New Forza Horizon 5 update brings 12 new American cars, lots more ways to spend your real money

What you need to know

• On Nov. 7, Forza Horizon 5 is getting its next content update, dubbed "American Automotive."
• Focusing on American-made vehicles, the update also includes plenty of accessibility improvements and bug fixes.
• Players can expect eight new cars in the Festival Playlist, as well as new rims, body kits, race tracks, Accolades, and the return of the Oval Track.
• Playground Games is also introducing more ways to spend real money, with new Forza bundles, the four-car American Automotive Car Pack, and paid Autoshow Car Vouchers.

UPDATE Nov. 7, 2023: The Forza Horizon 5: American Automotive update is now available to download across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Windows PC. On Xbox Series X, at least, the content update measures ~13.51GB in size.

This update includes most of the new content and changes listed below, but the American Automotive Festival Playlist doesn't begin until Nov. 9, the American Automotive Car Pack should be available to purchase in the near future, the new Forza holiday bundles are coming on Nov. 16, and the optional Autoshow Car Vouchers aren't available yet. You can now see the full changelog for the update at Forza.net.

In case you missed it, Forza Motorsport (2023) is also getting its first major update with new cars, the Yas Marina track, and lots of fixes.

My original article continues below.

Forza Horizon 5 has two more updates planned to close out the year, and the second-to-last has been announced (and is basically already here). The American Automotive content update is releasing to FH5 players across Xbox and Windows PC on Nov. 7, 2023, with its accompanying Festival Playlist kicking off two days later on Nov. 9. As the name implies, this update is all about American-made vehicles.

I've already covered the 2024 Lucid Air Sapphire coming to Forza Horizon 5, but there's a lot more than that players can expect from the update. A new themed Festival Playlist, more races, improved accessibility, more customization options, and plenty of new cars are all here. Oh, and Playground Games is introducing more ways for you to spend your real money on the game, including new Forza Horizon 5 and Forza Motorsport (2023) holiday bundles, another paid Car Pack DLC, and even optional Autoshow Car Vouchers to let players skip the Credits grind.

Let's not waste any more time. Here's everything you can expect from Forza Horizon 5: American Automotive.

Everything new in the Forza Horizon 5: American Automotive update

• Eight new reward cars. Let's start with what everyone wants to know the most — the new additions to the Forza Horizon 5 car list. This time around, every reward car from the four-week Festival Playlist is a brand-new addition to Forza, including some very recent (and even upcoming) vehicle releases. Of course, there's also plenty of classic American muscle.
  • 1962 Lincoln Continental
  • 1964 Plymouth Belvedere
  • 1966 Chevrolet Nova Super Sport
  • 1968 Pontiac Firebird
  • 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge
  • 2010 Rossion Q1
  • 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06
  • 2024 Lucid Air Sapphire
• New race routes and tracks. Forza Horizon 5 is permanently getting four new race routes set on the classic Mexico-inspired map, and they are all Road Race Sprints. The Oval Track is making a return, too, taking over the Stadium and giving players another chance to earn an Accolade. Each of the four new race routes also provide Accolades for completing and/or winning each race.
• More ways to customize your cars. Playground Games has been steadily adding more ways to customize your cars in Forza Horizon 5, and the American Automotive update continues that. We're getting 20 new rims from HRE, and new widebody kits for:
  • 1987 Pontiac Firebird Trans AM GTA
  • 2016 Ford Shelby GT350R
  • 2017 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
• A refreshed Festival Playlist. Starting on Nov. 9, the Festival Playlist is being taken over by American Automotive for four weeks, with a diverse array of themed races, challenges, and EventLab creations featuring American vehicles. There will also be a new Inflatable Football Collectible for players to find.
• Improved accessibility. I love to see it. Playground Games has added American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL) support to every current Horizon Story in Forza Horizon 5 to date, making those miniature-campaigns more accessible to deaf players.
• Bug fixes and improvements. The American Automotive update of course includes the usual batch of fixes, including for EventLab. There are also a variety of cosmetic improvements for several cars.
• Teasing the next update. As always, Playground Games concluded its breakdown of the latest FHD content update by teasing the next one. The year is concluding with Forza Horizon 5: Winter Wonderland, dropping in December.
  • The Stadium will get another makeover
  • Secret Santa is making a comeback
  • New cars are being added

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The new ways to spend your real money on Forza

Forza Horizon 5 is a game-as-a-service, meaning it's updated into perpetuity with new content and features, but it lacks in-game microtransactions. Up until this point, Playground Games has relied on hard game purchases and optional DLCs to monetize FH5, but that's changing just a tad today with one addition.

