What are your favorite racing games?

TrackMania -- I recommend Nations Forever if you're starting out; it's free and Nations was the "meta" environment (different environments have different physics) for a long time, so there's a fuckton of custom content for it.

As for what it is: it's like the racing genre's Quake equivalent. It's also like super hot wheels. And it's like Mario Maker. You make all kinds of crazy tracks with it, like Mario Maker. The tracks feature all kinds of wall rides, half-pipes, jumps, loops, and so on, with nothing more than inertia holding you to the track; like hot wheels. And finally, like Quake (and Mario Maker), the high-level players are bat shit insane.

This is the game where you get people who can hit a jump at just the right angle so they thread the needle through a series of holes barely larger than the car while travelling at speeds well above 300mph (welcome to TrackMania, I don't think there's a speed cap). They also do it using keyboards. Seriously. High-level TrackMania players use keyboards, not gamepads or, god forbid, racing wheels.

All of that said, no pressure because you're mainly racing yourself, even in multiplayer. You're trying to get the best time on a track, and multiplayer is basically the same, except your time is being compared with everyone else's. There isn't even any vehicle collision (strangely, there's an option for it, but it doesn't seem to do anything).

Play TrackMania. Is fun.

Favourite racing game is always highly dependent on what I am looking for.

Forza Motorsport 4 (Not Horizon) was one of the best racing simcades i've enjoyed playing, it has solid sim-ish racing and it is very satisfying to build up a garage and take a car for a spin on some of the gorgeous original or real life racetracks. Unfortunately, it's an xbox 360 exclusive and not backwards compatible on xbox one or series x, so not really playable on current systems. I am stll looking for a similar experience on a modern pc.

I also enjoy "Project Cars" and it's sequel "Project Cars 2". I can easily play the games on my current PC or the Steam Deck, but the game can be challenging on a gamepad - not impossible, but managable. It does lack some beautiful original tracks as it only features real life circuits and it does lack the satisfaction of having to "earn" and build up a collection of cars and making them your own. Unfortunately, both games have been delisted on storefronts and can no longer officially be purchased, but if you can get your hands on a PC Key, you can still enjoy the games on a modern system.

If I want to enjoy some sim racing, I'll go with Assetto Corsa or Assetto Corsa Competizione. Great fun with a steering wheel, not really my thing with a gamepad. Modding possibilities for AC are basically endless on PC, but again, lacking some sort of progression system that will allow you to build up a car collection.

Forza Horizon 3 with its Hot-Wheels Expansion was probably my favourite open-world arcade racer, unfortunately it's also delisted, and while I still have the physical xbox one version, that means I can't play it on PC. Forza Horizon 4 (with the Lego expansion) is the next best thing (still far better than FH5) and is still available on PC, but will also be delisted in december (grab FH4 while you still can!)

I have also spent a lot of time playing Burnout Paradise, but I still prefer Burnout Revenge over it's younger open-world brother.

Wreckfest is a great spiritual succesor to the already great Flatout 1/2 and certainly the best banger racer you can currently get. The damage model is very convicing and it's good fun to wreck some CPU racers.

BLUR - an underrated battle racer, with a really fun 4 player splitscreen. Calling it "Mario Kart with real cars" is, imho a bit too simple, but it does get the point across quite well.

Need For Speed: Most Wanted (2005) - early 2000s yellow/brown tinted aesthetics aside, the game still looks good today and police chases can go on forever. Great fun.

Not a racing game, but a honorable mention: American/Euro Truck Simulator 2, bought it as a joke back then, but it does feel cathartic at times.

I really enjoy open world racing games. Forza horizon and the crew being two of my favourites.

At the moment Assetto Corsa and Wreckfest.

Assetto Corsa because it's a simracing sandbox. I've modded it to hell with Content Manager and CSP. I also have a lot of paid mods for mainly formula cars like the RSS Formula 1/2/3/4 cars and the VRC Formula E cars. The AI is the perfect level of silly to cause absolute mayhem with the right settings, but also pretty interesting races when you want them to behave.

Wreckfest is a joy on the Steam deck and for casual mayhem. It still has a nice driving model imo, while remaining casual. The maps are optimized for crashing into others which means you're never safe.

