A recent post got me thinking about racing games that kept me engaged for hours. So, I’d like to start an activity.
What are your all-time podium finish racing games? List your top three and feel free to add commentary. Because I know this activity might be challenging, you can add any honorable mentions.
Here are mine:
NASCAR Racing 2003 Season – This was my first and all-time favorite NASCAR racing game. It worked perfectly out the box and I felt like I was behind the wheel of a 3K+ lb, V8, monster. It was the first sim, I learned the art of drafting.
Need For Speed Underground 2 – I played NFS Underground but 2 took the fun to the next level. I spent countless hours tuning and customizing cars then driving around the open world environment, street racing challengers.
GTR 2/GT Legends – This might be a bit of a cheat but my copy came with both games. Lol. I just loved racing these GT beasts, nuff said!
Honorable mentions: I have a few but I’ll limit my list to two.
Dirt Rally 2 – I was always a fan of the Colin McRae Racing games and I think Dirt Rally 2 was a worthy successor to the series. It is my favorite rally game of all-time.
Project Cars 2 – I debated between this and Assetto Corsa, which I somehow broke after modding it several times. I really enjoy being able to drive a variety of car across multiple classes, on multiple tracks and roads.
For me it’s probably Grand Prix 2 on top. I was a student back then and spend almost all evenings practicing for the little formula racing league, an offline online competition, if that makes any sense.
Followed by rFactor 2 with ~1000 hours on steam
And then Dirty Rally 2 with ~300 hours on steam
I’ve got two that really landed with me, though both are flawed in their own ways.
RFactor 2 is the first driving game where I felt really connected to the car, there’s just something about that force feedback model that made things click in my brain (I’ve never raced a real car, or even driven on snow much, so the whole traction limit thing isn’t instinctive to me). Of course we all know the weird issues with the physics engine in the base game.
Dirt4, while a terrible product and a “meh” rally sim, actually made me excited to do my next rally. The light team-management-sim they tacked on top of the rallying actually brought it all together in a way that Dirt Rally, while a much better driving game, just never did. It’s a shame the game didn’t work with USB sound devices so I had to play the sound through my monitor (nice one, Codemasters )… don’t know if they ever fixed that? I really do wish they had done a game with the driving of Dirt Rally and the “game” of Dirt4 on top of it…
RBR was definitely one of the best rally sims out there. IMHO. I think with a fresh coat of paint, it would be a top 10 racer and possibly my honorable mention, instead of Dirt Rally 2.
Dirt 4 is in my library but I think it didn’t play nice with my set up. So after some frustration I quit playing. I got it for the Staduim trucks but sadly, things were no go for me. I feel you on the best of both rally games.
Ye ole F1 Grand Prix was definitely a winner. LMU is quickly becoming my favorite racer. I suck at racing, but it definitely has the “feels.” …aaannd it has Sebring! Nuff said!
I was just coming down here to bring up Gran Turismo, @Freak! I played the orginal 2 a ton (the licenses were really challenging back then.) I did a lot of B-spec in GT4 while actually studying for high school and for christmas I got GT7. By now I have beat the ‘campaign’ and keep collecting cars and doing races every now and then. I also played the PSP version a lot like Freak.
Although I didn’t spend as much time driving it, Grand Prix Legends was pretty amazing, especially after it was modded. I believe that there are mods that let you install it on Windows 11. The only reason that I haven’t tried that is because AMS2 does a pretty good out of the box job of recreating that era.
I’ve emulated GT1, 2 and PSP on the Steam Deck.
It worked but GT1 and 2 had such a low framerate that it hurt a bit. The PSP version ran great, at 2x2 times the pixels and 2x the framerate of the original, but the longer throw of the Deck stick made it feel unnatural compared to my PSP Go. I could not race half as well on the Deck as I could on the PSP.
I might try GT4 on there as well, see how that holds up. Otherwise, Forza Horizon 4 and GRID, though they are no Gran Turismo, are good enough to keep me entertained as far as cars go. I love commuting by train while racing cars on the Deck
Great titles, IMHO. I instantly fell in love with the Lister Storm in GTR2 and am looking forward to it in Project Motor Racing, which will include some other classic favorites, such as the Saleen, Morgan, Vertigo, and Panoz LMP.
I played the Gran Turismo series exclusively when I was a console guy. Tis sad that it never made it to PC. I never had the chance to play it with a wheel. Still, it was the one racer to rule them all in our household.
I still have my original case and CD of Grand Prix Legends. It was a beast of a sim for me. Enjoyable and frustrating at the same time. People who drove those cars were the real legends, IMHO. AMS2 does a good job indeed.
Live for Speed. A little Indy sim with no manufacturer licenses but incredible physics for its time. Played the Demo with one track and two cars for a pretty long time. Pretty good in multiplayer as well. Later bought the LFS license.
Assetto Corsa. So many hours of immersive racing
Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit. Carried my PC around to have some fun LAN nights racing in this game. Endless mods.
Honourable mention:
Interstate '76: More car combat than racing but I loved this game.
)… don’t know if they ever fixed that? I really do wish they had done a game with the driving of Dirt Rally and the “game” of Dirt4 on top of it…
