Test Track 3.0 Ride-Through Video & Photo!
Previews of the reimagined Test Track 3.0 at EPCOT are officially underway as of today, June 27, 2025. With the first Cast Members and their invited guests now having experienced the overhauled attraction, we now have our first POV ride-through videos as well as a sneak peek at the PhotoPass on-ride photo.
Let’s start with the basics, which is that Walt Disney World announced that Test Track will officially open on July 22, 2025. So regular ticket holders have to wait another full month (almost) before taking a spin on the reimagined ride. In between now and then, there will be a range of previews and (hopefully) a few days of soft openings.
Imagineers along with teams from corporate alliance partner Chevrolet have reached back into history for inspiration from the original World of Motion, and have brought that spirit of optimism to the next iteration of Test Track. They’re pushing innovation forward and celebrating humanity’s enduring drive on the thrilling road to a brighter tomorrow.
The queue of Test Track 3.0 features six distinct exhibits, and within each room celebrate the vehicles – and people behind the vehicles – that push the envelope and help get people to our next chapter in our motion journey. New show scenes will be added showcasing technological advances and how our lifestyles and relationships to mobility connect everyone.
Walt Disney World has described the reimagined Test Track as offering guests a joy ride through scenes focusing on onboard technology, customization and personalization. Followed by a trip through a scenic outdoor route reminding us all of the joys of driving, taking in the world around us and spending quality time with friends and family.
All of this is the official description from Walt Disney World. You can judge for yourself how well they accomplished these aims in the first ride-through video below, courtesy of our friend Jack at DSNY Newscast:
I’ll be honest with you–I stopped watching before the 1-minute mark. As longtime readers know, we normally have a no spoilers policy for ourselves, and experience attractions or entertainment for the first time in person. I thought maybe I could make an exception for this, as it’s “just” a ride reimagining of something I’ve done countless times. But as soon as it seemed to be starting to “get good,” I had to turn it off. I’ll ride it for myself very soon–I can wait.
Not that you care about any of that, but the point is that I can only offer limited commentary about the first minute or so of the reimagined ride. My first thought is that I like that the windows offering a view into the queue ahead of belt-check. This has shades of World of Motion, and is a nice little touch that sure beats gazing at corrugated metal.
I also like the new dual-narrator format, featuring both a human guide and an automated (AI?) vehicle voice. The interplay between the two seems both humanizing and futuristic, and is EPCOT-esque. I also like what I heard of the score so far, and the brief glimpse of how vehicles can use advanced cameras and sensors to “see” the world they drive through via over 29,000 points of light (per a previous behind-the-scenes Imagineering video). That’s all I’ve got.
So I ask you, fellow EPCOT Center fans, are we back???
Is Test Track 3.0 better than its predecessor? Is this the best or worst incarnation of the attraction? How does it compare with World of Motion? Is this a better reimagining than Tiana’s Bayou Adventure? Does this make you more or less optimistic about the upcoming overhauls of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and DINOSAUR? Does it give you hope about potential reimaginings of Spaceship Earth and Journey into Imagination, or reaffirm that Imagineering should just leave them as-is for now?
As those questions suggest, a lot rides on the Test Track reimagining. This is the first big project of the current ‘era’ of Imagineering under Bruce Vaughn, and I really hope they’ve turned a corner under new (old) management! I’m genuinely curious to hear your first impressions, especially since this isn’t really a ride that can be spoiled via text, only video.
In addition to the full ride-through video, PhotoPass has also shared a first look at the on-ride photo for Test Track 3.0 (above). This strikes me as a nice glow-up from the old on-ride photo (below).
Based on thumbnails for the ride-through videos that have already been posted, it appears that futuristic skyline is actually in the attraction. I can’t wait.
I just hope my expectations aren’t too high. I know this is only a ride reimagining, and that the track layout is unchanged, and the arrangement of several show scenes probably isn’t that different. I just hope it’s an upgrade and more in the spirit of EPCOT Center and the original World of Motion. Test Track 2.0 felt woefully dated by the time it closed and the original Test Track was never as good as some fans now make it out to be, so this being the best of the trio should (hopefully) be a low bar to clear.
