Hyundai Motor Company has unveiled the 2026 Hyundai N Virtual Cup, a Gran Turismo 7 competition its organisers say is the largest sim racing tournament staged in South Korea to date, Esports.gg reports. Online qualifiers opened on August 14, with the top 24 players advancing to a three-round live circuit running across Seoul, Yongin and Busan over four months.
The event is co-organised by the G-STAR Organising Committee and the Seoul Metropolitan Government, institutional backing well beyond what an automaker marketing tournament normally carries. Competitors race the Hyundai N 2025 Vision Gran Turismo, a concept car Hyundai first showed at the IAA Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2015, the same event at which it launched its N high-performance sub-brand.
How the live circuit is structured
- Round 1 runs at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul on September 20, alongside the Seoul Game and Esports Event. Hyundai will operate a hands-on sim racing experience zone and display N high-performance road cars next to TCR and WRC race machines at DDP's Eoulrim Plaza.
- Round 2 takes place at Everland Speedway in Yongin, timed to coincide with the final round of the Hyundai N Festival. It adds the N e-Festival Junior Cup, a separate competition open to elementary school students, plus a sim racing booth for general attendees.
- A third live round completes the circuit in Busan; Hyundai has not detailed its venue or date.
- Side events run alongside the main bracket, including an influencer competition and a university student tournament.
Gran Turismo 7 has been confirmed as an official esports discipline at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in Japan, and Hyundai is already attached to that pipeline. In May the company supplied official sim racing equipment for the Gran Turismo 7 national team qualifier, held at the first round of the Hyundai N Festival.
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. We hope more customers will get to experience Hyundai N through the familiar platform of gaming.
The N Virtual Cup is now in its third year. The inaugural 2024 edition drew more than 2,800 participants across South Korea, Europe, the United States and China, and a 2025 edition followed before this year's expanded format. Hyundai's wider sports programme extends beyond sim racing: the company has sponsored the FIFA World Cup for roughly 27 years, and as an official mobility partner of the 2026 tournament it has worked with Epic Games on World Cup-themed in-game activations across Fortnite and Rocket League.
Hyundai has not confirmed prize money for the 2026 edition. The company says further details are due ahead of the September 20 opening live round.
Join the conversation — sign in to comment.
Sign in