Best Racing Games
These are the top racing games for the PC, with everything from the luxurious luxury cars of Forza Horizon 4 to the muddy beasts of Dirt Rally. Which PC racing games are the best? Here are the top racers, whether they’re conquering muddy circuits in Dirt Rally or enjoying Forza Horizon 5’s stunning Mexico.
It’s difficult to choose the greatest racing games on the PC. There are so many factors that go into this genre; it’s not just about graphic fidelity and spine-tingling sound design, though those are very helpful; it’s also about immersing you in the action so that you’re in the driver’s seat, strained from the speeding tarmac. A high-quality racing game just feels natural, whether you’re perfecting your timing for a flawless gear shift or kicking out the back end for a stunning drift.
Do not inquire as to how Grand Prix Legends might have been overlooked. Why is Geoff Crammond not here? We’ll be the first to play those games again when updated versions appear on Steam or GOG. and unavoidably discover they haven’t aged as well as we had anticipated. We therefore have several frantic PC races for those of you who simply want to get in and crank up the engine of a terrific racer, whether that’s an elaborate sim or an arcade thriller.
List of 5 Best Racing Games
1. Forza Horizon 5
The newest open-world arcade racing from Playground Games moves the celebration from the British Isles to Mexico. The landscape of Forza Horizon 5 is 50% bigger than the UK’s in Horizon 4, and it’s full of wide desert roads, charming Mexican villages, and magnificent canyons. In Horizon 5, which builds on the previous games’ spectacular seasonal effects that bring the world to life, you battle storms that can suddenly whip up violent winds.
Not much has changed besides the changing weather, but that’s by no means a bad thing since Playground Games has thoroughly nailed the racing game genre. Traditional races, co-op campaigns, stunt jumps, season championships, and endurance tests can all be taken in a variety of fast and fashionable vehicles, from customised dune buggies and pick-up trucks to one-of-a-kind hypercars.
There is a tonne of material to keep you coming back; when in-game seasons change every week, new events appear alongside them to complete. These events reward you with exchangeable points that you can use to buy rare automobiles. Visit our Forza Horizon 5 PC review for our complete comments.
2. Dirt Rally 2
Dirty Rally 2.0 is not the racing game for you if you don’t know your pacenotes from your driveshaft. Try Dirt 4 instead if you’re seeking for a casual driving experience or merely to get from A to B a little bit quicker than you normally might on your everyday commute. If you can’t handle the different terrain and hairpin curves in Rally 2.0, your co-driver will fire instructions, numbers, and directions at you thick and fast, and before you know it, you’ll be crashing into a tree.
As you can see from our review of Dirt Rally 2.0 for the PC, it is unapologetically hardcore. In contrast to more easygoing racing games, failure occurs frequently, and even the smallest mistake will result in harsh punishment. The sensory overload from loud crashes seems like a flashbang has just gone off on your bonnet. Additionally, if you’re stuck behind the pack, surface degradation will make it difficult to even drive straight. But if you know what you’re doing, Dirt Rally 2.0 is one of the best simulations of this difficult sport among the top PC games.
You’ll be crashing a lot, much like we did in our reviews of Dirt Rally 2.0, as Codemasters’ driving game lacks a tutorial this time and instead teaches you through repeated trips to the hospital. The generative track-generating system, Your Stage, also falls short of expectations set by earlier games. Instead, every race is painstakingly handcrafted, luring passionate spectators to commit every evil turn to memory. You can only learn Dirt Rally 2.0 in that way, and if you don’t adopt its compulsively narrow viewpoint, you’ll come in last.
3. Shift 2
Of all the games on our list, Shift 2 may offer the best balance between realism and player accessibility. It’s not just the threatening, yet capable handling of the car; it’s also the way it continually considers what players need in order to achieve at a high level. Shift 2 offers a dynamic view that slightly alters depending on circumstances, as opposed to locking your view while looking out over the hood or demanding that you pay for TrackIR to let you swivel your head.
Your view changes slightly as your driving avatar turns right into the apex as you approach a moderate right-hand corner. Your vision swings a little more for a sharper curve so you can see what you’re going into, but it doesn’t feel at all confusing. It seems appropriate.
Even the depth-of-field is given careful consideration. Shift 2 makes use of this incredibly overused visual effect to draw attention to the appropriate place. When someone is closing quickly on your tail, distant objects become a little bit blurrier while your mirrors become razor clear. Your cockpit blurs as you move through a congested area while the vehicles around you sharpen. Although it may sound gimmicky, everything feels as natural as really operating a car. Shift 2 does a fantastic job at conveying the excitement and success of performance driving.
4. Project Cars 2
You may have noticed that real cars don’t frequently veer onto the curb when you dare to combine steering and acceleration inputs. In fact, they do a really decent job of travelling around corners; it almost seems like an engineer thought about the issue during the design process. While undoubtedly more likely to retaliate, performance cars in Project Cars 2 are even better at turning. You’ll likely spend more time having fun than worrying about the lack of a rewind button in real life if you drive a Ferrari or Lamborghini around the track (as we have done on numerous times).
Slightly Mad are aware of this. The tendency of the driving sim genre to equate challenge with the experience of driving on treadless tyres on a slab of melting ice positioned at a 45-degree angle tends to aggravate them just as much. Thus, even when the throttle is opened wide, cars actually navigate the turns here. Please understand that this is not a virtual Scallextric track; mistakes are still possible, and traction is far from perfect. However, significantly, if you play with a wheel rather than a pad, you aren’t penalised for these errors by a swift trip into the nearest trackside barrier. As a result, the game has a lot more realistic driving experience.
Besides adding more vehicles to the automobile choices and improving the career mode without abandoning the alluring freedom of choice pioneered by the original game, the team made a number of other adjustments in this sequel. If you don’t feel like playing online, you can race against some halfway decent AI. The game’s incredible weather system, however, is the most spectacular update. It calculates a bewildering array of variables related to the physical characteristics of materials and surfaces, water pooling, and run-off, in order to produce the best weather effects and wet weather driving we’ve ever encountered in a racing game.
5. TrackMania 2: Canyon
Any veteran of the genre will tell you that an excellent track design is a crucial component of any high-quality racing game. And in that regard, TrackMania 2: Canyon truly excels thanks to its distinguishing feature. Tracks in TrackMania 2: Canyon take on a horrifying, Hot Wheels-inspired new meaning, when in most games a hairpin bend, g-force-laden camber, or high-speed straight could suffice. The TrackMania series distinguishes itself from other arcade racers with sweeping barrel rolls, nearly impossible jumps, and floating platforms that put up two fingers to physics.
The real heart of TrackMania 2 is online, where other people’s brilliant, complicated inventions take centre stage. The rivalry is ferocious and frenetic. An entertaining highlight reel of missed leaps and unexpected turns can quickly emerge from a race. You may lose hours playing a multiplayer game with the racing elements because it’s so easy to pick up and play. That’s largely due to how simple the cars are to operate, but once you’re on the (often absurd) tracks, it’s anyone’s guess who will win.
