If you’ve ever lapped the Nürburgring in a sim and wondered what sits beyond the catch fencing, Assetto Corsa EVO now has an answer. Singapore PC racers can catch its first public outing on Friday, 16 October 2026 at 10pm Singapore time, when the mode is introduced on the main stage at Sim Racing Expo in Frankfurt.
The mode is called Free Roam, and developer KUNOS Simulazioni and publisher 505 Games revealed it in a keynote video earlier this month. It opens up the roads, villages and landmarks around the world’s most famous racing circuit. For an Early Access sim that has lived on Steam since 16 January 2025 as a game about hot laps and grids, that changes what you boot it up for. Now you can pull out of a hotel car park and go for a drive.
The Ring, Plus the Villages
KUNOS describes Free Roam as a 1:1 scale recreation of specific districts in Germany’s Eifel region. KUNOS says the region is home to the Nürburgring and its 20.8km (12.9-mile) Nordschleife, the long, punishing circuit that sim racers and real drivers know well, and that at launch the playable area covers the Nordschleife itself, the villages around it and the road connecting them. The studio says more representative areas of the Eifel will follow over time.
Inside that map, the studio says it has built individual villages, garages, hotels, restaurants and meeting places. On top of those sit changeable weather, a full day and night cycle, and AI traffic that varies according to local trends. According to KUNOS, every road matches its real-world length and width, and the corners, hairpins, junctions, bridges and elevation changes follow their real-life counterparts. That claim will face some very picky judges, because Ring regulars know every crest and kink by name.
If cruising alone isn’t enough, you can take part in optional in-world events like Time Attack challenges. Multiplayer lets friends explore the area together and play dedicated game modes. Solo cruising is where plenty of players will spend their evenings, though: a dusk drive through the villages, then a quiet lap of the Nordschleife before bed.
Years Behind Closed Doors
Marco Massarutto, co-founder and Executive Manager of KUNOS Simulazioni, is the face of this reveal, and he has history with the franchise. He co-founded the studio in 2005 near Rome’s Vallelunga circuit, and it went on to make Assetto Corsa in 2014 and Assetto Corsa Competizione after it.
KUNOS first outlined its Eifel plan on 10 December 2024. In October 2025, Massarutto said the first section was targeted for early 2026, so the schedule has clearly slipped. He has since explained that roughly 60% of the effort went into building the tools needed to make the open world at all, which goes some way to explaining the wait.
In the announcement, he sounds tired and proud in equal measure. “Producing the free roam for Assetto Corsa EVO has been one of the most intense challenges we’ve faced at Kunos, and also a real privilege,” Massarutto said. He added that the team has “been able to create something that, in many ways, goes far beyond what you would expect from the size of the studio that worked on it.”
“After such a long development behind closed doors, we really can’t wait to finally let the community play it, explore it and experience it,” he said.
Not Quite Forza, and That’s Fine
Comparisons with Forza Horizon and Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown are coming, but those games start as open-world festival and lifestyle racers. EVO comes at it from the other side. It begins as a hardcore simulator, then builds one real region around it. In theory, the physics and force feedback you race with on track carry over to a narrow road through a village.
Original Assetto Corsa players will recognise the idea, because modders have been stitching together free-roam maps for that game for years. Massarutto has credited those “incredible” community creations as part of the motivation for Free Roam. It’s a nice nod to the people who kept AC1 alive, and anyone who has wrestled with a mod install that refused to load will welcome a version built into the game.
PC Only, and Still Early Access
For now, EVO is a PC game on Steam Early Access. PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions have reportedly been planned for after the PC 1.0 release, but there is no date for them yet. The Free Roam announcement doesn’t say when the mode reaches the Early Access build either. It also doesn’t say whether future Eifel expansions will be included or sold separately, so hold off on any purchase that hinges on either.
Player sentiment on Steam is split, and it’s worth knowing which way before you spend. Reviewers there consistently praise the physics, graphics, sound and car models, and several say EVO is at its best when you’re simply driving the Nürburgring. The complaints are just as consistent. Players point to chaotic AI pile-ups at the first corner, uneven performance, and frustration over the planned career progression that was scaled back. The overall rating has dropped to Mixed at points.
Here’s the honest read. Free Roam leans into what players already like about EVO, the pure driving, rather than fixing what they dislike. If you drifted away after the career changes, this is the best reason yet to reinstall. If you’re new and want a full career, wait for the Frankfurt impressions and the update itself before committing.
First Laps Happen in Frankfurt
Free Roam makes its playable debut at Sim Racing Expo, where members of the public can try it at multiple dedicated stations on the showfloor. Massarutto introduces the mode on the main stage on the Friday. Assetto Corsa Rally is at the show too, hosting the finals of the Esports Global Rally Tour Europe Shootout, which is run in partnership with the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile). Its top drivers are competing for spots in the global grand finals later this year.
🗓️ Date: 16 to 18 October 2026; Free Roam stage introduction on Friday, 16 October
⏰ Time: 3pm BST / 4pm CEST (10pm Singapore time) for the main-stage session
📍 Location: Sim Racing Expo, Frankfurt, Germany
🎮 Hands-on: Free Roam stations open to the public on the showfloor
💻 Platform: PC via Steam Early Access
🏁 Also at the expo: Assetto Corsa Rally and the Esports Global Rally Tour Europe Shootout finals
Most of us won’t be in Frankfurt this week. Even so, a sim that lets you drive the Nordschleife and then keep going into the villages around it is worth a Friday-night stay-up. The Free Roam keynote video is linked from 505 Games’ press release, and the Assetto Corsa website has more news; follow #WhereSimulationMeetsFreedom and #wearesimracing to stay up to date, and keep an eye on 505 Games for word on when the Eifel opens up to everyone!
Photos and Visuals courtesy of 505 Games and KUNOS Simulazioni.
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