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Best racing games on GamesNostalgia

Racing games, where players have the chance to drive a powerful car, have been a staple in the video game industry since the early days of arcade gaming. Of course, it's not just about cars, it could also be motorcycles, and it can be street racing, track racing, or offroad. What's important is the vehicle should be fast and fun to drive. Pole Position, released in 1982, was the first biggest arcade hit, while the first popular computer game was probably Pitstop II, released in 1984. One year later, Geoff Crammod created the first racing simulation when he developed Revs for BBC Micro.

In 1986, OutRun revolutionized the genre and set the tone for many other street racing games, with 2D pixel-art graphics, music, and a behind view showing the driver and his girlfriend.

Hard Drivin' in 1989 was the first racing game to use 3D graphics, but many games continued to adopt 2D graphics, like the well-known Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge for the Amiga, a game famous for the split-screen 2-player mode. There are also motorcycle games, like Super Hang-On, an arcade ported to many platforms, and Thalion's No Second Prize.

In 1991, the legendary Formula 1 Grand Prix (aka World Circuit) by Geoff Crammod was released. It was a realistic Formula 1 simulator with 3D graphics, a damage system, weather effects, and many other details nobody had seen before.

With the arrival of Windows 95 and more powerful graphics cards, many great racing games were released, like Screamer and, most importantly, The Need for Speed, published in 1995, a game that inspired movies and books.

The famous combat racing game Road Rash was released in 1996, like Death Rally, while the two fantastic driving/racing simulations Midtown Madness and Driver saw the light in 1999.

You can find many other racing games in this list, from Super Mario Kart clones to sci-fi racing sims or post-apocalyptic races. Just browse the list and have fun!

Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 amiga

Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 is the second game in the Lotus arcade racing trilogy. It was developed by Magnetic Fields and published by Gremlin Graphics in 1991 for the Amiga and Atari ST.

Year: 1991 Genre: Racing

2 players automobile licensed multiplayer racing split-screen street racing

Crazy Cars III amiga

Crazy Cars III (re-released later as Lamborghini: American Challenge) is the third entry in the Crazy Cars series. It was developed and published by Titus France in 1992 for the Amiga, DOS, Atari, and others.

Year: 1992 Genre: Racing

automobile racing street racing vehicle simulator

Stunt Car Racer TNT amiga

Stunt Car Racer The New Tracks (or simply, TNT) is an Amiga reverse-engineered modification of Stunt Car Racer created by AmiGer. It was released in 2004. This unofficial update ...

Year: 2004 Genre: Racing

2 players 3d first-person freeware multiplayer polygons racing reverse engineered track racing

Stunt Car Racer amigaatari-8-bit

Stunt Track Racer (Stunt Car Racer in the UK) is a racing videogame developed by Geoff Crammond and published by MicroStyle in 1989. It was released for the Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC.

Year: 1989 Genre: Racing

2 players atari st automobile driving multiplayer racing stunts track racing vehicle simulator

The Need for Speed dos

The Need for Speed is the first racing game in the Need for Speed Series, and it was developed and published by Electronic Arts (EA) in 1994 for 3DO. It was ported to DOS in 1995, and PlayStation and Sega Saturn in 1996.

Year: 1995 Genre: Racing

3do automobile racing street racing vehicle simulator

Grand Prix II dos

Grand Prix II, also known as Formula One Grand Prix 2, is the second Formula 1 racing game in the series created by Geoff Crammond. It was published by MicroProse in 1995 for MS-DOS.

Year: 1995 Genre: Racing

automobile f1 racing track racing vehicle simulator

Formula 1 Grand Prix amiga

Formula 1 Grand Prix (known as World Circuit in the US) is the first title of the racing games series created by Geoff Crammond. It was published by Microprose. Grand Prix 1, whi...

Year: 1991 Genre: Racing

3d automobile driving f1 hotseat multiplayer racing track racing vehicle simulator

NASCAR Racing dos

NASCAR Racing, released in 1994 for DOS, was the first game in the NASCAR Racing series developed by Papyrus started in 1994. The series continued with NASCAR 2 and ended with the release of NASCAR Racing 2003.

Year: 1994 Genre: Racing

automobile driving racing track racing vehicle simulator

Virtua Racing Deluxe sega-32x

Virtua Racing is a 3D arcade racing game created by SEGA in 1992. Due to its fantastic success, the game was also ported to the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis, thanks to an additional chip (SVP) added to the cartridge.

Year: 1994 Genre: Racing

3d coin-op conversion polygons racing track racing

No Second Prize amigaatari-st

No Second Prize is a superbike racing sim for Amiga and Atari ST created by Thalion Software and released in 1992. Designed by Erik Simon, the game features fast 3D graphics based ...

Year: 1992 Genre: Racing

3d atari st motorcycle polygons racing track racing vehicle simulator

NASCAR 2 dos

NASCAR Racing 2 is a racing sim created by Papyrus Design and published by Sierra On-Line for PC in 1996. Now available with the new wrapper of NASCAR 2 with 3Dfx nGlide! It was th...

Year: 1996 Genre: Racing

3d acceleration automobile physics racing track racing vehicle simulator

XTreme Racing amiga

Xtreme Racing is a kart racing videogame created by Siltunna Software exclusively for Amiga and published in 1995. The game is inspired by the famous Super Mario Kart, released for the SNES in 1992.

Year: 1995 Genre: Racing

2 players 3d aga amiga original game automobile competitive driving multiplayer racing split-screen texture map

Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge amiga

Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge is the first game of the popular series of racing games developed originally by Magnetic Fields for the Amiga. Lotus I was published by Gremlins Graphi...

Year: 1990 Genre: Racing

2 players amiga original game automobile driving racing split-screen street racing

Super Cars II amiga

Super Cars 2 is the sequel to the racing game Super Cars created by Magnetic Fields. Published by Gremlin Graphics, Super Cars II was released only for Amiga and Atari St, in 1991.

Year: 1991 Genre: Racing

2 players automobile competitive extra half-brite multi-directional racing split-screen top-down