Why Does Nobody Play Racing Games Anymore? 

This is down to the death of the mid-sized developers. The PS1 (for example) had a ton of racers and small developers making games for it. Now we only have AAA or indie developers. Basically, if we want the genre to return, it's up to the indie devs to make fun, arcade racing games. They don't all have to be simulators.

Racing games nowadays lack soul. I’ll give credit to NFS for trying a different aesthetic but there’s problems that still plague that game since NFS 2015. Remember back in TDU2 when you can drive like a normal citizen around the whole map and not get bored? It was a Carpg before we knew it. I’d also add this too, I don’t care for festival style racing games. That’s why the old NFS and even The Crew 1 felt fun to play there was a risk and reward factor to those games that modern racing games don’t have.

It's not that 'nobody' plays racing games anymore it's the fact that they all have that same P2W mechanic at least the new ones do.

since i don't want you to not have a career after failing your exam, you have gotten my sub bro, also please do more of these short form video essays, this video is amazing!

I love racing games but I love offline single-player racing games. Most modern racing games just aren't for me as I have no interest in multiplayer and while many of them still have some things to do in single-player, it's more of an afterthought compared to the full-fledged single-player campaigns that we got in racing games up through the 7th generation. And if a game has always online DRM, I refuse to buy it unless they guarantee an offline patch at end of life.

One racing games series I really miss is Motorstorm. It was so unique being an arcade off-road racer with multiple different vehicle classes. Racing at the same time and it is something that still hasn’t been replicated to this day. Making a new game like it would definitely be something that stands out and the fact that no one has made a modern racing game of that formula which worked so well back then feels like a missed opportunity

it's refreshing to see someone who understands the *actual* reason this genre's declined. some of the best racing games ever succeeded in spite of their ties to car/motorsport culture, not because of them, and i can list a dozen awesome racing games that don't even feature cars or real world vehicles at all. the genre's insistence on being a niche for enthusiasts has only made it regress from what it once was.

What I need in racing game is a sense of progression, but modern racing games keeps throwing random stuff via wheel spins, or weekly random awards, best cars right from the start, where sense of progression from slow to fast or cheap to expensive is destroyed.

Track mania, hotshots racing, new star gp, hot wheels unleashed, wipeout, wreckfest, dirt 5, redout, art of rally, Circuit Superstars, and many more fun racing games exist, you just have to look for them, mainstream racing games are a snooze fest

People love racing games, people hate trend chasing games, racing included. Last racing game I enjoyed was NFS Shift The problem is no on really cares to make a good game, racing games make it easy to DLC everything, they cost more in the long run, rarely try to fine tune mechanics, and always opt for flashy over good mechanics. I don't want to be driving a Lambo with a F150 across me, a dude in a PT Cruiser, and some kid on a scooter. Racing games at their core are best when it's a power fantasy, no one wants a super close race, they want to blow out the competition with their car they have invested heavily in, however that doesn't work because you can't have an offline racer anymore, everything must be online against 12 people from all over the planet. Also 5:28 I'm 34 and for me these games where considered the start of the decline for most of the franchises. People are free to enjoy them I have no problem with that but at the time they where in no way considered peak and really viewed as the start of the decline for folks around my age back than at the time of their release. I guess it depends on your age and the games we played at the time but we do agree things have gotten worse.

R.I.P. OG The Crew 🫡

Wreckfest deserves to be talked about more. it's so much fun. Just being able to load it up, find a server and just start racing (and wrecking) is the main reason I have 800 hours in it. It's pure carnage all the time and I keep going back for the adrenaline rush that I get avoiding buses and heavy cars trying to put me into a tree. I just feel like nobody wants to try something different so they stick with the same racing game re-released over and over. All I can say is. If you're looking for something different, something fun from a racing game. Give wreckfest a shot. I personally want more games like it to come out. Not the festival racing snooze fest stuff

