Hyundai Motor to host Korea's largest sim racing championship

Hyundai Motor announced Tuesday it will hold the "2026 Hyundai N Virtual Cup," the largest sim racing esports championship in South Korea. This year's competition will use Gran Turismo 7 as its official racing game, opening with online qualifying rounds on Friday before moving to three in-person rounds in Seoul, Yongin and Busan.

The Hyundai N Virtual Cup, launched in 2024, is the country's largest sim racing esports competition, bringing together local governments, the gaming industry and an automaker. Sim racing refers to racing games and competitions that replicate real-world motorsport as realistically as possible. This year's event was organized in partnership with the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the G-STAR Organizing Committee, among other major domestic institutions.

Gran Turismo 7, a globally recognized racing simulation game, was selected as the official game for this year's championship. The title has been adopted as an official esport at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, and Hyundai Motor supplied official sim racing equipment for the Gran Turismo 7 national team trials held at the Hyundai N Festival Round 1 in May.

The game will feature the "Hyundai N 2025 Vision Gran Turismo," a concept car that marked the debut of the Hyundai N brand, as the official in-game racing vehicle. Hyundai Motor unveiled the car at the IAA Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2015, the same occasion on which it launched its high-performance N brand.

The top 24 domestic players selected through online qualifying, which begins Friday, will advance to the main competition. A university student division and an influencer division are also planned.

Round 1 will be held Sept. 20 at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul, in conjunction with the city's Game and Esports event. Hyundai Motor will operate a Hyundai N sim racing experience zone at the venue and display a range of N high-performance vehicles alongside actual race cars — including World Rally Championship and TCR machines — at DDP's Eoulrim Plaza.

Round 2 will take place Oct. 30 at Everland Speedway in Yongin, alongside the final round of the Hyundai N Festival. The speedway will also host a sim racing experience booth and the N e-Festival Junior Cup, a competition open to elementary school students.

The grand final, Round 3, will be held Nov. 22 at Bexco in Busan, tied to G-STAR, Asia's leading international game exhibition. The venue will feature sim racing experiences, displays of N high-performance vehicles and race cars, and a range of hands-on programs for customers to experience the Hyundai N brand.

Through the championship, Hyundai Motor aims to build a stronger N brand fandom, deepen its connection with the esports generation and contribute to raising the global competitiveness of South Korea's gaming and esports industries.

"The Hyundai N Virtual Cup sim racing championship will give customers easier access to motorsport and make a significant contribution to spreading high-performance car culture in Korea," said Park Jun-woo, senior vice president of Hyundai Motor's N Management Division. "We hope more customers will get to experience Hyundai N through the familiar platform of gaming."

Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor — which has sponsored the FIFA World Cup for about 27 years since 1999 — has been expanding its customer touchpoints through a range of marketing activities. As an official mobility partner of the FIFA World Cup 2026, the company has teamed up with Epic Games to engage global customers through World Cup-themed in-game events in Rocket League and Fortnite.