Esaki insisted that ray-tracing will be a part of the experience, and it will be on during real-time gameplay. He also clarified that it wouldn’t just be limited to the likes of Photo Mode or Replay, and the intention of mentioning “on-track raytracing” during the reveal trailer wasn’t to mislead fans with words. Long story short, it seems that Forza Motorsport will have ray-tracing enabled during gameplay itself as well.

“Ray tracing’s here. It’s on track, and most importantly, it’s real-time gameplay,” he said (as transcribed by Pure Xbox). “I really want to make that clear. When we say on-track, we don’t mean it’s only in replays or Photo Mode on-track and [we’re] being funny with words – we’re not trying to mislead you here. When you are racing, when you are playing the game, ray tracing is on.”

Forza Motorsport is slated for sometime during Spring 2023 for PC, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S.