Around a decade earlier, racing games appeared to be on the decline – arcade racers such as Crash and Broken up were failing to sell, renowned companies were closing, and even mainstream franchises such as Need for Speed were battling to reclaim the attention they previously commanded. Except for a Nintendo Switch or a Gran Turismo, it appeared as though the era of the big-ticket driving simulator, and the genre as an exhilarating mass-market draw, had passed us by.
Fortunately for racing lovers, things are looking up. Forza Horizon reintroduced driving games to the mainstream, indie studios resurrected the joys of the arcade racers of the 1990s, the PC virtual environment racing scene is more productive than ever, and Codemasters rode a successful Formula One license all the way to an astounding $1.2 billion obtaining by EA, demonstrating just how highly racing games are treasured now.
Here are our selections for the finest action games to win right now – primarily modern, as this is a genre that benefits from technological advancements, but with a few classics tossed in for good measure. As is customary, we’re concentrating on titles that are easily accessible and playable on current hardware. To help you navigate the list, we’ve divided it into three sub: open-world racing games, which combine sprinting and exploration across a large map; racing games, which emphasize immediacy and fun over realism; motorsport games, which are based on licensed actual football; and sim racing games, which emphasize the authenticity of the racing dynamics.
Best racing games
1. Forza Horizon 5
It began as a flip from the Forza Racing circuit racing series, but Bravo Horizon has evolved into the main event: a stunning, uplifting series of gaming for all ages set on massive, real-world-inspired maps. Horizon 5 – which also appears on our lists of the best Game Pass and Xbox Series X/S games – brings the Horizon formula to Mexico in another adoring deal that includes the vast open campaign, larrikin multiplayer, moreish car collection, and festival good vibes that Horizon games are known for. Horizon 5 does not provide anything new (apart from the superb co-op mode, Horizon Tour), but it refines something the previous game accomplished, and features a significantly improved campaign framework for navigating the huge amount of content available. Additionally, the graphics are breathtaking.
2. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
Given that the game would soon revert to form, it’s easy to ignore that, during the brief era when Criterion was in charge, the Need for Speed games offered some of the best racing experiences available. Hot Pursuit’s rough fighting and wide-open highways dug into everything that made Need for Speed wonderful, and this remake only serves to confirm the notion that it was the series’ pinnacle. With bated breath, we await Criterion’s return to the helm.
3. Burnout Paradise
Prior to acquiring Need for Speed, Criterion created the iconic arcade racing game Burnout, which reimagined the exquisite accelerating and drifting of 1990s classics such as Ridge Raceway and Daytona as a dirty contact sport complete with screen shaking, sideswipes, and twisted metal. Burnout Paradise, released in 2008, was an even bigger trendsetter, because to its open-world terrain and entirely free gameplay system. It’s unsurprising that such an audaciously modern game has aged so beautifully, as this stunning remake demonstrates. (Please also remaster Burnout 2 and 3!)
4. Mario Kart 8
Gather a few pals and play any Mario Kart game, dating all the way back to the 1992 Nintendo Ds original, and you’re bound to have a wonderful time. Each game in the series features sophisticated arcade control, tricky courses, a charming cast of characters, and a capricious nasty streak capable of reversing any race. It’s unsurprising that these are the greatest racing games of all time. Mario Kart 8 – the Deluxe edition of which is included in our list of the greatest Switch games – may be the best Mario Kart since the franchise’s inception, boasting superb local and online game modes, a rewarding solo mode, extensive customisation, luscious visuals, and a smacking live-band theme tune.
5. Nitro-Fueled Crash Team Racing
Crash Team Racing is really what happens when one of the worlds largest most skilled studios, Naughty Dog, creates a hype train, off-brand rendition of a supposedly inimitable smash – Mario Kart, of course. It stays true to the source material throughout, yet it gets everything absolutely right, and the result is enormously enjoyable. All of the above can be stated of Beenox’s flawless, better-than-you-remember-it rendition. If you’re not a Switch owner or simply a Crash fan, Nitro-Fueled is unmatched for online multiplayer fun.
6. Excessive Inertial Drift
Certain modern arcades racers can be kind of too reliant on their renowned forebears, and while Inertial Drift borrows several ideas from Ridge Racer Type 4, it ultimately succeeds as its own entity. For that, we can thank the game’s unique twin-stick drift feature, which requires only the tiniest amount of adjustment – but once you’ve got your brain and fingers around that one, there is nothing worse than it.
7. Art of Rally
There are other retro racers available that play like live recordings of classics, but Art of Rally is much more subtle and unique. It pays homage to rallying’s golden age with its toylike, unauthorized car designs and to a bygone era of racing games such as Earthworm Jim with its odd top-down camera. It is, without a doubt, an aesthetic, and an extremely stylish one nonetheless. However, what makes the game so enjoyable is the unexpectedly detailed handling model, which results in a more accurate reproduction of the activity than you might anticipate. Record your game and share on social media. Originally released on PC, the game is now accessible on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
8. Wreckfest
This fantastic banger-racer – which, like Art of Rally, has a slew of iconic and entirely unauthorized vehicles (shh, don’t tell the makers) – pays homage to both the classic Slaughter Derby and the widely remembered Flatout. That’s unsurprising, given that it’s by Bugbear, the original Flatout studio. It’s a simple formula, but it contains everything you need: vintage automobiles with heavy, wallowing performance that lurch and crash and lunch the other’s bodywork convincingly, courtesy of a fantastic physics engine. Uncomplicated joys.