The Top 10 Car Racing Games Ever

"Racing" is less of a genre than it is a feeling. Today's beautifully rendered racing games, with their licensed cars and amazing attention to detail, are a continuation of one of the gaming's oldest genres.

The ultra-realism of a game like Gran Turismos and your Forza Motorsports have something in common. When you are racing to the final corner, wheel-to-wheel with your last rival, you are utterly lost in that moment. That moment is why we play racing games. It's the high that racing fans are always chasing. The great racing games take you there again and again.

Whatever your preference is on racing games there's no denying the fact that the racing category is one of the gaming's longest-running and most steadfast bracket. Here at Carbay, we bring you a list of some of the most important and influential racing games in history. Below mentioned games have etched their names in the books as some of the greatest in their field and that have gone on to inspire many enthusiasts!

Gran Turismo 6

Gran Turismo first released in Japan in late 1997 and elsewhere around the world in May 1998, quickly became a global phenomenon. It was made available on PC's as well as for the original PlayStation. It went on to not only become the PlayStation’s best-selling game but the grandfather of all modern console racing sims.

Forza Motorsport 4

The other launch title in this list, Forza Motorsport 5 was the best reviewed of all time best racing games. From car models to handling, the gains in hardware power afforded to developers meant that each game could offer much more than its predecessor. Forza Motorsport was the first entry into the Forza series and sold over 10 million copies.

rFactor 2

rFactor is still rough around the edges, but it's the heir to one of the PC's great racing games and one of the most impressive modding communities in the world. rFactor 2, like its predecessor, just keep growing after launch as new car and track packs come out across all kinds of different series.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

The purest essence of Need for Speed before the series went all open-world, all the time. It delivers exactly what the title promises. From the perspective of either cops or criminal street-racers, you can pilot a fleet of supercars and tuner exotics down some of the fastest and most spectacular roads in the Need for Speed series.

F-Zero GX

F-Zero GX puts you in a futuristic race where fearless pilots would risk everything to claim the title of the top speedster in the universe. With a maximum of 30 racers in each race (except for four-player races, which are limited to the four players), there's a lot going on in F-Zero GX. The game does a fantastic job of showing a lot of action while maintaining its sense of speed and its smooth frame rate.

Project Cars

Project Cars is one of the best racing packages on offer, with tons of rarely-seen racing series and UK circuits that set it apart from its competition. The vehicles and tracks in the game are lovingly recreated and wonderfully diverse. Each car is unique and challenging, placing new demands on your skills and rewarding you in new ways.

Pole Position

Pole Position released in the year 1982 made it truly standard, alongside many other examples of the racing genre’s most central conventions. Developed by Namco, Pole Position featured a drastically better-looking third-person view and was the first racing game based on a real-world racing circuit.

Assetto Corsa

Assetto Corsa has been built to celebrate the joy of cars and the fantasy of tossing them in an individual way. The game has been designed to provide a very realistic driving experience in order to satisfy the expectations of professional sim racers, gamers who prefer to approach the driving experience more progressively.

Burnout Paradise

Burnout Paradise, seven years old game is still exciting that the games it inspired. Although, it doesn't have any licensed cars, so instead it feature car-archetypes. The game is all about driving around a populated city by cars, listening to a drivetime DJ spin classic through dazzling scenery and into an incredible variety of races.

Super Mario Kart

Super Mario Kart is the progenitor of go-kart racing video game and has been consistently ranked as one of the best games of all time in the category. Over eight million individuals who bought its copy in the '90s, a sales total that made it the third-best selling game of all time for Nintendo's 16-bit machine.