When Will Test Track 3.0 Open?

The only major ride debuting at Walt Disney World in 2025 is Test Track, and technically, that’s a reimagining as opposed to a brand-new attraction. Regardless, regular WDW fans and EPCOT purists alike are excited about the third iteration of the thrill ride, with many questioning its opening date this summer. (Updated June 9, 2025.)

Let’s start with that last point, as there’s been minor inconsistency about when Test Track 3.0 will debut at EPCOT. In a press release from last December detailing everything new coming to Walt Disney World in 2025, the company shared that Test Track presented by General Motors “is making its return lap in late summer 2025.”

This late summer 2025 timeframe has since been repeated on social media in various posts, but with no consistency. Equally notable is that Test Track has largely been omitted from releases about Summer 2025. But this isn’t necessarily cause for concern. After all, the marketing push is “Cool Kid Summer,” so pretty much all adult additions–such as new lounges–haven’t been wrapped up into that.

June 9, 2025 Update: Only a few days after first publishing this, the walls are down at Test Track! Walt Disney World has replaced the construction walls with rolling planters, which is normally a major milestone. This typically signals that work is wrapping up and previews are about to commence, and that it’s no longer an active construction site.

In this case, there is still some heavy equipment visible outside the attraction and work that remains to be completed on the exterior, but it’s minor. That could all be finished within days, and the attraction could be ready to roll for Cast Member previews within weeks.

While possible that there’s some other reason for the walls to come down (marketing photo/video shoots?), I can’t recall another time when the physical construction walls came down and the planters appeared that didn’t signal imminent previews. Most of the time, there’s already an announcement about previews or an official opening date when these mobile attraction cloaking devices (rolling shrubbery) appear.

In other words, this is not necessarily conclusive–as this ride reimagining is a bit of a unique beast due to the involvement of General Motors–but it’s a very strong signal that Test Track 3.0 should start previews soon. That likely puts the official opening date for Test Track at the earlier end of the spectrum discussed below. Barring something going terribly wrong or this being a tease, we can rule out later dates.

Speaking of General Motors, Walt Disney Imagineering just reached another milestone: installation of the new marquee at Test Track! This reveals the revised GM sponsorship, with the design echoing the attraction’s architecture, while incorporating the new logo in illuminated letters so it’s visible both day and night.

Honestly, I’m not super jazzed on the marquee. I’m fine with a simple and clean look, but thought the original concept art threaded that particular needle perfectly. This looks a bit too basic, but then again, the same could’ve been said about the original World of Motion marquee. So I’m also not too worked up over this.

More than anything, I’m drawing attention to this because it suggests that work on the exterior of the attraction is drawing to a close. In addition to the marquee and planter that are visible in these photos, work is winding down on the surrounding courtyard and canopy at the entrance. All of this indicates that they’re done with heavy equipment outside the exterior.

In addition to that, Walt Disney World has been vehicle testing on Test Track 3.0 during EPCOT operating hours for over 2 full months. This suggests that the reopening will occur right in line with the previously-announced late Summer 2025 timeline. Normally, vehicle testing would be one of the last phases of a project like this, suggesting that opening is only a month or two away.

Ride vehicles were previously removed from the attraction, presumably for both refurbishment and aesthetic updates since the look of Test Track 3.0 will change away from the SIMcar. All this could signal is that the ride vehicles are now ready to roll, and Imagineering is testing these despite show scenes not being ready.

Everything we’ve seen thus far from inside the attraction suggests there’s still work to be done on this ambitious overhaul. Perhaps the project has kicked into high gear and Walt Disney World is fast-tracking Test Track 3.0 in order to beat the previously-announced schedule. However, it’s equally likely that Disney is throwing more resources at Test Track to avoid the reopening slipping beyond late summer.

The lack of updates on the show scenes are the biggest red flag for me. Walt Disney World has been offering a lot of news lately, including on the Piston Peak National Park expansion in Magic Kingdom that hasn’t even started construction. It would be very fair to say that we know more about that project than Test Track 3.0! Same goes for everything that has opened or will debut this summer–we’ve seen concept art for every single float in Starlight!

My concern here is that work is behind schedule on the show scenes, and that’s why they haven’t been shown off yet. Alternatively, that they’re underwhelming, so there’s nothing to show off. Neither would be reassuring! Perhaps I’m overly sensitive to this, as the last time little was shown of actual show scenes, we got the dark expanses of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, and I’m worried this could be a repeat of that.

However, there’s another highly plausible explanation: Imagineering is working with teams from corporate alliance partner General Motors. That means Disney doesn’t have complete authority over how this ride reimagining is revealed. As the company writing the checks for the bulk of the project, GM can dictate a lot. It’s entirely possible that they simply don’t want to share too much before the attraction reopens. It’s also possible that Disney PR just doesn’t want to hassle with endless approvals and meetings for each update. I’m optimistic that this is the case.

Against that backdrop, where does that leave the “late summer 2025” opening date of Test Track?

Let’s start with the hard deadline for that timeline to be accurate: September 22, 2025 is the official end of summer. So as long as Imagineering hits that target, they’ve technically delivered on Walt Disney World’s promise.

