Vroom vroom. That’s the sound of 11 rivals revving their engines as they blink the sweat out of their eyes and exhale years of self-doubt from their lungs. Immediately is their day. Now we have lined up these racing video games on a beginning grid and have an interest to see how issues shake out. Will the realism-obsessed driving sims take the lead with their chic physics engines? May the futuristic fight racers merely destroy the opposition with explosive rockets? Or maybe a nippy arcade crowd-pleaser will soar to the end line, propelled by the sound of roaring cheers. It is all to play for right here at our extremely messed-up grand prix with a worrying lack of guidelines or regulation. Begin your engines, everybody, these are the 11 greatest racing video games on PC. 3! 2! 1! …
WAIT. False begin, false begin. Let’s briefly clarify our reasoning. There are some pointers in any case. For this listing, we wished to concentrate on racing video games, as distinct from driving video games, so no American Truck Simulator right here. However we nonetheless wished a pleasant unfold. So, like I say, you will discover sci-fi velocity freakery alongside extra lifelike racers (and a minimum of one sport with none motor autos in any respect).
Keep in mind: if you happen to love a selected racing sport and discover it absent in our listing, that is okay. We forgot it. Please right that for us by taking to the feedback and telling us why you like to zip round in that particular dashing sim.
Okay, for actual this time… 3, 2, 1… GO!
The most effective racing video games on PC
This is a fast breakdown in alphabetical order. If you happen to hate scrolling for some motive, that is okay. Simply click on a title to move straight to that sport.
11. Star Wars Episode I Racer
Podracing was at all times cool. The Phantom Menace might or might not deserve its place within the dungheap of the Star Wars universe so far as storytelling goes. However for sheer spectacle, the podracing scene is a blast, not solely when it comes to being an entertaining splurge of particular results and funky sci-fi equipment, but additionally in that it establishes a contemporary cultural phenomenon inside a oft-recycled universe. Star Wars Episode I Racer, initially launched in 1999, allow you to fling your self down the canyons of Tatooine and a bunch of different planets that, no, I’ve by no means heard of earlier than. Baroonda? Ando Prime? Oovo IV? Okay, strictly talking the sport didn’t do something significantly new with regards to racing video games. However there are occasions when theme trumps novelty, when you’ll be able to put your shiny-obsessed magpie mind to at least one aspect and easily get pleasure from a protected high-speed chase between the oil derricks of… [checks notes] Mon Gazza.
10. Evening-Runners Prologue
What’s this developing the skin lane? A demo for a sport not even absolutely launched? That is unorthodox. However look, what Evening-Runners Prologue lacks in remaining polish, it makes up for with tonnes of ambiance. You purchase your experience at a dodgy used automotive public sale at the hours of darkness. You spy some notes within the paper paperwork accompanying every car, from innocuous observations similar to “low oil strain” or “almost empty tank” to the marginally regarding “earlier driver reported as lacking” or the brazenly doubtful “licence plate linked with native crime organisations”. Quickly, you too are deeply embedded in Japan’s racing underworld, pressured into debt by a facelss gangster. All the things you do right here is bathed in old-school avenue racing subculture, you’ll be able to virtually odor the petrol.
The precise racing entails exploring an city nightscape of highways and relaxation stops to seek out like-minded racers to wager your cash towards, then blasting down large straights and gently curving lanes at horrendous velocity hoping to not miss the suitable exit or slam headfirst into an oncoming lorry, each win bringing a lift to your rep. As a sport it is stuffed with idiosyncrasies that can drive informal racers mad. The navigation map is hard to make out, the road lights usually eye-squintingly dim. However then there are little sparks of persona. Blasting off from the beginning line earlier than the “go” sign will prices you a piece of repute. Win, and you will not solely earn money, however your legally distinct 2000s period Nokia cellphone will gentle up with a textual content message that whiffs of begrudging respect: “dont let it get to ur head,” says your latest rival. With its quirks and sometimes-quirky design, Evening-Runners will not be for everybody (I crave the roads to be higher lit) but it has such a powerful flavour some automotive tire cultists are sure to fall in love.
9. BallisticNG
I instructed my brother we have been writing a “greatest racing video games” listing on RPS, and he dutifully listed each racing sport ever launched on the PlayStation 1, beginning with Wipeout. I am unable to embrace these video games on our PC-only web site, and but I can’t fault his strategy. So I supply him this. BallisticNG is in love with the sci-fi racer of yesteryonks, recreating its hovercraft fight zooms in a method that continues to be in some way deeply futuristic regardless of the low-poly artwork model. Even the event studio’s title – Neognosis – is a loving reference to Liverpool-based developer Psygnosis, the unique makers of the Hackers’ favorite racer.
