We’ve spent time with Forza Horizon 6’s preview build, and even with only a slice of the early game available, it’s already clear there’s plenty to offer. Some of the series’ best ideas are back, while new features look ready to lift the Horizon formula even higher.
Here are our top 5 new and returning features we’re most excited for in Forza Horizon 6.
A grassroots progression system
Forza Horizon’s progression system has evolved dramatically across its 13 years, from the underdog arc of Forza Horizon 1 to the god-mode entries of Forza Horizon 3 and 5. The latter were fun — Forza Horizon 5, for example, handed you a C8 Corvette Stingray as your starting car — but at times they didn’t leave you with much sense of meaningful progression.
Forza Horizon 6 feels like a welcome return to its roots on this front. You arrive in Japan as a humble tourist, and you’re not handed anything flashy to begin with: a 1989 Nissan Silvia, a ’94 Toyota Celica and a ’70 GMC Jimmy.
You’re not even in the Horizon Festival yet. You need to complete qualifier events — a road race, a trail race and a cross-country event. This did feel a little light-on, as you could work through them in 15 minutes if you wanted, but the structure is still refreshing.
Once qualified, you graduate through wristband tiers — this wasn’t available in the preview, but we understand these to be tied to Performance Indicator class, such as a B-class tier wristband. Progress unlocks higher-class wristbands, culminating in access to Legend Island — an entirely off-limits area of the map until you’ve earned it.
Garage Customisation
A big first in a Forza Horizon game is the ability to customise your garages — and thankfully, it’s more than just swapping a few props. With desire — and patience — your garage becomes a blank canvas to showcase your pride and joys however you like.
At 100 props, there’s a decent amount of variety, and there’s a huge amount of freedom and flexibility thanks to being able to clip items through walls or sink them into the ground. Your designs are shareable, too — you can upload your own, or browse/download community creations.
Mei’s House is your starter garage, but the full game brings eight houses, each with unique garages supporting your main car plus up to three display cars.
Oh, and how could we forget the Estate? It wasn’t available in the preview, but it’s an empty plot of land for total creative freedom: custom garages, race tracks, or any other creation. Perfect for Creative Hub obsessives, but we’ll have to wait and see if there’s one-click imports available for those who just want to get to the driving.
READ MORE: 40 Cars We’ve Found In Forza Horizon 6 (Preview)
Auto-Drive
It might seem counterintuitive for a driving game to have an auto-drive feature. What’s the point? Why play if you’re not driving?
Well, I’m here to tell you there’s plenty of point — and it’s one of the best new additions to the franchise in ages.
Select a spot on the map, hit D-pad down then left, and Anna — your AI assistant — puts you into auto-drive. Sit back, doomscroll, wash dishes, whatever. It’s not just convenience, either — there’s a cinematic camera mode which provides an absolutely beautiful, passive way to soak in Japan’s incredible scenery and admire your pride and joy.
The drivatar isn’t flawless — expect occasional crashes from over-ambitious corner entries. You won’t earn any skill points either, but you will tick off roads-driven progress. Cheesy? Maybe. But it is a great way to get the most out of this incredible map.
READ MORE: Every Forza Horizon 6 Mascot By Japanese Region
Frictionless Open-World Events
A frictionless event in the open world isn’t strictly a new consent for a Forza Horizon game — you’ve been able to challenge Drivatars to head-to-head racing since Forza Horizon 2.
Forza Horizon 6, however, introduces whole new ways to play in the open map with Time Attack circuits and drag racing.
Time Attack is completely frictionless: no loading screens, no lobbies, not even readying up. You literally just drive to the circuit, find your way on, and start punching out laps
For drag races, you simply drive to the start of the strip, ready up, and wait for the lights to go out. We’re told you’ll be able to drag against other players live with synchronised lights.
Forza Horizon 6 has also introduced lap split times in the Time Attack mode, letting you know your relative delta to your best time. This isn’t exactly revolutionary for circuit racing games, but it’s a great quality-of-life feature that has been missing in previous entries.
Once you’ve finished your time attack lap or drag run, you’ll see your time and position versus all other racers on the Performance Index-class billboard. These reset weekly, with comparison to your nearest rival (prioritising friends).
There’s a good selection of time attack circuits — both off-road and tarmac — and you’ll earn credits and XP too (albeit relatively modest amounts).
I found time attack particularly engaging — it essentially brings a component of the original core Forza games into Forza Horizon 6. And it was nearly impossible to drive past a drag strip without having a run.
Hand-Over-Hand Steering Wheel Animation
This might seem… Trivial, or unimportant. But this has been a bugbear for anyone who loves the in-cabin driving view. AKA me. No cars, not even racecars, have just 180-degree steering lock. Yet this is all the franchise has visually shown for every entry to date.
Not anymore. Say hello to 540-degree steering wheel rotation and hand-over-hand animations.
READ MORE: 5 Things You Can and Can’t Do in Forza Horizon 6
And there’s no better time to introduce it, particularly given how much of your time will be spent going sideways in Forza Horizon 6. Paired with the drift camera option, it makes for some fantastic — and much more realistic — in-cabin visuals.
Forza Horizon 6 lands in early access on May 15th, 2026 on Xbox Series X|S and PC.
A pre-release preview build of Forza Horizon 6 was supplied to Quest Daily for the purpose of this article.