I’d have to say an all time classic for me is Mario Kart, just so much good fun memories playing with my brothers.

Also Grid, and Grid 2. Just really deeply enjoyed both, played em a ton.

A final note would have to be the games that were part of the MX Unleashed series, just so much fun racing dirt bikes and doing all the awesome tricks.

Art of Rally mixes fun arcadey accessibility with realistic handling for a fun stylish experience imo.

I love Dirt Rally 2. Oddly enough I’m not too good at it but it becomes a sort of groundhog day simulator as I continue to comically fuck up a run and reset to try and hit tight timing windows and optimize, resulting in a wave of excitement when it all culminates to eventually pushing me over the finish line

Forza Horizon 4 is my favourite, 5 is mostly meh.

Then we have Beamng, that is increadible

Super Tux Kart

Dirt Rally 1 and 2 are both very fun.

Assetto Corsa is a fantastic simulator that me and my race team has used to learn a track before we take our race car there so we know all the turns. It really feels like you're there and the game runs well and looks good low end hardware.

iRacing in the streets, Mario Kart in the sheets

Not a "racing" game but you can race in BeamNG (and even do multi-player with a mod.) After trying it, other games feel underwhelming to me.

I miss the arcade-y feel of older racing games. Everything these days tries too hard to be a simulator, that they end up stripping the fun out of it. I want sparks to fly out of my tires when I drift even though they're rubber and wouldn't actually do that, I want wacky announcers with color commentary, I don't want to shift gears.

I want games like Ridge Racer and Need for Speed to make a comeback.

Burnout 3: Takedown was my favorite. I had so much fun playing that game both solo and with my friends online. Burnout: Paradise never captured the same feeling for me, though.

Forza Horizon 5. Why 5? Because unlike 4, it doesn't crash to desktop a lot... although 4 has more to do and a more interesting season system (the tropics has "seasons" but not the snow and scorch temprature swings like people in temperate latitudes are used to), 5 just has a bit more polish, and bold move with taking it to Mexico.

I also am watching the progression of Forza Motorsport 7, because the FM series is basically not-Gran-Turismo and I can play it on my gaming PC (no consoles here).

I used to be all about Gran Turismo back in the day, as well as the DiRT series and even Race Driver. Codemasters games, though, tended to be very arcadey. I need to get Dirt Rally 2, as I played a bit of 1 and it was pretty good.

I also remember Spintires and its spiritual successors Mudrunner and Snowrunner. Fun off-roading sandbox games with mud physics... because no offroading game has even attempted that in the level of detail ST/MR has. Also, the original publisher of ST is the worst, and they've broken the original game, just get Mudrunner or Snowrunner for a better experience.

Also, I am on the lookout for spacecraft racecraft games. I want to use my 4 axis stick for something other than Airbus landing challenges.

Also the 1-2 combination of Automation (car company simulator) and BeamNG.drive. You can build a car in Automation and export it to BeamNG to drive around in. Bonus props to BeamNG being the only car sim I know of that has decided to actually model the physics of an automatic transmission. This is something I wished other games like Forza Horizon and Gran Turismo would do, as a lot of modern cars are Automatic only and in every case they just turn the auto into a stick... and it's terrible, as automatic gear ratios don't work for manual transmission driving. If we can upgrade the transmission, then we can have a better incentive to replace the slushbox with a crashbox if it's worth the upgrade, considering that torque converter transmissions are used in offroad racing due to having better resilience against the shock forces from bumps and jumps.

Shoutout to Live For Speed, the surprisingly detailed car racing sim by three bros that even takes clutch temperatures into account. Their latest updates added workshop-style modded cars into the game.

I’ve been really into Arcade Racers lately. Played the following recently:

-Blur

-Split/Second

-Ridge Racer 6

-Outrun 2

-Inertial Drift

-Burnout: Revenge

-Dirt 5

-Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

-Neodash

I’m looking forward to Parking Garage Rally Circuit coming out later this year. If anyone has any recommendations I’m all ears.

Dirt (series) - because I love rally racing.

Motorstorm (series) - because racing across an active volcano is fun as fuck.

Carmageddon (series) - because it’s insane and hilarious.

Twisted Metal 2 - not really a racing game, but close enough.

