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Sim, arcade, simcade, anything. I'm kinda disconnected from the genre and want to know what is considered the GOATs of racing games to try them out.
Me personally, I'd say Dirt Rally 2, very addicting gameplay.
Old Gran Turismo, Wreckfest, and Rollcage are mine.
Consider most of people already gives what they like and also me have variety of interest (likes Rally, Endurance racing, Open wheel, Closed circuit, Street races and so on), maybe I'll go with Tokyo Xtreme Racer (and its spin off Drift) series. To me Genki much more than a game but rather a love letter to these genre (they even go down with consulting with street racers, incorporating them in game, and make short documentary about them!).
(Excuse me for going a little bit on culture) First the main elephant, the Wangan racing genre. back then (even to this day?) this sub-genre of racing is niche as IIRC this racing scene mostly around Japanese and traced way back in 80s and early to mid 90s during Economy bubble era. Everyone had a lot of cash to spend their money and guess what? those city people spend it on (illegal) street racing and the infamous one where they raced on highway networks. You got japanese tuners also actively participating on these kind of activity even the infamous one! Like owner of RE-Amemiya, Abflug, TOP SECRET, Auto TBK, MCR and so on, now coupled of that with infamous exclusive Mid Night Club, you get the idea of why these people seeking thrill of moving fast on this highway roads. For Touge scene and sub-genre, I think you guys all know very much as it's more popularised by kind of Initial D and such.
Back to the game. back then you can't find a almost 1:1 recreation of Shuto highway network in a game. On Tokyo Xtreme Racer 1 (Dreamcast) you have almost 1:1 recreation of C1 loop portion of Shuto highway which is well made and still hold up to this day even with decent car roster. Tuning in this game is fairly deep and necessity to gain upper hand on higher stake, you have to make sure your gear setup suited to the portion of highway you're currently run, running on Wangan Bay route isn't the same as running on C1 Loop or Shinkanjo area. Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2 (on Dreamcast) brought Wangan Bay route and Yokohane road into the menu and so the highway network almost fully(!) complete, this time they brought more selection to the cars and gives you freedom which car you want to start your adventure to become one of the fastest highway racer. Tokyo Xtreme Racer Zero somehow a port of TXR 2 on PS2 which add several new rivals and new cars exclusive to PS2. Tokyo Xtreme Racer Zero-One (3 on the West) brings licensed cars and 2 other city like Nagoya and Osaka but at cost of reduced cars (still interesting selection).
For both main series and its spin off Drift series that distinguishing themself with other akin to Need for Speed is the RPG element and roguelite that makes every playthrough can be different. You can start the game using Kei cars class, you can start with bigger luxury cars, or you can just start with sport coupe cars just like everyone else. Your car is half of your strength, you need to couple that with car setup and your skill to conquer the road to become one of the fastest. Another interesting bit is that each Rival has these small bios about them which gave them little bit of personality. To me those what makes it feel more raw and engaging for use who likes the genre and culture around it (becasue back then these street racers come from variety of background, you can have your ordinary young adult up to businessman member).
Nowaday Wangan genre have their spot filled with Assetto Corsa with Shuto Revival Project (SRP) map and even with "No Hesi" (western equivalent) server and you have standalone game such as Night-Runners.
While Genki confirmed they develop new Tokyo Xtreme Racer, I have mixed feeling on it afraid that it turn become something like C1GP where they playing "safe" and becoming more into legal area turning the highway into something like sanctioned race event akin to Tokyo Expressway/Special Routes map in Gran Turismo. Wangan racing without traffic and heavily modified cars kind of feel off.
Fun fact: Genki help Namco develop Wangan Midnight in its early day even on PS2 game they reuse TXR0 game engine, and then Namco do it themselves and turn it into arcade game (Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune series).
Dirt Rally 2 with even a cheap driving simulator setup is incredible. It's like the dark souls of racing games, and doesn't hold your hand at all.
Assetto Corsa is another great one with a simulator. The amount of mods, cars, and tracks added to the game has made enough content to keep someone entertained for probably their whole life.
Really, any modern racing game that uses wheel and pedals are amazing compared to what existed before that. Luckily, even the good direct drive wheels and good pedal setups have gotten more affordable in recent times.
Assetto Corsa with realistic force feedback in non power steering cars is unironically a workout. Driving a F-40 on the Tokyo highway project for an hour and I actually sweat. Few times I've loosened the mounting of my wheel I have to grip it so hard haha. It's advisable to let go of the wheel when you crash too.
Rush 2, but just the stunts track
BeamNG.Drive and the Gran Turismo games
Wreckfest, Absolute Drift, Art of Rally, BeamNG, New Star GP, F1 23, My Summer Car, Super Woden GP 2.
A bit more unorthodox than the normal recommendations maybe but truly excellent games. Except for F1 they are all quite cheap too.
