The best racing games available for PC today, from arcade races to hard-core simulators. The finest PC racing games have a rich history that dates back to the 1980s. Midtown Madness, Need for Speed, and Forza Horizon 5 are recent additions to the racing game genre. Even if you also want a racing sim game like iRacing, your alternatives are wide. Here is our selection of the top racing games available right now.
The top racing games are listed below. You may play demanding simulations like the hard-core Project CARS 2 as well as quirky games with unique body-hopping mechanics like the unjustly underappreciated Driver: San Francisco. Here, the meaning of “racing game” is a little hazy. Anything that has wheels is fair game. But you’ll discover that these games all share one thing in common: they’ll provide a fantastic driving experience and feel fantastic when you’re in control.
15 Best Racing Games On PC In 2022
If you are a PC gamer and looking for the best racing games on PC, Businesscrunch brings you the list of exciting racing games right now.
1. Project CARS 2
This racing game revolves around ice racing on studded tires through Swedish snowdrifts. Highlands karting in Scotland Rallycross takes place in the infield area of Hockenheim, with mud covering everyone and everything. Indycars defying gravity at Daytona Speedway, LMP1s hurtling through Imola, and when you’re truly bored, Honda Civics struggling to make it up Eau Rouge without stalling.
The fact that Slightly Mad’s successor to its sim game manages to pull it all together is more amazing than the sheer volume of content. The fidelity loose surface racing delivers to your hands as you attempt to muscle a car into the apex with its force-feedback support is best-in-class, and it feels just as realistic as taking to the track in a road-legal car.
2. iRacing
IRacing is the closest thing to actual racing you can get on a PC thanks to its consistent online racing leagues and detailed car and track modelling. That also implies you have to build up to playing iRacing. It lacks a substantial single-player component and demands a considerable commitment due to the membership costs and live tournament scheduling. Oh, and a force feedback wheel is actually needed in this situation; we’re not claiming the gamepad support is subpar.
You simply can’t race in the game without a wheel. However, for a particular subset of sim racing enthusiasts, nothing comes close. The finest iRacing gamers frequently participate in real motorsports as well and pursue careers in eSports sim racing. And since its initial release in 2008, more than 10 years ago, it has continually kept pace with the newest simulations. Impressive accomplishment.
3. F1 2020
For a while now, Codemasters’ F1 series has provided a career mode with a depth that is comparable, but building and controlling your own team actually affects how emotionally invested you feel. You are accountable for your outcomes to the extent that you can unambiguously link any failure to a bad choice you made, whether it be selecting the best partner or responding to press interview questions.
While there are times in F1 2020 when you are on the edge of your seat with excitement as your competitor enters Turn 1 from the pits right beside you, there are also a ton of rules to follow and vital management of component lifespan that make F1 a much more cerebral racing game than some of its competitors. The more you delve into this fantastic-looking F1 simulation, the more you discover about it.
4. Assetto Corsa Competizione
To be quite honest, the Blancpain World Endurance series officially licensed game certainly didn’t have the sim racing community on the verge of their seats. Although it is a little on the specialized side in terms of motorsport licenses, the Assetto Corsa series turned out to need it. The 2014 game by Kunos Simulazioni had a lot going for it, including a handling model that could hold its own against the best and fantastic wheel support, but it lacked single-player structure.
Forget about polish, please. With this license, its successor will be able to host competitive endurance racing at prestigious venues like Paul Ricard, Spa Francorchamps, and the Circuit de Catalunya with a welcoming championship system featuring many vehicle categories. Through a good force feedback wheel, the handling is better than ever, and it really nails the day/night cycles, which are essential for an endurance racing simulator.
5. MotoGP 18
Two wheels may be viewed as heresy in some racing circles, but Milestone’s officially licensed MotoGP sim gives quite the rush for anyone willing to cut the standard wheelbase in half. Motorcycle racing is intrinsically thrilling thanks to the lean angles, dangerous overtakes, and acceleration rates.
Additionally, Italian superbike experts Milestone wonderfully capture the courage and horror of riding a factory MotoGP bike. To put it kindly, the Codemasters F1 games are undoubtedly a major influence, but the end result for anyone playing it is a layer of career simulation on top of the racing.
6. RaceRoom Racing Experience
This is the successor to SimBin’s formerly powerful racing empire. Consider it to be GTR Online: it is the same brutally real vehicle sim you are used to, but it has been modified for online free-to-play. Thanks to the free-to-play approach, GT racing is superbly modelled and recorded by a good force feedback wheel, the online rivalry is fierce and well-structured, and the catalogue of cars and tracks is extensive enough to really specialize in a certain series.
This also serves as a weakness. It’s all great and comfortable once the vehicles are on the course. Off-topic, RaceRoom focuses on selling you individual game components. Choose a racing series you wish to compete in and devote yourself to it. Before you have to start stumbling through the in-game store menu once more, there is more than enough to learn about classic touring automobiles to keep you busy for months, if not years.
7. rFactor 2
Although rFactor is the successor to one of the best racing games for the PC and one of the largest modding communities in the world, it will probably always feel a little raw around the edges. Even years after its release, rFactor 2 is expanding as a new car and track packs are released across a variety of different series. Although it is an expensive habit, dedicated racers will appreciate it.
But that just tells half the tale. While the focus has primarily been on Formula One throughout the years, there is an immense amount of user-created content available that will satisfy fans of DTM, WTCC, GT racing, and other open-wheelers as well.
