Playground gives a more detailed look at Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels

Over the weekend, Playground Games formally revealed a new Hot Wheels-themed expansion for Forza Horizon 5, the first for the open-world racer since its release.

Microsoft has released an extended showcase event to provide further details behind some of the announcements, one of which being Horizon’s new expansion. As Mike Brown, the creative director at Playground Games puts it, the team feels that now is the “right time” to take the Forza x Hot Wheels concept further than what was done back with Forza Horizon 3.

Harder, better, faster, stronger

While there has been some backlash against Playground for retreading old ground, Brown states that this was done due to fans asking for it. And with the newfound power of the Xbox Series consoles, Playground has been able to go bigger, much bigger, with the scope of it all.

This is made obvious from the expansion’s central location, Horizon Nexus, which will serve as its primary Festival site. While other sites are located in distinct sectors of the map, Nexus takes place above the map. Suspended in the clouds above of Mexico, it serves as the launch point for the death-defying Hot Wheels tracks that are a part of the overall new area called Hot Wheels Park.

Stunt paradise

Playground has built out over 124 miles of track that span across four brand-new and unique biomes, including Giant Canyon, Ice Cauldron, Forest Falls, and Horizon Nexus itself. There are also different types of tracks, ranging from magnetized tracks that allow cars to defy gravity to slippery ice tracks and water flume tracks that also pose an environmental challenge.

While there is a lot of ground to cover in the main expansion, the community will be able to let their own imaginations run wild with the power of the EventLab, which will include over 80 Hot Wheels “snapping” track and stunt pieces for those that have the expansion. Only expansion owners can build the tracks, but anyone is free to play them once they’re shared. It should be interesting to see how this all stacks up compared to the action in last year’s Hot Wheels Unleashed.

10 new rides come with this expansion, including a mix of iconic Hot Wheels cars and some real-world mean machines. The 2000 Hot Wheels Deora II, 2012 Hot Wheels Bad to the Blade, 2018 Chevrolet Hot Wheels COPO Camaro, and 2021 Hennessey Venom F5 are some cars joining with this expansion — with the latter happening to be one of the fastest cars in the world.

The overall goal of Forza Horizon 5: Hot Wheels is to start in a B-class vehicle and work your way up to X-Class in later events. Players who start early in the main campaign will be able to jump in and experience the content of the expansion without any progression requirements.

Various gameplay clips of the new expansion were shown off during the Extended Showcase Event. The Forza Horizon 5 x Hot Wheels expansion will start its engines on July 13.