After being airdropped from a cargo plane in an AMG One, I arrive at the festival site to fanfare and fireworks. The organisers are delighted—their 'superstar' is finally here—and to celebrate they offer me a choice of starting car. I leave the site and head to my first race in a Corvette Stingray Coupe. This isn't how racing games are supposed to start. I should be battling for wins in some aging hatchback, dreaming of the day I can get behind the wheel of something sleek and fast. Instead, I'm being handed a 500 horsepower supercar to tear through the streets of Mexico. It makes sense, though. Forza Horizon 5 doesn't need to do what other racing games would do. It just needs to be a Forza Horizon game, because Horizon's brand of vehicular playground antics has no serious rival. Sim racing is a competitive field, but on the more arcade side it's not looking so healthy. Burnout Paradise showed the promise of open world racing back in 2008, but, for whatever reason, EA never followed it up. The Need for Speed series ping-ponged between varying degrees of arcade and simulation for years, never carving out a singular identity for itself. Dirt is similarly confused; the strength of its Dirt Rally spin-offs leaving the parent series unsure of what it's meant to be. Forza Horizon hasn't so much pulled ahead of the pack as it's already finished the race and is now free to amuse itself.