For those anxiously awaiting more details about previews, Walt Disney World teased that fans keep an eye out for more information to share in the coming weeks about special previews for Cast Members, Annual Passholders, Disney Vacation Club Members, Golden Oak residents and Club 33 Members to ride Test Track 3.0 before the attraction officially reopens.
Honestly, I’m surprised these haven’t been announced already–I was expecting details earlier this week (but it does seem that Walt Disney World is behind with everything, and that the Hong Kong Disneyland 20th Anniversary has pushed back some announcements).
In the meantime, Cast Members previews of Test Track 3.0 will occur through July 10, 2025. In all likelihood, the timing of CM previews pushes back AP, DVC, and other guest previews of Test Track 3.0 until July 11, 2025 at the absolute earliest.
Whether AP and DVC previews for Test Track 3.0 will be via advance registration or virtual queue is anyone’s guess at this point. As discussed previously, I could see it going either way.
With that in mind, our recommendation if you want to hedge your bets and try to potentially “pre-register” for Test Track 3.0 previews would be to make park reservations for EPCOT from July 11 through July 19, 2025.
To be abundantly clear, these are NOT confirmed or even rumored dates. It’s an educated guess, at best, based on the cadence of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure previews last year. It seems like Walt Disney World will probably pull a page from that same playbook given that this is also a ride reimagining and getting more people into the park during ‘Diet EPCOT’ is probably a priority.
If it were me and I didn’t care about being first, I’d probably target July 13-18, 2025 for EPCOT reservations. I would hazard a guess that those are the dates most likely to have AP previews, and if you’re wanting the best hedge, multiple reservations during that window will probably have you covered. Of course, that’s assuming the previews use a park reservation and virtual queue system, and I really think it’s about 50/50 at this point.
I wouldn’t bother with park reservations for EPCOT on July 20-21, 2025. The number of simultaneous reservations you can hold is finite, and it’s best to keep them in the sweet spot of likeliest dates.
While it’s possible that previews continue until the absolute last minute, I doubt it. There probably won’t be a big gala media event given the last minute nature of the announcement and this being smaller-scale than a fully-fledged new attraction, but I’d expect a couple of private events for media and General Motors executives. Alternatively, it’s possible that those days are ‘surprise & delight’ soft openings.
To each their own, but if it were me…I’d probably make multiple days of park reservations to hedge my bets. I would want three cracks at the virtual queue. That’s the smart play, and you better believe other Annual Passholders have the exact same idea. Given that, it wouldn’t surprise me if the success rate for this theoretical Test Track 3.0 preview is under 50%. Maybe it’s closer to 25% or 33%?
It’s also possible that the Annual Passholder and Disney Vacation Club preview window is even tighter, leaving more room for soft openings. I’m skeptical of that, though. I think it’s probably more attractive to Walt Disney World to lure locals out to EPCOT during Diet EPCOT than it is to increase capacity for tourists who are already visiting, regardless.
Aside from TRON Lightcycle Run, which was an anomaly since Disney clearly timed previews in such a manner to allow for soft openings during spring break, Walt Disney World hasn’t done soft openings for a major attraction in several years. It’s all been these controlled previews for select guests. Test Track 3.0 is even more of a ‘known quantity’ less in need of previews since the ride system is unchanged from its predecessor, so I’m inclined to bet against soft openings in this case.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of the Test Track 3.0 ride-through video? Are we back, EPCOT Center fans? Is this the best version of Test Track? Does it give you optimism or pessimism about other upcoming ride reimaginings? Really looking forward to hearing your hot takes and first impressions of the redone ride! Hearing your feedback is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I’m excited about the new photopass! Our youngest always seemed to get stuck in the middle of the back row so we could never see her – here’s to hoping we’ll get a ride photo the next time we’re on, no matter where we’re all seated! Thanks for the fun post!
I know TT v1 has its fans, but this attraction, in my objective opinion, is my favorite in the entire known universe AND the second-best version to inhabit that building after World of Motion.
Educational? Check.
Inspirational? Check.
Nostalgic? Triple check.
Thrilling? Heck yeah!
