10 Racing Games That Need To Be Remastered

Ah, we’re feeling a little nostalgic for old video games again at the moment. You can thank Bethesda and its wonderful remaster of Oblivion for that one.

As a website with ‘Car’ in its title, though, we’re naturally going to have to project this internalised feeling of being old in the way we know best – by listing a bunch of old racing games we want to see return.

We’ve tried to keep this list to games that have a semi-realistic chance of making a comeback – as much as we’d love Gran Turismo 4 on PS5, it’s just never going to happen. Some are more ambitious than others, though.

So, here are 10 racing games that we think need a remaster  – and please tell us on socials about the ones you think we’ve missed.

Need For Speed: Most Wanted

Ask anyone what their favourite Need For Speed game is, and we’d bet £5 that more people than not will say 2005’s Most Wanted.

The definitive game of the series? We think so, and it’s bordering on a crime that it’s now under the realm of abandonware, with no way to play the game without owning a physical copy for the PS2, Xbox, 360, Gamecube or PC. Or *cough* other means.

Reports of a remaster happening emerged in 2023, but seemingly those turned out to be little more than rumours. With no new Need For Speed on the horizon, as developers Criterion are focused on Battlefield, we’d love that void to be filled with a return to Rockport.

Ridge Racer Type 4

Last year, Sony re-released Ridge Racer Type 4 on PS5 in its original form. Delightful? Yes. Is it enough to tide us over? Not quite.

You see, the world has been without a proper new Ridge Racer game since 2012, and the recent unearthing of a cancelled Nintendo Switch title suggests that’s not going to change anytime soon.

Type 4 is still fun to play, but its age shows graphically, with no option to play it in 16:9, and by its slightly janky controls. Give us the excellent single-player career and wonderful soundtrack in a modern-looking and feeling package, and we’d probably not leave the house for a while.

Auto Modellista

Even within the already niche circle of racing games, Auto Modellista is a rare groove. This cel-shaded racer made an appearance on the PS2, original Xbox and GameCube but never really caught mainstream attention.

A sequel never materialised, which means its early ‘00s physical releases are the only way to play the cult favourite. Ported to modern consoles, we think this would turn out to be a real hit today, in the same way that the new Tokyo Xtreme Racer has taken off.

Midnight Club: Los Angeles

Given Rockstar is now all-in on making as much money from the Grand Theft Auto series as possible, we suspect there’ll never be another Midnight Club game.

That leaves MC: LA as the most recent and probably final entry into the excellent series. It’s playable via backwards compatibility on Xbox consoles, but its servers are offline, meaning you can’t get the full, original experience.

If Rockstar fancied giving it a graphical lift, functioning online and releasing it for modern hardware, we’d consider that enough of a remaster for us.

Given the amount of licensed content in the game, it’s likely a lot trickier than we’ve made it sound. We won’t lose hope, though.

Destruction Derby

Wreckfest stands alone in the realm of demolition derby games, and while the original is a magnificent title and the Early Access sequel is showing promise, we think there’s room in this world for another.

For those of you born after the original PlayStation was a thing, Destruction Derby released in 1995 and was pretty much as it said on the tin. You crashed into other cars and aimed to be the last man standing.

A simple concept, but one we think needs to be updated for the modern era.

Stuntman

Ok, so Stuntman isn’t really a racing game… but it carved such a niche and interesting concept of its own, we think it’s worth mentioning on this list.

The original was released in 2002 and saw you take on the role of a stuntman (shock), shooting driving scenes for various fictional films. It did get a sequel in Stuntman Ignition in 2007, but that never quite hit the same.

Time for the original to be revisited? We think so.

Race Driver: GRID

In the time between us starting this list and you reading it, Codemasters had announced it was halting production of its rally games, leaving its only ongoing series the officially licensed F1 titles.

We’re rather sad about that, as the best Codies games have always strayed a little further from the mainstream. If it has time on its hands to fill with the absence of a new WRC game, we have a pitch for them.

It’s time for the original Race Driver: Grid to be revisited. We’re in a golden era of sim racing titles, but there’s space for the more arcade-style take on motorsport that Grid once filled. Sequels have never captured the magic of the original, which has now been confined to the realms of abandonware. That needs to change.

Burnout 3: Takedown

Given how well-received Burnout Paradise Remastered was, and that it’s now been long enough since its release to almost be in contention for another remaster, we think it’s about time EA revisited older titles in the series.

If any of them needs to be brought to modern hardware, we think it needs to be Burnout 3: Takedown. Change nothing about the gameplay, cars and immaculate soundtrack, but improve those graphics, give the online mode a new lease of life and make its crash physics even more spectacular.

Micro Machines V3

Ok, now we’re just flexing our niche racing game knowledge here. We’ll forgive you if you’ve never even heard of this one.

Micro Machines V3 was released in 1997 (and another underrated gem from Codemasters), bringing the Micro Machines toys to the virtual world. This top-down racer was the third in the series, and to us at least, the best of the lot.

Put it on the Nintendo Switch 2, and we think it’d be one of the best pick-up-and-play racers of its kind.

Sega Rally Championship

If you’re anything like us, whenever you step into an arcade, the first thing you’ll go looking for is Sega Rally Championship.

It’s a game that needs no introduction, but one that’s proving harder to find machines to drop your £1 coins into as time passes.

While it was ported to the Sega Saturn and later to Windows, it’s now impossible to play the title by legal means on modern hardware. Given that the original Ridge Racer is about to find its way to consoles, we hope Sega Rally Championship follows suit.

That, or Over Jump Rally gets the green light we’ve long been waiting for.