Got need for speed? Then check out the best car racing games for the PC!
There’s nothing more exhilarating than the adrenaline rush of the race. Our species’ love affair with speed is reflected in our ancestors’ taming of the horse, and in more recent centuries in the building of machines that can outrun any creature nature has come up with. But not everyone has the opportunity, or the skill, to drive a real race car. Thank goodness, then, for the video game.
Throughout the years, there have been plenty of amazing PC games allowing players to race the most powerful vehicles at fantastic speeds. The last few years have seen some legendary titles, ranging from the arcade-style shenanigans of the Burnout and Need for Speed series to the more serious racing simulations F1 and Dirt. 2015, in particular, is shaping up to be a great year for the racing genre. For the best, most recent PC racing games, we present our Top 10 Best Car Racing games for PC in 2015.
Let's begin with #10...
10. Spintires
Off-road driving: not for sissies
Bored with the tidiness of the conventional race course, or the grid-like precision of city tracks? Spintires takes you off the beaten path by letting you drive through the Russian wilderness.
Armed with nothing but a map and your trusty compass, your goal is to convey cargo from point A to point B – all the while making sure you don’t run out of fuel or wreck your vehicle. Those huge, lumbering trucks are your best bet when confronted with unpaved, muddy roads. But this is the PC, so suckers for punishment can try mods that let you use cars.
The rough terrain is made even more challenging (and fun to navigate) thanks to excellent, realistic physics. It looks great to boot, with eye-catching attention to detail that makes Spintires one of the most satisfying driving experiences in the off-road racing genre.
Our rating – 4/5
9. Nascar ‘14
Bumper to bumper
If you don’t want the overly complex realism of the simulator, then play Nascar ’14, which feels more like an arcade game.
As a significant upgrade of its predecessor, Nascar ‘14 sports improved graphics, authentic Nascar race courses, and an updated driver roster featuring some well-known personalities, from Trevor Bayne to Ryan Reed. Other new additions include online leagues and new vehicle physics.
Despite its exciting core gameplay and a variety of enhancements, Nascar ’14 sometimes suffers from unrealistic A.I. and lag.
Our rating – 4/5
8. BlazeRush
Not your grandaddy's car racing
Like your racing with more guns and explosions? Enter BlazeRush, a cartoony, sci-fi-flavored racing game sure to whet your appetite for the absurd.
BlazeRush is an arcade game where players race against each other on a variety of bizarre tracks. With its isometric camera, colorful locations, and ridiculous vehicles, it may seem like a fish out of water on this list. Its story is just as weird, entailing three life-sustaining planets where a series of wacky races are held.
Like Nintendo’s Mario Kart franchise, you can pick up items which can be used to boost your speed, defend yourself from other racers, or rain hell on the competition with a variety of cheap attacks sure to end friendships all over the world. It’s wild, it’s messy, and it’s a hell of a lot of fun.
Our rating – 4/5
7. The Crew
Raising hell: always more fun with friends!
What do you get when you cross the car racing genre with the MMORPG?
The Crew lets players freely roam an immense, persistent, open world with hundreds of other players online. Only this time, your avatar isn’t some tacky medieval-esque knight with a giant sword, but a sleek, sexy car.
Like other MMOs, The Crew gives you tons of quests to complete. Upgrades come in the form of parts you can use to boost your car’s power, tweak its performance, or customize its appearance. There are Faction Wars that let you compete with other racers. The Crew even has a story, which involves protagonist Alex Taylor infiltrating criminal organizations, not unlike the plot of The Fast and the Furious films.
Our rating – 4/5
6. F1 2013
The fastest things on four wheels
F1 racing cars are among the fastest machines ever built, and the F1 series has been making sure that fact is tattooed into your brain.
