Best racing games for PC Whether mastering muddy tracks in Dirt Rally 2 or embracing Forza Horizon 5’s magnificent Mexico, these are the best racers around. Before you hop into the driver’s seat, we recommend plugging in a controller instead of using a mouse and keyboard – or, even better, getting yourself a wheel.
Top 5 Best racing games for PC in 2024
1. What the Car
When you think about ways to improve driving, we bet you didn’t think about replacing the wheels with a set of legs. Fortunately, you can experience this level of ingenuity in What the Car, a racing game that sees you zooming through hundreds of unique levels to accomplish a variety of tasks. While you’re mainly driving from A to B, there are special levels that challenge you to collect items, deliver packages, and even make new friends.
What the Car is clearly not a traditional racing game, but that’s also part of what makes it so brilliant. Every time you think What the Car has run out of surprises, it reveals something entirely different from what you’ve seen. There’s a level where your car grows a pair of arms and dons skiing gear, allowing you to send Christmas trees flying as you race to the finish line. You won’t find a racing game on this list that’ll make you laugh as much as What the Car will. This is from the best racing games for pc.
2. Pacific Drive
Pacific Drive trades in the veritable fleet of supercars that grace this list in favor of a battered old station wagon, but don’t let that put you off. According to our Pacific Drive review, this off-beat roguelike game is a ‘90s conspiracy thriller that captures “the symbiotic relationship between a driver and their car” in a New Weird romp through the wilds of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. The winding roads of the Exclusion Zone are a far cry from the race tracks of Forza and Dirt Rally 2. However, each journey in Pacific Drive is a race against time, as you outrun storms and paranormal Anomalies to scavenge crafting supplies, uncover secret government experiments, and get back to the garage in one piece.
When you’re not behind the wheel, wrestling with tactile controls and uncompromising driving physics – trust us, you’ll want to swap out those summer tires for a set of wheels suited to impromptu off-road excursions as quickly as possible – you’ll be back at the garage restoring your iron horse to its former glory. This consists of crafting the best panels, headlights, and other modifications for your car, though there’s plenty of scope for cosmetic decals, paint, and even dashboard bobbleheads. All in all, Pacific Drive is a far cry from the conventional driving experience. While our review points to the “cascade of menus within menus that are difficult to parse” and serves as a steep learning curve for beginners, we can assure you that “once it clicks, there’s no going back.” Hop in, driver. Just be sure you’ve got some repair putty on hand – where you’re going, you’ll certainly need it. This is from the best racing games for pc.
3. Hot Wheels Unleashed 2
The follow-up to 2021’s biggest surprise hit, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2, adds many new elements to the racer to ramp up the action even further than before. The most obvious change to the game is adding the Lateral Dash and Double Jump, giving players a way to smash into their opponents and avoid obstacles that pop up along the track. This drastically alters the way players race around the track – do you take an aggressive approach and try to take down other racers, or do you bide your time and save your jump ready to dodge an incoming attack? The choice is yours.
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 also adds many new vehicles to the game, including ATVs, motorbikes, and monster trucks. We also see each vehicle receive a customizable skill tree, allowing you to assemble each vehicle the exact way you want it. Speaking of customizability, the Stickers Editor lets you change the appearance of your favorite vehicles with ease this time around. Finally, we also have a host of new tracks in many unique environments to play in. If you’re looking for a fun multiplayer racer, you need to check out Hot Wheels Unleashed 2. This is from the best racing games for pc.
4. Forza Motorsport
In what is technically the eighth game in the Forza Motorsport series, we go back to the beginning in a reboot of the series. Revisiting classic tracks from the Forza Motorsport games, the high-fidelity racing sim sees you drifting around Maple Valley and Le Mans in the highest definition graphics, with stunning ray tracing providing the most beautiful atmosphere, day or night.
In our Forza Motorsport review, we address the fact that there is little character between races, unlike some other games in this list – but then, Forza Motorsport has always been about racing. If that’s what you want, 2023’s Forza Motorsport is realistic, gorgeous, and sufficiently challenging. Plus, with over 500 Forza Motorsport cars to collect and upgrade, you can easily sink hours and hours into perfecting your racing line. This is from the best racing games for pc.
4. F1 23
F1 23 isn’t the most recent entry in the Formula 1 series, but it is the best that has been put out so far under EA’s premiership. Though F1 24 is now out in the wild, as you’ll see from our F1 24 review it’s not quite up to snuff.
A huge step up from F1 22, F1 23 did away with the tame F1 Life, introducing the rather moreish F1 World in its stead. Here you can progressively upgrade your car while undertaking all sorts of different racing events.
You’ve also got your usual suite of a single-player career mode, time trials, and online multiplayer, plus the two-player co-op career mode has returned. If you want to get behind the wheel of the fastest motorsport in the world, F1 23 is the game you want. This is from the best racing games for pc.
More About This Games
- This 9/10 racing game is free on Steam for the weekend
- AMD driver update gives Radeon RX 7000 GPUs a huge performance boost
- The best PC Game Pass deal is back, just ahead of Starfield
- Forza Horizon 5 is suddenly the best Barbie game
- Forza Horizon 5 gets an Nvidia DLSS 3 frame rate speed boost
- Need for Speed, Dirt, and Forza star Ken Block dies in accident
- Download this best racing games for pc.
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