ICYMI: This week in racing games – 23 June 2023

Welcome to Rear View Mirror, your weekly racing game news roundup. Join us as we shift into reverse and look back at the last week of racing game news.

Want to know everything that happened in the world of racing games this week? Get up to speed in our latest weekly roundup.

This week saw a new Forza Horizon 5 series launch, a first look at the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Wave 3 DLC and confirmation of an important new F1 23 feature in development.

Forza Horizon 5 Upgrade Heroes

While Forza Motorsport stole the spotlight last week, this week was all about Forza Horizon 5 with the arrival of the new Upgrade Heroes series.

This is arguably one of the best series updates yet, with the menacing Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series finally making its Forza debut in the Summer Festival Playlist.

Upgrade Heroes also adds a new test track location to test car upgrades and Donut Media returns in a new Horizon Story inspired by the popular HiLow car series.

You can find out more in the Forza Horizon 5 Upgrade Heroes patch notes.

F1 23 anti-cheat confirmed

Codemasters has answered the prayers of F1 players, confirming that an anti-cheat is in the works for F1 23. This will be a welcome relief for players as F1 games have been prone to cheating over the last few years in league racing.

First look at Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC Wave 5

With no sign of Mario Kart 9, Nintendo continues to support Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with a raft of new tracks in the Booster Course Pass.

During the Nintendo Direct Show, we got a first peek at Wave 5 of the Mario Kart 8 Booster Course Pass. Wave 5 will add a brand-new course called Squeaky Clean Sprint set in a hazard-filled bathroom.

Pete Piranha, Wiggler are also joining Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as new playable characters. There’s no release date yet, but Wave 5 is coming this Summer.

In other racing game news…

Gran Turismo 7’s next monthly update is coming next week. Ahead of the update, Kazunoari has teased three new cars – and one of them appears to be Aston Martin’s most powerful road car.

This wasn’t the only new car teased for GT7 this week either, as the Toyota GR Corolla Circuit Edition is also reportedly coming to GT7.

A new official NASCAR game was also announced, but it’s not what you’re expecting. Team6 is putting an arcade spin on NASCAR racing with NASCAR Arcade Rush coming later this year. It could be NASCAR’s answer to F1 Race Stars.

Console players also don’t have to wait much longer for the Assetto Corsa Competizione 1.9 update and 2023 GT World Challenge DLC.

In case you missed it…

Looking for the perfect F1 23 setup? Our F1 23 setups will help you dominate the track every time. You can find a complete list of F1 23 setups here.

As always, you can check out our weekly guides on Forza Horizon 5’s festival playlist, Photo Challenge and Treasure Hunt, as well as the latest GT7 Daily Races.