Hyundai Motor is bringing Gran Turismo 7 competitive play to three cities across South Korea, with online qualifiers opening August 14. Hyundai Motor Company has unveiled the 2026 Hyundai N Virtual Cup, a Gran Turismo 7 sim racing esports tournament that organizers say will be the biggest staged in South Korea so far. Online qualifiers start this Friday with the top 24 players advancing to a three-round live circuit spanning the capital city, Yongin, and Busan over four months. With co-organization coming from the G-STAR Organising Committee and the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the tournament has backing well beyond what we normally see from a standard automaker marketing play. Gran Turismo 7 and the Asian Games connection Gran Turismo 7 has also been confirmed as an official esports discipline at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in Japan, which gives it even more international cred. Hyundai itself is already embedded in that pipeline; back 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. Rather excitingly, players competing in the N Virtual Cup will get to race the Hyundai N 2025 Vision Gran Turismo, a concept car first flaunted by Hyundai at the IAA Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2015 (the same event at which it launched its N high-performance sub-brand). How the tournament is structured The live circuit breaks down across three events: | Round | Date | Venue | City | |---|---|---|---| | Round 1 | Sept. 20 | Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) | Seoul | | Round 2 | Oct. 30 | Everland Speedway | Yongin | | Round 3 | TBD | TBD | Busan | Round 1 at DDP runs alongside the Seoul Game and Esports Event (GES). Hyundai will