I think why beamng drive is so popular and successful because it’s unique and doesn’t have the bs from these major game studios, even though the game does require a somewhat beefy pc and doesn’t have much base content to it

we need midnight club bck

Apologies if this isn't related to the topic on why nobody plays racing games, but paying $10 for a new add-ons pack that's separate from a modern AAA/AAAA racing game's content pass is completely stupid. Why bother paying a hefty price for add-ons that aren't included in the content pass for an $80+ game when the developer could've just updated it with all of the separate add-ons included for free? It saves a lot of time and money for gamers who owns a physical/digital copy of the game. Although I don't advocate the idea of using cheats, glitches, and/or exploits in games, it's totally fine if you use a DLC unlocker mod/trainer to get all paid DLCs and content that was only available within a time period for games like Forza Horizon 5 and Need for Speed Unbound.

Rammers and corner bombers is what has turned me off from most online racing. I still play racing games but tend to avoid online play because people are either malicious or utterly incompetent. This Solar Crown info is seriously disappointing. Ive been waiting for this since it was announced and now Im probably not going to even buy it. TDU2 was one of my favorite games ever.

Players: We want to start out in smaller cars and make winning and where you place actually matter Forza: Okay, start in any car you want, finishing position still doesn't matter. But you aren't allowed to tune or upgrade your car unless you drive around for 100hrs

Around 2 years ago I got this weird itch in my head. I had enough of racing games, NFS, Forza, Crew, everything just became repetitive for me. I thought to myself something which I'd never thought about or considered before. I thgouth "let's try the complete opposite, let's try the most realistic driving game now". I bought Assetto Corsa, and immediately realized this wasn't going to be fun or even close to "simulation" with a gamepad, so I ordered a wheel, then a little later I ordered a VR headset, then a little later I ordered a full on sim rig. 2 years on I can say that AC is one of the best gaming experience, and the most fun driving experience I've ever had. I haven't and won't go back to arcade or simcade any more and wouldn't play the latest games if they were given to me for free. I don't know why it took me so long but eventually I got the sim itch and never looked back. Now it's not about how fast I can drive, or how many xp or landscape points I can get due to how high my car flew up a ramp or cliff or how many trees I took out, now driving is like a university or a journey. AC is making me a better driver, I've learned about things like proper racing, trail braking, slip angles, I learned how to drift in AC from scratch and learned about things like oversteer, understeer, counter-steering, how to connect drifts, etc. I always used to think those guys with full sim rigs were a bit over the top and never thought I'd be one of them, and here we are. Long live AC, best driving game ever imho.

true arcade racing games need to return. currently the big majority of "racing games" are just simcade/simulator car games that try to be as realistic/inmersive as possible while this type of game is not bad at all, this "need for realism" has been happening ever since NFS started to flop, or even other arcade racing franchises just stopped releasing games (wich was a damn long time ago) so its obvious that people are starting to get a bit sick of recent car games. nowadays its just to see wich game provides the best experience, not the most fun one

*NFS Carbon, Burnout Revenge, Midnight Club 3 DUB, Midnight Club LA and BLUR come to mind when I think of my most enjoyed racing games. Cruising USA, Mario Kart, Ridge Racer Type 4 and Tokyo Xtreme Racer as the OG's 🙌 the genre has come such a long way, I feel like its hit a wall. Personally, I'd love a time traveling racer. environments that constantly time shift while ur racing* 👍

I really wish that they didn't cancel Blur 2. Such a talented studio with such a unique IP - managed to pull it off with licensed cars too. The original's art style is something that hasn't been seen again, and for that crowd, could have made an amazing e-sport. That is the one racing game that was very poorly marketed and got such a hugely unfair amount of flak when it was.

Nfs and Midnight Club was the heart of racing games back in 2000's and 2010. I know MC stopped coming out till 2009, I'm talking about the early 2010's Nfs games.

Really enjoyed this one man, I really like your punctual style of both writing and editing that keeps things on point. Keep it up!

