8 of the Best Racing Games Ever Created

When you’re in the mood to go fast look no further than these eight games. They’ll have you speeding down the road at absurd speeds, all the while going through some seriously populated areas. So buckle up as you drive recklessly through other cars and maybe a bystander or two.

Pole Position came out in 1982 and blew everyone away. It was perfect for the time, the graphics were simple, but isn’t that the problem with newer racing games, where they spend so much time making the cars look great, but then they have horribly rendered people in the stands. Just work with what you’ve got, and focus on the cars and leave the audiences alone, they aren’t why we’re playing the game. When you get a shot of the audience watching the race you’re transported back to what they would have looked like if Pole Position had included people on the sidelines.

Mario Kart 64 was truly an amazing game, it brought people together only to bring them apart when one of them inevitably uses that damned cheat in Wario Stadium. We all knew those people that knew the cheats, making the race pointless. Thankfully we all got to race through Choco Mountain, and hopefully got to see that smug cheating friend get squished by a choco boulder.

If you’ve ever wanted to play a taxi driving sim then you really should have played Crazy Taxi. This classic puts you behind the wheel of a taxi cab, your main goal is to get people to their destinations. Along the way you can get more money by being a very reckless driver, so basically just like in real life.

It’s hard to pick one Burnout game to put on this list, they’re usually fun and well made games. For the sake of this list let’s stick with Burnout 3: Takedown. The Burnout series is to Gran Turismo as Saints Row is to Grand Theft Auto. Playing anything in Burnout is the best way to wind down after playing a serious racing game, it will help keep the enjoyment of whipping a car around an odd city.

Driver: San Francisco is more of an action-adventure racing game compared to most games on this list. Most racing games put you into a race or situation where your main goal is to keep your car in one piece and finish, where this will give you motivation for getting from point A to point B. The beauty of this game is that point A and point B can be literally hundreds of miles from each other, the game offers over 200 miles of roads to dominate.

Grand Theft Auto V puts you behind the wheel of whatever vehicle you choose to drive, the options aren’t endless but they certainly feel that way. The vehicles that they offer will keep you busy driving around Los Santos, while missions will have to wait on just driving around. It can get to the point where you really won’t want to leave the relative safety of your vehicle, it helps that you can take to the skies if you feel the need.

Gran Turismo 6 is one of the most realistic feeling racing games in modern memory. The entire franchise prides itself on being a legit racing sim, none of this absurdity that Burnout offers. Take one of many cars based on real cars through some very fun tracks, you’ll have to do them several times just to get the turns down, but when you finally get first place it’s more than worth it.

Speaking of great racing games, Driveclub was released recently. Maybe it’s because it was made specifically for the latest generation of consoles, or maybe it’s because of some seriously talented developers, probably a little of both, but the game’s graphics will have you feeling like you’re really behind the wheel as you kick it into sixth and speed through that straight away. Things have come a long way since Pole Position.