How close can a laser-scanned rally stage get to reality?
In this video I'm driving the legendary La Bollène-Vésubie → Col de Turini road in Assetto Corsa Rally and comparing it directly with real-world footage from the Monte-Carlo Rally.
The Col de Turini is one of the most famous roads in rallying: narrow mountain asphalt, relentless elevation changes, tight hairpins and the possibility of completely different grip conditions depending on weather and altitude.
And this time there's an important difference compared with traditional rally-game recreations.
Assetto Corsa Rally's laser-scanned Col de Turini
The Monte-Carlo Rally was introduced to Assetto Corsa Rally with Update 0.3 in February 2026, including the Col de Turini and Sisteron stages.
The developers describe the Monte-Carlo stages as fully laser scanned.
The laser-scan approach is designed to reproduce the real-world road geometry and surface characteristics with extremely high accuracy, including elevation changes, bumps, road irregularities and the surrounding environment.
The Col de Turini stage in Assetto Corsa Rally is approximately 18 km long, making it one of the game's longer rally stages. However, this comparison covers only the La Bollène-Vésubie → Col de Turini section — the same physical road section represented in EA Sports WRC.
I couldn't find a reliable public source giving the exact date when the physical Col de Turini scan was performed, so I'm deliberately not guessing. What we do know is that the scanned data was already incorporated into the game for the Monte-Carlo release in February 2026.
Why "Monte-Carlo" when we're actually in France?
The answer goes back to the origins of the rally.
The Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo was created in 1911 by the Automobile Club de Monaco. The name comes from the Principality and its famous Monte-Carlo district, which became the symbolic home of the event.
But the rally has never been confined to Monaco itself.
The competitive stages traditionally run through the spectacular mountain roads of southeastern France, particularly the Alpes-Maritimes and surrounding Alpine regions.
The Col de Turini is in France, north of Monaco, and has become one of the defining symbols of the Monte-Carlo Rally.
That's also why the rally is so special: you can start from glamorous Monaco and, not long afterwards, find yourself fighting for grip on an icy mountain road hundreds of metres above the Mediterranean.
The road
La Bollène-Vésubie → Col de Turini
This road has been used repeatedly by the real Rallye Monte-Carlo. The Automobile Club de Monaco has described it as one of the event's iconic stages, including the climb from La Bollène-Vésubie towards the 1,607 m Col de Turini.
The exact rally configuration and distance have changed over the years. The 2022 WRC event, for example, used a 15.12 km version, while Assetto Corsa Rally represents the Turini section as part of an approximately 18 km laser-scanned stage continuing toward Peïra Cava.
Real road vs simulation
This video isn't simply about graphics.
The interesting question is whether a laser-scanned road actually looks and feels like the real thing when compared directly with real footage.
Look at the road width, elevation changes, hairpins, roadside objects, walls, trees and the shape of the corners.
Then decide:
How close did Assetto Corsa Rally get to the real Col de Turini?
Game: Assetto Corsa Rally
Rally: Monte-Carlo
Stage: La Bollène-Vésubie → Col de Turini
Location: Alpes-Maritimes, France
Col de Turini: 1,607 m
Full ACR stage: ~18 km
Stage technology: Full laser scanning
Monte-Carlo content added: February 2026
