Polygon has published a guide to the most scenic driving routes across all six games in Playground Games' Forza Horizon series, framing the open-world racing titles as a form of virtual tourism. The piece argues that road trips are among the most liberating forms of travel but are hampered in reality by congestion and efficiency worries, making the games' beautifully rendered maps — based on Colorado, the Mediterranean coast, Australia, Britain, Mexico and Japan — an appealing alternative.

The author offers relaxed touring tips, such as choosing a slower car, easing off the accelerator, using manual transmission to keep revs low and a third-person camera to admire the view, with all routes plotted via the in-game GPS. Two suggested drives are given per game: for the original 2012 Forza Horizon (Colorado), routes run from Downtown Carson to Red Rock and from Gladstone Creek to a Hoover Dam-inspired reservoir; for Forza Horizon 2 (the French-Italian Riviera), drives cover Nice to Castelletto and San Giovanni to a lakeside castle; and coverage continues into Forza Horizon 3's Australia. All titles bar Forza Horizon 5 and 6 have been delisted owing to car and music licensing issues, though they remain playable via backward compatibility on Xbox Series X.