The Forza Horizon 5 trick that is making players millions (in game)

When somebody said the future of motoring would be driverless, I assumed that meant real cars. Turns out, the experts must have meant videogames.

Forza Horizon 5 (reviewed here) has only been out a day for all players and already the game is filled with 'AFK' custom events and tunes. So I made a video about this 'away from keyboard' trick, which has already amassed 60,000+ views in 13 hours.

There are actually numerous ways to make money fast in Forza Horizon 5. The best one being to play the game as intended. No, really. You should enjoy what is the best racing game right now. It chucks lots of cool stuff at you. Just maybe not the overpowered Lambo Sesto Elemento FE.

However that has not stopped some players from buying up certain cars in bulk to unlock Super Wheelspins (a chance of winning three random prizes), making cars do permanent barrel rolls, farming skill points by drifting and, of course, the trick this article is about.

WHAT THE AFK?

Tucked away under the difficulty settings. there is an option for auto steering. Enable this and assisted braking then find a car that is not tail-happy and, well, you can watch it lap any circuit without your help. As many laps as you want hence the huge reward potential.

Chuck in some Velcro, cable tie, a brick or any other method of keeping the accelerator pressed and you can do whatever you want while Forza Horizon 5 rakes in the credits, XP, Wheelspins and Skill Points used for car mastery perks.

Method specifics can be found in my video (see above), but suffice to say that waking up to 2.5 million XP and nearly 100 Wheelspins is probably not what developer Playground Games intended.

CAN I BE BANNED FOR IT?

Will you get into trouble? I doubt it because you are using gameplay mechanics within the game. Originally available in Forza Motorsport 1, auto steering may have been reintroduced for disabled players. Forza Horizon 5 (and Microsoft in general) is big on accessibility.

Will it be fixed? Well, the feature could be removed entirely but that would affect those who use it for other reasons. You could also disable rewards from custom events, but that would ruin a big part of the community experience.

Perhaps the developers will leave it alone. Or maybe introduce some sort of reward penalty when using assisted steering and braking. Or something that detects AFK players and pauses the game (this seems to happen already for some players). Seems like a difficult fix.

Whatever happens, there is actually something quite satisfying about tuning a car and letting the AI drive it. I loved this Drivatar feature in Forza Motorsport 1. Maybe something more could be made of it in future games?

With other bugs and issues needing some fixes, the developers have bigger fish to fry anyway. Such as sim racing accessory support, disconnection issues and online stability. To be fair, day one saw more than three million players so teething problems are to be expected.

In the DriveTribe review, we said: "Forza games have always been about the enjoyment of driving. You, your chosen ride and the scenery. Forza Horizon 5 is as good as it gets in this department. Even if the time to get your favourite cars is shorter than elsewhere, the ride is no less rewarding."

Forza Horizon 5 is available on PC (Microsoft and Steam stores) and Xbox One, Series X and Series S. Head to A Tribe Called Cars for more car and gaming content.