What are the perfect racing video games on PC? Whether or not mastering muddy tracks in Filth Rally 2 or embracing Forza Horizon 5’s magnificent Mexico, these are the perfect racers round. Earlier than you hop into the driving force’s seat, we advocate plugging in a controller as an alternative of utilizing a mouse and keyboard – or, even higher, getting your self a wheel.
Whereas a few these may very well be contenders for our listing of the perfect PC video games total, there are many choices right here in the event you take into account your self a velocity demon. Whereas the likes of Gran Turismo 7 is probably not obtainable on PC simply but – fingers crossed it arrives ultimately – there are many wonderful racing video games right here, irrespective of your style.
The perfect racing video games on PC in 2024 are:
Pacific Drive
Pacific Drive trades within the veritable fleet of supercars that grace this listing in favor of a battered previous station wagon, however don’t let that put you off. In keeping with our Pacific Drive assessment, this off-beat roguelike sport is a ‘90s conspiracy thriller that captures “the symbiotic relationship between a driver and their automotive” in a New Bizarre romp via the wilds of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. The winding roads of the Exclusion Zone are a far cry from the race tracks of Forza and Filth Rally 2. Nevertheless, every journey in Pacific Drive is a race in opposition to time, as you outrun storms and paranormal Anomalies to scavenge crafting provides, uncover secret authorities experiments, and get again to the storage in a single piece.
Once you’re not behind the wheel, wrestling with tactile controls and uncompromising driving physics – belief us, you’ll need to swap out these summer time tires for a set of wheels suited to impromptu off-road excursions as shortly as attainable – you’ll be again on the storage restoring your iron horse to its former glory. This consists of crafting the perfect panels, headlights, and different modifications to your automotive, although there’s loads of scope for beauty decals, paint, and even dashboard bobbleheads. All in all, Pacific Drive is a far cry from the standard driving expertise. Whereas our assessment factors to the “cascade of menus inside menus which are troublesome to parse” and serves as a steep studying curve for learners, we will guarantee you that “as soon as it clicks, there’s no going again.” Hop in, driver. Simply ensure you’ve obtained some restore putty available – the place you’re going, you’ll definitely want it.
Sizzling Wheels Unleashed 2
The follow-up to 2021’s greatest shock hit, Sizzling Wheels Unleashed 2, provides many new components to the racer to ramp up the motion even additional than earlier than. The obvious change to the sport is including the Lateral Sprint and Double Soar, giving gamers a technique to smash into their opponents and keep away from obstacles that pop up alongside the monitor. This drastically alters the way in which gamers race across the monitor – do you are taking an aggressive strategy and attempt to take down different racers, or do you bide your time and save your soar able to dodge an incoming assault? The selection is yours.
Sizzling Wheels Unleashed 2 additionally provides many new autos to the sport, together with ATVs, motorbikes, and monster vans. We additionally see every car obtain a customizable talent tree, permitting you to assemble every car the precise manner you need it. Talking of customizability, the Stickers Editor permits you to change the looks of your favourite autos with ease this time round. Lastly, we even have a bunch of recent tracks in lots of distinctive environments to play in. For those who’re on the lookout for a enjoyable multiplayer racer, it is advisable to try Sizzling Wheels Unleashed 2.
Forza Motorsport
In what’s technically the eighth sport within the Forza Motorsport collection, we return to the start in a reboot of the collection. Revisiting basic tracks from the Forza Motorsport video games, the high-fidelity racing sim sees you drifting round Maple Valley and Le Mans within the highest definition graphics, with gorgeous ray tracing offering probably the most stunning environment, day or night time.
In our Forza Motorsport assessment, we deal with the truth that there’s little character between races, not like another video games on this listing – however then, Forza Motorsport has all the time been about racing. If that’s what you need, 2023’s Forza Motorsport is practical, attractive, and sufficiently difficult. Plus, with over 500 Forza Motorsport vehicles to gather and improve, you may simply sink hours and hours into perfecting your racing line.
F1 23
F1 23 isn’t the latest entry within the Components 1 collection, however it’s the perfect that has been put out to date beneath EA’s premiership. Although F1 24 is now out within the wild, as you’ll see from our F1 24 assessment it’s not fairly as much as snuff.
An enormous step up from F1 22, F1 23 did away with the tame F1 Life, introducing the quite moreish F1 World in its stead. Right here you may progressively improve your automotive whereas endeavor all kinds of various racing occasions.
