Lara Croft Trades Tombs for a 6x6 in Motorfest’s Wildest Crossover Yet

Ancient ruins, environmental puzzles, missing explorers and even dinosaurs are about to collide with one of the most unlikely vehicles ever associated with Lara Croft. Tomb Raider: Secrets of Ni'ihau arrives in The Crew Motorfest on October 7 , transforming part of Ubisoft Ivory Tower’s open-world

Ancient ruins, environmental puzzles, missing explorers and even dinosaurs are about to collide with one of the most unlikely vehicles ever associated with Lara Croft. Tomb Raider: Secrets of Ni'ihau arrives in The Crew Motorfest on October 7, transforming part of Ubisoft Ivory Tower’s open-world driving game into a full adventure built around exploration — with the formidable Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG 6x6 playing a starring role in the latest trailer.

Developed in collaboration with Crystal Dynamics, Secrets of Ni'ihau is considerably more ambitious than a cosmetic crossover or a handful of Tomb Raider-themed races. It introduces a separate premium island, its own Playlist, five exclusive vehicles and gameplay mechanics designed to reproduce some of the exploration and puzzle-solving that define Lara Croft’s adventures.

Lara needs help finding Jonah

The premise immediately gives players something more substantial than a conventional Motorfest competition.

Lara Croft’s longtime friend Jonah has disappeared while investigating Ni'ihau, an island previously inaccessible within Motorfest’s version of Hawaii. Players will follow Lara’s instructions as they search for him and investigate an ancient relic with potentially enormous historical importance.

That mission gradually turns the island into something resembling a vehicular Tomb Raider adventure.

Instead of simply moving from one race marker to another, players will explore forgotten ruins, decipher environmental challenges and use their vehicles to physically interact with parts of the world.

It is an unusual shift for The Crew Motorfest, whose Playlist structure typically frames automotive culture through themed races, manufacturers, eras and driving disciplines. Secrets of Ni'ihau retains vehicles at the center of the experience but changes what those vehicles are being asked to do.

For once, crossing the finish line is not necessarily the entire objective.

The Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG 6x6 looks built for this adventure

The latest trailer gives particular attention to the Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG 6x6, and there are few vehicles better suited to the concept.

With six driven wheels, enormous ground clearance and the visual proportions of something designed to ignore ordinary terrain entirely, the 6x6 fits naturally into an expedition built around remote wilderness and ancient ruins.

Its presence also captures what makes the collaboration interesting from Motorfest’s perspective. Lara traditionally explores hostile environments on foot, climbing, swimming and solving physical puzzles. Ivory Tower cannot simply reproduce those mechanics inside a driving game, so vehicles have effectively become the adventurer’s equipment.

A giant off-road Mercedes navigating dense vegetation and forgotten structures may be far removed from traditional Tomb Raider gameplay, but the underlying fantasy is recognizable: reach somewhere that was not meant to be easily reached.

And Ni'ihau appears determined to make that difficult.

The winch changes what vehicles can do

One of Year 4’s most important new mechanics is the winch, and Secrets of Ni'ihau has been designed specifically to make use of it.

Players will need to interact with their surroundings to overcome environmental obstacles, including situations where objects must be manipulated before a route can be opened.

That seemingly small addition changes the relationship between vehicles and the environment.

The Crew Motorfest has always allowed players to drive almost anywhere across its islands, but most physical objects ultimately function as scenery, obstacles or destructible decoration. The winch gives certain situations a more deliberate interaction: the vehicle becomes a tool for solving a problem.

Within a Tomb Raider crossover, that makes thematic sense.

Classic Tomb Raider puzzles frequently ask players to understand how an environment works before manipulating something within it — moving an object, activating a mechanism or finding a way to reach an otherwise inaccessible section.

Secrets of Ni'ihau adapts that principle around Motorfest’s strengths instead of attempting to turn the game into a third-person platformer.

This is not just Tomb Raider branding on another Playlist

That distinction is important because Ubisoft has explicitly positioned Secrets of Ni'ihau as a premium adventure.

The DLC contains a dedicated Playlist and an entire new island rather than merely adding themed vehicles to the standard Motorfest map.