I fully agree that a lot of bad practices in the industry are to blame. Let me explain. *TL:DR at the bottom (for those who want to skip).* *First:* times have changed. There was a time when the majority of game Developers were very passionate about their craft, their art, and their game. So they would give their all to sell that game to you once. What do I mean by once? That comes to my second point. *Second:* DLC and Updates. Before those existed, Developers had to do everything they could to make their game as polished and full of features and content before release. Otherwise they would need to release a separate edition at some point in the future. But with the way things are now, they can release a game and add new features and bug fixes later. That's not necessarily a bad thing, mainly in the former case, but it can be a double edged sword. *Third:* As much as I hate to say it over and over again, but it is the truth: Money Talks. Yes, whether we realize it or not, when a game or game developer becomes too big to fail, at least in the financial sense, they will then develop the attitude (no pun intended) on just doing what they can to make more money. In short, that often means leaving out good and proven features that while popular with players and were once common practice 15-20 years ago, is just no longer profitable. I think that's what has lead to the decline of not just racing games, but other genres of games too. *Bonus:* Developing a game is much, much more complicated than it was 20 years ago. The reason is also simple. Games back then were limited by computing power, so that meant it took less time to make a game than it is today. For instance, it was not all that long ago that EA made a new Need For Speed game every year. Now they do it every 2-3 years. Another consideration is this: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000's system requirements were as follows: Pentium 166 MHz (all graphic options off) or faster. 64MB RAM for Windows NT. 350MB hard disk space. Super VGA 16-bit color monitor. Compare that with FS2020's system requirements: Processor: Intel i5-4460 | AMD Ryzen 3 1200. Memory: 16 GB RAM. Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 770 | AMD Radeon RX 570. Storage: 150 GB available space. Yep, 150GB vs 350MB. With FS2000's requirements, you could play that game on your Smartphone if you wanted to. Imagine how long it takes to create a game only 350mb in size. Now imagine how long it takes to create a game that's over 150GB in size. With all that time needed, it's no wonder that Devs will cut corners where ever possible. Whether it involves graphics, story line, or general QOL features. --- *TL;DR:* Times have changed, Developers are not as interested in their games as they used to be. DLC and Updates are common. Developing a game is more complicated than it was 20 years ago. Devs focus on Money/Profit over Player satisfaction.

I just hope in my heart one day that we get a racing game that plays like San Francisco Rush or F-Zero.

You hit the nail on the head when it came to racing games, but it’s starting to change, I personally started development on a more arcadey split/second inspired game which will make way into a twisted metal like game. JEM is single-handedly working on reviving the wangan highway racer genre. You’re not the only one who’s been disappointed by what’s been currently the “meta” of racing games and hopefully we won’t be the end of that.

One of the issues with nfs nowadays is that in the past they had many soundtrack variety for everyone and i remember it peaked with the underground series up until payback, nowadays it only had rap and whatever genre that sets the tone for the setting.

Great Quality ngl.Keep it up mate! I wish You 1mil subs!

I'm still waiting for a modern game like nfs pro street. that game's sense of speed was god tier and scary.

They thought they were cooking when they came up with Car PG

Tbh I really don't get the hate for festival racers. I understand the market saturation aspect, but imo a festival is the best setting for an open world racer.

I play them.....in VR. Tried once and can't go back to flat racing. Next level immersion

We've all moved into playing Sim Racing instead. VR, Triples or a Single Mointor with a Wheelbase is where we're at!

Nobody play racing games? Assetto Corsa, BeamNGdrive, iRacing, Gran Turismo 7, Forza Horizon 3/4/5, Gran Turismo 4, NFS Blackbox Era, NFS Hot Pursuit, All car games of the 90s, and more games: With millions of players still playing, casual players and daily players.