You’ve additionally obtained your traditional suite of a single-player profession mode, time trials, and on-line multiplayer, plus the two-player co-op profession mode has returned. If you wish to get behind the wheel of the quickest motorsport on this planet, F1 23 is the sport you need.
GRID Legends
The GRID collection has gone via many iterations, however the single-player mode within the newest sport takes inspiration from Netflix’s Drive to Survive collection, which is a dramatized documentary centered on Components One. It options real-life interviews with fictional characters and racing situations that see you face off in opposition to a number of rivals, attempting to make a reputation for your self in motorsport.
There are additionally loads of multiplayer modes on supply, and the drop-in-drop-out function means you may take over AI racers in stay races everytime you please. It’s not a racing simulator, leaning rather more closely on an arcade-style, however there’s a number of enjoyable racing available.
Forza Horizon 5
Taking its spot on our listing, separate from the Motorsport collection, Playground Video games’ most up-to-date open-world arcade racer leaves the British Isles behind and brings the occasion to Mexico. Forza Horizon 5’s map is 50% bigger than Horizon 4’s UK, and it’s crammed with open desert roads, quaint Mexican cities, and breathtaking canyons. Constructing on the earlier video games’ gorgeous seasonal results that carry the surroundings to life, in Horizon 5, you cope with storms that may whip up ferocious winds at a second’s discover.
Apart from the brand new climate, not a lot has modified, however that’s not unhealthy, as Playground Video games has actually mastered the racing sport format. You may take part in conventional races, co-op campaigns, stunt jumps, seasonal championships, and endurance exams in a variety of speedy and trendy autos starting from modified dune buggies and pick-up vans to one-off hypercars.
There’s loads of content material to maintain you coming again; as in-game seasons change each week, new occasions seem alongside them to finish, incomes you exchangeable factors you may redeem for unique vehicles. For our full ideas, try our Forza Horizon 5 PC assessment.
Filth Rally 2
For those who don’t know your tempo notes out of your drive shaft, Filth Rally 2 isn’t the racing sport for you. For those who’re on the lookout for an informal driving expertise, simply getting from A to B a bit sooner than you’ll usually be capable of in your each day commute, strive Filth 5 as an alternative. In Filth Rally 2, your co-driver will launch directions, numbers, and instructions at you thick and quick. For those who can’t deal with the numerous terrains and hairpin bends, then you definately’ll be smashing right into a tree earlier than you recognize it.
As you’ll discover in our Filth Rally 2 PC assessment, this tyre-burning sequel is unapologetic in its hardcore sensibilities. In contrast to extra informal racing video games, failure right here is common, and the slightest error will probably be ruthlessly punished. Heavy crashes overwhelm the senses like a flashbang has exploded in your bonnet. For those who’re caught behind the pack, introducing floor degradation will make even driving in a straight line a wrestle. However, if you recognize what you’re doing, there are few higher approximations of this demanding self-discipline than Filth Rally 2.
Simply as we did in our Filth Rally 2 impressions, you’ll be doing quite a bit of crashing: Codemasters’ driving sport doesn’t include a tutorial this time – you’ll solely be taught from successive journeys to the hospital. Additionally failing to make the drive from earlier video games is the procedural track-generating system, Your Stage. As an alternative, every race is meticulously hand-crafted, inviting devoted followers to commit each nefarious twist and switch to reminiscence. That’s the one technique to grasp Filth Rally 2, and in the event you don’t embrace its obsessively singular imaginative and prescient, you’re ending final.
Artwork of Rally
An isometric racing sport doesn’t sound prefer it’d work too properly – except it’s Micro Machines, after all – however Artwork of Rally is maybe probably the most charming racing sport on the market. It combines stylized, minimalist artwork course with rally vehicles from the Sixties to the notorious Group B within the ’80s.
Hurtle round open-world environments attempting to find collectibles or progress via typical rally phases, all inside gorgeous, colourful environments. The soundtrack is becoming, too, with mellow, lo-fi tunes accompanying you in your journey via international locations corresponding to Finland, Germany, and Kenya. Presumably the least typical racing sport on this listing, however by far probably the most distinctive.