Ni'ihau will technically be visible to everyone on the world map, but accessing the island itself and participating in its activities requires either the Year 4 Pass or the standalone Tomb Raider DLC.

That allows Ivory Tower to design the location around the collaboration from the beginning instead of attempting to retrofit Tomb Raider challenges into roads originally created for conventional racing.

The environment can therefore be much more hostile, isolated and puzzle-focused than a normal festival location.

It is effectively a small adventure expansion living inside an open-world racing game.

Ancient ruins are only one of Ni'ihau’s problems

Finding Jonah would apparently be difficult enough without the island’s wildlife.

Secrets of Ni'ihau introduces prehistoric creatures, including a massive Mosasaurus and a T-Rex that participates in one of the DLC’s chase sequences.

Yes, The Crew Motorfest is getting dinosaurs.

It sounds absurd when reduced to a single sentence, but it also connects the crossover to an important part of Tomb Raider history. Dinosaurs — particularly the Tyrannosaurus rex — have been associated with Lara Croft since the original 1996 game, where encountering a T-Rex in the Lost Valley became one of the series’ defining early moments.

Including one here is therefore more than random spectacle.

The setting lets Ivory Tower reference that history while using the capabilities of Motorfest to approach it differently. Lara once confronted dinosaurs armed with pistols. Motorfest players will apparently have several thousand kilograms of off-road machinery between themselves and the problem.

That should produce a rather different chase.

Ni'ihau is being treated as a forgotten world

Ubisoft describes the island as having remained isolated for centuries, preserving secrets that the rest of the archipelago has forgotten.

That premise gives the developers considerable freedom.

The location can contain ancient architecture, dangerous wildlife and environmental mysteries without needing to follow the more grounded automotive-tourism identity that defines much of O'ahu and Maui.

The Tomb Raider fiction effectively justifies turning the island into a “lost world” environment.

It also separates Ni'ihau from Kaua'i, the other major island arriving with Season 11.

Kaua'i is a free expansion for all Motorfest players and emphasizes wilderness, swamps, rugged terrain and off-road exploration. Ni'ihau is the premium counterpart: smaller in purpose, but much more tightly structured around Lara Croft, story progression and puzzles.

Together, the two islands push Motorfest considerably further toward exploration.

Year 4 begins with a major expansion of the map

Both arrive on October 7, 2026, when Season 11 officially begins and The Crew Motorfest enters Year 4.

Kaua'i is one of the largest components of the seasonal update. Ubisoft Ivory Tower describes it as wilder, less populated and more remote than Motorfest’s existing islands, with environments designed to encourage players to leave conventional roads behind.

Dense swamps will slow vehicles that might normally simply blast across open terrain, while areas such as the enormous Red Canyon provide more demanding landscapes for off-road machines.

This shift toward wilderness makes Secrets of Ni'ihau feel less isolated from the wider direction of Season 11.

Tomb Raider may push the idea to its most extreme conclusion, but the entire opening season of Year 4 appears interested in making exploration more important.

Five exclusive vehicles are part of the Tomb Raider package

The Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG 6x6 is only part of the collaboration’s garage.

Ubisoft has confirmed that five exclusive vehicles are included with Secrets of Ni'ihau, giving players different machines with which to tackle the island and continue exploring Motorfest afterward.

That last point matters because the vehicles are not simply disposable mission props.

Motorfest is fundamentally a collection-driven game. Any vehicle added through a Playlist becomes another part of the player’s broader garage, capable of existing beyond the narrative experience that introduced it.

This means Secrets of Ni'ihau can leave a lasting footprint even after Jonah has been found and the central mystery has been resolved.

The crossover also gives Ivory Tower an opportunity to choose vehicles based on adventure utility rather than outright performance.

A hypercar makes sense for a Bugatti Playlist. Lara Croft needs something that can survive a swamp.

The G 63 AMG 6x6 answers that requirement fairly convincingly.

Season 11 still has plenty for players who skip the DLC

The distinction between free Season 11 content and premium Tomb Raider material is worth emphasizing.

Kaua'i is free, while Ni'ihau and the Secrets of Ni'ihau Playlist require the Tomb Raider DLC or Year 4 Pass.

