional Tracks
Solution 2: Historical Tracks

There is a boatload of circuits across the globe which no longer exist. Many of those come from somewhat of a golden era of motorsports, the 50s and 60s. From those times, many circuits still exist today, largely unchanged. So tracks from the time can be brought up to date in terms of safety standards and the like.

So why does every racing circuit officially featured in a game need to be the same current version of the Nürburgring, Spa-Francorchamps or Suzuka?

How Modders Could Benefit from Historic Venues​

Though, some tracks should still be up for grabs for the modders. After all, with recent announcements on how the modding systems in Rennsport and GTR Revival are supposed to work, modders could earn a pretty penny modding their hometown historical circuit.

Monetary gain aside, wouldn't it just be nice to find out how it could've felt like driving that one circuit that doesn't exist anymore? That is a question I keep asking myself from time to time. And furthermore, what if that circuit wasn't abandoned but driven nowadays with modern cars?

All that beauty is possible thanks to the powers of digitalisation.

Back on Track: What Circuit Would You Like to See?​

After taking that little detour to once again hope and bring some more people into modding for digitalisation, let's get back to the question at hand.

What Circuit would you like to see featured that hasn't been digitalised yet?

Personally, I would like to see every track digitalised. My dream is to have a complete database for all of the world's racing circuits. But if I had to pick some special ones, I would choose
  • Wachauring (the circuit I live closest to)
  • Autódromo de Benguela (Angolan circuit now converted to housing)
  • Evbuobanosa Motorsport Raceway (short-lived Nigerian circuit with races between 2017 and 2020, also I tried modding this one a while back, should continue on it)
And what about you? What circuits would you like to see digitalised? Maybe you can give some modder the inspiration for their next project, so let us know in the comments down below!
About author
Julian Strasser
Motorsports and Maker-stuff enthusiast. Part time jack-of-all-trades. Owner of tracc.eu, a sim racing-related service provider and its racing community.

Comments

It already is, but it's a ropey old version... Lakeside Park here in Queensland, Aus.
It had heritage too - F1 back in 1966 (Graham Hill won there), and V8s too.
More recently it's hosted a lot of club-level racing, and indeed some epic classic trans am stuff...

But the model that's out there has some nasty bumps on it, and it could really do with a decent re-work and scan.

It's a great example of a track that could easily be scanned before it's lost to a housing estate or similar in the near(ish) future.


As an aside, whilst not perfect, it does make excellent racing in AC, well worth a go with either TCR or Trans Am style racers there.
 
The modding community is so active it's hard to find a track that never was recreated... A proper version of the Ehra-Lessien test track in Germany would be a nice addition though.
 
It's worth saying that there are so many incredible historic venues that I've been introduced to through sim racing, that whatever I can dream of there's a whole world of 'unknown unknowns' out there which are being brought to life.

With the exception of Bremgarten, I'd never heard of any of the tracks @FatAlfie or @THL brought to AC and plenty of other excellent venues I knew in name only, places like: Stardust, Greenwood, Elaintarharata and several more (by @Sergio Loro), Lake Garnett (by @Thrashy), Gnoo Blas (by @Lavalamp641) or Napoli (by @Italotracks)...

... so I could give you my own wishlist (vintage versions of Daytona, Solitude, Clermont Ferrand, Brands, Westwood or Reims) but I'm just excited to see what interesting and novel places the best modders out there choose for inspiration.

Or whatever they make up, such as Fonteny and the latest previews of 'Mount Tempus' by @doublezero which I'm just as excited about. So additional comment to the OP; I really don't mind if the venues are fictional so long as, linking back to the thread from two weeks ago, they 'feel' real to me (something that the GT and FM circuits lack, for me).
 
Premium
Salzburgring
There is a relatively well done mod for AC and it's in R3E as well.

I asked myself the same question some time ago, but I honestly couldn't think of any track that I'd really want to have that isn't present in any of the current sims. The only track I'd really like to have in AC specifically is a fictional track created for rF1 and rF2: Essington Park.

I'm all for Wachauring tho. They let us do a few laps when I had an ÖAMTC safety training there many years ago.
 
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Surfers Paradise!
Not the current abomination: the original circuit as it was in the 1960's - 1970's before that reprobate Williams sold it off to the Japanese for an 'Old Peoples Home', which never eventuated of course.

On a more practical level, Circuit Clermont-Ferrand would be a great addition if done to the level set by our best circuit builders.
 
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It would be grate to see a highly detailed Loch Ranoch. I saw this track in ToCA 2 and I fell in love from the first sight. Such a great track.

 

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