The Nürburgring may be the most-simulated location on the planet

The proposed layout of the track is superimposed onto this aerial photograph of Castle Nürburg and its surroundings.

Getty Images | ullstein bild

The proposed layout of the track is superimposed onto this aerial photograph of Castle Nürburg and its surroundings. Getty Images | ullstein bild

A map of the Nürburgring. The GP track is the piece that sticks out at the bottom.

A map of the Nürburgring. The GP track is the piece that sticks out at the bottom.

Hermann Lang at the Nordschleife in 1937.

Getty Images | ullstein bild

Hermann Lang at the Nordschleife in 1937. Getty Images | ullstein bild

A map of the Nürburgring. The GP track is the piece that sticks out at the bottom.

Hermann Lang at the Nordschleife in 1937. Getty Images | ullstein bild

The 1966 German Grand Prix.

Getty Images | Archive Photos

But it's the 'Ring's presence in racing games that has made it famous to a new generation. It started with Grand Prix Legends in 1998.

One of the most well-known corners, Karussell. Seen here in Forza Motorsport 2.

Several generations later, this is Forza Motorsport 6's version. This one is based on a laser scan of the track and is far more accurate.

Former Ars gaming editor Ben Kuchera once told me that the reason Gran Turismo 5 was so delayed was because Kaz kept making the development team update the graffiti on the track.

Gran Turismo 6 has a lovely version of the track.

Project CARS' version of the Nordschleife is available on a range of platforms.

iRacing is one of the latest games to add a laser-scanned Nordschleife to its roster...

... as has Assetto Corsa. Which one is your favorite?

The Nürburgring is a place with few equals. A ribbon of tarmac and concrete a little over 16 miles (just under 23km) long, it snakes its way around the hills surrounding the town (and medieval castle) of Nürburg in Germany's Eifel Mountains. Many people think it's the planet's most challenging race track, a combination of long straights (and therefore high speeds), plenty of blind corners, and an extremely unforgiving nature. And perhaps uniquely, it's a real-life place intimately familiar to tens of millions of people who have never set foot on it thanks to its inclusion in a number of best-selling video games.

It's hard to think of another real place that's featured in so many games and simulated with such depth. Between its inclusion in Gran Turismo (from GT4 onwards) and Forza Motorsport, more than 50 million digital Nürburgrings have been shipped for consoles since the mid-2000s.

It's unlike any track that would be built today—unlike any track that anyone has built for the last half-century, in fact. Opened in 1927, it was the brainchild of Dr Otto Creutz, a local administrator. Car races had been held on closed public roads in the area, but Creutz figured that a purpose-built track would do just as well at drawing in tourists without the annoying road closures and disruption.

Its construction would employ thousands in an economically deprived area, and Germany's burgeoning automakers could use it as a place to test and develop their machines. Finally, there was also the clever idea to open the track to the general public as a one-way toll road, a practice that continues to this day—as long as your vehicle is road-legal in Germany and you pay your €29 ($33.2).

The Nürburgring is actually two race tracks in one. The original 1920s version was built with a 14.1-mile/22.8km Nordschleife (north loop) and a 4.8-mile/7.7km Südschleife (south loop), which could be run together, although the last time that happened was in 1929. (The latter was demolished in 1970). The Nürburgring was home to the German Grand Prix during the interwar years at a time when Mercedes and Auto Union were duking it out for technological supremacy, the beneficiaries of significant state funding as a way of propagandizing Germany's industrial renewal under Hitler.

Racing returned to the Nordschleife after the war, and it once again became home to the German Grand Prix. The Nordschleife's challenge didn't just come from having so many corners (some say more than 170, others more than 80). The area's weather is infinitely changeable from one minute to the next, meaning rain or even heavy fog is possible at one part of the track while parts are still bathed in sunshine. The track's length also made it hard for marshals and emergency workers to respond to crashes. And as Formula 1 cars got faster and faster, they were starting to get airborne at several places.

In 1968, Jackie Stewart nicknamed it "the Green Hell," a moniker that caught on but didn't stop F1 from visiting until almost a decade later. The catalyst for that was Niki Lauda's fiery crash in 1976, and it wasn't until 1984 and the construction of a second track—the GP-strecke, purpose built for high downforce racing cars—that the series returned. But racing continued at the Nordschleife in F1's absence, notably with Group C sports cars in the 1980s. Most recently, the main draw has been the VLN series in Germany, the annual highlight of which is a 24-hour race that usually sees more than 200 cars compete.