Which U.S. state is the original Forza Horizon map based on?

The original Forza Horizon map is based on the U.S. state of Colorado.

Released for Xbox 360 in 2012, Forza Horizon introduced the fictional Horizon Festival as an open-world street-racing event. Playground Games researched nearly 30 real-world locations before selecting Colorado as the inspiration for the game’s setting. Developers visited the state and gathered more than 50,000 still photographs to help build their own condensed, fictional version of its landscapes.

The map combines several Colorado-inspired environments, including snowy mountain roads, plains, foothills, and scenery modeled after the state’s Red Rocks Park. It is not a precise geographic recreation of Colorado, so recognizable landmarks and regions are rearranged for gameplay. Another common mix-up is to associate the first Horizon game with later locations: Horizon 2 used the French and Italian Rivieras, Horizon 3 used Australia, Horizon 4 used Great Britain, and Horizon 5 used Mexico.