Beamng and AC still carrying the Genre after all these years.. let’s hope for Beamng 1.0 and AC2 to change gears in the industry

With TDU Solar Crown, you gotta keep in mind that this is a completely new team making the game, and they said that they are looking forward to adding houses in the future. And they want everyone start in the same place because it’s give room for players to interact and be social with each other.

To be honest, their was a era where car games really complete on the same level as rpg games .

This is the part where I mention Wreckfest deserves its flowers and to be talked about

I miss Motorstorm, that shit was insanely fun

I still want to play racing games like Motorstorm, Midnight club LA (PS3 version), Dirt 2 (PS3 version) since they have great soundtrack

i recently bought NFS heat for $3 in steam and 1 thing I found on main stream racing game is the depth of car. As a person who recently drive into racing game genre, there is a lot of stuff u need to learn before u can win some end game race. engine swap, turbo, different tire, when to use nitro, all of those stuff make ppl who are not familiar to car interior a wall that need to be break thought by learning those stuff. this is why GTA 5 and mario kart are more popular, bc those 2 game have been simplify enough to let even a child can win a race

while from a modern perspective it’s pretty bare bones and most of what I say is nostalgia because I grew up with the IP but one of the racing games I always return to every now and then is Hot Wheels World Race on the PS2 and Gamecube, what really stood out to me with this game as a kid was its set pieces, being based on the film of the same name it was set around racing through different realms all having their own distinct biome, Going from the volcanic realm where you would be racing through active volcanoes to the arctic realm that focused in racing through massive glaciers and Arctic mining equipment. This side of the racing genre I find is criminally overlooked.

The reason why the Mario Kart series doesn’t count as a racing genre because it’s a party genre

Translated by Google: There are 2 types of racing games The "Non Car Guy" racing games Mario Kart, Disney Speedstorm, Rocket Racing, TrackMania and more. They are racing games so that those who have no driving experience or knowledge about cars can play them without problem. "Car Guy" or "Car enthusiast" Racing Game: Forza Horizon 5, The Crew Motorfest, CarX Drift Racing Online, Forza Motorsport, Gran Turismo 7 and others. They are racing games for car enthusiasts who have knowledge about cars and have driving experience.

As a car girl and a gamer that used to play a lot of racing games. I can tell you why. (1) because the people who make the racing games are not car enthusiasts. All they care about is making money. So you won't see any cars that we know and love as much. Unless it was made popular by a movie. (2) 2024 and handling and sense of speed sucks. As a drifter drifting sucks. The only game i know that had pretty good drifting was the first tokyo dift game. (3) rubber banding, it doesn't really how fast you are or how good you drive. You can be sure they will always catch up even if they ate it. (4) the best storyline by far is need for speed most wanted. (5) the stupid choice. You know the one where you have to choose. What do you want? Do you want a racing sim with realistic handling and physics. With beautiful graphics but most likely will not have any drifting in it and other then tuning your engine you can't really customize your ride. Or do you and arcade game. That has street racing, cop chases, customization, Aero etc. But handling sucks, and it might hace drifting but it might suck to. And they might say "we have over 70 cars!" But if you really look at it Its just the different types of the same cars. And ots actually just 20. Oh and traffic its almost like they are put to get you. Why are they stopping in the middle of the damn street! And why are they slowing down when ypu drive behind them or stopping? And why are theor weapons? Why can't we have the best of both Why can't we have a street racing driving sim game, that is really good drifting for us drifters, with really good customization, with realistic handling and physics, with cops and NPC racers that uses more good driving skill and np runner banding. Oh and choices. And why not have car meets so we can show off our cars? And meet friends or make them? Why can't we have a game without all these weapons, and ramps that we have to jump every place and we just use pure driving skill? I kinda miss NFSMW

DR. powerslide : Why Does Nobody Play Racing Games Anymore? ME : are you comedy me?

Live service games like PUBG, COD, Fortnite, GTA V etc. ruined the sales of several genres as they occupy like 100's of millions of players and it's getting worse. It's like most gamers refuses to play games that isn't "social" now. Live service ruined gaming.