To be honest, they should’ve leaned further into WoM with the update, but at least CenterCore and It’s Fun to be Free had brief cameos. Plus, it’s still a thrill ride in a park that desperately needs one aside from Guardians (great ride) and Mission: SPACE (please bring back Horizons).
They should’ve titled this attraction Test Track: A World of Motion as a fun callback.
Test Track 1.0 did reign Supreme. TT 2.0 is just a lame GMC dealership car lot and 3.0 looks to be the same with prettier ride cars. I used to work for an open wheel race team in the early 2000s and Motorolla TT 1.0 was as close to a real test track the public could get to. It was amazing to see real racing equipment, engines, and cars going into the ride and coming out. Now it is just a lame GMC car lot. Yeah, we will ride it eventually, but will we do the DVC early queue blah blah for it, no. Disney long ago lost it’s magic.
As long as the keep the Single Rider Line I am happy.
I was never a fan of Test Track 2. I’ve seen what a real test track looks like…and it’s not that. I could never get into the whole “sim car” premise. Test Track 3 looks better, just in terms of suspension of disbelief. It looks like you will really believe you are in a General Motors commercial. I guess that’s an improvement…
Same ride system. The theme does not match all the way through. As much as I despise Musk, it would be interesting to demolish the whole thing and have a Tesla come up with an attraction.
excited! I’ll be there with my grandkids July 26th. So we will get to try it out.
Liked the car saying, “It’s fun to be free”, a reference to the song that played throughout World of Motion. I loved World of Motion’s sarcastic sense of humor, like its scenes showing transportation progress were parodying the solemn scenes of communication progress in Spaceship Earth. I was glad I got to say a proper goodbye to it, & enjoyed riding with a nice old man who was a stranger to me, but we engaged in friendly conversation, & when I pointed to the traffic cop hiding behind a billboard, the old man saluted the cop. The only part I didn’t like was when it suddenly got serious at the end showing the ugly, alienating cars of the supposed future. Why people of the future would prefer those designs to say, a ’57 Chevy, is beyond me. I haven’t seen those predictions come true, thankfully. During the millennium celebration when they had those custom CDs available, I made 5 of them, & one was just filled with variations of “It’s Fun to be Free”. I especially liked the 60’s-esque version that sounds like the Beach Boys.
If that fun & funny ride had to be replaced, I’m glad it was with the OG TestTrack. I preferred its real-world feeling to the synthesized 2.0. And I miss the Belgian bricks or whatever that uneven pavement was called when you went down the hill near the beginning. I still rode 2.0 because the outside ending part was still the same & still thrilling.
3.0 seems better than 2.0 but not as good as OG. It’s hard to get a feel for it watching the video, though. The car’s sweet feminine voice makes me think that’s what they’d make our Golden Retriever Rosie’s voice sound like if they made her the star of some family movie with talking dogs. Maybe it’s because I recently watched a movie called “A Dog’s Way Home” on Netflix that gave a voice to a Pit Bull named Bella that sounded sweet-natured like that. I can imagine the car in the ride being faithful to & loving towards its owner, heh. The next Michael Knight & KITT love story.
What “custome CDs” are you talking about? I fist visited Disney World during the millennium celebration and it remains one of my favorite childhood memories, but I don’t recall getting to make any custome CDs of different variations of Epcot song. Would you mind giving some more details, please? I’m always down to add more “vintage” Epcot music to my collection!
I think the custom CDs you asked about were mostly available at Epcot, but you had a big list of rare tracks you could select from, many (but not all) from extinct or old versions of attractions. I was also able to get all of Magic Kingdom’s audio from their original version of Carousel of Progress that featured “The Best Time of Your Life” instead “There’s a Great Big, Beautiful Tomorrow”, and a few of bits of incidental music from The American Adventure besides the easily available “Golden Dream” (wish they’d release the entire soundtrack of that show). The CDs were put into cases that said Walt Disney World Forever & the cover featured photos of the 4 parks’ landmarks, though it’s so old that they featured the Earful Tower saying “Disney-MGM” since the park hadn’t been rebranded Disney’s Hollywood Studios yet. (The others were Cinderella Castle, Spaceship Earth, & the Tree of Life.) They stopped having the places were you could select tracks for your custom CDs after the millennium celebration, so your only chance to get any would be to do a search on sites like eBay. I’m unwilling to part with any of mine, as some of those tracks I wanted so desperately. Of course, you won’t be able to choose yourself what tracks may be on any else’s copies, but maybe you’ll find some long wished for songs.