8. Grand Prix 3
Grand Prix 3 was a turning point in racing games and is still playable in 2019. It has been revered for decades. In the early 1990s, Geoff Crammond’s MicroProse had already made a splash with Formula One Grand Prix and Grand Prix 2, but because of hardware constraints, they were only able to take the simulation so far at the time. Grand Prix 3 brought fidelity to a new level. It modelled things like tire wear, rainy weather grip, and minute setup adjustments—things that prior video games could only loosely mimic.
Also, it was like being in a Formula One car, to put it simply. It also has the extra benefit of recording the sport at a particularly thrilling time, when luminaries like Schumacher and Hakkinen were competing for first place while former champions Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve struggled at the rear of the pack, making it a playable museum piece in the future. You can go through nearly two decades of F1 history because it has been highly modified in the 19 years since its release.
9. Forza Horizon 5
The extent of improvement in the Forza series is shown in Phil’s assessment of Forza Horizon 5(opens in new tab). The most recent instalment of the series hasn’t undergone any major modifications, but it still exhibits an exceptionally high level of craftsmanship. The settings in the new location, Mexico, have also been meticulously polished by the Playground team over countless hours.
The core of the gameplay is the seasonal playlist, which is present and noticeable right away. As Phil put it, “We’ve had lots of looter shooters, but Forza Horizon is slowly developing into the first looter racer.” You’ll find yourself taking on unexpected tasks and using your entire stable of cars in chase of new rare additions.
10. Dirt Rally 2.0
When the first Dirt Rally debuted in 2015, it was a revelation because it abandoned the snapback caps and energy drink advertisements that had previously come to characterize the Dirt series and instead refocused on the daunting difficulty of, well, just keeping a car on the track of a rally circuit. That is something that Dirt Rally 2.0 also accomplishes, and it does it better overall.
Rallying is a really difficult sport, and Codemasters doesn’t expect you to perform any less than a real 4WD WRC vehicle would. At least, that’s how it feels; in reality, none of us has ever experienced firsthand what it’s like to drive a Citroen as swiftly as Sebastien Ogier can on Finland’s dirt roads. However, the weight distribution in Dirt Rally’s cars and the sensation of raw power as your wheels struggle for traction feel completely convincing.
11. Forza Motorsport 7
James writes in our Forza Motorsport 7 review that the game is “so wide and all-encompassing that not only can I convert it into a silly game about vans, but I can also make it a game about overcoming my van fixation and ultimately learning how to drive fantastic sports cars.” One of the most comprehensive automotive enthusiasts’ sandboxes, it can satisfy everyone from simulation purists to those who simply want to accelerate quickly in gleaming metal cages.
The usual race is often a technical route memorization test, but the addition of dynamic weather effects turns it into an unplanned puddle-dodging marathon in poor light. Forza looks and performs better than ever as dawn gradually replaces night tracks and sunlight illuminates total darkness. As the first mainline Forza game on the PC, Motorsport 7 is pliable enough to take the pain of a few speed bumps despite being weighted down by a terrible progression system that is overly dependent on a tired loot box system.
12. TrackMania 2
Nearly ten years after the release of Trackmania 2, Ubisoft Nadeo introduced Trackmania 2020, a semi-reboot of the franchise. The new game has some big graphics improvements, but the daily featured tracks, new course elements like ice, and improved checkpointing are the main threats. Most notably, Nadeo’s bizarre Maniaplanet platform has been removed, giving Trackmania a new beginning.
Trackmania is still really bizarre, so don’t worry. I’ve played a lot of songs that make no sense at all and that require precise timing, endless repetition, and a little bit of luck. By releasing fresh music created by the studio on a seasonal basis, Nadeo is also adopting a more hands-on approach to post-release content. This is the place to be if you’re a new or lapsed fan of the series.
13. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
The driving game Hot Pursuit is in an incredibly special era for arcade races. It fulfils all of the promises made in the title, race after race, without any downtime. This is the most authentic version of Need for Speed before the series got completely open-world. Enjoy the easy life as you drive a European exotic down a roadway along the hauntingly gorgeous Pacific coast while following a train of police vehicles.
It has also aged like an A-lister with oak smoke. Despite not being able to immediately compete with the newest releases in terms of roadside textures and automobile poly counts, Hot Pursuit still has an opulent style. Above everything, go quickly.
14. My Summer Car
You spend at least half of My Summer Car outside of a vehicle. In actuality, it’s not so much a racing game as it is a simulation of being a teenager loitering in rural Finland in the 1990s. However, it is on this list because it is a must-have experience for everyone with even a passing interest in automobiles.
Everything starts when your parents leave you a note instructing you to rebuild the wrecked car in your garage. From there, you build a driveable, modifiable automobile using the smallest nuts and bolts possible, learning exactly what an exhaust manifold looks like and what happens when it rattles loose while travelling at 70 mph along a lakeside single-lane road.
15. GRID Autosport
The simplest and most basic track racing game is Autosport by Codemasters. Even though the car’s handling is highly forgiving, there is just enough resistance for you to learn the fundamentals of corner-braking and throttle control. However, outside the car, it goes as deep as you can handle. It has full-race weekends, Codemasters’ customarily robust opponent AI, and a wide range of racing formats.
Although there are fewer of the incredibly fulfilling team management aspects from prior Grid games (who didn’t feel proud when they finally secured that B&O sponsorship in Grid 1?) It remains a fantastic entry point for those interested in sim-style racing and entertaining for more experienced drivers looking to unwind.
