Gamers, start your controllers!
This week marks the long-anticipated return of simulation stock car racing with the release of NASCAR 25, developed by iRacing Studios. Get ready to compete for championship glory with the likes of Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Chase Elliott and all your other favorite NASCAR stars.
Since we’re all revved up for racing, that got us thinking — what racing video games throughout history stand the test of time? From Daytona USA to Mario Kart 8, here’s our list of the 10 most iconic racing games (listed in reverse chronological order):
Mario Kart 8
Release date: 2014/2017 (Deluxe)
For a time, it was difficult to pick which version of Mario Kart was the most significant, but Mario Kart 8 put an end to that discussion with over a decade of relevance to go with both series and genre records for sales. It perfected the Mario Kart model that had been in place to one degree or another since Mario Kart 64 in 1996, to the point that Nintendo completely changed gears for the next entry in the series, the open-world Mario Kart World.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Release date: 2005
We’ve reached the 20th anniversary of what is considered the cream of the crop and the bestseller of the longstanding street-racing series. What sets this game apart from others in the series was the enhanced police pursuit feature, which saw players amp their “most wanted level” while having to evade the police, who unleashed a bevy of tactics in trying to capture the offending driver. As Tom Cruise famously said in “Top Gun,” I feel the need, the need for speed.
R4: Ridge Racer Type 4
Release date: 1999
There isn’t a more stylish racer on the Playstation, and that combined with the sleek, perfect feel of Ridge Racer’s well-practiced, fast-paced and drift-heavy style makes for an all-time — and important — great. The worst thing you can say about R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 is that there isn’t more of it, but what’s here is more than enough to satisfy even decades later. Pop on the soundtrack and get lost in its peak-90s drum and bass, acid-jazz stylings.
Gran Turismo
Release date: 1997
The impact of this series (now up to its seventh iteration) can’t be overstated. But it’s the original that had the biggest impact on the gaming community, as Gran Turismo ranks as the top-selling Playstation game of all time (yes, even more than a pair of Final Fantasy games) with nearly 11 million copies sold. This game introduced a sense of driving realism not seen in previous racing titles, with players having to earn various levels of driver’s licenses to unlock events, as well as the ability to choose from 140 different cars.
Cruis’n’ USA
Release date: 1996
Along with Daytona USA, Cruis’n USA was one of the first arcade racing games that captured your imagination. For millennials, it was the go-to racing game on Nintendo 64. The N64 version of the game was not the same as what we got in arcades, but it signified a change in how these games were played. It was one of the first, if not the first, racing games that was in full color with commentary and sound effects to go along with it. Cruis’n’ is not the best game on the list, but its importance cannot be denied.
Daytona USA
Release date: 1994
This is arguably the most recognizable arcade racing game of all time. And playing this game was a true experience. The twin cabinet complete with a seat, steering wheel and gas/brake pedals literally put you in the driver’s seat of a stock car as you chased the field trying to complete checkpoints before time ran out. For anyone under the legal driving age, this game felt as close as you could get to being behind the wheel of a car.
F-Zero
Release date: 1991
SNES launch game F-Zero featured what looked like true 3D turns and corners, but the trick was that it was the environment moving around the car rather than the other way around. It’s responsible for an entire subgenre of futuristic racing games that feature unbelievable high speeds. The original holds up to this day, and Nintendo released a modified version of it for the Switch with 99 vehicles racing at once and wider tracks to accommodate them.
Ivan ‘Ironman’ Stewart’s Super Off Road
Release date: 1989
It’s hard to overstate just how cool this game was in any local arcade. The distinct three steering-wheel set up featuring the colors red, yellow and blue stands the test of time. In an era of joysticks and button mashing, Off Road allowed you to steer and control the gas with the built-in pedal as you whipped in a frenzy — and I mean frenzy —around dirt tracks. Oh, and there was nothing sweeter than hitting the turbo button for a wild ride down the backstretch.
Ivan ‘Ironman’ Stewart’s Super Off Road.
OutRun
Release date: 1986
In OutRun, you aren’t racing an opponent other than the clock. You’re in a Ferrari Testarossa, driving through countryside and desert, toward the next branching pathway checkpoint before you run out of time. Dodge cars, avoid crashing into trees and signs, and shift into high-gear as soon as you’re able. Simple in concept, difficult in practice — but its all-time great soundtrack compels you to drop another quarter in and try again whenever you run out of road.
Pole Position
Release date: 1982
A game like Pole Position, with its chase cam, faux-3D presentation and Formula 1 bent, was inevitable. Namco released it in 1982, though, four years before OutRun landed in arcades, before the technology for such a title even existed: Namco created it themselves, during its multi-year development. Pole Position shouldn’t have existed when it did, basically, but nearly everything else on this list — and plenty of other racing games besides — exist because it does.
Honorable mention: Wave Race 64, NASCAR Thunder 2024, Forza Motorsport 4, R.C. Pro-Am, Danny Sullivan’s Indy Heat, Excitebike