Art of Rally mixes fun arcadey accessibility with realistic handling for a fun stylish experience imo.

I love Dirt Rally 2. Oddly enough I’m not too good at it but it becomes a sort of groundhog day simulator as I continue to comically fuck up a run and reset to try and hit tight timing windows and optimize, resulting in a wave of excitement when it all culminates to eventually pushing me over the finish line

Although I haven't played a lot of them, my favorite is Colin McRae Rally 2.0, which is predecessor to the DIRT series.

I used to watch my uncle play on his computer in the 2000s.

Need For Speed Underground 2 I would list as a solid GOAT for the genre of open world arcade racing.

I've been playing beam ng drive on my steam deck recently. Haven't got any experience with other driving games but I'm having a lot of fun with it.

Assetto Corsa Competizione (Sim), if you like GT track racing.

Had fun with the original Forza Horizon and Midnight Club L.A.

Mario Kart DS.

Shit’s a masterpiece.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/358270/Death_Rally_Classic/

Free nowadays.

Diddy Kong Racing on N64. There's no other that come close for me.

You can use either vehicle, hovercraft or plane. Depending on the tracks. Some tracks you can try using any of them. Some are vehicle specific.

You have somewhat open world for you to run around in any of those vehicles mentioned above.

Like in Mario Kart, instead of boxes for you to hit to get items. You hit balloons, and they're all colored with specific usages. Like red is a rocket, blue is a boost, etc. However, if you hit same color balloon twice or thrice your item upgrade. Like 1 red balloon = 1 rocket, 2 red balloons = homing rocket, three red balloons = 30 rockets for you to spam away. If you hit two different balloons, newest balloon override over your last. There's no blue shell bullshit in this game tho, that's either positive or negative for some folks.

There's mini games, one which I think is really underrated: Dino egg mini game , one where you have to grab egg, drop it in your nest and protect it until you hatch it. You can attack others and steal eggs. You need to hatch three to win the game. You have to find hidden key in one of racing track to unlock the mini game.

And you get to face the boss of each area, each boss has their unique mechanics. You face them 1v1.

Once you beat all tracks, you can do them again but with coin challenge where you gotta gather all coins and win the race. Some tracks are insane hard to point where you have to strategy which coins to take each laps and deal with other racers at the same time. And what's the worse is the fact that other racers doesn't care about coins. You have to get all coins and be in first place to clear the track.

Once you beat all coin challenges, you get to battle bosses again which are harder, then you unlock the final boss.

There's also a tourney you gotta do in each area to unlock secret area with new tracks and harder final boss.

That's it? Nope, you get to start all over again with the tracks flipped and other racers are harder. Then you gotta do bosses, coin challenges too.

And one final thing, prob one of hardest to do is time challenge. Beat that and you unlock final unlockable character. There's two unlockable characters in the game.

Imagine that single cartridge of N64 got all of this, this could have been much more if Nintendo purchase Rare. I could never get into Mario Kart because of Diddy Kong Racing. Compared to DKR, Mario Kart on N64 is a joke to me.

I still play N64 from time to time, I love to replay Zelda games, banjo, etc and of course Diddy Kong Racing.

Probably DiRT 2… Overall just did everything right for me, no complaints at all.

I have really fond memories of the first Grid game from 2008. That's alongside NFS: Most Wanted from around that time, likw most people it seems, haha! I also spent an inordinate amount of time playing Gran Turismo 3: A-spec. I loved the career mode so much.

My favorite cars are the Lotus Espirit and Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR, to this day, because of Gran Turismo 3 and Most Wanted, respectively.

There haven't been many recently that have piqued my interest, other than the gang all wanting to get Forza Horizon. I don't play it much on my own, though.

If there were another track game where you work up from the bottom with a shit car in different classes of races, earning money and unlocking new parts and stuff along the way, I'd be into it. It seems most newer racing games just have generic "Engine Upgrade 1"-type options, or full-blown sim where you're picking extremely particular individual pieces and tuning everything to an overwhelming degree.

Crash Team Racing is the pinnacle of kart racing games. The driving is more skill-based than the leading brand name, and it doesn't have shitty rubber-band AI.

Star Wars Episode 1 Racer is still great fun, easy to learn but hard to be good at.

