The 42 Best Racing Video Games of All Time

From white-knuckle street racing to ultra-realistic simulators, every platform has its iconic entry. Cast your vote!

1. 1
   Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed

   Sumo Digital's 2012 Sega mascot racer has vehicles that turn into boats and planes mid-race, on tracks drawn from series such as Sonic, Jet Set Radio and Shinobi.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Gran Turismo (1997)

   Kazunori Yamauchi's PlayStation debut brought hundreds of real cars, tuning and licence tests to consoles and became the best-selling PlayStation game, with 10.85 million copies shipped.
   963pts
3. 3
   Forza Horizon 4

   Set in a four-season Britain, Horizon 4 wowed with dynamic weather, a living world, and an enormous car collection.
   933pts
4. 4
   Burnout Paradise

   Criterion's 2008 open-world Burnout spread races, takedowns and stunt events across Paradise City, where stopping at any traffic light could start the next event.
   933pts
5. 5
   Mario Kart Wii

   Bundled with the Wii Wheel, the 2008 entry added motorbikes, mid-air tricks and 12-player online races, and sold more than 37 million copies.
   902pts
6. 6
   Pole Position

   Namco's 1982 arcade racer, released in North America by Atari, opened with a qualifying lap at Fuji and was the region's highest-grossing arcade game in 1983 and 1984.
   902pts
7. 7
   Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005)

   The peak of street racing games — open-world Rockport, a rival Blacklist, and police chases that redefined the genre.
   902pts
8. 8
   Super Mario Kart

   Nintendo's 1992 Super NES original created the kart-racing formula of item boxes, Mode 7 tracks and balloon battles, and sold 8.76 million copies.
   857pts
9. 9
   Need for Speed: Underground 2

   The fan-favorite sequel that perfected street tuning culture with an enormous open city and deep customization.
   833pts
10. 10
    iRacing

    The gold-standard online racing simulator used by professional motorsport drivers for training, with laser-scanned real-world tracks.
    755pts
11. 11
    Daytona USA

    Sega AM2's 1994 arcade racer was the first game on the Model 2 board, letting up to eight linked cabinets race stock cars to a sung soundtrack.
    755pts
12. 12
    Burnout 3: Takedown

    Criterion's crash-fest masterwork where slamming opponents into barriers is as satisfying as crossing the finish line first.
    755pts
13. 13
    Dirt Rally 2.0

    Codemasters' brutally realistic off-road simulator, offering some of the most demanding and rewarding stage racing in gaming.
    755pts
14. 14
    Assetto Corsa Competizione

    The official game of the GT World Challenge recreates GT3 and GT4 racing on laser-scanned circuits with dynamic weather, and it hosts many online sim-racing leagues.
    667pts
15. 15
    Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

    The 2003 GameCube entry put two characters on every kart, one driving and one throwing items, and supported LAN races for up to 16 players.
    666pts
16. 16
    Gran Turismo 4

    The PlayStation 2 sequel packed more than 700 cars and 51 tracks, including the Nürburgring Nordschleife, and added a B-Spec mode where players direct an AI driver.
    666pts
17. 17
    Virtua Racing

    Sega AM2's 1992 Formula One arcade racer began as a test of the Model 1 board and offered flat-shaded 3D polygons with four switchable camera views.
    666pts
18. 18
    Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

    Nintendo's definitive kart racer for Switch, featuring 96 tracks and beloved worldwide as both a casual and competitive title.
    666pts
19. 19
    Out Run

    Yu Suzuki's 1986 Sega arcade hit sent a red Ferrari Testarossa convertible along branching routes to a choice of radio tracks, in a cabinet that moved with the car.
    666pts
20. 20
    Trackmania Nations Forever

    The beloved free-to-play PC racer famous for its impossible stunts, time-trial precision, and massive track-building community.
    564pts
21. 21
    Assetto Corsa

    Kunos Simulazioni, based at the Vallelunga circuit near Rome, released this PC simulator in 2014 with laser-scanned tracks, and its modding scene has added thousands of community cars.
    564pts
22. 22
    F-Zero GX