A hidden gem i highly recommend if you like high speed racing is grip combat racing. Basically fantasy forza with antigravity stages

Me and my friends who play wreckfest every time we lan- wait, we don't play racing anymore?

My favorite racing game is an old ps1 or 2 game called Tokyo extreme racing. It was so much fun. Had to pull up behind racers and flash your lights to start racing. Much fun, most racing games nowadays are boring.

Nobody plays racing games anymore because of DLC cars. No one likes cars being DLC. Remember in old racing games when all the cars came with thr game and you had to unlock them through progression? Good times.

Burnout and Midnight club needs to make a comeback

Glad to see another Racing Games Essay, i have being on a lookout on indie racing games on steam. I love Trail Out,Battle RC, RallyAllyAlly & Smells Like Burnt Rubber. I wish racing/driving genre gets good releases instead of sim.

GT2 was the peak. My mate downloaded an enhanced graphics pack for modern TVs and its still the best thing ever. If they just kept bringing in new cars to GT2 and upgraded the graphics a little it'd be set forever.

Oh i do! :) just the old ones that is,

Criterion is the only studio who want to make something special.

One thing I noticed with the racing games in the gaming community, it's that yes, they are very overlooked. I constantly read "this genre is dead", which I actually disagree. There are still some fun racing games that released in this last 5 years (Grid Legends, Hot Wheels Unleashed 1 and 2, F1 2020, Horizon Chase 2). Probably those aren't as good as some old titles from the 2000s or mid 2010s, but are a great time But the thing I noticed is that if it's not Forza, Need for Speed or Gran Turismo, then it's not relevant. And it's really funny to hear/read "all those games are the same", but if you dare to say something about the other games, you trigger them lmao. But I don't blame them. If you take a pic in the new Forza and most recent Gran Turismo, without the watermark, and ask which one is which, probably if it's not a fan of those franchise the person won't differentiate which one is from which game. Every AAA racing game has shifted towards realism. Both in driving and visuals. And the only game that tried to look different from anything else, was Need for Speed Unbound.

Now I understand why until today I play racing games in my X360, all are different, Dirt 2, Grid, Sonic Racing Transformed, Slip Second, the Original Most Wanted, Pure, etc, each one has something different to offer.

dude i thought u had 730k subs this video were so well made lol i thought i was trippin when i saw only 730 subs

i used to play many racing games... on PS1, PS2, X360, etc... from many franchises, be it Arcade or Sim. Nowadays... i lost the motivation... i am almost apathetic to the genre... i am waiting for FH6 to rekindle it... and surprisingly, i think GTA 6 will be the one to do it.

