The spookiest racing games for Halloween

The spookiest racing games for Halloween

Oct 31, 2020 8 Min Read Posted by Nana Krustofski

Get spooky while taking your virtual car for a ride straight through haunted mansions and forbidden forests.

Photo credit: Mariowiki / YouTube / Sonic.Fandom

Trade your sim rig for a witch’s broomstick and give your helmet a jack-o-lantern paint job, because it’s time to get spooky! You can’t race any faster than when you’re fearing for your life as you’re maneuvering your car through foggy, hostile woods while being chased by hooded figures that are destined to harm you. Or, you simply want to turn a few rounds on a fun little Halloween-themed circuit with dancing skeletons and jolly ghosts.

Whether you search for horror racing games or spooky fun circuits, we collected some must-play tracks and titles for Halloween.

Mario Kart

The little plumber Mario has a broad history with spooky enemies and levels. Therefore, every edition of the Mario Kart series by Nintendo offered some scary stages to race on.

Iconic circuits include the Broken Pier where players cruise on a haunted dock surrounded by viciously grinning mountains. An updated version is the Banshee Boardwalk where Boos cross the pier and the player encounters a swarm of bats on their way.

The second spooky theme in Mario Kart is haunted houses. A prime example is Luigi’s Mansion, which is so popular it was included in several titles of the series. From a gruesome graveyard full of ghosts and walking trees to the haunted mansion itself, there is spooky stuff to discover everywhere.

In the last traditional release of the series, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the Twisted Mansion carries on the ghostly theme.

Mario Kart Halloween Tour

Mobile phone users can get a special Halloween dose in Mario Kart Halloween Tour. The racing game for Android and iOS has a special Halloween Tour from October 20 – November 3.

Players have to complete 12 different Cups and collect points on their way, based on what driver, kart and glider they choose, their actions during the race and their finishing position. With enough points, Grand Stars can be achieved which are required to unlock the tour gifts. For Halloween, the game offers spooky skins for the drivers, cars and gliders.

Beware

Horror driving simulator Beware which was developed by Ondrej Svadlena was a smash hit on YouTube when the indie game was released in 2018. Well-known content creators such as IGP or Pewdiepie recorded themselves playing the title and getting the creeps.

Beware is an incredibly atmospheric and tense game with a chilling musical backdrop. The player starts in a dark world surrounded by woods, covered in thick fog. Everything is completely abandoned and dead, when suddenly, the sound of a car engine breaks the silence and its headlights illuminate the eerie surroundings through your rear-view mirror. You don’t know who or what is in that car, but the creature is following you. So your only quest is to escape from this menace which keeps chasing you.

Rocket League

Rocket League combines spooky new modes with one of the most iconic franchises: Ghostbusters. The car-football game brings back its Haunted Hallows event until November 2 which features ghostly rewards and creepy fun modes.

By completing special challenges that can be found under the “View Challenges” tab, ghost hunters can unlock new items such as Ghostbuster Wheels, a banner or Slime and Ectoplasm boosts. There are also Golden Pumpkins available as rewards, which are basically loot boxes with special items. On top of that, the legendary Ecto-1 car is purchasable in the store.

There are also two new game modes. Haunted Heatseeker unfortunately concluded on October 26, but the Spike Rush mode is still available until November 2 on night maps.

Horizon Chase Turbo

The retro inspired Horizon Chase Turbo celebrates October 31 with a special playground event as well. New creepy and mysterious tracks are ready to scare the players that are brave enough to test their skills. The maps stages are called Boo-Hoo, Misty Valley, Grim Lights, The Curse of the Pedal and Fear in 1st Place. A pumpkin-orange commemorative livery is waiting to take the players around the new circuits.

Team Sonic Racing

Hedgehogs celebrate Halloween as well – or at least, they build scary castles. In Team Sonic Racing from Sega, the track “Haunted Castle” can satisfy both your need for speed and for spooky stages.

The circuits lead through the giant castle on a toxic green path, looking like ectoplasm. Knights are protecting the building, and you can explore the inside by dashing through the level.

Trials Xtreme 4

If you prefer two-wheelers to escape from terrifying creatures, you can hop on your virtual bike in Trials Xtreme 4 for iOS and Android. The game is similar to the iconic Trials series by RedLynx. Players have to complete a stage by driving from the left side to the finish on the right. An obstacle course is waiting in between.

There are several Halloween-themed levels to complete in Trials Xtreme 4. Each stage is set in a gloomy landscape porcupined with glowing pumpkins and grinning scare-crows.

Distance

Scary creations do not have to rely on Halloween tropes such as jack-o-lanterns, witches, vampires or ghosts. There is also a completely different dreadful entity: being alone in space with an alien presence, while you slowly find out that something is not right.

Distance looks like a typical neon-cyber racer, but the game has a constant threat lingering while racing through space. The further the player goes, the more visual glitches and random teleportations occur. The background music adds to the obscure feeling. We don’t want to spoiler too much of the game, so feel free to check out the video below or go for a test drive yourself.

What other spooky Halloween tracks or racing games do you enjoy? Tell us on Twitter at @overtake_gg!

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