My favorite racing game is Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Collection (2013 version). Arcade racing in the style of Mario Kart, it was the one time where Sega did what Nintendont in that genre. Amazing tracks, amazing wide selection of Sega characters to chose as racers (also ralph from ralph breaks movies for some reason), amazing 3 way modes of racing (by land, by water, by air), amazing replayability due to all the racers and modifications possible to choose from, and good price in promotion events.
I knew one of the designers who worked on that (or maybe on one of it's ports?) and he fucking loved the game. He would often describe in detail why it was the superior kart game
I believe him, it is awesome to play until this day. Would love to hear him spell out exactly how and why.
Any Black Box made Need for Speed.
(Currently busy fixing Pro Street, so many bugs...)
Gran Turismo and Forza. I love the simulation aspect, ain't no way on Earth I want to drive a sports car. Too irresponsible.
Mario Kart for the social aspect.
Art of Rally
Need For Speed: Heat
Does bike racing count? If so: Descenders is amazing
And if that counts, how about Crumble?
Ooh: Turbo Golf Racing, and Kart Rider
Race the Sun?
I’m a huge fan of Burnout Paradise. The crash physics and cameras are so addicting that I’ll drive up and down the same street just flipping my car on its roof using the same split ramp just to see the carnage. The driving is a wonderful arcadey feel that makes insane turns easy to pull off, and the crashes make those insane turns addicting to completely fail.
Many people say the early Burnout games are better, but I’ve never played them and Paradise has remained entertaining for 17 years
I love Burnout Paradise. I used to load up the game and just drive aimlessly for hours.
Every time I hear Paradise City I see the loading screen, nostalgia for those early days with the 360 camera that gave you a drivers license. Good times and it still holds up, my gf had never played it and had a great time smashing barriers the other day.
FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage was a real banger that I played the shit out of
For sim, I utilize iRacing to practice and learn tracks before real life amateur endurance races in champcar and lemons as well as track days.
IMO iRacing physics are so good and the tracks are so well modeled that it's a very effective learning tool. It's the first sim since Live For Speed that really feels close enough to real life for me to forget I'm playing a sim.
Plus traffic management and race craft are so crucially important in wheel to wheel racing & I simply don't get any other opportunity to practice those.
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 is my childhood game and I will always love it. I also like various other games from the NFS series, from the first one up to Carbon.
Not many newer racing games I like, but I do enjoy occasionally playing art of rally, Inertial Drift, Forza Horizon 4 and Wreckfest.
Assetto Corsa
I don't know if it counts, but for me it's Distance
I generally hate racing games. The one I do remember playing a lot was 1990's Stunts. It was an early polygonal game. You could make your own tracks. It's was pretty ahead of its time.
When my logitech g27 racing wheel was still working i USED to play the living hell out of modded richard burns rally it was fun playing a racing sim with almost life like physics.
It's amazing that it's still the best rally sim to this day. This game is old enough to drink in the States.
Best rally Sim is definitely debatable, but it most definitely still holds up pretty well against more modern rally sims like Dirt Rally 2.0, and that is insane enough considering it's age. The mods for RBR have definitely extended its lifespan.
The physics in RBR still feel better to me than the modern rally games like Dirt Rally 2, and WRC9 and what not, and that is incredibly impressive. I will say the modern games are better for competitive play and obviously have better graphics and immersion.
Trackmania
Need for Speed Porsche to be honest. The campaign of going through the Porsche eras is iconic. Buying new cars and tuning them up is really fun and you really feel the difference between the cars.
I absolutely loved that game.
Ridge Racer Type 4 was a game that absolutely ooze with style in every aspect. The graphics were up there with the best of them at the time, cars ranged from simple to utter batshit in design and performance. UI both in and out of races is iconic, holding a motif that is both a racing aesthetic and minimal design, keeping the details only where they’re needed. The music moving from the 90s rave of the older games, over to house was a bold move but it works perfectly. It fits exactly how it needs with the course settings, gameplay and overall aesthetic.
Wip3out while the previous games may be more iconic due to the groundwork laid out by the Designers Republic. Even though they gave the series its icon graphic design style, the third game is the most definitive entry in the series (imo). It continues the design and refines that groundwork brought by tDR. The gameplay is fast and can be intense. Visually the graphics were incredible at the time with track designs that influenced the few later games with new elements and environments. The music was the perfect mix of future trance and techno that still lives in my head today.
I have really fond memories of the first Grid game from 2008. That's alongside NFS: Most Wanted from around that time, like most people it seems, haha! I also spent an inordinate amount of time playing Gran Turismo 3: A-spec. I loved the career mode so much.
My favorite cars are the Lotus Espirit and Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR, to this day, because of Gran Turismo 3 and Most Wanted, respectively.
There haven't been many recently that have piqued my interest, other than the gang all wanting to get Forza Horizon. I don't play it much on my own, though.
If there were another track game where you work up from the bottom with a shit car in different classes of races, earning money and unlocking new parts and stuff along the way, I'd be into it. It seems most newer racing games just have generic "Engine Upgrade 1"-type options, or full-blown sim where you're picking extremely particular individual pieces and tuning everything to an overwhelming degree.
iRacing in the streets, Mario Kart in the sheets