The wait is finally over: What seemed impossible is now reality, the Nürburgring-Nordschleife is in Assetto Corsa Competizione. We tried a preview version of the track - here are our hands-on impressions.
It used to be a meme. It used to be shot down for licensing reasons. It used to be a pipe dream for sim racers - the Nürburgring-Nordschleife in Assetto Corsa Competizione. As no SRO-sanctioned event ran at the track, licensing would not allow the legendary Green Hell to appear in ACC - until the announcement that the Nürburgring 24 Hours would be part of the IGTC calendar from 2024 onwards.
Sim racers around the world could not type the old question everywhere again fast enough - could it stil happen? Now that ACC is most likely in the final part of its life cycle? Rumors kept swirling around, until developer Kunos Simulazioni finally announced in November that the track would actually come to the sim.
Since then, its supposed April 1 release date confirmed in mid-March seemed like a very early April Fool's joke, but here we are - the Nordschleife makes its debut, and we have gotten to try a preview version. Here are some of the things we noticed.
Assetto Corsa Competizione 24H Nürburgring Pack: Everything You Need To Know
ACC Nordschleife Layout
As expected, the Nordschleife for Assetto Corsa Competizione adds one new track layout to the sim, namely the one used in the 24-hour race every year. While at the real track, the Nordschleife itself only has one configuration that can be run either with or without the GP loop, the latter has multiple configurations available.
Compared to the Nürburgring version that comes with ACC by default, the GP loop in the 24-hour version skips the Mercedes Arena. The usual first sector is bypassed by a tight right-left chicane. Other than that, the layout remains intact, although the anti-cut measures like tire stacks and kerbs in the Veedol-Schikane - so right before turning onto the Nordschleife - are slightly different.
Possibly the most-anticipated left turn in sim racing history.
Warm-up Lap Shortcut
Of course, running a full lap on the Nordschleife before starting a timed lap is a bit excessive. In the real 24-hour race (and NLS races, too), it is possible to use the final turn of the GP loop instead of turning onto the Nordschleife, allowing drivers to use the GP loop as a warm-up area of sorts.
This also works in ACC, and even the AI use it - which is rarely the case in other titles. In RaceRoom, this works as well, while the shortcut does not work in Automobilista 2, for instance. Not having to run the extra long lap is certainly a nice feature.
On-point Atmosphere
Having modeled The Ring to represent the 24 Hours, getting the atmosphere right was an important task for Kunos. And it is safe to say that they nailed it.
The lighting around the track superb, with rays of sun breaking through the thick forests on occasion, parts of the track already being much darker than those that are still soaked in the light of the setting sun. Where the track really shines is, ironically, at night.
It almost feels like there are two worlds at the Nürburgring at night. For one, there is the GP loop, which is well lit in most places, very wide and relatively modern. But then, you turn onto the Nordschleife and enter an entirely different environment in the span of just a few meters.
The crowds add a lot of atmosphere at night, just like at the real 24 Hours.
Crowds Party Throughout The Night
Coming up to Sabine-Schmitz-Kurve, you can already see the trees being lit up red, then blue, then green. Turn into the left-hander, and you see that the camp at the top of the hill is in full-on party mode - laser show and camp fire included.
This is the case for most spectator areas surrounding the track, emulating the party atmosphere of the real 24 Hours very well. In between, however, you race through the pitch-black night engulfing the Eifel mountains. Visually, the ACC Nordschleife is an absolute treat and arguably the prettiest rendition in sim racing currently.
Add in the rain that is so typical for the region and the ACC Nordschleife becomes a different beast altogether. With compromised visibility, but added reflections on the wet asphalt, it is even easier to see why the track is considered the most challenging circuit in the world.
Weather
Unfortunately, one trademark element of the Nürburgring that the Nordschleife in Assetto Corsa Competizione does not capture as lifelike as the rest is the weather. Due to its location and its length, the track frequently sees parts of the circuit being hit by downpours while the sun is still shining at others at the same time.
The weather system in ACC does not have this capability. Instead, every part of the track is affected at the same time once rain starts falling. Of course, this makes the weather a bit more predictable over the course of a lap, but it also takes away some of the challenge the Green Hell is famous for.
ACC Nordschleife Performance
With such a long track, you might wonder about its performance - and rightfully so, considering that ACC is not the most hardware-friendly title out there. However, during our tests on an RTX 4080 GPU and an i7 13700K processor combo, the framerate stayed comfortably above 60 fps at all times, even in the rain and at night - and without DLSS, too, all at a resolution of 3440x1440.
This was with 49 AI cars on track, the maximum for offline racing. The most taxing part of the track in this case was the start/finish straight with the pit lane. Once that has been left behind, however, the performance was much better.
In VR, a similar experience greeted us. While ACC is generally not easy to run smoothly in VR, you are good once you dialed everything in - even at the Green Hell. We were pleasantly surprised by the VR performance, which is about the same as the GP Loop-only version of the Nürburgring.
How do ACC Cars handle the Nordschleife?
One of the concerns raised by sim racers was the kerb behavior of ACC in regards to the Nordschleife. Kerbs can be deadly on some of the other tracks, after all, and the Green Hell requires full committment over some of them to be quick.
Luckily, this is not a problem. Part of the update deployed alongside the Nordschleife also adjusted the cars' dampers, and as a result, they behave like you would expect them to if you are used to running the circuit in other titles.
The generally bumpy nature of the ACC Nordschleife is noticable, however, and some cars handle them much better than others. Running the 'aggressive' preset setup on the Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), for instance, is a much more nervous experience than in a Ferrari 296 GT3. The Italian mid-engine racer that won the 2023 24 Hours is much more planted and pleasant to drive, even through the Caracciola-Karussell.
Similarly, the BMW M4 GT3 is as friendly a car to drive as ever. Most likely, the Porsche can be perfectly fine as well, although that will possibly require a bit of setup work. Either way, the ACC Nordschleife should be a track that will allow the different cars' characteristics to shine in different places. Combined with the challenging layout, this should make for exciting racing over the course of the 25.378-kilometer lap.
To go back to the question in this article's headline: Is it the best Green Hell in sim racing? It has a great case to make this claim. What is easy to see, though, is that it is for sure best-looking rendition of the Nürburgring-Nordschleife out there. At least in the author's opinion.
Are you going to get the ACC Nordschleife? If you do, let us know your first impressions on Twitter @OverTake_gg or in the comments below!