Nothing compares to F-Zero GX. The abandonment of the franchise is a travesty, and should be considered abuse of the gaming community.

i am a diehard for old school SEGA sprite-scaling racers. OutRun, OutRunners, Super Hang-On, GP Rider, and Power Drift are all must-plays. they all run great in MAME and have also had a number of high-quality console ports. later polygonal titles like SEGA Rally and Hang-On GP are also great but will be less impactful if you're already used to modern racing games

i see a few comments mentioning different F-Zero games and would like to throw F-Zero 99's hat into the ring. the sheer chaos of that game is really something you have to experience for yourself

Does wipeout count as racing?

There a quite a few favourites over the years.

• Colin McRae Rally 2.0
• Live for Speed
• Hydrothunder
• Metropolis Street Racer
• Forza Motorsport 4
• Burnout 2
• Blur
• Wreckfest
• Gran Turismo 2
• Wave Race Blue Storm
• F-Zero X
• GRIP (and Rollcage 1 & 2)
• TT Isle of Man
• Dirt Rally 1 & 2
• Circuit Superstars

The absolute best arcade racer to me was always NFS Most Wanted 2 for PS2. The physics were so much fun and the cars were a curated selection of cool.

Always loved the Project Gotham Racing series, especially 3. Tons of fun to drift in those games. The Kudos system was definitely a unique feature.

Been playing through the Ridge Racer games most recently. Damn these are just fun to play.

Sega Rally Championship will always stand out as some of the best driving physics early on.

Art of Rally and Art of drift are hella fun "zen" games with a unique art style.

I was always a sucker for some of the cash-in Fast and Furious era car fad games. Juiced, Tokyo Extreme Racer (out before all of it) Street Racing Syndicate, NFS Underground, Midnight Club 3. They're all fun but driving is always just ok.

My short list though: Gran Turismo 4 Forza Motorsport 4 or 6 (4 is less grindy I feel) NFS Most Wanted 2

So, no one has mentioned any of these as far as I can tell.

The Crew Motorfest - sort of a competitor to Forza Horizon (FH is PCand Xbox only... The Crew is also on PS)... it's an open world ish always online style game. Some say it had better physics and closer to sim than simcade when compared to FH.... it worked better out of the box with my peripherals (wheel, pedals, shifter)... bonus: the prequel, The Crew 2 (which is a bit older and has a different setup) is $0.99 on basically all the platforms right now.

Dakar Desert rally - kinda rocky launch and might still be buggy... not sure on that front... but it's kind of an ambitious game that no one else was making. Basically driving offroad through the desert from GPS waypoint to GPS way point in a huge open environment (this is called "rally raid") in a variety of vehicles - cars, "cars" (really super trucks), big trucks (imagine racing a dump truck across the desert at whatever 120mph), motorcycles, side by side, atv. More simcade than sim in terms of driving feel. They,re not developing it anymore (in terms of new content... game breaking bugs probably get fixed) but there's a decent amount of content there... a little context that they kinda over promised to an extent and under delivered. Victim of the recent industry-wide layoffs for sure. So it got kinda panned. Definitely not the GOAT, but maybe worth it when on sale if it sounds at all interesting to you.

Split/Second

Make Way

Mario Kart

I have a type.

While not exactly a traditional racing game, I always loved the Stuntman series.

GOAT: F-zero GX

Best kart: sonic and all stars racing transformed

Best drifter: inertial drift

Best arcade: track mania turbo

Best Car Combat: Gas Guzzlers extreme

Great topic for discussion.

Pole Position

Gran Tourismo

Road Rash

R.C. Pro-Am

Mario Kart

Jet Moto

Go Go HyperGrind

Every racing game not trying to sim stupid cars is gold these days.

I have a work-in-progress list here, strictly games I would consider "must play" in the genre. Notably missing the Ridge Racer and Tokyo Xtreme Racer games because I haven't played enough of them to have an opinion.

https://howlongtobeat.com/user/atmur/lists/40754/Peak-Racing-Games

Mostly arcade and simcade racers though. If you're interested in sims:

For modding, Assetto Corsa is basically the modern rFactor.

For offline racing, Automobilista and Raceroom have pretty solid AI. Note: Raceroom's pricing model is dumb, kind of like iRacing just without the subscription.