Assetto Corsa Competizione
This racing sim will attraction to devoted followers of the style whereas additionally outdoing the unique Assetto Corsa in virtually each division – and doing which means clearing a really excessive bar certainly. We had been fairly taken with it upon its official launch out of early entry.
In our Assetto Corsa Competizione assessment, Phil Iwaniuk highlights the way it developed from its predecessor. “There’s extra than simply an endurance racing license to differentiate Assetto Corsa Competizione from its predecessor,” he says. “It’s extra polished, extra exact, and gives extra scope for long-term single-player satisfaction.”
Venture Vehicles 2
You might need observed that actual vehicles hardly ever cartwheel into the verge the second you dare to combine steering and acceleration inputs. They’re fairly good at going round corners – it’s nearly like an engineer has given the issue some thought throughout the design course of. Efficiency vehicles in Venture Vehicles 2, whereas definitely extra liable to chunk again, are even higher on the entire turning factor. Throw a Ferrari or Lamborghini across the monitor (as we have now completed on a number of events), and also you’ll in all probability spend extra time having enjoyable than fretting concerning the absence of a rewind button in actual life.
Barely Mad is aware of this and is, it appears, simply as pissed off by the driving sim style’s propensity to equate problem with the feeling of driving on treadless tires on a slab of melting ice set at an angle of 45 levels. So right here, vehicles go across the corners, even once you give the throttle some beans. Don’t get us fallacious, that is no digital Scalextric set – you may nonetheless make errors, and traction is way from absolute. However, crucially, you aren’t punished for these errors with a fast journey into the closest trackside barrier (at the very least, in the event you play with a wheel. Pad management continues to be barely oversensitive). The result’s a sport that feels rather more like actual driving, and as you’ll examine in our Venture Vehicles 2 PC assessment, it’s fantastic.
The studio has made loads of different modifications on this sequel, too, shoring up the automotive choice with a larger number of autos and making a profession mode that feels much less wayward with out sacrificing the interesting freedom of selection pioneered by the earlier sport. There’s even half-decent AI to race in opposition to in the event you don’t fancy the minimize and thrust of on-line play. However probably the most spectacular replace is the sport’s astonishing climate system, one which calculates a dizzying variety of components concerning the bodily properties of supplies and surfaces, water pooling and run-off, to spit out the perfect set of climate results – and moist climate driving – we’ve ever skilled in a racing sport.
Wreckfest
In Wreckfest, your objective is often to cross the road first, however racing the right line isn’t the one technique to accomplish the highest spot. Crashing into your opponents to whittle down their car well being is a legitimate technique to win, or in the event you belief your driving means, you may attempt to outrun all the opposite racers.
There are additionally elimination modes that require you to be the final car standing and an unlimited array of autos to select from. With an impressively correct injury mannequin and the flexibility to pit faculty buses in opposition to golf buggies and every little thing in between, seize some friends and hop on-line for among the funniest racing moments you may have in a videogame.
Race: Injection
You may’t assemble an inventory of nice simulation racing video games with out having one thing from SimBin. Whereas the studio seems to have misplaced its manner a bit with the doubtful free-to-play RaceRoom Racing Expertise, SimBin was sim racing royalty throughout the mid-2000s. Race: Injection is their capstone sport, the package deal combining nearly every little thing they completed with the GTR collection and Race 07.
These are exhausting video games, however the race-modified sedans of the World Touring Automotive Cup ought to ease your transition into severe racing. Even a racing Honda Accord continues to be a Honda Accord, and the marginally extra manageable velocity and problem of the WTCC is a superb place to be taught the tracks and SimBin’s excellent physics.
However there are muscle vehicles, endurance vehicles, and open-wheel racers to select from on this package deal, all brilliantly recreated and providing distinctive driving challenges. For the cash, you in all probability can’t do higher than Race: Injection for sim racing.
Sadly, the Race collection was additionally lengthy within the tooth whilst Injection was launched, and there’s no concealing the previous tech it’s constructed on. Don’t let the flat lighting and uninteresting graphics throw you off, although. A couple of minutes with these vehicles, particularly when you have a high quality pressure suggestions wheel, and also you gained’t even discover the aged look.
