Car racing games on PC?

[[VR] optimal_909]

There you go.

It is also on my wishlist.

I used to be an avid Gran Turismo fan, then with GT6 the disappoinment was so great it made completely ditch the genre, never bought another steering wheel (in liue of the broken one), sold my seat and that was it.

Then I realized the best fun I had in online gaming was GTA Race in GTA IV. Some events in GTA V are nice, but it doesn't come close. However, this Wreckfest could be something for a casual fun. Proper racing is either too serious online, or degarde into a 'wreckfest', so why not get a game whose objective is to win by any means necessary?

 

[CMDR DAVID187]

I've been out of the action for a long time. My last often played racing game was the all time classic Geoff Crammond's Formula One Grand Prix, on an Amiga!

https://www.mobygames.com/game/world-circuit

Since then i dabbled in the first Forza on Xbox (original) which was decent, and F1 Career Challenge on PS2 which was strangely less interesting than the old Amiga Formula One Grand Prix!

Anyway for some reason i never got into 'racers' on PC much and have a desire to get back into some of that. So what suggestions do the good people have here?

I do have some specifics i'm after, but am generally interested in what people consider their 'best' game in the genre?

===============
Specifics are:

Wants:

1. Good single player campaign mode, lots of vehicles plus upgrades to them during all the campaign stuff.
2. Varied terrain types (road, track, dirt etc) to race on and decent landscapes and environment effects.
3. Reasonable realism (vs pure outlandish arcade fun) with proper damage affects on cars performance.
4. Something that performs decently on mid-range hardware, with as few bugs as possible!

Don't Wants:

1. Not official track bound games (so not a Grand Prix/Nascar kind of thing).
2. Not an online only/connection required game (I'm just looking for single player without that complication).
3. No loot-boxes, paid for (in real money) unlocks, or any kind of 'nickel and dime' DLC nonsense.
4. PC spec requirements so high it needs a +£700 GPU, in SLI!

I'm not even sure of the franchise names these days, even on the consoles, so it's a bit of a new genre thing for me considering how long ago i was into these kind of games.

Looking forward to the suggestions

without doubt get assetto Corsa dirt cheap , runs on a potato unlimited supply of free quality mods , fully licensed cars and laser scanned tracks. Sublime physics and handling. You cannot go wrong.

 

[Rilzi]

I'll add a racing(ish) game ive been obsessed with for the last couple of weeks - Revhead. Its an indie eurojank Streetrod type game. It has car building similar to Car Mechanic Simulator, with some open world stuff and pretty nice racing. There's not a huge variety of tracks and physics and ai are iffy, but the fun of building a racecar/off roader/dragcar rhe competing with them is a lot of fun.

 

[Surefoot]

how is the VR support in Project Cars 2? Performance on a 1080ti?

It's good, better than PCars 1. At least it's native from inception as in the first game it was a bit slapped on at last minute.. Performance was good on a 1080 so i guess 1080ti is quite enough.

 

[Jakester13]

Another Plus for Wreckfest from me. I have been playing this for a few weeks, and it's pretty good, although there are no serious races, only wreckfests!

The campaign is long and multi-faceted, and multiplayer is well populated, although I have met some "types" online who I will be avoiding...

Also it's quite an old engine so with a good rig you can push it to the max and it looks good.

Also +1 for Dirt Rally (VR), although I do prefer the jostle of simultaneous racing to time-trialling.

o7

 

[Zak Gordon]

Well i have finally gotten around to installing and playing one of my 'new' car games, and i must say that i think it is nearly exactly what i was looking for on PC, talking about the original Test Drive Unlimited

Here is a let's play (not mine, just a decent one) of the opening game for those that are curios about it:

[video=youtube;ctG625kBa9A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctG625kBa9A[/video]

Overall this is about as close to Forza Horizons as i could get (off course if on Windows 10 you can try the latest Forza Horizons) without buying a second hand Xbox360. I think the graphics are fine, and the gameplay is all i was looking for in this kind of game. I would like more depth, and a better risk/reward in terms of car damage and needing to pay for repairs, which Test Drive Unlimited does not take into account. Still overall i'm having a blast in the base (v1.66) game and when i have got the hang of things a bit have the highly recommended Community Pack v1.04 mod to install

TOCA race driver 3 will have to wait a little i suspect.

 

[ITZC0ATL]

I've been out of the action for a long time. My last often played racing game was the all time classic Geoff Crammond's Formula One Grand Prix, on an Amiga!

https://www.mobygames.com/game/world-circuit

Since then i dabbled in the first Forza on Xbox (original) which was decent, and F1 Career Challenge on PS2 which was strangely less interesting than the old Amiga Formula One Grand Prix!

Anyway for some reason i never got into 'racers' on PC much and have a desire to get back into some of that. So what suggestions do the good people have here?

I do have some specifics i'm after, but am generally interested in what people consider their 'best' game in the genre?

===============
Specifics are:

Wants:

1. Good single player campaign mode, lots of vehicles plus upgrades to them during all the campaign stuff.
2. Varied terrain types (road, track, dirt etc) to race on and decent landscapes and environment effects.
3. Reasonable realism (vs pure outlandish arcade fun) with proper damage affects on cars performance.
4. Something that performs decently on mid-range hardware, with as few bugs as possible!

Don't Wants:

1. Not official track bound games (so not a Grand Prix/Nascar kind of thing).
2. Not an online only/connection required game (I'm just looking for single player without that complication).
3. No loot-boxes, paid for (in real money) unlocks, or any kind of 'nickel and dime' DLC nonsense.
4. PC spec requirements so high it needs a +£700 GPU, in SLI!