Wow, thank you so much for the info! Just googling “Walt Disney World Forever CD” led me to the Walt Disney World Forever Project on the Internet Archive which appears to be a full archive of all of the songs available from these CD kiosks, including screenshots from the kiosk itself and over a dozen versions of “It’s Fun to be Free.” There’s over 1200 tracks in total, so I’ll be pouring over this for a while! Thanks again!!
I felt like i was being wheeled through a poorly-lit IKEA,. when do we get to the Swedish meatballs?
Personally, I love this update. Actual show scenes, the OG Epcot feel is real and it goes beyond the visual and aural illusions to World of Motion, Horizons and Spaceship Earth. The entire ride has the optimistic, eyes to the future feel of OG Future World. I’m beyond thrilled.
Totally agree!
It’s a slight improvement over 2.0. It’s not worth a special trip. Radiator Springs Racers is the superior version utilizing the ride technology.
3.0 appears to harken back to edutainment like Epcot used to do before, but less heavily emphasized. The domed screen in the finale is impressive, but the introduction when it went from screen to Christmas lights was disappointing. The Christmas lights was significantly longer than the screens. They represented buildings that are not there. No explanation as to why we needed to see the bare outlines of buildings. The middle set pieces are good. Missing are mannequins with loose wigs and peeling eyelashes. (Joking).
MUCH better than the digital outlines of the “computer simulation” of Test Track 2.0!
I have no idea why version 1.0 had to change, anyway.
I saw nothing that would inspire me to want to go on it.
Sorry but 1.0 still reigns king, according to this. Overall, seems like an improvement to 2.0, but still has that jarring thematic transition from inside to outside that 1.0 didn’t have. Plus 1.0 was just more exciting/fun/slightly scary (as a kid in the 90s/00s!) because it actually felt like a test track.
1.0 was dated and had ugly sets with lighting that let you see ll the ugly infrastructure.
Watched the whole thing. Maybe a slight improvement but not much. They might as well change the name to “random things in a fake car” because it really has nothing to do with testing cars. I suppose at this point I should just be grateful they didn’t change it to “Lightning McQueen’s Test Track Adventure.”
Haha! Yes, at least it didn’t have a Cars tie-in. The “It’s fun to be free” was very nice.
I stopped watching the video just short of the actual ride POV because I don’t want to spoil that for myself, but the queue just seems desolate, empty, and devoid of character. The vehicle creation thing was gimmicky, but it was a good way to keep kids occupied while waiting and felt like a smart way to corral people while waiting for space to clear out in the loading areas of the line.
I watched it all the way through. I guess I can agree with the Grumpypants and CT Guy who asked why the original version had to be changed and, while I’m at it, that goes for Figgie’s “Imagination” as well.
I do agree with you on one thing though: I can wait. Shakespeare comes to mind: “Much Ado About Nothing!”
I guess I’m still dumfounded why they ever had to “reimagine” the first version of Test Track and attempt to turn it into a video game for a generation that needs to be entertained 24/7. The first version was so well thought out and executed. I hope this one is a big step up from the version 2.0 failure. If you’re going to “reimagine”, can’t you at least change the truck that appears in every single version?
It had to change because it looked like any car repair shop from the 90s. The “sets” consisted of metal beams, black curtains, a few road signs and traffic cones. It had no depth, no futurism, no optimism.
It changed because GM used taxpayer bailout money for the cost to sponsor and reimagine the 2.0 atrocity. To Iger it is always about $, never about soul.
Hi Tom. I watched the whole POV video and had kind of the same reaction to this re-imagined Test Track ride as I did the re-imagined Splash Mountain ride … the ending of the ride doesn’t align well with the new story narrative. Maybe when you ride the new Test Track you’ll see what I mean …