But F1 2013 also proves that driving these cars requires an exceptional amount of skill and know-how. Though not quite a simulation, F1 2013 is a demanding racer in which the mastery of these cars’ peculiarities, such as their excessive oversteer and torque, is paramount if you don’t want to end up looking like your only experience with speed is riding a bike with training wheels.
Good enough for spot number six on our list of best car racing games, in our humble opinion.
Our rating – 4/5
5. Grid Autosport
The competition heats up…
Taking the best from both arcade-style racers and simulators, Grid Autosport aims to be the most comprehensive virtual racing experience.
In the excellent Career mode, the game lets you hone your skills by building on five racing disciplines: Touring, Open Wheel, Endurance, Street, and Tuner. When you’re confident enough to test your racing prowess against real players, you can then check out the game’s robust multiplayer mode.
Grid Autosport boasts a huge variety of cars – including several classics – each with subtle differences that ensure no car ever feels the same. Detailed damage models and good A.I. make the experience more authentic. All these factors boost Grid Autosport’s ranking on our best car racing games list.
Our rating – 4/5
4. TrackMania 2: Valley
It’s a bird… it’s a plane… no, it’s your million-dollar sports car about to crash into a silo
If you want your racing with heavy helpings of the ridiculous, try TrackMania 2. In its third expansion, Valley, the series returns with its trademark rollercoaster tracks and physics-defying stunts.
It’s a breathtaking arcade racer that’s as much about soaring through the sky in style as it is about driving. Its challenges are also quite punishing, not enough to induce rage quitting, but enough to make you want to try and try again. Seriously, there’s little else more exhilarating than performing triple somersaults high above the countryside while traveling at over 240 km per hour.
Our rating – 4/5
3. Grid 2
Leaving them in the dust
Like Autosport, Grid 2 is an arcade racer that borrows a page or two from its more complex cousin, the racing simulator. It’s also one of the best car racing games in existence.
With a plethora of tracks from real world cities and locations; an enormous roster of motor vehicles covering four decades of racing history; and a bevy of exciting, demanding challenges, where can you go wrong?
Returning in this sequel is the series’ signature Flashback button, which lets you rewind time to undo past errors. This, along with its vaunted “TrueFeel” feature, helps to make Grid 2 accessible to players while maintaining a healthy dose of realism – earning it third place on our list of 2015’s best car racing games.
Our rating – 5/5
2. Assetto Corsa
The driver’s seat
From Italian video game developer Kunos Simulazioni comes one of the most in-depth race car simulators in the digital motorsport genre – Assetto Corsa.
From the get-go, the game’s superior attention to detail is evident in its faithfully reproduced car models and race courses. But Assetto Corsa’s authenticity is more than skin deep; the developer takes things up several notches by injecting profound realism into its vehicle dynamics and physics. The result? A game that gives you the near-perfect feeling that you’re in the driver’s seat of a real sports car – a game that puts you in control, which puts it at number two on our ranking of best car racing games.
Our rating – 5/5
1. Need for Speed: Rivals
In hot pursuit
Thanks to a slew of excellent games, Need for Speed has become one of the most renowned car racing franchises.
The award-winning Need for Speed Rivals continues the series’ high octane races. It boasts thrilling gameplay involving breakneck police chases, hundreds of different events, seamless transition between single player and excellent online multiplayer, a huge open world, and beautiful visual and sound design.
The game has two career modes and storylines. As a Racer, you assume the role of the street racer Zephyr, whose exploits earn him the ire of the police. As a Cop, you’re a police officer posing as a street racer named F-8 in order to infiltrate underground street racing circuits. Both campaigns eventually lock Zephyr and F-8 in a heated, adrenaline-filled, high-speed battle for the mastery of the wheel and the road.
It’s one of those games you’ll likely continue to play for months on end, and number one on our list of best car racing games.
Our rating – 5/5
So what are you waiting for? Clock’s ticking; time to give these top racing games a try. Unless you disagree with our list? Which recent titles do you think deserve to be called the best car racing games to play in 2015, and why?