How’s that scorch mark on your desk under the laptop going

A while ago, I picked up the deluxe edition of Grid Legends on a Steam sale for like $5. I never played the other Grid games and I didn't feel like watching cutscenes, so I immediately ignored the story mode because I just didn't (and still don't) care about it. After the initial period of figuring out how to quickly navigate menus and how to set up multi-event races with the race creator, this $5 impulse buy actually became my go-to offline track racing game. I set up my cheap racing wheel too (a Thrustmaster TMX Force Feedback) and it worked with no extra calibration needed, though it took a while to learn the button mapping and I also needed to tune down the force feedback intensity because of how I set up the wheel mount. There's three things I like about Grid Legends: 1. The game has a dynamic music option. - I know it's not much of a selling point, in fact I didn't even know it was in the game at first when I bought it, but I personally like when games change up the audio mixing in sync with whatever's happening in game. Here, the music gradually cranks up the bass and reverb little by little as you approach the finish line or when the timer ticks down to zero in elimination matches. It also has a practical use, as the music also will fade in a different "sample" when you approach corners too fast, and the intensity of the effect depends on how much faster you're approaching the corner beyond the recommended speed of the driving line. It's easier to notice on some songs than others. If the music's getting intense and there's a corner coming up, consider either gently tapping the brakes or feathering the throttle. Sometimes you'll hear the music change up way before you ever see the driving line change colors. 2. The AI has a nemesis system. - The game's not a demo derby by any means (and the demo derby mode from the DLC actually kinda sucks, so play Wreckfest instead if you want to see panels flying off the cars and littering the track), but you won't really be penalized for making contact with other cars and just forcing them out of the way. You'll lose a small chunk of your winnings on your own repair fees if you really bang up your car, but you can always just do another race if you need more money for something you wanted to buy. That said, if you're too hostile, an AI will become marked as a nemesis. They will start biting back and will actively attempt to block and side-swipe you if you've pissed them off. You can piss off multiple drivers at the same time, and the one's you really aggravate can retain their nemesis status through other career events until you leave them alone for a while. This mechanic incentivizes players to be a bit more mindful of both WHERE people are on the track and WHO they are. 3. The AI can make costly mistakes and can sometimes even have sudden performance issues with their car. - Something doesn't always happen on every lap, or even every race, but it happens often enough that you might want to consider going for wider overtakes and outright avoid drafting in some conditions. The worse the conditions, the wider the berth. Even if it means losing positions, I generally try to keep some distance away from a large pack on corners on the chance that one of the other drivers flubs their cornering or accidentally brake checks the hell out of someone else and causes a pileup. Even on higher difficulty settings, they will still make mistakes. Some of the mechanical failures I've seen are a bit absurd though, like when an AI violently swerves on a long straightaway after a cloud of smoke erupts from their undercarriage for what seemed like no reason at all. You don't want to get caught behind that cloud, btw. It's nearly impossible to see through it. So, my point is this: This game released in February 2022. The only other NEW racing game that has been on my radar since then is the free demo for Night Runners because of its visual aesthetic, its soundtrack, and the fact that I actually have to dodge traffic while driving. Yeeting vehicles around corners while jockeying with the pack and redlining toward the horizon is fun, but I'd like some interesting games to play that aren't the usual simulators or kart/zero-g racing games I keep going back to. The festival racers are more like a showcase than a game and don't really have any unique mechanics to mess around with, and there's not much of a middle ground on the market in general anymore, especially not for people who prefer offline play like me. Midnight Club hasn't been around since L.A. on the PS3/360, the last Burnout game released was Burnout Paradise Remastered in 2018 (after its original 2008 release and the last game in 2011, Burnout Crash), and Need For Speed has drastically varied in quality from game to game for so long that it's gotten to the point where I don't bother buying those games at launch anymore, if at all.

I gave up when a controller wasn’t enough anymore. I’d love a wheel setup, but I can’t afford it.

Gameplay wise they might be stale but graphically they are the best looking games you’ll find

Racing games is a part of my life. GT5 & NFS series were my childhood games

The reason why I never got into the crew Motorsport is because I had just got done playing unbound and FH5 not too long before that. So I had already had a racing fill, but TCM being a festival like racer and having so many face value similarities never got me into it deeper than that.

I think that at some point everybody runs out of inspiration eventually. Gran turismo for example, they had a peak at some point (gt2; gt3; gt4) but it's been going downhill since. They obviously tried to make the existing formula better but they ended up making it worse. They kept that base formula but they cut out the best factors from it, in the attempt of modernising it. They simply just ran out of ideas.

I started with Papyrus Indaycar and NASCAR in the mid to late 90s. They were amazing, because it was the first sim racing games. As the NASCAR games became more popular, there were add-ons for the Grand National series, truck series, legends cars, plus there was a large mod community that were creating new paint schemes. But, as all racing games became more popular, franchises started coming out yearly, and quite honestly, why am I going to spend another $50 this year, for a little slightly polished version of last year's fame, with new paint schemes, maybe new drivers, but essentially the same game play as I bought last year. (I am still using F1 2020, as I will wait for a major update and discount before getting a new version.) And even Forza and Gran Turismo come out way too soon for non-addicts to play it enough to warrant buying the newest version. Then you have NFS, which at some.point of time, felt like they were pushing 3 or so games a year. I think casual gamers have now realized they can continue playing older games longer and wait for new game engines and even newest gaming devices, and also avoid those problematic releases that takes 3 months of update patched to fix (which is what I did before getting Cyberpunk).