Season 11 will also introduce major vehicles independently of the crossover.

The Bugatti Tourbillon is among the headline additions and receives a dedicated Special Event and Summit Contest, while vehicles including the Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato, Suzuki Jimny and Hyundai Crater Concept broaden the Year 4 roster.

The Suzuki Jimny is particularly relevant to the season’s renewed emphasis on exploration because it demonstrates the new winch functionality outside the Tomb Raider context.

So although Secrets of Ni'ihau is one of Year 4’s biggest attractions, exploration mechanics are also becoming part of Motorfest itself rather than remaining exclusively locked inside Lara’s adventure.

The Year 4 Pass bundles the whole adventure

For players planning to remain with Motorfest throughout its fourth year, the crossover is included in the Year 4 Pass, priced at €29.99.

The pass contains 21 vehicles in total.

Sixteen will arrive through monthly drops, including four Elite bundles distributed across the year’s seasons, while the additional five belong to Tomb Raider: Secrets of Ni'ihau.

Alternatively, Ubisoft will sell the Tomb Raider adventure separately for players interested specifically in Lara Croft’s story rather than the wider Year 4 vehicle schedule.

That purchasing model is notable because the expansion is not being positioned as a standard season pass-exclusive bonus. It is effectively its own premium piece of content that also happens to be included in the annual package.

Motorfest is becoming more than a festival of races

The Tomb Raider collaboration also reflects how much The Crew Motorfest has changed since launch.

The original concept was relatively straightforward: an automotive festival spread across Hawaii, with themed Playlists celebrating manufacturers, styles and different areas of car culture.

Over time, those Playlists have become increasingly experimental.

Motorfest has explored Hollywood-style driving, Japanese automotive culture, motorsport, off-road experiences and major entertainment partnerships. Year 4 seems prepared to stretch the framework further than ever.

Secrets of Ni'ihau is perhaps the clearest example because it uses the game’s vehicles to support a genre that is not fundamentally about racing.

The player is still driving, but the objective is adventure.

That creates possibilities extending beyond Tomb Raider. If Ivory Tower can successfully use vehicles for environmental puzzles, exploration and narrative sequences, Motorfest’s future collaborations no longer need to revolve exclusively around brands whose identity is already closely connected to cars.

The automobile becomes the interface through which another type of game can be interpreted.

Crystal Dynamics helped shape the crossover

That transition is also why Crystal Dynamics’ involvement matters.

Ubisoft Ivory Tower has developed Secrets of Ni'ihau in collaboration with the studio responsible for Tomb Raider, rather than simply licensing Lara Croft imagery for a vehicle bundle.

The resulting content borrows several recognizable pillars of the franchise: searching for a missing companion, uncovering an ancient relic, exploring forgotten ruins, solving environmental puzzles and encountering wildlife that has no business still being alive.

It is obviously not trying to replace a traditional Tomb Raider game.

There is no suggestion that Lara suddenly abandons platforming and starts solving every archaeological problem with a six-wheel Mercedes.

Instead, the collaboration asks a more interesting question: what would Tomb Raider’s adventure structure look like if every major interaction had to make sense inside The Crew Motorfest?

The answer appears to involve considerably more winching, off-roading and dinosaur evasion.

October 7 could be one of Motorfest’s most unusual updates yet

Year 4 already looked ambitious when Ubisoft announced a new free island, additional vehicle categories for later seasons, more creation tools and the game’s upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 version.

Secrets of Ni'ihau gives that roadmap something much stranger.

A racing game is receiving an adventure DLC in which Lara Croft directs players through a lost island while they explore ancient ruins, solve puzzles, search for Jonah, manipulate the environment and escape prehistoric predators.

And at the center of the latest trailer sits a Mercedes-Benz G 63 AMG 6x6, looking considerably more appropriate for raiding forgotten tombs than anyone probably expected.

Tomb Raider: Secrets of Ni'ihau launches on October 7, 2026, alongside The Crew Motorfest Season 11 and the beginning of Year 4. The DLC will be available separately or through the Year 4 Pass.

Motorfest has spent three years celebrating what vehicles can do on roads, circuits and open terrain. Lara Croft may now be about to prove they can raid tombs too.