What are the best racing games in 2019?

Which is your favourite?

2y ago
25.5K

In a world where a passion for cars can be a very expensive hobby to indulge in, racing games can often be the perfect solution. In fact, it’s a lot cheaper to hop into a simrig or grab a games controller than it is to buy, transport and maintain a racecar.

There are many options in the racing game market ranging from extremely realistic simracing titles to more relaxed arcade games. To find out which are the best, I have selected my top five. Let me know which you prefer. ..

Forza Horizon 4

The Forza Horizon franchise has been going for many years now and the fourth instalment follows the previous three’s high standard of quality. Forza Horizon 4 may not have the most realistic physics or the most challenging AI, but it does have an amazingly large map that’s free to explore and a range of incredible and whacky features.

It takes place in a fictional recreation of the UK based around the main city of Edinburgh. Players can roam freely around the map taking part in races, buying properties, causing chaos and taking fantastic pictures of the amazing scenery. The car list is absolutely massive with over 450 real cars and it’s constantly expanding with bonus content being added monthly. By far the best part of the game has to be the LEGO expansion pack letting the player drive some great LEGO based recreations of real-world cars.

Forza Horizon 4 is a great game for anyone interested in larking about in a massive map with more cars than you can shake a stick at. However, it may not be the game to get for those of us attracted to the simulation side of gaming.

iRacing

For those that do prefer to simulate the racing world as accurately as possible, iRacing has to be the title of choice. It’s been in development for over 11 years making a name for itself as the most realistic racing simulator on the market. Thanks to this reputation, some of the world’s greatest real-world racers can often be seen racing in its servers.

In fact, iRacing takes place completely online as opposed to most games that have both single and multiplayer modes. Thanks to a unique system that ranks a player’s skill and safety, races are always close but fair.

Just like Forza Horizon 4, iRacing’s car list is vast covering the main international championships, which allows the game’s producers to organise official online recreations of real world races. Just recently, F1 aces Max Verstappen and Lando Norris won the 24 Hours of Spa while internet superstar Jimmy Broadbent won his split at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

This might all sound amazing but there is a downside. iRacing’s payment plan places it as one of the most expensive titles as users are asked to pay a monthly fee of $13 and this doesn’t even come with all the content provided by the company. Just a handful of cars and tracks are available with the base membership – every extra car costs a one-time fee of $11.95 and every track costs between $11.95 and $14.95.

Assetto Corsa Competizione

The original Assetto Corsa has become loved by all despite its producers, Kunos Simulazione abandoning it to focus on their new title, Assetto Corsa Competizione. Where the original AC focused on creating a community of simracers through modding, the newer Competizione has its eyes set on giving players the best experience for a single series. In fact, Competizione is the official game of the Blancpain GT Series featuring the entire grid for the 2018 season and every track from both the Sprint and Endurance championships.

Aiming to replicate the series as best as possible, the game features amazing graphics allowing the player to feel totally immersed. Just imagine working your way through the traffic in the middle of a 24-Hour race, at night on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Assetto Corsa Competizione has one of the best day to night transitions on the market as well as one of the best weather models making endurance races truly challenging.

Dirt Rally 2.0

Dirt Rally 2.0 is the second title in over 15 years that properly simulates the art of rallying after the first game in the Dirt Rally series brought rallying back into the interest of gamers. Before these two games, rally enthusiasts had to make do with the terribly unrealistic Dirt games or the outdated Richard Burns Rally.

Dirt Rally 2.0 features rallying legends from all the important eras of rallying from the old school Minis and Alpines to Group B monsters like the Audi Quattro and the Lancia 037. The game also includes rally stages spanning the globe encompassing each surface type from tarmac to gravel to snow and mud.

Raceroom Racing Experience

Being a fairly cheap title, RaceRoom Racing Experience’s quality is always assumed to be poor. However, the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” has never been truer than when describing this game.

R3E has a wide array of cars and tracks from classic GT cars to modern TCR racers. If you have a tight budget, this game comes completely free with a few cars and tracks. The more high-quality content can be bought car by car and track by track or as part of large packs grouping categories and series together. All-in-all, the entire game costs just over $100 if the content is purchased smartly.

Each of the 152 cars and 82 track layouts can be tested for free though and content can be won through the game’s different competitions in which one laps a car around a track trying to set lap times and beating online competitors.

RaceRoom is loved by simracers for its amazing sounds. Sounds in games are often forgotten and dismissed as a minimal part of the driving experience. However, not only does it improve a game’s immersion it can also give a lot of information on what the car’s doing underneath you.

Honourable mention: GTR2

All these modern games may be absolutely amazing but, in my opinion, none of them have quite surpassed the 2006 classic, GTR2. Much like ACC, this game focuses on just one series, the 2003 and 2004 editions of the FIA GT series. It features all the cars and tracks from these two years including the top GT1 class, the GT2 class and the special endurance cars that joined the series for the Spa 24 Hours.

Alongside these two championships, GTR2 also features great modding support meaning there are thousands of pieces of third party content to be found online. Some mods address the ageing graphics whilst some add modern day racecars, tracks and championships.

Despite being an old game, it is still able to support large scale races. In fact, during my time playing it, I have put over 100 cars on large tracks like the Nurburgring recreating my own VLN races. Furthermore more, the AI is capable of handling multiclass situations whilst battling with players. This is something even the more modern sims would struggle with.

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Comments (87)

  • Project cars 2

      2 years ago
  • My choice isn’t on here. I’m just waiting for the new Need For Speed game.

      2 years ago
    • Hopefully they get rid of the terrible card upgrades. I miss actually buying parts. For the love of god they need to add fine tuning again. Like carbon and most wanted. Or better yet underground’s fine tuning and dyno. NFS Payback was lacking...

      Read more
        2 years ago
    • I agree. The last nfs I loved was rivals.

        2 years ago
  • Forzzzaaaaa

      2 years ago
  • Wreckfest.

      2 years ago
  • Gran Turismo Sport shuts them all down.

      2 years ago
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