What makes a track good? Affinity. Just this.
I mean, every single author in this site thinks his track is good. Otherway they would not uploaded it in a sharing site...
Now you're thinking i'm joking but no. Just check the tracks builded/awarded by the people that awarded the tracks you builded/awarded and i'm sure you will find a high percentage of "good" tracks.

Or are you asking what makes a track popular? In this case, awards makes a track good.

There's no good or bad tracks. There's tracks you like and there's tracks you don't.

So the correct question would be: What makes a track good to you? And my answer will be... I don't know. There's some tracks I like and there's tracks I don't... XDDD Sometimes it just depend on how you feel that day...

Maybe I'm different, but my first tracks were posted to TMX, not because they were good, but because I made them. I had no idea if they were good or not. I just posted anything I finished. I'm not just saying this in retrospect. I truly didn't give any thought to the quality of the track. It's horrifying to think back on actually.

Most of those old tracks have since been deleted off TMX.

I had no idea there were things you could do to make your track fun or huntable, or that there were specific styles of tracks. I just built all kinds of stuff, regardless of smoothness, track length, or even any regard to how many cuts there were.

So I don't think you can say that everyone uploads tracks because they think they're good. Some people just build some random stuff and post it because it seems to be the thing to do (like I did).

I think the average track we see uploaded these days has got better and better though, mostly because the TM building community has matured a lot over the last 5 years. Also, it's very easy to make a good track in Canyon. Even tracks with flaws can be a lot of fun to drive, because of how the physics are designed.

But I think the majority of tracks are built by authors who know at least some of the basic concepts of good track design. Probably most authors do try to make sure their track is good in their eyes before they release it.

Others may still be like I was all those years ago, not sure what is good and what is not. I guess that's what this topic is all about, to give some insights by those who have built tracks for many years and have gained some insight into what makes a track good/fun to drive.

I think DeMeNs made a very good point here.

Here's my story:
Before I started building tracks (in TM1), I had only played Nadeo tracks and some of the marvelous tracks by Faith.
Then, with a friend and some beers, the first tracks were built. We got a bit megalomaniac and thought we'd had done outstanding, revolutionary tracks. Basically they were a weird combination of loops, jumps and mean stuff (if you're a masochist you can still check them out on TMX). There were even some people who liked them, but most comments went like "This is sh**/cr**/fu**ed up...!". So I realized something went wrong, but besides that, those coments weren't helpful. Then, I think it was Moarashira (did I spell it right?) who said something simple like: "Most people on TMX don't like braking and like a smooth run." (I even had to ask her what she meant by smooth.) This simple advice (if true or not) changed my style of trackbuilding and I started to make tracks that were quite popular (and wich I liked more myself).

Now I forgot what I wanted to say with this story, but maybe you can extract some meaning from it.

Hans

The most important in a track is to show very clear if you need to break or how much it turns.
Dont use a right arrow in a u-turn, use a u-turn sign, i hate when i drive and see a right arrow when its a u-turn becouse i recently drive one of those tracks and i think there is more of that.

The best is to use mt to lead the way, there is no more accurate way to show i think, and the most important it makes the track fun, and you want to play over and over and over again ^^ and you learn the track in a heart beat and it become more fun when you dont crash, right, becouse its fun when you know exactly how the next turn will be.

I played a couple of rally tracks and those where the best and funniest track i ever played becouse of the mt work and the co driver that did tell you where to go didnt make it worsh.
I will add a blog about them now.

SPIDER (850) says:

The best is to use mt to lead the way

am I the only one who hates it?

I hate in-game MT arrows/guidance.

Best to use scenery to guide the way. It's even better than signage, or at least as important.

eyebo (away) says:
Maybe I'm different, but my first tracks were posted to TMX, not because they were good, but because I made them. I had no idea if they were good or not. I just posted anything I finished.

I did the exact same back in TM1 when I first started mapping, except I made very short maps or rather long bumpy, unsmooth maps as I had no idea what I was doing and just did whatever.

But in my eyes, a good track would need any of the following (If it has all of them, then its a perfect map for me):

Fun to hunt
Smooth jumps/drops
Diversity
Flowy Turns
Sexy looking scenery
A nice atmosphere within the map
Easy to finish but a challenge to get a good time on
Nice MT to introduce the map (dont give a shit about Outro's, absolutely pointless)
fun to drive and makes me want to play it more and more!!

After testing a lot of tracks for different leagues, I think I can summarise it like this.
A good league map for me needs to:
- have a clear route (use scenery or standard signs to indicate where to go as some people can't afford to have P2P on)
- needs to be accessible for all skill levels (CPs must be respawnable!!!)
- needs to have driving diversity. Iit's okay if there a sections which don't work with a powerslide, it just increases the tension for rounds racing if sections don't work FS because you need to judge if you want to take risk or not. A map should have both, fast and slow sections.
- does not need to be super smooth. It helps, but there are many examples were not smooth sections add a lot to the game play

Maps which I like to play in my free time should be diverse.
Nothing is more boring for me to drive always the same kind of curve combinations. I want to see inventions. A map gets a huge plus if I see a new section that I haven't thought about but would fit greatly into a league map (means this section is drive-able for all skill classes and doesn't require great precision or a distinct amount of speed).
Furthermore, a good map should have NO light issues. You need to see always where to go. Authors that creates unplayable maps (to dark sections, highly alterations between dark and bright sections) are directly downrated in my opinion. Therefore, I prefer maps in the following order of moods. Sunsrise > Sunset < Day < Night. Sunset and Day might change, dependent of, how the lightning is used in Sunset (can be in a good or bad way). This already brings me to the points mentioned by kamakaze. A map needs to have a great scenery and you need to feel the atmosphere on it. It's just so lovely if you see how dedicated an author worked on the scenery and added small details here and there. It just needs to be perfect, not to much and not to less.

Just my first impressions, after reading this topic. And of course I have to agree fully with DeMeNs.