Here are the three new ways you can spend your money on Forza.

• The American Automotive Car Pack. Releasing on Nov. 7 for $4.99, the American Automotive Car Pack adds four new American-made vehicles to Forza Horizon 5.
  • 1961 DeBerti Design Ford Econoline "Shop Rod"
  • 2017 Saleen S7 LM
  • 2020 Chevrolet Silverado LT Trail Boss
  • 2024 Czinger 21C
• New holiday Forza bundles. Starting on Nov. 16 and lasting until Nov. 30, players will be able to buy two unique Forza bundles.
  • The first bundle will feature Forza Horizon 5 Premium Edition and Forza Motorsport (2023) Premium Edition, which includes both base games and all Premium Edition DLC for a discounted price
  • The second bundle will feature just the Premium Add-Ons DLC for both games, letting Xbox Game Pass subscribers or owners of the base game get all Premium Edition DLC for a discounted price
• Autoshow Car Vouchers. Finally, Playground Games is adding a way for players to spend real money to purchase any car they want from the Forza Horizon 5 Autoshow. Yeah, Tokens are back, basically. There are three ways players can purchase these new Autoshow Car Vouchers, which are entirely optional and only affect cars purchasable in the Autoshow (not Festival Playlist reward cars, challenge or collection cars, Message Center gifts, Auction House cars, or DLC cars).
  • 4 Autoshow Car Vouchers will cost $4.99
  • 10 Autoshow Car Vouchers will cost $9.99
  • 24 Autoshow Car Vouchers will cost $19.99

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Celebrating Forza Horizon 5's 2nd anniversary

Nov. 9, 2023 marks the 2nd Anniversary for Forza Horizon 5 (although that date has already passed if you count the five-day early access period for Premium Edition owners). To mark the occasion, Playground Games released the above graphic detailing all the changes and updates FH5 has seen in its bustling two years of live, including the addition of 255 cars, two DLC expansions, substantially larger garages and tune/livery libraries, a vastly improved Photo Mode, and so much more.

Forza Horizon 5 has undoubtedly changed quite a bit across its two years of life, but Playground Games teases that there's still a lot more to come for the open-world racing game. American Automotive and Winter Wonderland will close out 2023, but who knows what 2024 will bring?

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When does Forza Horizon 5: American Automotive release?

When can players expect the latest batch of content for the best Xbox racing game? Well, lets take this one item at a time. The free Forza Horizon 5: American Automotive content update will release on Nov. 7, 2023 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, and Xbox and PC Game Pass. At this point, players will be able to enjoy the latest quality-of-life improvements, accessibility features, bug fixes, and new content such as more vehicle customization options and four new race routes.

The American Automotive Festival Playlist will not kick off for two more days, on Nov. 9, 2023. At this point, players will be able to participate in a refreshed Festival Playlist for free, highlighting American-made vehicles, the new race routes and returning Oval Track, and more creations from EventLab 2.0. The eight new reward vehicles will also be offered through the four-week Festival Playlist.

The Forza Horizon 5: American Automotive Car Pack featuring four more American-made vehicles will release on Nov. 7, 2023 for Xbox and Windows PC. This is an optional Car Pack that will cost $4.99, and immediately add all four cars to your collection.

Playground Games doesn't actually state exactly when Autoshow Car Vouchers will be released, leading me to believe the optional microtransactions will arrive either on Nov. 7 alongside the American Automotive update or at some point in the future. Either way, the Autoshow Car Vouchers will work across Xbox and Windows PC. Autoshow Car Voucher bundles will range from $4.99 to $19.99 in price.

Finally, the new Forza Horizon 5 and Forza Motorsport bundles will be available across Xbox and Windows PC from Nov. 16, 2023 until Nov. 30, 2023. It's not clear if the bundles will disappear from storefronts permanently at the end of the month, but it seems that's likely the case. Pricing for these bundles have not been released yet.

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