For career mode, Project CARS 2 (not 3) is basically the only sim that even tries.

For online racing, ACC and iRacing are unmatched.

For rally, you're already playing DR2. Richard Burns Rally is also shockingly good for its age.

My all-time favorite was the first Test Drive Unlimited. Beautiful racing across Hawaii, absolutely no story lines which got in the way.

GT3 had the right amount of advanced and customization without going overboard or being too realistic. It was my sweet spot.

Forza 3 was peak racing in my world. Forza 4 killed my interest in the genre.

Metropolis Street Racer / Project Gotham Racing.

https://youtu.be/iNSGQuJFMpw

https://youtu.be/pakUpOAPQQk

"It's not about how fast you drive, it's how you drive fast."

Gran Turismo 4
Dirt Rally 2 Forza Horizons 4

And the godking itself, Burnout 4 Revenge and its understudy Burnout 3.

Bonus point to Extreme-G and G2.

I’m also going to mention Generally. It was a tiny game with a small dedicated community but gods damn if it wasn’t just super fun to make maps and play community created events/maps/contests.

• Need for Speed: Most Wanted

• Slipstream

• Mario Kart DS / Double Dash / Wii

Sim drifting on Asetto Corsa is the only "racing" i do these days.

Rumble Racing enjoyer

Playing Colin McRay rally on linux with wiimote + wheel frame as a controller was the best time I've had with rally games. Both game and controller worked better than I expected and was easy setup for living room couch.

Old crap now, but later sequels nor Dirt didn't give the same feel.

I think Forza Motorsport 2 or 3. That was the peak of the series right there. I also enjoyed Dirt 3 and PGR4.

While I still ppayed all the later forza and GT games, they lacked a good campaign mode.

Anyone know which Gran Turismo has a good campaign?

F-Zero GX - As far as pure racing goes, GX is perfection.

Kirby Air Ride - The actual racing mode is... mid, honestly. But City Trial? One of the most interesting and unique game modes ever conceived. Sad this game never got any kind of successor.

Distance

it's highly replayable esp because of Steam Workshop modding support, it's got excellent singleplayer campaigns, fun online multiplayer racing with friends and arcade modes, soundtracks that really gets the blood 🤌P U M P I N G🤌🔥

also works on Linux with no issues✨

Here's also the 1.3 Electric Boogaloo Update

and 1.5 Kinetic Update🤗

Forza Horizon 4. I fricking love the British countryside!

In terms of play time its probably Ridge racer type 4 for psx and the wipeout series followed by Mario kart.

Recently discovered Night Runners (free demo on steam if you are interested). The soundtrack is a blast and it is very fun. Very hyped for the official release :)

I have been addicted to Burnout Legends (PSP title) almost since it came out, I kinda want to try other old school Burnout games.

Also I like Mario Kart 8 for Switch.

Project cars 3 in VR is pretty slick. I still think the gran Turismo franchise is tops. I wish there was a pc version or anything similar.

Mario Kart Series

Horizon Chase Turbo is also lit. High speed and rocking soundtrack.

I really enjoy Gran Turismo 7 even if it lacks a proper career mode and the AI isn’t good.

Looking forward to Asseto Corsa 2 as people were really happy with the first one and I haven’t played it.

These days I play a lot of Forza Horizon 4 and not much else, since I haven't found anything else to really click. There's a couple good ones out there though: Motor Town is pretty good as a car game in general, not just racing. Also BeamNg if you just wanna fuck around with the physics engine. Ooh, and Dakar Desert Rally is a fantastic rally raid simulation (albeit somewhat flawed)

Otherwise I would give some classics a shout: GRID the original, still holds up today. Also NFS Porsche, which was so ahead of its time it's ridiculous.

Almost forgot: Driver San Francisco is a gem of a game, and Re-Volt, which is bound to get the remaster treatment any day now.

I think they still have issues at the emulation so many maybe haven't had the chance but Project Gotham racing as a series is great. If youve liked modern GRIDs I highly suggest them.

My go to would be Burnout3, revenge, or dominator.

More modern probably Forza horizon but the formula is running a bit long for me.

Rallye Racing 97

What was that older one now, with the biggest game map in the world at the time? I think dirt.

