Favourites
- Tsukuba Circuit (A deceptively simple track with lots of hidden depth, perfect for testing custom cars or hosting your own low-budget Hot Version)
- Autodrome Lago Maggiore (I know it’s a meme to crap on this track because it’s so overused, but there’s a reason for that: It’s this current era’s Midfield Raceway - A fictional circuit that combines realistic track design with plenty of artistic license, eallowing for sections such as that iconic banked hairpin and Turn 5)
- Grand Valley Highway 1 (Not that great for racing, but it’s a really fun track to hotlap and it’s arguably the prettiest track in GT7. If only it had dynamic weather or a full day-night cycle…)
Dislikes
- Circuit de Sainte-Croix (It just feels like this was made as a sort-of fallback in the event PD was unable to secure the license for Le Mans, which they did. Not to mention all three layouts feel like they were designed by Hermann Tilke with just how little variety there is, both in corners and scenery)
- Trial Mountain (Insert “Look how they massacred my boy” GIF here)
- Daytona Road Course (I love the oval, as both a NASCAR fan and as someone who used to live only a couple hours away, but turn 1 and the bus stop chicane are the absolute banes of my existence. I’ve tried taking those corners hundreds of times in multiple different games and not once did I ever manage to get both of them right in the same lap. I can’t even do them on Forza Motorsport 7, a game with much more simplistic physics than Gran Turismo 7)
I can help you with your Daytona troubles! For T1, you enter low to keep the car stable, brake right before the yellow line, hit the first apex, come out to the middle of the track, then cut in for the second apex and steer out of the corner once you're more or less on a path to hit the first corner in the flat chicane before the hairpin. For the back straight chicane, you take it quite a lot like the Dragon Trail death chicane: enter wide, brake right between braking boards 1 and 2, downshift twice (or thrice, depending on the car), then keep tight to the right side of the road on the short chute between the two right-handers. Then you exit the second right early to cut across the left on exit and keep low heading into NASCAR 3.
As for my faves:
- Nurburgring 24h/Nordschleife. I used to HATE this place, but it's absolutely the best track in the world for learning on. It'll kick your ass time and again, but the wide range of corners and the unique way in which they flow and connect really pushes you to the max and keeps you on your toes. Plus, the entire third sector is just incredible: fast and flowing, endlessly intense and it makes you feel like a god when you get it right.
- Daytona Road Course: Another track I used to despise because, like Mirai, I could never get T1 or the bus stop right. But after learning them, it's a fun challenge full of unique late-apex corners with unusual approaches and differing lines. The chicane also manages to get the blood flowing every time I go through it.
- Maggiore: Fantastic flow, lots of challenging corners, and again - that third sector tho. The long run into the banked hairpin, the uphill chicane, the two right-handers you drive as one (especially the second, with the fact you have to take such a square line on entry to get a good line for the ensuing left). Thrilling.
- Tokyo Expressway. Yeah, we're only supposed to include three per section, but I personally find these tracks (especially South Inner Loop) hugely satisfying to drive. Lots of flowing high-speed corners with very little margin for error. But more impressively, those familiar with Tokyo's highways (I've driven on SRP quite a lot and have spent more than a few hours oohing and ahhing at Tokyo in Google Earth) will see that these tracks seem to be a kind of Greatest Hits of notable spots in the Tokyo highway system. I could go on for quite a while, but one example is how East Clockwise rapidly switches from a long and straight tunnel a la those leading both to and from Haneda Airport, to a replica of the turn from the Bayshore Route's westbound route to the Rainbow Bridge, and then to a sequence of corners that feels a lot like the flowing sequence of corners near the end of the C1's outer loop.
And my least favorites:
- Grand Valley Highway 1. Good track, but not great to actually race on. It's definitely far more of a highway cruiser; a track that you take a fun car for an early morning blast on. Nothing wrong with that, but it's definitely something of a one-trick pony.
- (I'm really struggling here) Nurb GP. It's a fun track for sure, but something about it just doesn't gel with how I drive. I can't seem to get fast here, but I also recognize that the reason I'm not that big on it is 100% me, so take that for what you will.
- SSRX? Here's another track I actually quite enjoy, but I've gotta say that the use cases here are extremely limited. Driving here is a unique experience, and the atmosphere is actually a hell of a vibe. That said, you're not driving here unless you're trying to test a car's top speed or you're in the mood for the world's most absurd slipstream battle. Outside of that, not much use to driving here.