The headlining feature this time is what the team calls "a free extension to career mode" - that being the Champions Cup; a permanent addition to the game's campaign that contains a selection of race car-focused tours for players to get stuck into. This is joined by some new IndyCar additions to the roster, fresh featured tours and reward cars, and more.
There's a lot to go at here, so we'll highlight the core patch notes down below - and if you want some extra detail on all of this, it's probably worth checking the FM website. Forza Motorsport Update 21 is now live on Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Game Pass.
New Features, Content and Events [All Platforms]
Career: Champions Cup
New race car-focused Tours have been permanently added to the Career in the form of the new Champions Cup. Dive into the world of Motorsport in a variety of modern and historical racecars. Unlock Invitationals and complete them to earn some of the most highly coveted reward cars that have been added to the game to date.
IndyCar
IndyCar has returned to Forza Motorsport! The 2025 Honda IndyCar and the 2025 Chevrolet IndyCar are both available to buy from the Showroom with in-game credits and will be discounted through July 2, 2025.
Jump into the all-new IndyCar Series in Featured Multiplayer or check out the IndyCar Series in the Thunder Tour in the new Champions Cup Career!
Returning Featured Tours and Reward Cars
Previous Featured Tours and reward cars make their return in Update 21, starting on July 3, with an additional Tour coming back to the game every month. Upon their return, each Tour and any associated rewards will be permanently available for all players to enjoy.
Whether you’re replaying your favorite Featured Tour or are playing it for the very first time, all returning Tours will appear within the Featured tab in Career.
Additionally, all previous Open Class Tour reward cars will be earnable by completing challenges in the Challenge Hub. These new challenges will be introduced on the same monthly cadence as the returning Featured Tours and will be permanently available in the Featured tab within Challenge Hub.
Open Division Rivals
Feeling confident in your car building capabilities? Jump into Open Division Rivals, a new category of Rivals events that challenges builders to create the top-performing car within each production car division within a set PI limit.
This is also a great place to practice and test your build for the return of the Cycled Production Series in Featured Multiplayer – see more details in the Multiplayer section of the Release Notes.
Manual Grid Ordering
Private Multiplayer now includes an option for the host to manually adjust the starting grid prior to race start. This option will be enabled in the Event Setup menu by default, providing the option to confirm or adjust any driver’s starting position.
Manual Grid Ordering can be enabled via the Private Multiplayer Event Setup menu in the 'Rules' section by switching 'Adjust grid before race' to 'ON'
New Public Meetups
- Fujimi Kaido Track Day Meetup
- Calling all Touge racers! Do you have what it takes to set the best lap time on Fujimi Kaido? Put your car and driving skills to the test in this gauntlet of speed and control.
- Top Speed Track Day Meetup
- Do you like going fast? This is the perfect Meetup for you! This Meetup takes drivers all around the globe onto tracks that allow even the fastest cars to be pushed to their absolute limit.
- Cycled Ovals Track Day Meetup
- This Meetup is perfect for motorsport enthusiasts looking to experience the unique challenges, culture, and excitement of oval racing.
New Featured Multiplayer Series
- IndyCar Series
- Step into the world of high-speed excitement in the premier open-wheel racing series, where precision, power, and passion collide on the track. The IndyCar Series will cycle between oval track layouts and GP/road layouts, with the appropriate aero parts being automatically swapped depending on the track type.
- The IndyCar Series will rotate in and out of Featured Multiplayer every week with the NASCAR Series.
- Cycled Production Series
- Showcase the speed, agility, and engineering prowess of everyday production vehicles in this series where the division changes daily.
Featured Multiplayer Events Calendar
In Update 21, Featured Multiplayer has been reorganized, incorporating player feedback, with the goal of providing players with even more event variety.
Due to the changes outlined below, some of the Series that were scheduled to be active between June 12 through June 19 may no longer be available after downloading the update, however some of these events, such as Week 7 of the 20th Anniversary Series will re-appear on June 19 at the normal weekly schedule change. Read on for further information.
Below is an outline of the changes made for each category of events in Featured Multiplayer, as well as an overview of the series rotation schedule and race lengths to expect within each series.
- Featured
- The ‘Featured’ category has been updated to focus on some of our most popular racing series, putting them front and center for all players to easily jump into, including the new IndyCar Series!
