A racing game is only ever as good as the cars that can be raced and the tracks they can be raced on. We have already listed cars we would love to see in Gran Turismo 7, now let’s talk tracks.
Image credit: Polyphony Digital
Over the years, many iconic tracks have appeared in the Gran Turismo games. Whether they’re original fictional tracks like Dragon Trail, Maggiore and Deep Forest or real world legendary circuits such as Spa-Francorchamps, Le Mans or the Nordschleife, many have become favourites of the GT community.
Gran Turismo 7 has seen a lot of tracks never featured before in the series getting added. The most prominent examples being two iconic American tracks: Watkins Glen and Road Atlanta, the latter of which hosts Petit Le Mans.
With how infrequently GT7 receives tracks compared to cars, we probably won’t see another new addition to the circuit list for a while. But, that doesn’t mean we can’t dream up our own wish list of tracks we’d like to see come to the game.
Silverstone
Back on Gran Turismo 6, the host circuit of the British Grand Prix made its series debut. Unfortunately, it hasn’t appeared since. This is a crying shame, because with the exception of elevation change featured on other beloved GP tracks like Spa, the Silverstone circuit is pretty much the quintessential race track.
Its incredibly high speed corners make for both an amazing experience driving it on your own, but also in battle with another driver. This is the case not just in its Grand Prix configuration, but also in all of its shorter layouts.
The issue at hand though will be licencing. Back in November, rFactor 2‘s Silverstone licence expired and it was removed from the game, as such it’s a safe bet that getting the licencing for Silverstone is a little tricky. But, it simply must return to the Gran Turismo series.
Grand Valley
Gran Turismo 7 saw the return of many iconic and beloved fictional circuits from previous games, the two headline names being Trial Mountain and Deep Forest. Another track that is as renowned with the GT series is Grand Valley Speedway. Like the aforementioned two, the Speedway debuted in the first ever Gran Turismo game.
This track has earned its place in GT history with its amazing undulation, in the form of its flowing sets of corners and elevation change. A lap around this track is an absolute treat, but it’s worth asking if it returned, how much would it change?
Both Trial Mountain and Deep Forest in GT7 saw some drastic layout changes, which resulted in the tracks going from 2.5 and 2.2 miles respectively to 3.4 and 2.6 miles. Grand Valley has already seen a layout change, where in GT4 it received some minor tweaks. Would it get the same treatment in GT7 as the other two?
Trial Mountain lost its high speed final set of corners where players could ramp up the hill next to the apex and take off. Instead is a, frankly awful, set of slow and painful corners, so all we can hope is that they don’t change too much for Grand Valley should it return.
Japanese Tracks
You can often tell what the country of origin of a racing game is by the quantity of circuits which are not as well known on an international level. The Project CARS games feature a lot of British tracks, while Assetto Corsa has a lot of circuits from Italy. Gran Turismo is a Japanese series, thus it features tracks like Suzuka, Fuji and Autopolis.
So, would it be too much of a stretch to complete that list of Japanese racetracks? With both Super GT and Super Formula officially in the game, it would make sense. One of them is a circuit that appeared in previous games, the immensely unique Motegi which hosts the Japanese MotoGP on its road course and formerly IndyCar on the super speedway.
There are two other tracks that for one reason or another, haven’t appeared in the Gran Turismo series. There’s Okayama circuit, which held the F1 Pacific Grand Prix from 1994-95. Many an iRacing enthusiast will have enjoyed this track due to it being base-game content on the service. It has got plenty of high speed corners which will surely be enjoyable for Gran Turismo players.
Then there is Sportsland Sugo, which also has a multitude of high speed corners, of which the crowning jewel is its 110R final corner. The fact that both of these tracks haven’t already come to the series is a travesty, and they need to be added to the game along with the return of Motegi.
If you’re unfamiliar with both tracks, watch these onboard laps for Okayama and Sugo.
Red Rock Valley
Unless you played Gran Turismo 2, this track will be completely unknown to you. Red Rock Valley Speedway is effectively an oval track with a few more right handers than left, and its corners are heavily banked to ensure cars can take them as fast as possible.
It’s perplexing that this track has never featured in any Gran Turismo game since GT2, because the potential for some amazing racing here is off the charts. Don’t believe us? Check out this mod of the track on GT6.
For as brilliantly simple as the layout is, it’s probably the reason why it never became popular. But, with the lack of online multiplayer at the time and the AI on the game historically always being abysmal, maybe this track deserves a new lease of life. Imagine racing there online and finding yourself in the midst of a pack of cars. It would be incredible.
There have been suggestions that this track is coming to GT7 through a datamine. This has already rung true with many cars and also the likes of Road Atlanta and Watkins Glen getting added, so Red Rock Valley and also Grand Valley are likely to be coming to the game.
Isle of Man TT Mountain Course
When you ask someone “What is the longest racetrack in the world?”, many will probably default to the Nürburgring Nordschleife combined track. Whilst it is the longest permanent circuit at 15.8 miles, even two of it can’t overcome the 37.8 miles long Isle of Man TT Mountain Course.
The world renowned motorcycle race has been held on the closed off roads of the British island territory since the early 20th century. Cars typically don’t drive on this perilous track, but it doesn’t mean they never do. Indeed, Subaru developed a car to go for a record run of the course. This car even appears in GT Sport and GT7.
There were whisperings that Polyphony were evaluating the possibility of scanning the track. Perhaps they’re considering making a follow up to their motorcycle game Tourist Trophy. If that’s the case, we hope they also put it in Gran Turismo. It would probably be a massive undertaking to implement this track into the game, but it would be an immensely popular addition.
We want to see it mostly for the daily races and open lobbies where, after one lap, more than half the field have ragequit, and partly for the idea of seeing the GT World Series competitors taking to this track for the World Finals. But also if Super GT decides to do 200 laps of the TT Mountain Course as well to top his effort of doing that on the Nordschleife.
What are some tracks that you think should come to Gran Turismo 7? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