I'm not even sure of the franchise names these days, even on the consoles, so it's a bit of a new genre thing for me considering how long ago i was into these kind of games.

Looking forward to the suggestions

Honestly mate I would recommend picking up Forza Horizon 4 if your hardware will support it, it does seem to tick your boxes!

I got it on day one and so far it's been an absolute blast, best racing game I've played in ages. Yes, there are plenty of people playing it that don't take it seriously, but I have all the assists (TC, SC, etc.) turned off, use manual gearing and turned the difficulty way up, and it's plenty challenging. The physics aren't simulation-grade, but they are some of the best in an 'arcade' game that I've played to date.

The huge draw of the game for me is the car customisation though, as you can do engine swaps, fit different types of suspension for racing vs drift vs rally, different tyres for racing vs drag, and loads more. You can properly alter the characteristics of just about any car and make it suit the purpose you want, and get real creative with it.

Here's what an evening of play for me entailed last night:

Spoiler

Bought a drift Beemer, applied the base paint and took it for a spin

Threw on some stickers, gave it some racing stripes to go faster

Time for some tandem fun!

The other recommendation I would make it definitely Project Cars 2, for a 'proper' simulation experience. It has its issues, most notably AI strength can vary quite a bit from track to track and between weather conditions, but the game's physics are an absolute joy to drive. PC2 with a wheel (and of course VR if you have it) is one of the best driving experiences you can get IMO on a PC, it's just so atmospheric and immersive and you have lots of control over the settings so you can do what you want.

Whether that be flogging a rally car around the Brands Hatch RX circuit, driving a Le Mans car flat out around Bathurst, vintage F1 at classic Monza, running GT3 at Long Beach, whatever you're into motorsports-wise should pretty much be in PC2.

The first Dirt Rally, I also really enjoyed, so I imagine Dirt Rally 2.0 will be pretty good also, for the more 'serious' side of rally! For an upgraded challenge run with HUD turned off completely and just rely on the in-car instrumentation and pace notes to make your way down the course at breakneck speeds!

 

[Rojo Habe]

Well i have finally gotten around to installing and playing one of my 'new' car games, and i must say that i think it is nearly exactly what i was looking for on PC, talking about the original Test Drive Unlimited

Here is a let's play (not mine, just a decent one) of the opening game for those that are curios about it:



Overall this is about as close to Forza Horizons as i could get (off course if on Windows 10 you can try the latest Forza Horizons) without buying a second hand Xbox360. I think the graphics are fine, and the gameplay is all i was looking for in this kind of game. I would like more depth, and a better risk/reward in terms of car damage and needing to pay for repairs, which Test Drive Unlimited does not take into account. Still overall i'm having a blast in the base (v1.66) game and when i have got the hang of things a bit have the highly recommended Community Pack v1.04 mod to install

TOCA race driver 3 will have to wait a little i suspect.

I had a lot of fun with TDU2; might have to dig it out and start playing again. I have to say from that video the original looks better, although that may just be my failing memory.

In TDU2 you started in Majorca: a whole new island to explore before graduating to Hawaii.

 

[Zak Gordon]

Honestly mate I would recommend picking up Forza Horizon 4 if your hardware will support it, it does seem to tick your boxes!

Windows 10 only (or Xbox One). So erm no. I've been watching Vintage Beef's let's plays of the Forza Horizon games (he played the all) and i would say from what i've seen of the latest it pretty much throws cars at you, which i was disappointed with. I much prefer the challenge i'm finding in TDU 1 Graphically all the Forza Horizons are stunning, but good old TDU is good enough for me (some of the car models are fantastic).

I had a lot of fun with TDU2; might have to dig it out and start playing again. I have to say from that video the original looks better, although that may just be my failing memory.

In TDU2 you started in Majorca: a whole new island to explore before graduating to Hawaii.

TDU 1 is mostly considered to be the overall 'better' game in the series, from what i have gathered geeking out in the various forums etc. There is a whole section of the game still able to be played online (if that is your thing) IF you are prepared to download mods from the internet and use private servers that fans have running (it seems these can be hit and miss if up or not).

As with most of my games i like to mod the real classics heavily (CivIV to Morrowind to Fallout 3 etc) and i'm still gathering intel on what is possible with TDU 1, which seems quite a lot, there is even an in-game editor to create your own missions, which i only found about when the game told me i had unlocked it But now i'm looking at the environmental graphics mods and will probably work out how to mod things myself once i've sunk some decent time into the game.

One thing i modded already is the radio stations. Tips ahead:

1. In your 'My Documents' Folder there will be a 'Test Drive Unlimited' folder that contains your profile and save game.

2. Open that and create a folder called 'Radio'. Now open that and create a folder with the name of your radio station (mine is 'Synth Pacific FM').

3. Inside that folder put your selection of mp3 music track files. UPDATE: You can have a max of 4 stations each with a max of 32 songs.

4. When in game use the radio ('R' key by default) and cycle through the stations (Numpad number 9 by default) until you see your channel. Use '+' to increase the volume (it seems to default to low/off) and enjoy your own music choice in game. Mine is pure 80's synth stuff, perfect for driving

IF you delete a profile (to start over a game etc) you will lose all the mp3 tracks, SO keep the whole nested folders (Radio>My Station>all the mp3's) copied to another folder so you can simply copy/paste them back when needed.

Now my Nissan 350Z S-tune is not quite fast enough, i need more speed, so i'm saving my pennies for a Maserati GranSport, it could take a while.

EDIT: Ok well i came across a 'tuner' shop and was able to upgrade my Nissan to max for around $30,000. Much cheaper than that Maserati!

I also added a little extra info on adding your own custom music to the game