The best racing: car games

Ah, 1000 Miglia - the only racing game where you can almost smell the exhaust fumes and espresso. Based on the historic Italian road race, it’s less about speed and more about not getting your 1930s jalopy vaporized by bad turns and gravel roads. You’ll pick a car, try to understand Italian driving rules (good luck), and pray your tires...

In Grand Theft Auto the player takes the role of a criminal who can freely roam around the city (Liberty City) completing tasks for the local mobs: stealing cars, killing pedestrians, all of it while avoiding the police and the army. The freedom of gameplay and the "I'm the bad guy" appeal of the game made the Grand Theft Auto series very popular.

Grand Theft Auto 2 is the second chapter in the successful Grand Theft Auto series. GTA 2 is an abandoned top-down action-adventure / driving hybrid game developed by DMA Design and released by Rockstar Games in 1999 for various platforms, including PlayStation, Microsoft Windows, and Game Boy Color. GTA2 is set in a fictional city called "Any...

Quarantine is a futuristic racing/driving game released by GameTek in 1994 for DOS. Quarantine is set in a dark dystopian futuristic city where the player drives around in a taxi cab, picking up passengers and killing everyone else. If you loved Carmageddon, you will also like Quarantine. Stay away if you don't like gratuitous violence, gore and bl...

Big Red Racing is what happens when you combine arcade mayhem with zero regard for realism and lots of British sarcasm. Drive everything from dump trucks to hovercrafts, insult your friends, and laugh your way to the finish line. It’s loud, chaotic, and gloriously dumb — and that’s exactly why it’s amazing. Expect physics to...

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to drive very fast in what looks like a PowerPoint presentation with a need for speed, 240 Racing from 1998 delivers the thrill. With blocky graphics and a frame rate that politely walks rather than runs, it’s a racing game that screams “DOS never dies.” The cars handle like shopp...

Need for Speed II is a racing video game developed and published by Electronic Arts. It was released in 1997 as the second installment in the popular Need for Speed series. NFS2:SE focused on high-speed racing with exotic cars. It featured a variety of modes, including single-player races, multiplayer, and a tournament mode where players could...

In APB (1989), you’re a cop in a little squad car with a huge attitude problem. Your job? Pull over criminals, avoid donuts, and try not to smash into every tree, wall, and pedestrian. It’s basically Grand Theft Auto if it were designed by traffic school instructors on a sugar high. Siren on, ticket book ready—just don't expect to...

Screamer Rally is an arcade-style rally racing game developed by Milestone S.r.l. and published by Virgin Interactive in 1997 for MS-DOS. It is part of the Screamer series, following Screamer (1995) and Screamer 2 (1996). Unlike realistic rally simulators, Screamer Rally leans towards fast-paced, drift-heavy arcade action.

Days of Thunder is a 1990 racing video game based on the film of the same name. Developed by Argonaut Software and published by Mindscape, the game was released on several platforms, including the NES, PC (MS-DOS), Amiga, Atari ST, and Commodore 64. It combined elements of arcade racing and simulation, reflecting the film's focus on NASCAR racing.&...