Trance followers of a sure age will principally know what they’re getting, however there are some fashionable facilities. A “good help” can assist gamers who wrestle with the anti-gravity controls, and you’ll play in VR (if you happen to can abdomen such speeds with a street that near your eyeballs). It has additionally been “constructed for modding”, say the builders, letting of us construct tracks utilizing a spline-based editor. Even so, that is as near Wipeout as you’ll get on PC as we speak, exterior of emulating the basic itself. I hope this satisfies my brother, who was disillusioned after I stated we couldn’t embrace the PlayStation video games he had talked about. He stated he understood, then he prompt Diddy Kong Racing and left the room.
8. Horizon Chase Turbo
If you happen to pause Horizon Chase Turbo, you will uncover that whenever you unpause the sport it provides you an additional “3, 2, 1” countdown, to prep you for the large speeds you are about to get launched again into. That’s good sport design, my pals. A lot of this throwback street rager is as cleverly and loyally crafted. The best way the racetrack and its oncoming environs “develop” into existence because the street rises to satisfy you, the 80s synth guitar rock that pushes you ahead virtually as a lot because the nitro in your gasoline tank. Its simplified Out Run really feel means hardcore sim likers might need to keep away from it. The automotive leans into the curves and bends of the street, correcting itself virtually mechanically, leaving it to you to regulate issues at a extra instantaneous stage. This isn’t about precisely recreating automotive physics, nearly precisely recreating a quick period of arcade playfulness and making the racing really feel pretty much as good as you (wrongly) recall.
7. BeamNG.drive
If in case you have been scrolling by this listing along with your driving aviators, tutting at every entry with the livid professionalism of a motoring maniac, then maybe you can see some catharsis with BeamNG.drive. It leans closely into an correct simulation of “soft-body physics” which roughly interprets to “rally automotive go bounce good”. It additionally means crumpling automotive bonnets and particles of glass when the police cruiser chasing you down lastly catches up. Whereas not strictly a racing sport per se, the time trials and free roaming permit for a sort of vehicular liberty. In any case, you are not right here to race. You are right here to drive off a cliff and steeple your fingers with a really critical expression as you scrutinise every dent and crunch with monstrously excessive requirements. I’m deathly afraid of you.
6. Grip: Fight Racing
The place we’re going we do not want roads. Hold on, sorry. I’ve simply been knowledgeable that truly we want further roads. Roads on the ceiling, roads on the partitions… With autos like these in Grip, you want all of the street you will get. Usual after the PlayStation basic Rollcage, this arcadey fight racer sees you sticking to the underside of no matter tubular tunnel you have simply entered, or sliding up the curved sides of rollercoaster-like racetracks suspended excessive above the floor of alien planets. The competitors is a bit murdery. You’re kitted out with tire-shredding miniguns, HUD-disrupting EMP blasts, and missiles that vindictively goal the contestant in first place. Sure, that is very a lot sci-fi Mario Kart with these outdated double-sided RC vehicles that have been large within the Nineties. Nothing incorrect with that.
5. Descenders
“Bicycles!?” I hear you yell. “However these do not have motors!” Please, be affordable. There’s house for all types of racing on this world. Descenders is about barrelling down a mountainside on the saddle of a two-wheeled rumbler whereas making an attempt to not fly over the handlebars and ragdoll violently right into a tree. As an expert mud commuter you’ll be backflipping over trains and looping-the-proverbial-loop all whereas navigating a branching cascade of ranges and investing in “mutators” that change your skills with every run. The roguelike stuff generally appears slightly superfluous however the feeling of the bike’s dealing with itself is a thumb-pleasing mix of problem and instinct. And, god, is it ever humorous whenever you take a tumble.
4. Trackmania
In Trackmania, the vehicles take second place. Right here it is all in regards to the tracks gamers can cobble collectively from premade property utilizing an in-game stage editor, channelling the Sizzling Wheels youngster in all of us. There have been a number of Trackmanias, good heavens, however the newest incarnation is the plainly named Trackmania of 2020. It has the profit (and curse) of being free-to-play, so you’ll be able to race on a bunch of curated and official tracks without spending a dime. However to get a good model of the monitor editor, you’ll have to fork out some money. The identical goes if you wish to see the complete vary of untamed creations gamers have uploaded, such because the absurdly troublesome maps Deep Dip and Deep Dip 2, the latter of which took devoted gamers over a month of fixed racing to lastly conquer.
