Over the years, there have been a lot of great open-world racing games, but which ones are the best of all time?
Open-world games have become a big moneymaker in the gaming industry. Many well-known IPs, even ones that are known for being straight, like Sonic, have changed how they play to try to get a piece of the action. Unfortunately, this has led to a lot of mediocre releases that try to include an open world that doesn’t live up to expectations for marketing and advertising reasons. Still, if an open-world game is done well, it can give the player a great gaming experience that is hard to beat.
Most people think of RPGs and action-adventure games when they think of open-world games. Even though these types of games are the most popular in the open-world market, there have been a few great racing games that take place in huge game worlds that players can drive around and explore. The following open-world racing games are all winners because they have great driving controls, fun events, and maps that beg to be explored.
Crazy Taxi 3
Driving games are very popular right now, and Crazy Taxi 3 is by far the best one in the series. Fans can play it over and over again. This game is completely crazy. It takes the simple idea of driving a person to their destination and turns it into something so fun that people can spend hours and hours playing it.
It helps that this game has a lot of huge maps where players can get lost as they rush to get people to their destinations. West Coast, Glitter Island, and Small Apple are all full of details and offer a ton of crazy things to do as players try to get the highest score possible.
SnowRunner
SnowRunner is a driving simulation game that has taken the world by storm. Many players are still surprised by how many fans this game has. Trucks are some of the slowest vehicles ever made, but any game that gets the look and feel of them right becomes so popular in a certain area that other casual players can’t figure out what all the fuss is about.
Not everything needs to be broken down to the last detail, though. Sometimes, a game only needs to scratch a certain itch to win over a passionate group of fans, and SnowRunner’s off-roading shenanigans have done the same thing, making it a surprise hit.
Forza Horizon 3
Every game in the Forza Horizon series has been a hit, and the fourth game is no different. These games have huge open worlds with lots of races, tasks, ways to customize your car, and fun stories.
There’s no doubt that the playground in Forza Horizon 3 is a good fit for the game. Players love the idea that they can just jump into the game and mess around with any car they want. Even though Forza Horizon 4 and 5 were very popular, many fans still think that this game is better than them. This shows how many things this game did right.
Need For Speed Unbound
A lot of people who like racing video games think that the genre has stopped changing. It’s a fair complaint, since many games in this genre look the same and don’t really add anything new. So, it’s nice to see that Need for Speed Unbound has chosen to give the graphics their own look. In a field with a lot of games that all look the same, these really help the game stand out and look new.
In fact, Need For Speed Unbound’s cel-shaded graphics and 2D smoke trails are so different from other racing games that some fans of the genre find this visual change to be jarring. This shows how stale the racing genre has become in recent years. Need for Speed Unbound’s racing is good, and the open world is a lot of fun to explore, even if the grind to get new cars can get annoying for some players.
Driver: San Francisco
It’s too bad that there hasn’t been a big new Driver game in a while. San Francisco is a great game that makes you feel like an action hero when you’re behind the wheel. Players can do anything from act as getaway drivers to taking over the bodies of other drivers to drive their cars.
Driver: San Francisco is one of the most exciting driving games out there. Players have to complete a number of goals while going through a number of amazing set pieces. The ability to Shift is by far the best thing about this game, and it’s a shame that more racing games haven’t tried to include this unique feature.
Need For Speed Heat
The newest game in the series is Need for Speed Heat, and it’s a pretty good one. It’s clear that Ghost Games took what they learned from the last few NFS games and went all out to try to bring the series up to date.
They did a great job, and Need for Speed Heat is by far their best work. It’s too bad that the company was given a less important role, but many players were still happy that NFS was going back to Criterion Games.
Assetto Corsa
There’s a reason why so many people love Assetto Corsa. It’s a race simulation game that looks great and feels real. This game is a lot of fun for people who don’t want to stick to pure action games.
It’s a great game for people who like open-world racing games because there are so many interesting and unique places to go. It also helps that the game has some really cool cars that make exploring this world a lot of fun every time.