Very beautiful atmospheric game with a lonely feel but fun driving

• F1 2020
• Burnout Revenge
• Gran Turismo 2
• Need for Speed: Underground 2
• Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005)
• Dirt Rally
• Test Drive: Off-Road
• NASCAR Thunder 2004 (PS1)
• Ridge Racer (1993)

I love me the PS2 era need for speed games.

Burnout 3 & revenge.

Dirt 2 has one of the best licensed soundtracks for a game, same for the OG Forza Horizon.

Modern ones, even horizon 4 and 5 feel very hollow compared to these in my opinion.

Super Woden GP 2 is an outlier to that though.

GRID: I absolutely loved the original Grid (I think it was called Racedriver: Grid in Europe) when it came out.

Project CARS 2 and Assetto Corsa Competizione: A while ago I tried using a PS5 controller on PC and using the gyroscope to steer left and right by tilting the controller. It works well enough when you get used to it. It gives you more granular control than an analog stick. You really can't tilt an analog stick 15 degrees consistently, but you can tilt the controller like that consistently. I'm not saying its as good as a racing wheel, but if you don't have one, it'll at least let you play games that might otherwise need a wheel. I played a decent amount of Project CARS 2 and Assetto Corsa Competizione that way.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is a fun kart racing game. If you don't have a Switch and you want something like Mario Kart, you should pick it up. It isn't just a Mario Kart knockoff with Sega characters. Wait no... that's exactly what it is, but it's a good one.

Meta: !simrallyracing@lemmy.world is a community here.

I loved Driveclub back on PS4, think it's delisted and possibly servers shut down, don't remember.

Project Gotham Racing (I think 2 was my preferred one), Midnight Club II as well

Mario Kart series

Quantum Redshift on OG Xbox

Mario kart, and need for speed carbon

• 4D Sports Driving (1990)
• Hi-Octane (1995)
• NFS: Most Wanted (2005)
• Flatout 2 (2008)
• Vector 36 (2017)
• Forza Horizon 5 (2021)
• BeamNG.drive (ongoing)

Megarace 2

Burnout 2: Point of impact (got me into burnout) Burnout paradise Split/second

Wipeout 2048 was my favourite of all time and is available in the Wipeout Omega Collection. I wouldn’t say that it’s better than the more recent titles but it was just the one that grabbed me.

I also really liked:

• Dirt Rally was ace on the PSVR
• Burnout Paradise
• Need for Speed: Most Wanted (the second one)

NFS: Most Wanted as a Car Racing game.

BallistcNG as a Anti-Gravity Combat Racing game.

Mario kart 8 deluxe and super tux kart

Moto racer 1 on PC.

I really wanted to try Forza Horizon but the closest game like it I could get my hands on was NFS Heat, which I had a lot fun playing. Riders Republic was also fun if you want a non car racing game. I guess I'm just into open world racing.

ACC, rFactor

Road trip adventure for the ps2

Nobody is calling either game GOATs, but I personally really like Sonic Riders Zero Gravity and Cartoon Network Racing.

I am really surprised nobody mentioned yet

CarX Drift Racing Online

Best drifting game ever. A lot of customization, visual and performance of cars.

I haven't played a racing game since Need for Speed: Underground 2, and before that Carmageddon which probably doesn't count. I have, though, seen a Group B Audi Quattro like in the thumbnail. It was in a heritage rally and it sounded FANTASTIC.

I don't typically go for racing games, but I have fond memories of playing Extreme-G on the N64. It had wepons, high speeds, and a soundtrack that tricked a young me into thinking I might like techno music.

I spent a lot of time on forza 6 and a lot on money on iracing. but eventually stopped racing. It is not fun any more and there is no respect in online racing. Just people wrecking each other

Any AG racing fans in here?

BalisticNG is my latest main game, but my love began with the WipEout series.

I also enjoy Redout and Redout 2, but the lack of weapons means I can only go so long before needing to play WipEout or BNG again.

Obligatory mention of !ballisticng@sopuli.xyz

Not the Greatest of all time, but Growing up the two racing games I’d play the most was Forza Horizon and Little Big Planet Karting. Sadly I had to drop LBPK after my PS3 died and Forza Horizon I can’t find the disk for anymore.