However, that’s not how seasons work at Walt Disney World. In Disneyspeak, summer starts Memorial Day weekend (when the new shows opened at Disney’s Hollywood Studios) and ends around Labor Day. Even though it’s technically still summer, anytime after Labor Day would normally be deemed early fall. Keep in mind, Halloween ‘season’ starts in mid-August at Walt Disney World and kicks into high gear come September.

Point being, “Late Summer” would normally be sometime in July.

And for that timeline to have any meaning for families on summer vacation, I would hazard a guess that the target opening date for Test Track 3.0 was around early-to-mid July 2025. The real last hurrah of summer season travel is the last week of July into the first week of August. This is precisely why there was/is a race against the clock to get Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away open by July 20, 2025.

It’s probably safe to say that July 4, 2025 is out the window for Test Track 3.0’s official opening. That’s less than a month away, and if it were going to be then, we’d likely already know. The announcement would’ve occurred before Starlight. The only saving grace here is, again, the fact that Walt Disney World doesn’t have complete autonomy since they’re working with teams from GM. It’s entirely possible that Test Track is on track or even ahead of schedule, and awaiting clearance from GM leadership.

That leaves mid-to-late July 2025 as the logical best-case scenario for Test Track’s official reopening.

That feels like it’s pushing it at this point just based on the lack of news, but that shouldn’t be viewed as conclusive. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Test Track 3.0 gets an official opening date of Thursday, July 31, 2025–just slipping in under the wire on the month of July.

If so, it’s possible that previews for Test Track 3.0 start right around the time of Starlight’s debut or shortly before. It’d be good counterprogramming for EPCOT, and also give out-of-state Annual Passholders a sweetener for visiting Walt Disney World over the opening week of Starlight. I view this as fairly plausible, and a reasonable target for Walt Disney World leadership at this point.

It’s also important to emphasize that targets aren’t always hit. If they were, Starlight would’ve debuted a couple of weeks ago instead of over a month from now. Delays are a fact of life with new or reimagined rides, and they’ve become increasingly common.

In this case, the opening timeline for Test Track was set last December and pretty far into the future. At the risk of stating the obvious, a lot can change in over 6 months, and the best laid plans of the Mouse often go awry. It’s very easy to see how the target could slip during that lengthy span of time.

If that does happen with Test Track 3.0, it won’t be for lack of effort. My understanding is that Imagineering is throwing resources at the attraction and Walt Disney World operations wants it back up ASAP. I have no insight into the thought process at General Motors, but I cannot imagine they prefer the construction walls with cars parked outside to an operational attraction. So let’s just go ahead and assume all stakeholders are on the same page in wanting this done ASAP.

Even so, there’s only so much work that can be accomplished in a day/week/month, and even generous resource allocation has its limits. Test Track’s reopening might slip from July despite every effort to the contrary. If that does happen, there’s little incentive to open the reimagined ride during the off-season.

In that scenario, maybe the project teams take a step back and slow things down–instead of overspending on overtime (etc.), perhaps they recalibrate and target a completion date in late August, previews for the entirety of September, and an official opening on October 1, 2025.

This approach would also make sense. Destination D23 is over Labor Day weekend. Releasing new concept art and announcing an official opening, while giving those D23 superfans an exclusive chance to preview the ride would be a win–and would generate more buzz. This would be very similar to the playbook used for Moana’s Journey of Water.

It would also mirror what was done for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. That ride had a lengthy preview period, which was useful for pulling people to the park during September, before debuting October 1. That lines up with Disney’s new fiscal year (probably doesn’t matter to GM!), and what’s normally the biggest stretch of the year for Walt Disney World.

Having Test Track 3.0 be a marketable new addition during those final three months–from Fall Break to Halloween to Veterans Day to Thanksgiving to Christmas/NYE–would make sense. This also might be attractive to General Motors, as Test Track would “own” that stretch of the year, as opposed to sharing the spotlight with Starlight.

The bottom line is that either of these scenarios strike me as more or less equally plausible. That it’s a race against the clock and Test Track 3.0 makes it just under the wire with an opening date on or around July 31, 2025. Alternatively, the thrill ride blows past that deadline and recalibrates to October 1, 2025 with a lengthier preview period beforehand.

This predicted dates assume that Disney and General Motors are strategic with the reopening date of Test Track. It’s entirely possible that the reimagined ride does miss the first target, but the powers that be shrug their collective shoulders and determine it’s better to get it up and running when possible as opposed to waiting for the most opportune timing. We already know park operations wants this ride back and it stands to reason that GM wants ROI on their sponsorship dollars, so we could end up with some random date in mid-August 2025.

Personally, I hope Imagineering takes however long is necessary to do the job right. I’m really looking forward to Test Track 3.0 and hope it pulls from the best aspects of all its predecessors. It seems like Disney and GM are positioned to learn from past successes and failures, making improvements in Test Track 3.0 on those bases. I just hope Imagineers have enough time, creative freedom and Chevy Bucks to complete a high-quality ride reimagining. Obviously, it’s a totally different project, but hopefully lessons were learned from the mistake of opening Tiana’s Bayou Adventure too early.

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Your Thoughts

What do you think of the Test Track reimagining announcement? Happy that Imagineering is being given an extra couple of months to work on the reimagining or disappointed it isn’t reopening until Late Summer 2025? Excited for Test Track 3.0, or will you miss the current version? Which version of this ride is your favorite? Hopeful that World of Motion inspires more than just a sense of optimism in the new ride? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback—even when you disagree with us—is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!