A thrilling but tightly fenced VR experience — spectacular loops and wall rides in VR, but limited to just 40 tracks and forced third-person camera

Trackmania Turbo in VR: Loops, Wall Rides, and a Leash

Trackmania Turbo is a blistering arcade racer built on insane track design — loops, wall rides, boosts over gaps, and time-trial obsession. When it received a free VR update in late 2016, those moments of airborne vertigo and stomach-dropping loops became genuinely physical sensations. The problem is that Ubisoft and Nadeo built a highlight reel, not a full VR game. The official VR mode — literally labeled “VR Experience” inside the game — gives you 40 dedicated tracks and nothing else from the main game.

What This VR Option Actually Is

Trackmania Turbo’s VR support is an official hybrid mode added via free update after launch. It is not a standalone VR product. It is not a full VR conversion of the base game. It is a curated “VR Experience” with 40 tracks across four environments (Canyon, Lagoon, Rollercoaster Lagoon, and Stadium Dirt), accessible through two modes: Campaign (progressive unlock) and Arcade (limited-attempt high-score runs).

Key limitations:

Only 40 tracks are officially available in VR. The base game has over 200 tracks — the vast majority are inaccessible in VR without community tools.
The camera is forced into third-person perspective behind the car. It automatically switches to first-person during loops and certain track elements, but there is no option for persistent first-person view.
PSVR, HTC Vive, and Oculus Rift are all officially supported.
A free demo with four VR tracks is available on Steam and PlayStation Store.

There is also a community mod that changes the equation significantly. The Openplanet platform — a modding framework for Trackmania — hosts an “Enable VR” plugin by Zai that unlocks VR for every track in Trackmania Turbo, not just the 40 dedicated ones. This mod also enables a bonnet camera view (press Numpad 3). This transforms the content situation, but it comes with the usual mod caveats: unofficial, no guarantee of stability, and may break with game updates.

How It Plays

Controls: Gamepad is the way to play. The Vive motion controllers technically work for menu navigation and basic in-game input, but steering with a trackpad or analog stick on a motion controller is imprecise compared to a proper gamepad. Keyboard works but lacks the analog input that makes Trackmania’s precision driving feel right. This is fundamentally a flat game — there are no motion-controlled steering wheels, no hand interactions, no VR-native input mechanics.

Comfort: This is where Trackmania Turbo VR gets complicated. The game is designed around speed, verticality, and disorientation. Loops send you upside-down. Wall rides tilt the track sideways. Boosts launch you across gaps. In third-person, this is mostly manageable — your viewpoint stays stable behind the car. But the forced transitions between third-person and first-person (during loops and certain track sections) can be jarring. Some players report no discomfort at all; others find the camera switches disorienting. Experienced VR users will likely adapt. VR newcomers should approach with caution and take breaks.

Performance: Trackmania Turbo is not a demanding game. It runs well on mid-range hardware in VR, with solid framerates on everything from a GTX 970 upward (the officially recommended spec). The stylized, relatively simple visuals help considerably. Performance is rarely the bottleneck here.

Stability: The official VR mode is stable — it’s been essentially unchanged since 2016. Bugs are minimal. The Openplanet mod introduces more variability, but the core VR Experience mode just works.

What Works Well

The moments where Trackmania Turbo VR clicks are genuinely remarkable. Launching off a ramp and watching the ground fall away beneath you, looping through a full 360-degree barrel roll with the world spinning around you, threading a wall ride at full speed with the track curving overhead — these are experiences that flat gameplay cannot replicate. The sense of scale and speed is immediately heightened. The track designs in the VR set are among the most spectacular in the game precisely because they were built to showcase what VR can do.

The stylized visual style translates well to VR. Clean geometry, bold colors, and readable track layouts mean you can actually see what’s coming at speed, which is more than some racing games manage.

The short track format (15–60 seconds each) also works in VR’s favor. You get intense, concentrated bursts of adrenaline without extended sessions that could compound discomfort. It’s a natural fit for VR’s “play in short sessions” strength.

What Doesn’t Work

Content limitation is the defining problem. Forty tracks sounds reasonable until you realize the base game has over 200. The VR Experience can be gold-medaled in roughly 90 minutes. After that, there’s very little draw to replay most of the tracks. The full game’s track builder, online play, and user-created tracks — arguably the heart of Trackmania — are entirely absent from VR mode. You’re playing a curated sampler, not the full game.

The forced camera is a design compromise that doesn’t fully work. Third-person behind-the-car is the default, and it’s functional, but it underutilizes VR’s immersion. When the camera snaps to first-person for loops, the transition is sudden and some players find it disorienting. The inability to choose your perspective freely feels like a missed opportunity, especially given that the first-person moments are often the most thrilling.

No motion controls for driving. This is a flat game played on a gamepad with a headset on. There’s no steering wheel interaction, no hand presence, no VR-native mechanics. The VR is a display upgrade, not a control paradigm shift. That’s not inherently wrong — racing games work well with gamepads — but it means Trackmania Turbo VR never feels like it was designed for VR.

Platform Differences

On PCVR (Vive, Rift, Index), the VR Experience runs at higher visual fidelity and smoother framerates. PSVR on base PS4 is functional but visually softer. PS4 Pro offers minor improvements. The content is identical across platforms — same 40 tracks, same camera behavior, same limitations.

The Openplanet “Enable VR” mod is PCVR only. PSVR players are locked to the official 40 tracks with no expansion options.

Who This Is For

Good for: Trackmania fans who already own the game and want to experience their favorite loops and wall rides in VR. VR enthusiasts who enjoy short-session arcade racing and don’t mind limited content. Anyone curious about what a high-speed stunt racer feels like in VR — the highlights are worth the price of admission if you catch it on sale.

Not for: Players looking for a full VR racing game with extensive content. Those sensitive to camera transitions or motion sickness in VR. Anyone expecting motion controls or VR-native interaction — this is a flat game with a headset on.

The Verdict

Tier: B

Game Quality: A Trackmania Turbo is an excellent arcade racer with tight mechanics, spectacular track design, and a rewarding time-trial loop. The underlying game is genuinely good.

VR Implementation Quality: C The VR Experience provides thrills but is frustratingly incomplete — 40 tracks out of 200+, forced camera, no VR-native controls, and the game’s core content (track building, online play, user tracks) locked out of VR. The Openplanet mod improves this significantly on PC, but that’s community work, not developer effort.

Overall Tier: B Trackmania Turbo VR delivers real, physical thrills that justify strapping on a headset. The loops and wall rides in VR are experiences flat screens cannot match. But those thrills come in a small package — a curated sampler rather than a full meal. If you already own the game or can grab it cheap, the VR Experience is absolutely worth playing. Just know that you’re getting the highlight reel, not the whole show. PCVR players can expand the content dramatically with the Openplanet mod, which pushes the experience closer to what this should have been from the start.