Hyundai Motor teams up with Racing Master for esports cup in Seoul

Hyundai Motor announced Monday it will hold the offline final of the "Hyundai N x Racing Master Cup" at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul on Sept. 19, in collaboration with the globally popular mobile racing game Racing Master.

The tournament is one of the esports events under "Game Esports Seoul" (GES), organized by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Top players who advanced through online qualifying rounds held across major Asian regions — Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia and Hong Kong — will compete for the Asian championship title.

The final will be open to in-person spectators and broadcast live across Asia via YouTube, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.

The Hyundai N x Racing Master Cup marks the first official esports collaboration between Hyundai Motor and Racing Master.

The event was conceived to extend Hyundai N's high-performance brand philosophy and motorsport DNA into the mobile sim-racing space, offering global users a new kind of digital racing experience.

The competition launched online on July 23, with roughly 4,000 participants per region competing over approximately two months through online qualifying and tournament stages to determine who would advance to the offline final. Eight representatives from four regions — Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia and Hong Kong/Macao/Taiwan — will face off at the Seoul final.

The winner will receive $1,000 in prize money along with various in-game rewards. All eight finalists will receive prize money and special rewards based on their finishing position.

The Hyundai Elantra N will serve as the official competition vehicle at the final. It marks the first time a Hyundai N vehicle has been used as the official race car in a global mobile racing game esports event.

Racing Master is a global mobile racing game that has signed official licensing agreements with more than 40 automotive brands worldwide and offers more than 100 vehicles.

The game features a range of Hyundai N and N Line models, including the Ioniq 5 N, Veloster N, Elantra N, Tucson N Line and N Vision 74, allowing players to experience Hyundai Motor's high-performance lineup in a virtual environment.

Hyundai Motor and Racing Master will operate a joint exhibition booth throughout the GES event, which runs from Sept. 18 to Sept. 20.

Hyundai Motor plans to combine digital racing in mobile games with real-world motorsport culture to broaden its touchpoints with the next generation of mobility enthusiasts and strengthen its brand experience.

At the Hyundai Motor booth, visitors can try a lap-time challenge using Hyundai N vehicles as rendered in the game, including virtual courses based on a Seoul city circuit and well-known domestic tourism destinations. A range of on-site events and prize programs will also be held.

In addition, Hyundai Motor will host the season opener — Round 1 of its flagship sim-racing esports competition, the "Hyundai N Virtual Cup" — at the GES venue on Sept. 20.

Park Jun-woo, senior vice president of Hyundai Motor's N Management Division, said the collaboration "is significant in that it extends our existing console- and PC-focused sim-racing activities into the mobile space." He added that "Hyundai N will continue to work through diverse gaming platforms to broaden the base of motorsport culture in Korea."

Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor has been expanding its engagement with global customers through a series of online gaming tie-ins. Earlier this year, the company ran the "Hyundai Next Cup Tour" event in the mobile football management game Top Eleven in April, then in June teamed up with Epic Games to run World Cup-linked in-game events in Rocket League and Fortnite.