Its honestly crazy how asseto corsa, a 10 year almost 11 year old game is one of the best and still treated like a mainstream game.

Why do people forget Codemasters' franchises (Grid and Dirt series)?

Nightrunners will save us, dont fret!

Actual sim racing is still on the up n up

I still play racing games pretty often, just not the AAA one, my current favorite is Night Runners.

We just need Ridge Racer back. That’ll kick off a new era of arcade racing goodness 😊

i was expecting a sponsor at the end

Didn't play much racing games in a long while.. Then I got gt7 and loved it! Then I got a wheel and it's even better! Arcadesim/Simracimg is so fun, really have to feel it to understand!

Honestly , Crew Motorfest steering animations are fucking incredible. It’s legit one of the reasons I love GTA , because it looks realistic when you turn the wheel a full 360 degrees. But , they removed any sort of “home” / houses. Which would have improved the immersion like crazy and Ubisoft has games likes watch dogs I don’t understand why they won’t implement ‘getting out of your car’ - not to do anything illegal , legit just an option to get out of your car (since they legit have a walking animation in the car show) walk into a shop , buy some parts for your car, walk out and hop back in your car. Damn, if they did that Crew would be #1 … I also feel like if forza worked on their driving animation (steering) so it’s not so stiff looking in first person and even third for that manner forza would be hands down the greatest racing game ever because of the foundation forza has. The mechanics are incredible just a little too stiff. But I’m excited for Test Drive

I haven't been super interested in racing games for a while, but I did get NFS Unbound for like $8 on sale for PC and, my god, the dialogue is so cringy. I guess NFS always had that super cheesy dialogue, and that was part of its charm, but it really does kinda feel a little too "how do you do fellow kids?". I was interested in that Hot Wheels game that came out some years ago, but I never got it. What interested me about it was user created tracks. One of my favorite games as a teen was Mod Nation Racers for the PS3 and I loved the track creation and sharing. The customization of cars and characters was also very robust, which adds a lot to the play time. But that was a Mario Kart style game. Solid progression and story like in NFS Most Wanted (2005) probably makes the most difference imo. Other great arcade racers worth mentioning are the Tokyo Extreme Racer series games. I never got into Ridge Racer, but they certainly are an honorable mention. It just feels like arcade racers don't exist anymore except NFS, everyone wants to be a racing sim.

My issue with racing games is that they are no longer fun. None of them take a risk to make something new. I love arcade racing games but they all want to follow Forza Horizons success, which I hate. Be unique, be bold, take a risk. AAA racing games are creatively dead, Indie Dev's are the ones holding the torch for racing games now.

A lot of this is due to car compagnies being very rigid about what they allow developpers to do with their cars. In 2010, street racing and illegal races were peak in video games. Now, car companies are worried about the image of street racing, and developpers are hand tied to please them instead of focusing on fun. Making games with real cars became so complicated that developpers are struggling to respect all the rules car companies are imposing to let them use their car in their game. When you try to please everybody, you loose yourself. And that is what happened with car games Best exemple of this is how The Crew and Forza Horizon lost their story mode progressively with each new games

I just want to cruise around some track in Assetto Corsa if I think about racing game.

