The best racing games to play right now

Where to play: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X; included in EA Play and Game Pass Ultimate

Codemasters’ long-running and mostly reliable Formula 1 games have benefitted from a surge of interest in the sport — so much so that EA bought the studio (and its official F1 license) for over $1 billion in 2021. It was a good buy. These games get the balance between authenticity and approachability just right, with handling that is both credible and manageable — no small feat considering the ludicrous speed and cornering ability of the cars. The franchise has also delivered some surprisingly strong story modes, but the real draw is the endlessly engrossing career mode, which lets you build a racing career and drag your own team up the grid, race by race, season by season. It’s true sporting wish fulfillment.

Where to play: Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X; included in Game Pass. Coming to PlayStation 5 on April 29

Born as a spinoff to the Gran Turismo-style Forza Motorsport games, Forza Horizon has risen to become the definitive open-world racing series. Simply put, developer Playground Games gets everything right: detailed car models curated with real passion and care; atmospheric real-world locations that make for some of the best virtual tourism around; superb, smooth-running tech; handling that blends authenticity with arcade accessibility; an enormous, almost overwhelming variety of stuff to do; and an upbeat festival vibe that sometimes verges on cheesy, but mostly makes Forza Horizon one of the most joyful gaming experiences you can have. Forza Horizon 5, set in Mexico, is perhaps a little overcooked compared to some predecessors; Forza Horizon 4 is probably the series highlight, but unfortunately it’s already delisted. An Xbox and PC stalwart for years, Forza Horizon’s global domination will surely be secured by 5’s upcoming release on PlayStation 5.

Where to play: Nintendo Switch

Accept no substitutes. Mario Kart has been the definitive kart racing game since Nintendo invented the genre with Super Mario Kart over 30 years ago. (I know Crash Team Racing has its fans, but… come on.) And Mario Kart 8, which has sold an astonishing 75 million copies across Wii U and Switch versions, is the definitive modern Mario Kart. In fact, it’s arguably the best game in the series since Mario Kart 64. It’s a brilliant party game, of course, but also a sophisticated and rewarding racer in its own right, combining thrilling risk/reward track design, a decent level of customization, deeply satisfying boost techniques, and capricious AI that is just the right side of maddening. It’s also dazzlingly colorful and flawlessly smooth, and it boasts a furiously entertaining big-band soundtrack. Only the rather basic online racing options hold it back.

Where to play: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

The Gran Turismo series is the original “CarPG” and the life’s work of Kazunori Yamauchi, one of the most quixotic obsessives in the world of video game development. Yamauchi, who has also dabbled in professional GT racing himself, has devoted his professional life to the creation of a kind of digital pantheon of motoring history in games that are at once dryly nerdy and deeply romantic. GT7 — which centrally features a cafe where stock photos of old men regale you with facts about the car you’re driving — is as expansive and delightfully eccentric as any game in the series’ history. But it’s also easier to get along with, with a relatively open structure and a great lineup of cars and tracks honoring the series’ 30 years in production. If you’re unsure, try the recently released free taster version, My First Gran Turismo, before you buy.

Where to play: Windows PC

There are few higher barriers to entry in gaming than iRacing. It requires a subscription, you can’t play it without a steering wheel, and the racing is subject to strict rules of conduct as well as ratings systems for driver safety and skill. But that’s because it’s not really a video game; it’s a virtual motorsport platform that emulates many real-world racing series, and that is used by many real-world racing drivers to train (or to fulfill their lust for competition during the offseason). iRacing might not be the most cutting-edge sim racer out there, but it has kept pace with the field, and there’s no question that it’s the leading racing esport. Invest the time, the money, and the practice, and you’ll be rewarded with thrilling, fair competition you won’t find anywhere else, even in the most humble events.

Where to play: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X; included in PlayStation Plus Game Catalog

If you’re after a truly authentic racing sim that offers a good offline experience and isn’t quite so intimidating as iRacing, 2019’s Assetto Corsa Competizione is still the champ. Competizione is a motorsport-focused spinoff of the upstart sim racing series from Italian studio Kunos Simulazioni, and it’s got official GT World Challenge Europe licensing (i.e., cool road cars in aggressive full racing trim). Kunos boasts what might be the best, most tactile handling model around, as well as some astonishingly true-to-life laser-scanned circuits capturing every bump and camber. There are more complete and polished packages out there, but for sheer realism and feel behind the wheel, Competizione is way out in front.

Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Xbox One; included in EA Play and Game Pass Ultimate

There are few older racing games on this list, partly because we’re focused on the best racers to play in the here and now, and partly because so many games in the genre become unavailable once the licenses for their cars, motorsport series, or music expire. A joyous exception is 2008’s Burnout Paradise, the apex of Criterion’s crash-happy arcade racing series, which, thanks to its lack of licensing and this 2018 remaster, is still easy to play today. It still beggars belief how well Criterion got Burnout’s nitro-fueled action and extravagant crash physics to work in this daringly free-form open-world format, even if its Paradise City location feels compact next to later examples like Forza Horizon or The Crew. A true classic.

Where to play: Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X; included in Game Pass

Wreckfest is a moderately realistic game about taking rubbish old bangers and smashing them into each other as you slither around muddy fields. A spiritual successor to the FlatOut series by original developer Bugbear Entertainment, it has a delightful and deliberate sloppiness; this is not a game about nailing the perfect apex and shaving down your lap times, it is a game about limping across the finish line with half the panels hanging off your (cheekily unlicensed) mid-1980s Jaguar XJ-S. The rough-and-ready front end only adds to the charm. In a genre that tends toward white-knuckle intensity, here’s a lean-back, devil-may-care game that’s just fun for the sake of it.

Where to play: Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

Art of Rally, from 2020, is part of a wave of retro indie racing games from around that time — games like Horizon Chase Turbo and Hotshot Racing that aimed to recapture the simple arcade thrills, iconic cars, and clean-lined, primary-color looks of the golden age of Sega racing cabinets. Art of Rally is a little different, in that it’s imagining a style of games that never was: a chill, minimalist rally title with a zoomed-out, almost isometric camera that’s all about the driver and the track. It’s impeccably cool and deeply absorbing, and its toylike renditions of the Group B rally monsters of yore — cars like the Lancia Stratos and Audi Quattro — are just adorable.

Where to play: Windows PC (early access)

Here’s an unlikely comeback. Genki’s street-racing series — variously called Tokyo Xtreme Racer, Shutokō Battle, Kaidō Battle, Import Tuner Challenge, and many other things (there’s one called Wangan Dead Heat Plus Real Arrange) — is mostly associated with the PlayStation 2, and last had a proper console release in 2006. But, amid a burst of nostalgia for 1990s and 2000s Japanese street-racing culture, it’s back — and it’s as if no time has passed at all, in a good way. This early-access release is a barebones but still thrilling throwback, excelling in nail-biting one-on-one races through eerily empty nighttime Tokyo streets in tuned-up Nissan Silvias and the like. It’s a nostalgic trip.