Community Question | Best Racing Game of All Time?

Paul Jeffrey · Apr 16, 2020

Opinions, opinions, opinions.... everyone has one, and none of them are ever wrong, but that isn't going to stop us having a good old fashioned debate now, is it?!?

The rules of this little conversation piece are simple - please stay respectful to each other even if you don't agree with what is being said.. let's have fun, not war!

The question I want to throw out to the sim racing community here at RaceDepartment is a simple one on face value, but something of a challenge when you take a moment to sit back and think about the many possibilities, and why a certain game might resonate with you personally.

In scope for this discussion are racing games of any variety whatsoever. From hardcore sim to arcade racer, management game, top down fun run and everything in between!

So good people of RD - what is the Best Racing Game of all Time, in your opinion?

rallysmo · Apr 16, 2020

First

TrumpetReich · Apr 16, 2020

Gtr2. Great graphics that still "hold up" (relatively). Best handling and ffb of it's time. Fantastic content, plus modding. And best of all AI that still blows the doors off anything.

zAmboni · Apr 16, 2020

Pole Position

DaVeX↯ · Apr 16, 2020

hum...my favourite was Race07 + Expansions

(more recent now is Automobilista)

Fabio Aragão RD · Apr 16, 2020

Assetto Corsa

CrimsonEminence · Apr 16, 2020

Need for Speed Most Wanted (2005).

Best racing, cops, good graphics, good sound, diverse car field, badass soundtrack, good polish, tuning, singleplayer career, nice tracks, good gameplay variety etc.

I'm not joking becuz:

In scope for this discussion are racing games of any variety whatsoever. From hardcore sim to arcade racer, management game, top down fun run and everything in between!

Deleted member 151827 · Apr 16, 2020

Mario Kart

dsl71 · Apr 16, 2020

There is only one...

RustyDriver00 · Apr 16, 2020

If it was to base it on straight up hours spent playing it, it would have to be RF2 (not even a close 2nd) but rf2 is definitely far from perfect as a lot of people know so I'm not sure I could call it best ever.

Visually AC and ACC

Best managed iRacing

Best endurance due to VEC - RF2, but if it wasn't for VEC I'd probably play more iracing.

So my totally not concisive vote goes to AC, ACC, iracing and rf2

Nomat16 · Apr 16, 2020

Probably Gran Turismo 4 for me. I find it to be difficult to compare old games to new ones though. Out of the newer games I would say ACC.

Isaac Chavira · Apr 16, 2020

GTR2/Race 07 and as it stands now in 2020 (even with the enormous amounts of crashes to desktop) ACC.

reechard · Apr 16, 2020

I'm going to get slammed for this but I think NR2003 is still incredibly good.

Mauricio Matos · Apr 16, 2020

Geoff Crammond / Microprose GP series

Formula One Grand Prix (video game) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

michelforest · Apr 16, 2020

reechard said:
I'm going to get slammed for this but I think NR2003 is still incredibly good.

I think a lot of people, myself included, will agree with you. I don't think it's the best of all time, but it's certainly one of the very best. Hard to believe it came out in 2003, considering it still holds up very well against many modern games.

ShredatorFIN · Apr 16, 2020

Circuit sims, and overall best: AC and AMS1. Hopefully AMS2 will get there, seems promising

Game focusing on single racing series: ACC

Arcade: NFS Most Wanted 2005 probably. Or TDU2, while it was a bit more simmy

Retro/nostalgia bonus mentions: Lotus Turbo Challenge 2, Supercars 2 (those golden Amiga days)

Purely graphics/presentation: Forza Horizon 4

michelforest · Apr 16, 2020

Just like it's hard to compare drivers from different eras, it's hard to compare games from the past with the current ones, considering what current day programmers can do with modern technology. My first racing game was Grand Prix Circuit by Accolade for the Mac and that was more than 30 years ago. So I've seen a *lot* of them.

I would say that the game that gave me the most pleasure was probably Grand Prix 2 by Geoff Crammond. I played that thing for years, with a keyboard no less. Best of all time? I don't know, but I remember it very fondly.

Today, there are a lot of really great games, so it's more difficult to pick a "best" game. I own AC, ACC, R3E, F1 2019, AMS and I just got AMS2. Each game is enjoyable and very well made, but back when I had GP2 on my old PC, I only played one game. Now, like many of you I'm sure, I go from one game to another and I like them all.