Forza Horizon 6 The Trial: Co-op Championship Guide (Eligible Cars, Do You Have to Win?)

How The Trial works in Forza Horizon 6 — it's co-op, not PVP. Which cars are eligible, whether you have to win, the team scoring rules, and how to actually complete it.

The single most useful thing to understand about The Trial is that it is co-op, not PVP. You’re dropped into a lobby with a handful of other real players, and together you race a team of AI Drivatars. The blue cars are your friends; the red cars are the enemy. Half the frustration players report comes from people who never internalize this and spend the series torpedoing their own team. Don’t be that person, and you’ve already cleared the hardest part.

How The Trial actually works

The Trial is a weekly co-op championship tucked inside the Festival Playlist, and clearing it is usually how you unlock that week’s bonus reward car. It runs as a short series — players consistently describe three races — and your team’s score is cumulative. After each race, every driver’s finishing position is tallied, your team’s numbers are compared against the AI team’s, and the lower total takes the race. Win enough of the series (players describe it as roughly two of three) and the whole team gets credit.

That scoring model is the key to the whole event: you do not need to place first. One thing the community repeats is that even if you’re not great at online racing, just aiming for 7th or 8th still drops points into the team pot. Your weakest race can be salvaged entirely by teammates who finish near the front.

Which cars are eligible

Eligibility is set fresh every week by the Trial’s restriction, so there’s no permanent answer. Each event locks you to a specific class and category. One recent week, for example, ran as a “Total Rally” Trial — meaning any rally car (Classic, Retro, Modern Rally, plus Rally Monsters) — but capped at B class. Under that rule players were running cars like the 1980 Renault 5 Turbo, 1984 Peugeot 205 Turbo 16, 1984 Opel Manta 400, 1986 Lancia Delta S4 and 1983 Volvo 242 Turbo Evolution, all upgraded to the class ceiling.

Two practical notes the community stresses:

• Class is a hard wall. If the Trial says B class, an A-class build of an otherwise-eligible car will be rejected. Upgrade to the cap, not past it.
• The in-game restriction is the source of truth. There isn’t always a clean filter for the exact category, so read the event’s stated requirement, then pick from your garage or the Autoshow accordingly. Browse the tier lists to see which models suit the class.

Don’t overthink the build. Grab an eligible car, drop a popular community tune on it (verify the surface — tarmac vs dirt vs cross-country setups matter a lot here), and make sure it’s sitting at the class cap. A maxed B600 on the right tires beats a fiddly hand-tune you didn’t test. The tuning guide covers the basics if you’d rather build your own.

How to actually complete it

The AI is beatable, but it’s the cooperative play that wins or loses the series.

• Race the red cars, not the blue ones. Blocking, ramming, or brake-checking a teammate is pure self-sabotage in a points-total format.
• You can brake-check the AI. Slowing or holding up a leading red Drivatar lets several teammates stream past, swinging the position math in your favor. Used on enemies, it’s a legitimate team tactic.
• Pass in the fast stuff. Players report the AI drives high-speed corner sequences more conservatively, so that’s your best overtaking window. It defends tighter, slower sections harder.
• Don’t quit. A player dropping out hands free positions to the AI and can sink the whole team. If you load in, see it through.

A couple of fair warnings. Difficulty isn’t even across the series — some players find one race noticeably tougher than the others, so don’t panic if your team drops a single race; the cumulative format gives you room to recover. And connectivity has been rocky, with players reporting server errors blocking entry on busy reset days. If you can’t get in, it’s often the servers, not you — try again rather than assuming you did something wrong.

The short version: it’s a team game decided by combined positions, your eligible car just needs to be tuned to the class cap, and you complete it by helping your side out-score the AI — not by winning solo. New to the Playlist grind? Start with the beginner guide, then come back and clear this week’s Trial.

Frequently asked questions