This Forza Horizon 5 custom track brings a slice of Japanese street racing to Mexico

There's a whole lot of Mexico to explore in Forza Horizon 5. But if you'd like to take your car collection to other lands, one tracksmith has carved out a little slice of Japan to drift your favourite motors around.

Heavily inspired by Touge (or Tōge), a form of illegal street racing that takes place on winding, narrow mountain passes, Forza track creator PlayerKai spent over 18 hours painstakingly disguising Forza's idyllic Mexican landscape into something that'd look more at home in Ridge Racer.

This track is the third Touge-style event Kai has created, with an earlier video giving a little bit of insight into his process—namely, adding a f*ck-load of trees and tall fence barriers to hide the Mexico beyond. But plenty more flavourful details have been added to help sell the illusion of a misty mountain pass, including an impressively-crafted stone wall selling the illusion of being high in the peaks.

A before and after comparison of a custom Forza track — (Image credit: Playground Games)

It's just a shame you can't customise billboards. Nothing sells "Japan" like a big poster with "Mexico!" emblazed on it.

Having only lightly dabbled in Forza's event editor, it's truly staggering stuff. Kai hopes that maybe a future Horizon will take the series to Japan—but for the time being, he has more Touge-style courses planned, and you can download variations featuring different weather conditions using the share codes above.

Back in Mexico, Forza Horizon 5 was just tuned up with a Series 2 update which adds seven new cars—most important of which is the dinky little Peel P50 which boasts a whopping four brake horsepower. The new season lasts a month, and features some festive additions such as smashable snowmen and the ability to gift strangers new rides via a Secret Santa feature.

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.