    Sega and Nintendo's futuristic racer on GameCube remains one of the fastest, hardest, and most thrilling racing games ever made.
    444pts
23. 23
    Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec

    The PS2 powerhouse that sold over 14 million copies and defined console sim-racing for a generation.
    444pts
24. 24
    Gran Turismo 7

    Sony's flagship racing simulator for PS5, blending deep car culture with meticulous physics in a beautifully presented package.
    303pts
25. 25
    Sega Rally Championship

    Sega's 1995 arcade rally game was the first racer to model surfaces with different grip, so its Toyota Celica and Lancia Delta handled differently on gravel, mud and tarmac.
    303pts
26. 26
    Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010)

    Criterion Games revived the police-chase series with events played as either racers or cops, all linked through the Autolog system that compared times with friends.
    303pts
27. 27
    Colin McRae Rally 2.0

    Codemasters' 2000 sequel put players in Colin McRae's Ford Focus across rallies in eight countries, with damage modelling that changed how the car handled.
    0pts
28. 28
    Forza Horizon 5

    Microsoft's open-world masterpiece set in Mexico, praised for its stunning visuals, massive car roster, and seamless multiplayer.
    0pts
29. 29
    Mario Kart 64

    The N64 classic that brought four-player kart racing to living rooms everywhere and shaped an entire generation of casual gaming.
    0pts
30. 30
    Forza Horizon 6

    Playground Games' 2026 entry moves the open-world festival to Japan with a stylised Tokyo, and it passed 270,000 concurrent Steam players on launch day.
    0pts
31. 31
    Gran Turismo 2

    Polyphony Digital's 1999 sequel expanded the garage to nearly 650 cars and 27 tracks, added rally events and shipped 9.37 million copies on the original PlayStation.
32. 32
    F-Zero X

    Nintendo's 1998 Nintendo 64 racer put 30 hover machines on track at 60 frames per second and added a Death Race mode and the randomly generated X Cup.
33. 33
    Diddy Kong Racing

    Rare's 1997 Nintendo 64 kart racer let players switch between car, hovercraft and plane across five worlds while chasing the wizard pig Wizpig, and sold 4.8 million copies.
34. 34
    Crash Team Racing

    Naughty Dog's last Crash Bandicoot game, released in 1999, built its kart racing around chained power-slide boosts and a race against the alien speedster Nitros Oxide.
35. 35
    Wipeout 2097

    Psygnosis' 1996 PlayStation sequel, sold as Wipeout XL in North America, raced anti-gravity craft in the F5000 league to tracks by The Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy.
36. 36
    R4: Ridge Racer Type 4

    Namco's 1998 PlayStation entry framed its drift-heavy arcade racing as a Grand Prix season with four teams and their managers, and let players earn more than 300 cars.
37. 37
    Project Gotham Racing 2

    Bizarre Creations' 2003 Xbox racer scored players on Kudos for stylish driving as well as speed, with more than 120 cars in cities such as Hong Kong, Sydney and Moscow.
38. 38
    Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition

    Rockstar San Diego's 2005 open-world street racer covered San Diego, Atlanta and Detroit, and was the first in the series with licensed cars and full visual and performance tuning.
39. 39
    Forza Motorsport 4

    Turn 10's 2011 Xbox 360 simulator offered over 500 cars and 26 tracks, plus an Autovista showroom where Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson narrated close-up tours of exotic cars.
40. 40
    Grand Prix Legends

    Papyrus' 1998 PC simulator recreated the 1967 Formula One season with Brabham, Ferrari and Lotus cars, rebuilding vanished circuits from blueprints the team found in town halls.
41. 41
    MotorStorm

    Evolution Studios' 2006 PlayStation 3 racer staged off-road races in Monument Valley, mixing bikes, buggies, rally cars and big rigs on tracks whose mud deformed lap after lap.
42. 42
    Excitebike

    Shigeru Miyamoto's 1984 NES motocross game paired an overheating turbo with a track Design Mode, and its smooth-scrolling engine was later reused for Super Mario Bros.

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