The best racing games to play in 2022

Time Stamp: March 20, 2022 7:00 PM

The best racing games are the ones that you can buckle up and lose yourself in for hours, never getting bored of them as you go as fast as you possibly can.

Whether you’re looking for a simulation, a bombastic arcade racer or a family friendly karting game, the genre as a whole is a lot more complex than just putting pretty cars in pretty places.There’s a lot of nuance between the best racing games to make them all worthwhile, even if you’re already dedicated to one particular series and style.

You can always rely on a racing game whether you want a decent multiplayer experience, the ability to constantly try and do better than you did before, or just the chance to drive around some stunning vistas.

The best racing games

We’ve put together a list of the best racing games currently available. Whether you’re a racing sim enthusiast or prefer something with more of an arcade twist, there’s something here for everyone.

  • Gran Turismo 7
  • F1 2021
  • Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
  • Forza Horizon 5
  • Dirt 5
  • Wreckfest
  • Hot Wheels Unleashed

Gran Turismo 7

Gran Turismo 7 takes everything that was excellent about GT Sport’s fantastic multiplayer, high fidelity cars and circuits and innovative Scapes mode, and builds up a more traditional GT experience around it. It’s got its own quirky new ideas which will likely be passing diversions to most, but at its core, this is the Gran Turismo you know and love. Broad and accessible, but with depth, nuance and competitive racing for those keen to find it.

best racing games to play f1 201

F1 2021

After more than a decade, Codemasters’ annual Formula 1 games have a rich pedigree. Recreating one of the fastest sports in the world, F1 2021 toes the line between accessibility for newcomers and depth for hardcore racing fans, and come with a deep career mode that you can lose dozens of hours to as well as plenty of options to take your racing online.

Truth be told, you could probably pick up F1 2020 or F1 2019 on the cheap and get an experience that’s pretty similar to F1 2021, but this year’s game comes with a fun new story mode that gives you a taste of the teammate drama you loved to watch (and mock) in Netflix’s Drive to Survive.

best racing games to play mario kart 8

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

It wouldn’t be a list about the best racing games without Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for Nintendo Switch. This is the series at its absolute pinnacle with more karts, characters, and customisation options than you can shake a blue shell at. It also has a huge list of tracks to choose from, different modes to mess around in, and multiplayer lobbies that are still chock full of racers wanting to throw down. Honestly, it’s hard to imagine how Nintendo can top Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Nintendo must know this too – instead of a sequel, we’re getting 48 remastered tracks as part of the Booster Course Pass.

best racing games to play forza horizon 4

Forza Horizon 5

Forza Horizon 5 is open-world racing at its best. Where Forza Horizon 4 had us blitzing the country roads of Britain, its sequel transports us Mexico, weaving together biomes as we go from race to race. For better or worse, Playground Games has settled into a groove with its Horizon spin-offs, to the extent that we hardly miss the original Forza Motorsport. From the slight arcade twist on racing gameplay to the emphasis on exploration and showering players with unlockable rewards, this is a formula we’ve seen before yet one that effortlessly has us hooked for hours on end regardless.

best racing games to play dirt 5

Dirt 5

Dirt 5 steers the rally racing series in a more arcade style direction than its more serious sibling Dirt Rally 2.0. Developed by the team at Codemasters Cheshire (many of whom worked on Driveclub and Motorstorm) it fuses an extensive garage of licensed vehicles with a lighter, less serious tone when compared to rally sims. There’s a story-based campaign mode in Dirt 5 that has you rise through the ranks of the racing world, going from a speedy nobody to a titan of the dirt track. It’s a real look on PC and newer consoles, easy to pick up, and crammed with user-created tracks crafted in its Dirt Playground tools.

wreckfest gameplay screenshot

Wreckfest

This is by far and away the most violent racing game on this list. Wreckfest is all about demolition derby. Your aim is to cross the finish line first, of course, but also to take out anybody who stands in your way. You’ll have to design your own car and figure out what performance stats are most important to you before sending your vehicle out onto the track and accepting the fact that it probably won’t make it back in one piece. Since launch, Wreckfest has been supported by a string of DLC releases and still enjoys an active online community who are waiting to rip your bumpers off.

hot wheels unleashed gameplay

Hot Wheels Unleashed

Hot Wheels Unleashed is a fresh new entry on our list, but a deserving one nonetheless. The game’s creator, Milestone, is no stranger when it comes to the genre, the studio’s recent releases including MotoGP 21 and RIDE 4. Hot Wheels Unleashed captures the magic of not only collecting cars but the sensation of building your own incredible courses, as if slotting together bright orange track pieces on a virtual living room carpet. The arcade racing is great fun with difficulty options catering for everyone.

Ones to watch

To conclude our list of the best racing games you should be playing, let’s take a quick look at the future of the genre! Throughout 2022 and beyond, we have a number of upcoming titles including:

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