Need For Speed (2015)
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The first NFS game that Ghost Games made was a really good one. The races in Need for Speed (2015) are a lot of fun, and the game’s setting is worth mentioning on its own. Even though the main story was a little cheesy, it was a good way to keep you going through the races in this game.
Some people thought this game was a step backward, but the reboot of Need for Speed got one thing right: the mood. The rainy streets and night races still look great, and many people overlook the game’s many flaws just because the world looked so good when you were driving through it.
Midnight Club 3
It’s a shame that Rockstar’s Midnight Club series never really kept up with the times, since the company shifted its focus to open-world action games with a focus on driving instead of a game that was only about racing. Many Midnight Club fans are sad that this strategy has been taken, since one of their favorite racing series is no longer popular.
There are a lot of games in this series, so players don’t have to feel like they’re losing out on this great series. This game has a feel that can’t be beat, and if you play it, you’ll enjoy one of the best driving games you’ve ever played.
BeamNG.drive
BeamNG.drive is a simulation game about driving that is a lot of fun to play. Because of how realistic and fun the damage system is, crashing a car in this game is more fun than stressful.
The user-made material means that people will be able to play this game for a very long time. BeamNG.drive might be one of the hardest games on this list, but early access players will have a lot of fun with it.
Test Drive Unlimited 2
Eden Games made Test Drive Unlimited 2, which came out in November 2011 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. The game had a beautiful open world for its time that was based on the third-largest island in Hawaii, Oahu, and the Spanish island of Ibiza. Along with its great world design, Test Drive Unlimited 2 also impressed fans and reviewers with its wide range of vehicles. You could drive asphalt cars, off-road vehicles, classic cars, and motorcycles.
The game has a simple but fun campaign in which the player has to win a number of events in order to earn the Solar Crown.
The Crew 2
The Crew 2 came out in June 2018 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Breakout Game is different from most other race games because you can drive boats and planes as well as cars and motorcycles. The goal of the game is to do well in Pro Racing, Street Racing, Off-Road, and Freestyle.
At the 2018 Game Critic Awards, TheCrew 2 was up for Best Racing Game, but it lost to Forza Horizon 4.
Burnout Paradise
Before Burnout Paradise came out, the Burnout series was known for its arcade-style, over-the-top street racing. So, when it was stated that Burnout Paradise 2008 would have an open world, a lot of people were upset because they thought it was an unnecessary addition that would take away from the action.
But soon it was clear that Criterion Games and Electronic Arts knew what they were doing. After the game came out, data showed that “90% of players didn’t even touch the races,” choosing instead to “focus on the game’s social features and explore the big new world.” It’s not hard to see why, because even though the game’s events were still fun, the best part was just going around the world, which was made with great care and was unlike anything else at the time. It was similar to Grand Theft Auto 5 in many ways, even though it came out five years before Grand Theft Auto 5.
Burnout Paradise is one of the most important open-world games of all time because of how this surprising discovery changed how AAA creators thought about and made open-world games.
Need For Speed: Underground 2
Need for Speed: Underground 2 came out in 2004, which is even more amazing when you think about how rare open-world games were at the time, mostly because hardware couldn’t handle them.
In addition to its open world, EA’s Need for Speed: Underground 2 stood out for its great customization choices, its story-driven campaign told through cutscenes that looked like comic strips, and its catchy soundtrack. As for the racing itself, Need for Speed: Underground 2 had a lot of different game modes, like Drag Racing, Drifting, Circuit Race, and Street X, where four racers fight on tight, narrow tracks.
Forza Horizon 5
Forza Horizon 5 doesn’t try to change the wheel. Its core gameplay is similar to that of its predecessor, Forza Horizon 4, but the map is completely different. Forza Horizon 5 takes place in a made-up version of Mexico, which is set on a map with a lot of different biomes that players can explore.
Forza Horizon 5 was a big hit with both fans and critics, as shown by its Metacritic scores of 92 from reviewers and 8.2 from users. The game also did very well at the end-of-year award shows, where it won many prizes, including Best Sports/Racing Game at The Game Awards.