TrackMania 2: Canyon
Any style veteran will inform you that good monitor design is crucial to any high quality racing sport. And that’s an space the place TrackMania 2: Canyon has a successful, distinctive promoting level. Whereas in most racers, a hairpin bend, g-force-laden camber, or high-speed straight would possibly suffice, tracks in TrackMania 2: Canyon tackle a terrifying, Sizzling Wheels-inspired new that means. Sweeping barrel rolls, nigh-impossible jumps, and floating platforms that stick up two fingers to physics set the TrackMania collection aside from different arcade racers.
The true coronary heart of TrackMania 2 will be discovered on-line, the place the ingenious, convoluted creations of others take middle stage. The competitors is fierce and frantic. A race can shortly devolve right into a hilarious spotlight reel of missed jumps and unexpected corners. The racing mechanics make for a perfect pick-up-and-play multiplayer sport you may lose hours to with out noticing. That’s largely due to how straightforward the vehicles are to drive, and but, when you hit the (typically ludicrous) tracks, it’s anybody’s wager who’ll take first place.
Driver: San Francisco
Each arcade racer needs to be as cool as this sport. If Steve McQueen had been digitized and changed into a videogame, he could be Driver: San Francisco.
Whereas Driver: SF options vehicles and influences from varied eras, it approaches every little thing with a ’70s type. It loves American muscle, roaring engines, squealing tires, and the impossibly steep hills and twisting roads of San Francisco. It could have the one best soundtrack of any racing sport and among the finest occasion selection, too.
It additionally has probably the most novel conceits within the style. Slightly than be sure to at least one car, you may freely swap your automotive for some other on the highway on the push of a button. So, in lots of races, the automotive you end in won’t be the one you began with, and in-car chases, you’ll shortly be taught to teleport via site visitors to engineer quite a lot of automotive catastrophes simply to screw with opponents.
It’s weird, authentic, and perpetually pleasant. As we’ve mentioned prior to now, there’s a lot trendy racers may be taught from Driver: San Francisco. They don’t make ’em like this anymore.
Shift 2
Shift 2 could be the perfect compromise between realism and accessibility of any sport on this listing. It’s not simply how the automotive handles – menacing however succesful – however the locations it constantly thinks about what gamers must carry out at a excessive degree.
Slightly than lock your view gazing out over the hood or ask you to spring for TrackIR to allow you to flip your head, Shift 2 has a dynamic view that subtly modifications based mostly on context. Developing on a delicate right-hand nook, your view shifts barely as your driver avatar seems into the apex. For a sharper nook, your view swings a bit extra so you may perceive what you’re driving into, but it doesn’t really feel disorienting. It feels pure.
The thoughtfulness even extends to depth-of-field. This can be a wildly overused visible impact, however Shift 2 makes use of it to focus on the place your consideration needs to be. When somebody comes up quick in your tail, objects farther away get fuzzier whereas your mirrors sharpen to razor readability. As you progress round in dense site visitors, your cockpit will get vague whereas the vehicles round you come into focus. It sounds gimmicky, nevertheless it all feels as pure as driving a automotive in actual life. Shift 2 is devoted to speaking the enjoyable and accomplishment of efficiency driving and succeeds admirably.
iRacing
Welp, right here we go. The Grand Poobah of simulation racing since 2008. iRacing blurs the road between play and work. Its vehicles and tracks are recreated with fanatical consideration to element, and its league racing guidelines are about as severe as you’ll discover in any racing membership or monitor occasion worldwide. This can be a racing sport for individuals who need the true factor and are prepared to spend hours coaching. It’s maybe the top of Papyrus legend David Kaemmer’s profession. That identify alone is advisable for many who minimize their tooth on the IndyCar and Grand Prix Legends video games.
iRacing isn’t low cost – although, at $50 a 12 months, it’s higher worth than many an MMO – additionally, it’s best to try the perfect MMOs on PC. Neither is its emphasis on graphics. However its rewards are geared toward a selected and demanding group of gamers. Once you’ve outgrown the Codemasters video games, and even stuff like Race: Injection is sporting a bit of skinny, that is the place you go. Additionally, iRacing in VR is kind of the expertise, too.
There you may have it, the perfect racing video games on PC. If all this speedster motion has gotten you stressed and impatient, be happy to double down on these emotions by checking up on the perfect upcoming PC video games. Alternatively, discover one thing a bit of slower-paced in the perfect truck video games on PC or sports activities video games that provide different types of competitors. Within the meantime, get fired into the speedy sensations above. Digital driving is far more thrilling than parallel parking a second-hand Skoda. Who knew?