- Spec Events
- The ‘Spec Events’ category will now include a number of series, cycling between a rotation of one-make staples (such as MX-5 Cup, Ginetta Juniors, Formula Mazda, etc.) as well as historical spec division series.
- Semi-Open Events
- A new ‘Semi-Open Events’ category has been added and focuses on events that challenge drivers to build and race their very own project car within a loose set of cycled car restrictions and themes.
- This includes a series that some players may recognize from previous Forza Motorsport titles – the Cycled Production Series! This series will feature a new Production Division each day, each with its own Max PI restriction.
- Additionally, this category will feature a rotating assortment of multi-class series, as well as other unique car building-focused events, such as the Mid-Engine Series, a new AWD series, 6 Cylinder Series, and more!
- Open Events
- Finally, one of our top community requests – all Open Class Series have been made permanently available in the ‘Open Events’ category. Enjoy!
VIP + Drift Rivals
In addition to Open Division Rivals, all VIP Rivals have been re-activated and will always remain available to play, and we’ve added 8 permanent Drift Rivals events.
These include the Ghost of Fujimi Drift Rivals from Update 20, Open Class Drift events for A, B, and C classes, as well as new Formula Drift themed events.
There’s also Japanese Drift Battle, where can take part in the epic rivalry between two drift-tuned machines: the 2022 Toyota GR86 and the 2022 SUBARU BRZ.
Challenge Hub
Challenge Hub includes objectives and rewards for Career, Featured Multiplayer and Rivals.
Some of these will always be available as they are introduced to the game. These include reward cars associated with both the Builders Cup and Champions Cup, as well as a collection of driver suits that you can unlock at any time.
Every month new challenges featuring reward cars from previously released Featured Tours will be permanently added to the game. There will also be limited-time challenges where you can obtain seasonal driver suits and credit rewards.
Here’s a closer look at the challenges you can complete throughout the rest of June, as well as those coming in July, August, and September.
Bug Fixes and Improvements
Stability and Performance [All Platforms]
- The all-new race car-focused Champions Cup can be found in the Career menu in its own dedicated tab.
- Previous Featured Tours will be added to and made permanently available within the Featured tab each month.
- All Builders Cup Tours are now immediately unlocked, which means you no longer need to complete the Modern Tour to access the 3 other Builders Cup Tours.
- The list of eligible cars in select Builders Cup Series has been expanded with the following choices:
- Practical Performance
- 2022 Toyota GR86
- 2022 Subaru BRZ
- 2022 Hyundai Elantra N
- 2021 Hyundai i20 N
- 2020 Hyundai i30 N
- 2022 Mazda MX-5 Miata RF
- Built for Sport
- 2016 Porsche Cayman GT4
- 2015 Porsche Cayman GTS
- 2011 BMW 1 Series M Coupe
- 2021 Lexus LC 500
- 2016 Cadillac ATS-V
- Super Sedans
- 2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing
- 2022 Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing
- Premium Performance
- 2014 BMW M4 Coupe
- 2018 Lotus Evora GT430
- 2019 Porsche 911 Speedster
- 2018 Saleen S1
- 2009 Mercedes-Benz SL 65 AMG Black series
- 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG
- 2012 Mercedes-Benz C 63 AMG Coupe Black Edition
- 2013 SRT Viper GTS
- 2015 Chevrolet Corvette Z06
- 2020 McLaren GT
- 2017 Nissan GT-R
- 2020 Nissan GT-R Nismo
- Track Specials
- 1991 Holder HSV Commodore Group A SV
- 1986 BMW M635 CSi
- German Rivals
- 2006 Audi RS 4
- 2003 BMW M5
- 2002 BMW M3-GTR
- 2001 Audi RS4 Avant
- JDM Legends
- 1991 Mitsubishi Lance Evolution VI GSR
- 1998 Subaru Impreza 22B-Sti
- 2002 Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec II
- 2002 Mazda RX-7 Spirit R Type-A
- Iconic Muscle
- Pony Car Showdown
- 1967 Shelby GT 500
- 1973 Ford XB Falcon GT
- Tracks introduced to Forza Motorsport after the launch of the game have been added to select Builders Cup Series:
- Built for Sport:
- Sunset Peninsula – Full Circuit
- Premium Performance
- Mount Panorama Circuit – Bathurst Circuit
- MX-5 Challenge
- Road Atlanta – Short Course
- JDM Legends
- Mount Panorama Circuit – Bathurst Circuit
- Enthusiast Reward Showcase
- Fujimi Kaido – Full Circuit Reverse
- Iconic Muscle
- Sunset Peninsula – Club Circuit
- Road Atlanta – Grand Prix Circuit
- C8 Challenge
- Road Atlanta – Grand Prix Circuit
- Vintage Hatch
- Sunset Peninsula – Club Circuit Reverse
- Retro Tuners
- Mount Panorama Circuit – Bathurst Circuit
- Oval track layouts have been removed from the Cycled Track Drift Meetup (infield layouts will remain)
- Fixed potential exploit with drift scores increasing when exiting and reentering events in Public Meetups. [2021571]
- Fixed an issue in Public Meetups where cars could be controlled while in the Pause menu. [2024501]
- A new category of Rivals events ‘Open Division’ has been added to Rivals representing each of the production car divisions in the game.
