How to Install Your Track in Assetto Corsa

You've drawn a circuit and hit Export → Assetto Corsa. This page is the other half: getting that ZIP into the game, driving it, and fixing the handful of things that commonly go wrong.

It takes about two minutes. If you just want the short version:

Unzip into a new folder inside assettocorsa\content\tracks\, named exactly the same as the ZIP file (minus .zip). Launch the game. Drive.

Before you export: the 60-second checklist

Three things decide whether your track works properly in AC, and all three are set in the designer — not at install time.

Check	Why it matters
The circuit is closed	AC expects a loop. An open-ended layout has no lap to count.
There's a pit lane	The pit lane becomes ai/pit_lane.ai plus your pit boxes. Without it, AI cars can't pit and pit-lane sessions misbehave.
You're happy with the layout	Everything downstream — AI line, kerbs, cameras, minimap — is generated from the shape. Changing the track means re-exporting.

Adding a pit lane (the bit most people miss)

If you see the amber "Closed track needs a pit lane for AC export" warning in the designer, that's this. You have two routes:

• Auto layout → Auto pit lane — offsets a lane from the longest straight on your circuit. One click, and fine for most tracks. Follow it with Stamp pit boxes… for an even row of boxes along the lane (your pit box count is also your grid size).
• The pit lane tool (press L, or click the pit lane button) — click along the path you want the lane to take. Use this if auto-generate tells you there's no straight long enough to anchor a lane.

Pit lanes stay editable after you place them: drag a pit point to move it, right-click (or use the Erase tool) to delete a single point, and Auto layout → Clear pit lane starts over. So there's no penalty for a rough first attempt.

Step 1 — Export the package

Open Export on your track and choose Assetto Corsa.

If your track was traced on the satellite map, you'll get an options dialog first with Real-world terrain & buildings. Leave it ticked and the export pulls real elevation and nearby building footprints from Mapbox, so the surroundings match the place you drew on — it adds a few seconds to the export and ships a LICENSE.txt with the required attribution. Untick it for a clean, empty landscape.

You'll get a single file: your_track_name.zip.

Signed up but not subscribed? Your first Assetto Corsa export is free — a complete, real package, not a watermarked demo. Use it on a track you actually want to drive.

Step 2 — Find your content/tracks folder

Platform	Path
Windows (Steam)	C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\assettocorsa\content\tracks\
Windows (other Steam library)	<your library drive>\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\assettocorsa\content\tracks\
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/common/assettocorsa/content/tracks/

Not sure where AC lives? In Steam, right-click Assetto Corsa → Manage → Browse local files, then open content\tracks.

Step 3 — Install it

Option A — Manual (works everywhere)

1. Inside content\tracks\, create a new folder named exactly the same as your ZIP without the extension. If you downloaded brands_hatch_clone.zip, the folder is brands_hatch_clone. All lowercase, underscores not spaces.
2. Extract the contents of the ZIP into that folder — not the ZIP itself.
3. You should end up with the .kn5 sitting directly inside the folder:

content\tracks\brands_hatch_clone\
  brands_hatch_clone.kn5     ← same name as the folder
  collider.kn5
  models.ini
  map.png
  ai\
  data\
  extension\
  ui\
  README.txt

The folder name and the .kn5 name must match, and both must be lowercase. That's an AC rule, not ours — the export already names them correctly, so the only way to break it is to rename something.

Option B — Content Manager

Drag the ZIP onto the Content Manager window and confirm the install. CM reads ui/ui_track.json and creates the folder for you. If CM doesn't recognise the archive, fall back to Option A — the result is identical.

Step 4 — Drive it

Launch Assetto Corsa (or Content Manager) and pick your track from the list — it appears under the name you gave it in the designer, not the folder name. Start a Practice session first: it's the quickest way to confirm the surface, pit exit and lap counter all behave.

Then try a Race with AI. The AI drives the racing line computed from a physics lap simulation of your layout, so it should be competitive without you touching anything.

What's actually in the package

Worth knowing, because it explains what you can and can't change by hand.

File / folder	What it does
<slug>.kn5	The visual track — road surface, kerbs, white edge lines, grass, run-off, and any grandstands, pit buildings or real-world buildings you placed
collider.kn5	The physics mesh, including invisible walls that keep a car from sliding into the void
ai/fast_lane.ai	The AI racing line, with speed hints from curvature, banking and elevation
ai/pit_lane.ai	The AI's pit path — only present if your track has a pit lane
data/surfaces.ini	Grip per surface: tarmac, kerb, grass, sand, pit lane
data/sections.ini	Sector definitions, matched to the timing gates
data/cameras.ini	Broadcast-style replay cameras placed around the corners
data/drs_zones.ini	DRS zones detected from the straights
data/lighting.ini	Sun angle and ambient lighting for the track
extension/ext_config.ini	Custom Shaders Patch extras — ignored if you don't run CSP
map.png + data/map.ini	The in-game HUD minimap. They're a matched pair — replace both or neither
ui/	ui_track.json, preview, outline and badge images for the track picker
data/*.csv	Human-readable centreline, racing line and corner data — handy if you're building on top of the export

Inside the .kn5 you also get the dummies AC needs: AC_START_* grid slots, AC_PIT_* pit boxes, and AC_TIME_0/1/2_L/R timing gates for the lap counter and sector splits. These are the fiddly, silently-breakable parts of hand-built tracks, and they're placed for you.

Troubleshooting

The track doesn't appear in the list at all. Nine times out of ten it's a nested folder — content\tracks\my_track\my_track\my_track.kn5. Extracting a ZIP often creates its own folder. Open the track folder: you should see the .kn5 and models.ini immediately, with no extra folder in between.

"Track not found" or a black screen on load. The folder name and the .kn5 filename no longer match (or one has capitals or spaces). Rename them back so both read exactly the same, all lowercase.

The track loads but laps don't count. The AC_TIME gates are in the exported .kn5. If you rebuilt the model in Blender/ksEditor and dropped them — or renamed the left/right gates the other way round — the counter silently stops. Re-export and compare against a fresh package.

AI cars won't leave the pits, or never pit. Your track exported without ai/pit_lane.ai because there was no pit lane. Add one in the designer (Auto layout → Auto pit lane is enough) and export again.

Only a couple of cars fit on the grid. Grid size follows your pit box count. More pit boxes along the pit lane means a bigger field.

The minimap looks wrong or the car dot is off-track. map.png and data/map.ini are generated together and share a coordinate frame. If you replaced the PNG by hand, put the original back or regenerate both.

I want it to look better. Export the same track as .obj, .fbx or a Blender file, build up the scenery in Blender, then export a replacement .kn5 through ksEditor — keeping the 1ROAD / 1KERB / 1GRASS / 1WALL naming prefixes and the AC_ dummies intact. The rest of the package (AI line, INI files, UI) carries on working untouched.

Sharing your track

Zip the whole <slug> folder from content/tracks and send it on — that folder is the mod. Whoever receives it drops it into their own content/tracks exactly as above.

Key takeaways

• Add a pit lane before you export — it's the single biggest cause of odd AI behaviour later.
• Install = one new folder in content/tracks, named the same as the ZIP, with the ZIP's contents inside it.
• Folder name and .kn5 name must match, all lowercase. Don't rename either.
• If the track won't show up, look for a nested folder first.

New to all this? Start with how to make a track for Assetto Corsa for the bigger picture, or just open the designer and draw something.