Top 10 Race Games on PC
Arcades and simulators, real cars and fictional, street racing and official competitions – this collection has everything you need.
1. Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005)
13 years ago, EA showed everyone what street racer games can be – exciting, bold, stylish to the point of impossibility. After two successful parts of Need for Speed: Underground, the company released Most Wanted.
At first, the game was alarming: how can street racing do without neon and eternal night? But after the opening race, it became clear: Most Wanted is a very bold and successful experiment.
Unusual, but correct decisions in the game are everywhere. In the single-player campaign, the clear goal is to get to the top of the list of the most wanted. Finally, the policemen who have returned to the series create additional tension during the races. Abilities like time dilation allow you to get out of difficult situations and recover faster if you make a mistake.
It’s hard to say how big Most Wanted’s contribution to the genre has been, but there’s no doubt that it’s one of the best races in the industry.
2. Forza Horizon 4
Forza Horizon 4 is perhaps the most beautiful arcade race on PC at the moment. The game was created specifically for the Xbox One X, the most powerful console on the market, and it shows. It has stunning lighting, high-resolution textures, and Forza Horizon 4 supports 4K and HDR.
There are more than 450 cars on which you can drive across the expanses of Great Britain. There are enough urban locations (for example, Edinburgh), and rural – as expected, with herds of sheep and Gothic cathedrals.
And so that players are not bored, in Forza Horizon 4 every week of real time the season changes. Autumn in the game is very picturesque, and in winter the cars become naughty, which slightly increases the complexity.
3. F1 2017
A well-thought-out and exciting Formula 1 simulator. The game is realistic even in the slightest detail. There are almost all the pilots, cars and teams that participated in the competitions of 2017.
Realism is also manifested in the configuration of the machines. You can change dozens of parameters that really affect the behavior of the car on the track.
For those who love the classics, F1 2017 added 12 historic cars: Ferrari, McLaren and other cars produced from 1988 to 2010.
4. Need for Speed: Underground 2
Few of those who were fond of games in the mid-noughties, did not hear about Underground 2. It was one of the main races of that time and to this day remains one of the most influential.
Of course, there were games about street racing before the Underground series, but EA projects made street racing on night streets really popular.
We chose the second part, because it is more elaborate: it has more cars and modes, wider tuning capabilities, and better graphics.
5. Burnout Paradise Remastered
The pinnacle of development of the popular Burnout series. The main thing here is freedom. In Paradise, the player is free to move around a large open world as much as he wants. Even in the races there are no clear routes – only the finish line, which can be reached by any means.
At one time, the game was striking with detailed accidents. If the player flies into the wall at a sufficiently high speed, then he is shown in all details how the hood gradually crumples, the windshield breaks, the wheels fly off. And the best part is that the same can and should be done with rivals. Destroying opponents in Burnout Paradise is an important part of the gameplay.
6. FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage
FlatOut was a real breakthrough in the arcade racing genre due to the total destructability of the levels, and Ultimate Carnage is an improved version of the second part of the series.
The basis of the game is the complete madness of what is happening. Whichever mode you choose (a regular race, derby or a competition to throw the driver out of the car), there will be a lot of cars crashing into each other, people flying out through the windshield and destroyed fences on the screen. There is some special romance in this permissiveness.
7. Assetto Corsa
Assetto Corsa is the main contender for the title of the most meticulous simulator in the modern gaming industry. The authors of Assetto Corsa have done titanic work on the game. It offers dozens of scrupulously scanned cars and tracks, as well as ample options for setting up cars.
The physics engine of the game takes into account aerodynamics, the temperature of the components of the car and even very small factors like flattening the tires after a long parking. There is simply no other game with this level of detail in the industry right now.
8. DiRT Rally
If Assetto Corsa is one of the best simulators for driving on ring tracks covered with asphalt, then DiRT Rally is one of the main rally simulators. Players here need to most often drive through forests and fields, fit into sharp turns and avoid collisions with poles and trees.
The developers of the game managed to find a balance between high fun and accurate simulation. In DiRT Rally there are many opportunities for tuning cars, but if desired, they can be neglected and just ride on detailed recreated tracks.
9. Wreckfest
A race from the creators of FlatOut, which is most easily perceived as the ideological heir of the famous series. In Wreckfest, the arcade content decreased, but at the same time, smashing cars became even more fun.
It’s all about a realistic system of damage: if desired, the car can be crushed almost into a lump of iron and rubber. Each impact leaves a dent that can affect the car’s behavior.
In general, the whole point of the game is in accidents: it is difficult to find a project in which they would be as beautiful. And useful – to get rid of rivals.
10. Trackmania United Forever
Trackmania is an amazing franchise that combines almost endless opportunities for creativity and high competitiveness of players. For those who have not followed the history of the series, it will not be easy to understand all its parts and branches: there were a lot of them. We recommend Trackmania United Forever because it’s one of the most thoughtful and content-rich games in the franchise.
The beauty of this game is in its versatility: everyone can find something to their liking. Do you like arcade racing with ski jumps, acceleration and riding on walls and ceilings? Run a campaign. Do you prefer to replay the tracks a few dozen times in an attempt to cut another hundredth of a second? Go into multiplayer. Maybe you prefer to build challenging racetracks that require players to react and be observant? Especially for such cases, Trackmania has a powerful level editor.
