Forza Motorsport difficulty explained: All settings & how to change

Instead of the usual “Easy, Normal, and Hard,” the difficulty settings in Forza Motorsport are expansive, allowing you to change many parameters and find the right difficulty. It can be confusing, so here’s what the difficulty settings mean in Forza Motorsport and how to change them.

No matter the iterations Forza Motorsport always brings some staples, a near-photo-realistic environment, a huge catalog of cars, and dozens of circuits to burn the rubber on. Turn 10 has also put emphasis on AI to make them simultaneously more challenging as well as welcoming for newer players. 

Past Forza Motorsport titles had Drivatars representing the AI drivers. The Drivatars were trained on players’ data, but in this iteration, it is based on “machine learning.” Also, this time, you can tweak the AI by several values, allowing you to customize the overall difficulty.

So, here’s a detailed rundown of each difficulty setting in Forza Motorsport and how to change them.

All difficulty settings in Forza Motorsport explained

There are two difficulty settings to adjust in Forza Motorsport:

• Rule: Club Rules, Sport Rules, and Expert Rules.
• Drivatar: From 1 to 8.

Rules Difficulty

The Rules Difficultly has three parameters, with Expert Rules being the highest. These are based on how realistic you want your races to be.

Suppose you pick Expert Rules, you’ll be without the Rewind option, penalties will be on, and the damage your car takes, along with fuel and tire management, will have an impact on your car’s performance.

Club rules, meanwhile, will let you drive freely without worrying about anything we mentioned above. The Sport Rule is a middle ground where you’ll have access to Rewind and will only have to worry about fuel and tire management. This is also the default setting for most races.

Obviously, if you play on higher difficulty, you’ll be rewarded with bonuses depending on the selected difficulty.

Drivatar Difficulty

The higher you set this, the more difficult the AI will be. Generally, 8 is considered very tough, and the AI will try to drive through with the maximum possible speed and take precise turns.

Unless you’ve played Forza Motorsport or sim racing extensively before, it is best to stay out of this, at least for the first few hours.

Outside of these two, you can also select your starting position.

How to change the difficulty setting in Forza Motorsport

Every time you select a race in Forza Motorsport Career Mode you’ll be given an option to change these difficulty settings. So there is no need to go and hunt for them every race after being beaten by the AI.

These aren’t the only things to make your game easier. You can go to settings, and in the Driving Assist section, there should be plenty of options to make driving more straightforward.

That’s all you need to know about difficulty in Forza Motorsport. For more on the game, check out:

Forza Motorsport segment score explained | Best Forza Motorsport controller settings | Best cars in Forza Motorsport | Is Forza Motorsport on Steam Deck? | Forza Motorsport achievements  | Does Forza Motorsport have split-screen? | Best PC settings for Forza Motorsport