3. Wreckfest
Get bashed onerous sufficient on this damaging derby and a pink message will pop up, labelling the aggressive driver who hit you as a “rival”. You possibly can then earn further factors by ramming this rival, main to mad conditions like getting utterly distracted from securing your home on the entrance of the pack, simply so you’ll be able to cling again and harass the off-brand VW Beatle who tried to punt you off the street. There’s something innately hilarious about constructing a whole driving sport round outdated bangers. The station wagons, minis, and legally distinct Fiat 500s will spin out with pleasant glee as you fishtail them on a bend, messing all the pieces up for the tightly packed stack of rivals behind you (that is particularly soaked in schadenfreude throughout on-line multiplayer). Wreckfest has loads of the same old extras below the hood – automotive upgrades, suspension tuning, customisable paint jobs – however regardless of how properly you costume up your beastly bangmobile, it is the aggression and craziness that counts. Do not be afraid to shunt that discount bucket Ford Escort right into a stack of tires along side the street.
2. Burnout Paradise Remastered
PC players sadly by no means obtained to really feel the metallic depth of Burnout 3: Takedown, however they did lastly expertise true pleasure in 2008 with Burnout Paradise. Ten years later, the Remastered model did not change a lot in any respect in regards to the sport, nevertheless it did make it simpler to play (uh, a bit – extra on that in a sec). There are various easy pleasures to Burnout’s crashy careening: you spin your tires at site visitors lights to begin a race, you’ll be able to dip into restore retailers throughout a contest to refill your enhance meter on the fly. And whenever you spot an enormous billboard you’ll usually take a last-second detour to fling your self by stated advert with wild abandon, like a sumo wrestler belly-flopping by a paper door in a rural Japanese home. It’s a hefty, highly effective, generously fun-loving sport. The vehicles are barely much less fragile than in earlier Burnouts, letting you generally “driveaway” from a furry fender bender. However the damaging silliness stays intact, with the crossroads and hilly outskirts of Paradise Metropolis inviting you to hurtle headfirst into site visitors.
The Remastered model has its points, be warned. Within the absence of official updates, it has fallen to god’s personal IT division to listing fixes for a lot of of these technical annoyances. However even taking this into consideration, Paradise stays a paradise. Even the fictional DJ Atomika, the obnoxious voice of the sport’s tutorials and universally reviled radio “persona”, can’t diminish the sport’s place amongst open world racers. And anyway, you’ll be able to mod that jackass proper out.
1. Forza Horizon 4
In terms of “sport really feel” for a racer, there may be maybe a candy spot someplace between arcade wackiness and glove-adjusting simulation. I do not know the place that candy spot is, however the creators of Forza Horizon 4 in all probability do. “This sport is not going to trouble simulating tyre put on or brake temperature,” wrote Stirling in our overview, “it is simply going to imagine that your automotive is working as supposed.” Other than the slick, low-stakes drifting, there’s a wide range of loony occasions to participate in as you roam the British countryside in regularly altering seasons. Snow will change your automotive’s dealing with because it tries to desperately sustain with a steam prepare. Rain may have a equally slick impact as you pursue a hovercraft over muddy nation roads. Don’t be concerned although, the sport is ready in Britain. It in all probability will not rain usually.
Forza is nicely revered spherical these elements. Resident RPS racing sport knower Graham has referred to as it “higher than Burnout Paradise”. A few of us within the RPS treehouse take exception to such wild statements, but each Ed and Matthew appear to agree that Playground Video games are as we speak’s pacemaker with regards to good sport openings and riotous hovercraft racing. Within the face of such overwhelming enjoyment, maybe we Burnout loyalists can lastly lay off the gasoline and pull up for a relaxation. Forza Horizon 4 has overtaken; there isn’t any catching up.
But there’s a unhappy catch to all this reward. You may have to get Fourza when you can, as a result of it will be getting delisted from Steam in December 2024 (if you happen to learn this after that date, sorrrrrry). There’s at all times the follow-up, Forza Horizon 5, set in Mexico with a recognisably easy really feel. It isn’t the autumnal Yorkshire Moors although, is it?
The day is over. A champion has been topped and the losers should go residence. However wait, psst! What if I instructed you a secret? There are not any losers. All competitors is an phantasm, “higher” and “worse” don’t exist, and we solely rank these lists in any order as a result of the human mind is screwed up and hates acknowledging that the world can be a massive soup. It is true! All these racing video games are equally high quality! And so are those you like, lacking from this listing. Please, enter the clever realm of web feedback and sing some reward on your favorite racing sport. Give it a rating if you happen to like, however know that it means nothing, each automotive is sacred and liked.
