What was your favorite? Do you prefer a realistic racing game like Forza Motorsport or Gran Turismo? More into arcade racers like Dirt, Forza Horizon, Need For Speed, or Burnout Paradise? Or are you more into Kart racing like Mario Kart, Crash Team Racing, or Diddy Kong Racing? There's a lot of different types of racing games, Off road, Stunt, and even more waterlocked like racing games like Wave Race. 

What were your first racing gmaes? Favorite racing games? Best experiences with racers?

I'm trying to work on a series of new threads to talk about games that we all love. I'll try to put a link in the newest thread to the older threads if you want to continue discussion of those topics as well. 

Funniest Game

As far as my favorite racing experiences....

Super Mario Kart was the first racing game I played (Well, or Outrun but I was so bad at that one). My favorite racing game from my childhood was Diddy Kong Racing. I loved the open world aspect of finding the race that you're looking for.

My favorite racing games overall are Burnout Paradise (I loved the diversity of gameplay as well as the open world concept). Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is my favorite kart racing game and probably one of my top multiplayer games of all time. I really wish I could get into the Forza Horizon series because the games are absolutely gorgeous and the gameplay is solid. I am just so bad at non-kart racing games that I end up rage quitting.

I kind of like a mix. I put the most time into Wreckfest over any other game I can think of during the past ten years.

My brutally honest thoughts:

Loved the early Gran Turismo games. GT2 was my favourite racing game for a long time. It's aged terribly though; I went back and played GT2 a few years ago and I was amazed at how ugly it looks now.

The last GT I played was GT Sport and it was decent, but felt very lazy. I can't believe the AI cars behave in exactly the same way as they used to 20 years ago - still trundling along in these obnoxious, identical, well-behaved convoys. Embarrassingly bad, just like the damage modelling and physics. I wish fans demanded better tbh, rather than defending that kind of lazy crap. At least some of them pushed back on the single player aspect being completely gutted, and that forced a response and partial remedy.

GRID was by far my favourite racing game of the PS360 era. Time also hasn't been kind to it, and the last few GRID games have been really lacklustre, mostly because they took away from what made the first game so great (the excitement, spontaneity, and immense variation in races caused by the damage physics). I haven't played the most recent one, although the PR for it was focused on forcing a narrative into the series so I can't say I have high hopes. 

I also liked the DiRT series, but again recent entries have kind of sucked - far too shallow, almost all of the tracks are tiny, and there's not nearly enough content, so it gets repetitive real quick. Codies has gone from being by far my favourite racing dev to all style no substance in the space of a few years.

The MotorStorm franchise was also great from that era - especially the first two games. The final game was a real dud, but it's been a while - I'd love them to reboot this series.

Moving on to the current era - one of the best racers from the last few years was Wreckfest. It has the kind of updated damage physics and modelling that made me fall in love with the first GRID. Needed a little more of everything tho - tracks, events, race types, etc. It's also way too rubber-bandy when playing against the AI. Fuck rubber-banding - keep that rubbish in kart racers.

And finally there's WipEout (rip Studio Liverpool), which was consistently excellent across all of the gens, from WipEout 2097 back in 1996 all the way up to Omega Collection in 2017.

I really must play a Forza Horizon game at some point, now the series is on Steam. They all gets great reviews and people seem to love them... but then again recent Codies games have also got great reviews and they're pretty much just flashy trash. A few pretty special effects and the critics lap it up, like a fucking Marvel movie.

Childhood Racing Game Daytona USA on Sega Saturn , I barely tried Genesis/SNES racers, My favcorite are arcade racers , R tuned Ultimate Street Racer by Sega and Initial D Arcade Story mode by Sega really delivered. Scud Race Super GT Plus, Outrun 2 Arcade, and Maximum Tune 3 DX are my 5 way choices for favorites. I can't pick one.

I think Wreckfest doesn’t quite have rubber banding.
What it has is an AI on the highest difficulty setting that prioritises hitting the human player at any cost.
So an AI will completely wipe out its own chances of a podium finish if it sees the chance to take you off the track.

Hopefully they find a bit more balance with that with their next game where they are still more aggressive against the human driver at the top level, but have some semblance of self preservation at the same time.

Kind of weird having them being so crazy near the player, but focused on racing clean with tight lines a few car lengths in front and behind.

I can't remember what my first racing games would've been, maybe Ridge Racer or something?

My favourite is definitely kart racers though. Got back into MK8 again recently (the new DLC was very well timed for me!) and I'm really enjoying it again! I loved Crash Team Racing too, really hope it gets a Steam port soon. I enjoyed the F1 kart racing game as well.

I quite like arcade racers too, had a lot of fun with Grid 2, and I quite enjoy the racing in GTA as well. I'm really not a fan of the simulation racing games though.

My first racing game was Pole Position. I remember it had billboards for Tang and Dentyne gum.

One of my early favorite racers was The Great American Cross Country Road Race, which was a sequel to Activision's 2600 game Enduro for the Atari 8-bit computers. It was a sort of precursor to games like OutRun and Cruis'n USA.

I remember Daytona USA, Ridge Racer, and Cruis'n USA in the mid-90s and how they were used as proving grounds for the Saturn, PS1, and N64, respectively.

I did try Gran Turismo and Forza in the 2000s. They really weren't what I look for in racing.

Nowadays, the only racing game I really play is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. It pretty much satisfies any racing needs I have and is one of three or four online games I play regularly. I'm playing it now. I think Mario Kart spoiled me for more conventional racing games. Much more fun to lob turtle shells at people.

I'm more of an arcade racing fan rather than realistic simulators.

Crash Team Racing, Need for Speed, Midnight Club, Motorstorm, Modnation Racers, were some of my favorite racing games ever. I could never get into Driveclub, Forza Motorsport, or Gran Turismo. I never played much Mario Kart aside from having people over but I think its one of the few racing series that I would enjoy. With that said, the racing genre is one I fell off of hard, I haven't played a racing game thoroughly since Modnation Racers.

I was super into Super Off-Road in arcades. That was the only game I could get my dad to play against me. It was/is an incredible multiplayer game.

The 1st F-Zero holds a special place in my heart. I felt like I was good at it and even timed myself/friends on tracks like Death Wind.

San Francisco RUSH and 2049 were a lot of fun for all the hidden shortcuts you would find plus the ramps gave you major hang time.

Wave Race and Blue storm were delightful for all the water physics and ramp tricks. Again, I actually felt like I was good at this series. Love the graphics.

Wreckless for Xbox was a visual masterpiece! So much particle destruction and glittering flare!!!!! The sheer amount of consideration for what was in your way is astounding.

I was never good at realistic racers. I tried to get into Tokyo Xtreme Racer but it wasn’t for me.

I probably spent the most time on Hydro Thunder!