- 8 new permanent Drift Rivals events have been added to the Dirft Zone Rivals category.
- A new ‘Spec Division – IndyCar' Rivals event has been added to the Spec Division Rivals category
- All VIP Rivals events have been re-activated and will remain permanently available.
- Fixed an issue where The End of Race timer and Ready to Start UI were overlapping for players once one player finishes a race while a player is in the pre-race screen [2043428]
- Fixed an issue where UI elements were missing during a Circuit Race with Practice and Qualifying. [2048305]
- Due to the outlined BoP Changes above, the Spec Division leaderboards for the following events have been reset:
- Spec Division – Forza Proto-H
- Spec Division – Forza GT2
- Spec Division – Forza GT3
- Post-race Target Time prompt now displays the player's target time instead of the best time. [1891728]
- Fixed an issue where players would get a network error trying to access Rivals if they have received a Ban Warning. [1927541]
- The Challenge Hub menu has been reorganized to more effectively communicate where rewards can be earned as well as the type of rewards available to unlock.
- Challenge Hub also now includes a number of previous reward suits that can be earned by completing a number of permanent challenges.
- Additional suit challenges will periodically rotate into both the Featured tab and the Driver Suit tab.
- In Featured Multiplayer's Open Class Series, the car on focus in Car Select menu is now the last car player used for that series/class. [1883615]
- Fixed an issue where the Driver list in multiple scenes displayed multiple drivers as blue. [2023156]
- Fixed an issue where the displayed credits would carry over from event to event in Public Meetups. [2030099]
- Users are now notified how much XP and Credits they earned after exiting a Meetup. [2015410]
- Fixed an issue where AI would sometimes behave incorrectly transitioning between oval and circuit racing. [2031705]
- Fixed an issue where AI on the lowest difficulty level would struggle to complete a full lap on Fujimi Kaido. [2041872]
- Fixed an issue where AI cars would not drive as expected when the player was a great distance away. [2041872]
- Fixed an issue where faster AI cars would be hesitant to overtake slower AI cars. [2019965]
- Fixed an issue where AI would occasionally go very slowly through the Bus Stop chicane on Daytona. [2026038]
- Fixed an issue where the player's car would sometimes swerve at pit exit before regaining control. [1886580]
- Improved the race start behavior on Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. [2025097]
- The "Vote for next track" menu title is now narrated in Public Meetups [2037464]
- Track change messaging is now read by the screen narrator. [2036099]
- Screen Narrator now reads the users "Current Lap" score after receiving a new score within Public Meetups Drift Event Playlists. [2024536]
- Fixed an issue where that caused the Fanatec DD2 racing wheel to be assigned the incorrect mapping profile. [2033668]
Cars
- 2013 #10 Holden Xbox Racing Team Commodore VF has been removed from the Forza Specials division and added to the Forza AUS Division [2024391]
To make the Champions Cup more accessible to all players, we have adjusted the in-game pricing for most racecars. Of the cars affected, 162 (87%) of them saw a decrease in their price. This means most racecars will now be more affordable to purchase from the Showroom.
