Mine is Forza Horizon 4, but i’m hype for The Crew Motorfest!
Trackmania
I love race sims, but I always come back to Trackmania!
There’s something really addictive about Trackmania’s simplicity. The physics feel great and it always feels like getting a personal best is just one lap away.
Shame the campaign this season is kinda boring though. It’s all fullspeed maps!
This past few months I’ve gotten into Trackmania. It really is the perfect “settle down for the evening and play with a video on the other monitor”. I can just grind out records, while only needing two fingers max on my keyboard, and just enough attention.
Need For Speed Underground 2. Just the right vibes and level of customization to keep me playing through the entire campaign without getting bored
🎶 Riders on the storm 🎶
such a good game
Yeah, that’s definitely one of my favorites too.
@VioletteRei I really like jumping into Wreckfest from time to time just because it makes me think of the fun old Destruction Derby games on PS1/2 and it’s fun to mess around in with friends.
Ahhh friend, that is such a big question. I’m going to narrow down to just 2 games but I could literally sit here all day, fill out an entire chart of games and still not be done. I love racing games.
I’m going to say the best sim overall is Assetto Corsa, the original, because of it’s insane modding community that can make it into any sort of driving experience that you want.
And for best arcade racing game… I am inclined to say Burnout 3:Takedown from back in the PS2 days. The later sequels were also great, but this is the one that perfected the formula of extremely fast and aggressive driving, with blissful brake to drive and crashing physics. They just don’t make games that drive as good as this one in the arcade subgenre anymore.Actually, I AM going to post a chart too, because I remembered I already have it saved.
Nice list. Did you compile that yourself?
Yes, I made that with my own favorite games. Like I said, I could still add more games that I couldn’t fit in there. Test Drive Unlimited, Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift 2, Gran Turismo 2, Forza Horizon 4, Wipeout Pulse, Project CARS 2, Raceroom Racing Experience, Automobilista 2, NFSU2 and Most Wanted both, the other Burnout games… There’s way too many good racing games in the past, and not enough in the present. I really like racing games.
I like the chart idea and while you have excellent taste in racing games, I did make my own with some adjustments, lol
For “Best driving in a non-racing game” I was tempted to put BeamNG, but whether or not that counts as a “racing” game is up for debate. I think ETS2 is a safe bet.
I do enjoy the both of them, and they are more games missing from my chart, lol.
Racing games are by far my favorite genre, I don’t think I could pick an absolute favorite, so I’m just gonna ramble for a bit.
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 through Carbon are fondly remembered for a reason, they still stand up so well today. Outside of the golden era of NFS, Hot Pursuit (2010), The Run, Most Wanted (2012), Heat, and Unbound are very good as well. Other games in the series are good too (I’m a strong defender of Rivals despite it being objectively subpar), but I’d consider these to be the highlights.
The Burnout series is excellent, especially Takedown, Revenge, and Paradise.
Forza Motorsport 4 and Forza Horizon 1 are the absolute peak of that franchise, absolutely beautiful games, I love the atmosphere and career pacing.
The PGR series is great as well, and only got better with every title. PGR4 (the last one) is amazing. This team also developed Blur before shutting down, basically Mario Kart with real cars, which is massively underrated.
The Flatout games (1 and 2, we don’t talk about 3 and 4 is eh) are great. Bugbear also developed Wreckfest, which is a spiritual successor that improves on the original in almost every way.
Driver: San Francisco is one of the greatest games ever made, and I’ll never forgive Ubisoft for abandoning the series.
The Motorstorm games are great, and Evolution Studios also worked on the excellent Driveclub before being bought and merged into Codemasters (and later EA…)
Enthusia is another super underrated one, really unique progression system that encourages you to drive interesting cars instead of the fastest.
The DiRT and GRID franchises have some great entries as well, especially DiRT 2/3 and GRID 1/2. Codemasters also developed FUEL, which I think held the title of biggest video game world for a long time (it might still if you don’t count stuff like Flight Simulator).
Split/Second is excellent despite its shitty PC port.
There’s a bunch of great indies as well, Distance, Redout, Inertial Drift, Horizon Chase Turbo.
There are lots more, Midnight Club, Ridge Racer, Gran Turismo, Test Drive, but this comment is way too long as-is… It is also fairly depressing that most of these are dead franchises, and/or aren’t available to purchase anymore due to licensing expiration.
Ah yes! I followed burnout and pgr. Also rally sport challenge was pretty special.
Some good recommends here, cheers!
I really need to play through more Enthusia, that game is awesome.
Arcade would be the Forza series, as for Sim I very much enjoy Assetto Corsa due to how moddable it is, and because driving around in VR is rad.
I had a lot of fun memories with the bright color scheme for Burnout 3: Takedown. Plus the controls felt great, and weren’t compromised simply because I upgraded to a faster car.
Wreckfest (2018) is my most favorite recent game. It had a combination arcade and simulation feel, because the controls were simple and the driving experience felt exactly like driving a rusty old car ready to get crumpled again.
Beamng drive, I’m a huge sucker for soft body physics sims. Also the devs have been actively updating and adding content for over a decade now
Trackmania! Man, the original was a hoot and i spent way too long in Trackmania; Sunrise. The tracks are still second to none, and the track editor; powerful. It allows you to save as many ghosts as you want and then produce a video. This was mind blowing to a younger me; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UcQmJwTnBg
Does Mario Kart count? It’s probably the best game to play with friends of different skill levels.
Also the older need for speed games up to undercover.
Forza Motorsport 4, not to be confused with Horizon 4. That game vibes just right. New Motorsport looks like it’s capturing that magic again. Fingers crossed!
Gran Turismo 2.
It’s simple and very limited compared to some other games, but the combination of the era of cars, the PS1 graphics and the jazz fusion it’s perfect.
It’s 100% Hotshot Racing, the game is so stylish, charming, and just really fun. I wish the online modes weren’t devoid of players though, I’d have loved to played against other players. Top 3 beyond that is Burnout Paradise, and Need for Speed Most Wanted 2013
My favorite was Racing Destruction Set on C64. 2 player split screen, you could modify your car for the track conditions, the tracks had multiple surfaces (road, dirt , ice, etc), and there was an included track editor.
Ridge Racer Type 4. Beautiful controls, amazing soundtrack, just an amazing game
