Forza Horizon 5 guide to help you become the ultimate racer

Our Forza Horizon 5 guide has all the essential information you need to help you reach the Horizon Festival Hall of Fame and become the best racer in Mexico. It’s a massive game with a huge variety of activities to complete, cars to collect, and leaderboards to dominate, so knowing where to start and what’s best can be a bit tricky. Below, you’ll find tips, advice on what cars to buy, explanations of some key activities, and where to find those elusive Barn Find cars. Here’s everything you need to know about in Forza Horizon 5.

Tips

Whether you’re a novice driver or a podium-pro, these Forza Horizon 5 tips will help you get comfortable in the driver’s seat. It includes tips on what assists to use, how to progress through the race series, and how to spend your Skill Points and Credits.

Best cars

Spending your hard-earned Credits to get some of the best Forza Horizon 5 cars will mean you’ll be able to dominate the competition and get even greater race winnings. Some of these cars are extremely expensive and difficult to unlock, so you definitely need to save up a fair bit, or hope that you get lucky with a Wheelspin prize.

Every car in the game

Forza Horizon 5 has lots of great cars, but they’re only a small portion of the available vehicles in this game. Take a look at the massive Forza Horizon 5 car list to see every car in the game – there are over 500 for you to collect!

Car Mastery explained

As you race around Mexico, you’ll be performing daring tricks and earning Skill Points. You can then spend these on all sorts of Forza Horizon 5 Car Mastery perks for each individual vehicle, allowing you to unlock Credit boosts, things that improve your Skill Chains scores, or even entirely new cars.

Drift Zones explained

Forza Horizon 5 Drift Zones are a fan-favorite challenge in the Horizon series, allowing you to test your ability to maintain control of an out-of-control car as you set it sideways round a corner. Longer and faster drifts mean more points, which means a higher rating at the end, but you’ll need to progress a bit through the main series to unlock Drift Zones in the first place.

Barn Finds

As one of the most coveted collectible types in the game, you’ll really want to know where you can find all the Forza Horizon 5 Barn Finds. There are 14 in total, and each one unlocks an exclusive old banger in need of serious restoration. The only problem is that they’re locked inside barns hidden all across Mexico, and you’ll need a tipoff to find each one. Once the old car has been retrieved and restored though, it’s yours to keep and drive around.

Solar Panels

There are lots of things to smash in Forza Horizon 5 – mainly cacti if you’re not in a town – but one challenge might task you with destroying solar panels. There aren’t many spots to find Forza Horizon 5 solar panels, but we’ve laid out a great option in this guide.

Reasonably Priced Cars

Forza Horizon 5 has a lively week-to-week schedule of challenges, rotating races, and new championships with exclusive rewards. Some of these challenges ask you to drive a “reasonably priced car”. While it’s an obvious Top Gear reference, you’ll need to know what exactly counts as a Forza Horizon 5 reasonably priced car if you want to compete.

Lion Mural

There are all kinds of artistic murals scattered around Mexico in Forza Horizon 5. There are certain Accolades and challenges that’ll get you to find them, one of which is this Forza Horizon 5 lion mural out in Playa Azul.