Whos nobody? Me and many others love racing games

i might be wrong, it’s like the flight simulator. Simulation games are still popular (iracing, rf2, acc) but arcade racing game is not popular any more

NFS biggest mistake - making racing games more realistic. Take NFS MW - the driving was amazing, and it was basically just a box with some weight, you straighten out of corner with a nos - except, for these few "drag racing" missions. There you didnt steer the car, but switched between lines at correct speed. It was clunky, the animation took time, rarely anyone liked them. Now forward to more recent NFS game, and the whole game feels like that. If we can say NFS MW had "animation cancel" ( I mean the car had weight obviously, but it was a good balance between car weight and animations it does to represent that weight) - then later games started to have "delayed animation cancel" - its as if they added so much to car movement, that they couldnt just force car model to react instantly, so they created an animation delay. I didnt leave NFS franchise because it didnt excite me, I left because the driving started sucking ass.

They need to bring back the days of going online, selecting a class, joining a lobby, voting on a track, going to race. There's no need for open world, just open roads. I would prefer racing on roadways, point-to-point, with no barriers (besides cliff side). Get away from the meet-up car culture and get back to the simplicity of street racing.

I still miss Split Second, Blur, and Motorstorm

We need a new Motorstorm...

Because pink slips need to be added to some racing games I would play all the time then

Driver San Francisco to me is the last racing games (idk if everyone will not even consider this game as racing games) that has unique feature and interesting story like what any racing games that let you shift and stole other cars in the city without even having your body getting out straightly from the car, its like seamless GTA not to mention this game has one of the best cockpit camera in racing games history only several racing games that let you do 360 steering wheel animation in cokpit view and how Tanner response to car crash

To this day I miss Midnight Club

Tokyo extreme racer. Is extremely underated.

How tf is it giving you a super car for 3,400,000 credits when a normal average car is usually 20 to 500 thousand credits you have to save up so much to buy any

I just want a new ridge racer. Give me closed circuit racing games!

Yes I still play NFS Underground 2 and NFS Heat, both with mods, Payback is installed and next on my list 👍🏻

Nothing ever reached the heights of Gran Turismo 2's career mode, were you buy your very bad second hand car and slowly upgrade it...There was also a nice variety of cars.I'm tired of seeing always the same Skylines, Veyron, Lambos....

Funny you say that. I’ve loved racing games all my life . Last 30 years and I’ll always love them. I actually don’t game much but do have sim racing setup and I’ve had the most fun on that thing. Especially in dirt rally and Wrc 10. Thanks to racing games. I’ll never get bored. The rest is just meh.

I want a racing game where its all abt unlocking new car and parts ......... and story that dont drag the game too much!!!

My all time favorite racing game was NFS high stakes.

I agree with all your points - especially with the lack of progression in modern racing games. I've barely played racing games over the past 5 years, because the main ones I've always loved are crap now-a-days: NFS: I'm currently playing NFS UG2 and am enjoying it more than Heat or Unbound, probably in part because it actually has a progression system. The last 2 NFS games are basically the same game - annoying "trendy" young people who's characters don't shut up, in a racing game with terrible driving physics, and I still can't choose from a wide range of headlights etc. I never played Payback. Forza Horizon: The series used to be a racing game and you used these cars to explore. Now it's an exploration game and you just happen to use cars to explore. Basically they're not racing games anymore - the game throws all sorts of cars at you form the beginning, the map is a mess of colorful icons and I have no idea what to do to progress, the credits bonus is reduced for racing on harder difficulties (no bonus at all for racing with rewind off), there is no longer any performance advantage I can tell for racing in manual, and I don't bloody well want to win socks! And Mexico was a terrible setting - basically just Australia (desert) from FH3 but less interesting. **EDIT** And your point about racing games feeling so similar now is so true, and actually also applies to FPS games. All people just sliding, bunny hopping around with colorful guns.

"Just to play it at max settings" This sentence is exactly why we don't get high end PC games like crysis 1 was in 2007. Max settings should be reserved for future hardware IMHO. Medium settings is the one we should focus on, the one designed for optimization and console equivalent settings, high should run well on current gen high end rigs.