An official Tweet from PlayStation today has in fact confirmed that a fan-favorite track will be included whenGran Turismo 7releases in March.
Withmore than 90 tracks available inGran Turismo 7at launch, the addition of the Daytona International Speedway should appease many of the series' long-time lead foots. The news isn’t entirely unexpected since a thumbnail of the track was originally observed on the course selection screen during the initial announcement, but having Sony officially verify it forGran Turismo 7is certainly reaffirming.
RELATED:March 2022 is Set to Be a Huge Month for Gaming
Daytona first appeared in the series way back in 2007 withGran Turismo 5: Prologue, reappearing inGran Turismo 5and again inGran Turismo 6in 2013, but was oddly missing in2017’sGran Turismo Sport. The layouts of the track available in those previous titles were either the usual 2.5-mile tri-oval formation or the road course used for endurance and motorcycle racing.
Based on the image in the official Tweet, the track layout, which some have dubbed a “roval,” includes the additional infield turns off of the main larger oval as well as an additional chicane just short of the finish line first used by NASCAR in 2020. Thus, the latest iteration of the world-famous track in Florida will be one not seen in the older games.
The new track layout is a combination of approximately three-quarters of the 2.5-mile high-banked tri-oval incorporated with a much more challenging infield road course portion. The 3.56 mile-long course has exponentially increased the number of turns from the usual four to twelve.
Long-time racing fans might be asking if NASCAR vehicles have driven on this same layout prior to 2020. And they’d be right. Just not in NASCAR’s three top-tier series. Back in the late 1960s, the smaller, stock-type cars in the NASCAR Grand Touring Division raced on this same course, as did the NASCAR Grand American cars in the early 1970s and then the NASCAR Modifieds in the late ’70s.
If this Daytona course isreal-world accurate, drivers can expect a high-speed entrance into the first turn, followed by a left-handed dive off the front straight that leads into the twists and turns of the new infield. And if Sony really wants to appease the uber fanatical track aficionados out there, aside from offering fans a25th Anniversary editionthat is, they’ll want to include the International (east) and west Horseshoe turns that lead into the tricky backstretch chicane before climbing back up to the bank in Turn 3.
Gran Turismo 7launches on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on July 10, 2025, and is the first cross-generation entry in the series.
