8 Forgotten Racing Games You Need To Play

We all know how good Forza Horizon and Gran Turismo are and have consistently been for years now. We could tell you to go and play the newest F1 game, The Crew Motorfest, or recount classic series like Burnout or PS2-era Need For Speed.

But you know those already. What if you want something to play that you’d never considered, or quite simply, forgot existed?

Well, we’ve been feeling all nostalgic for niche retro titles, and have picked out some racing games that time forgot, and we think you should revisit.

Enthusia Professional Racing

Releasing a competitor on the PS2 to Gran Turismo 4 in 2005 was basically setting up a game for failure. Konami tried it anyway with Enthusia Professional Racing, and well… it’s ended up in this list, hasn’t it?

Enthusia aimed to be even more simulation than GT, at a time when that was about as realistic as driving games got.

Its physics model was genuinely impressive (just take a look at the real-life comparison video below for an idea), but the game was overall just a bit too strange for most, with an unusual progression system that penalised you for changing cars or crashing them.

It could never find light among the shadow of Gran Turismo 4 at the time. Worth giving a go now, though? We reckon so.

Auto Modellista

We’ll take any opportunity to shout about Auto Modellista. Released on PS2 in 2002 for Japan and Europe, later updated for the US in 2003, the cel-shaded racer has to be one of the most under-appreciated games ever made.

The JDM-drenched drift racing game reviewed poorly at launch but has aged gracefully, largely because no other mainstream racing game has attempted to replicate its art style. Unsurprisingly, as a result, it was hard to find new, meaning copies are now scarce and expensive. We’ll be clinging on to ours, then.

Emulation is probably your best bet if you don’t fancy stumping up the cash for a copy. That, or hold out for Kaido Genkai.

Le Mans 24 Hours

Basing a game entirely around the 24 Hours of Le Mans is something that could’ve only been pulled off in the 2000s we think, before games got too expensive to be small-scale yet graphically and technically good enough to faithfully imitate something.

Le Mans 24 Hours was a convincing effort (and known to you in the US as Test Drive Le Mans). Yet, because it was such a niche title, it never really gained major mainstream attention. We’d recommend giving it a go now, if only to drive a McLaren F1 GTR Longtail.

Blur

Blur, unfortunately, became a, err, blur in the history of racing games. This arcade racer combined Need For Speed-style racing with Mario Kart power-ups, and the end result was sublime.

A sequel was in the works, but Activision shut down developer Bizarre Creations before it ever saw the light of day. We’d recommend revisiting it and paying your respects.

MotorStorm

Long before we had the glitz and glamour of the Horizon Festival, we had the MotorStorm Festival – the muddy, rugged, off-road gathering of joy.

Launched alongside the PS3, MotorStorm felt truly next-gen when we got our hands on it in 2007. Its off-road racing was monstrously fun for some short-burst racing, even if its lack of longevity never had you gripped for hours on end.

Several sequels have followed, but it appears the series is now dead and buried. A shame, we think, but reason to revisit the original.

Project Gotham Racing 4

Speaking of series that died too early, remember Project Gotham Racing? Microsoft’s flagship arcade racer, in the days before Forza Horizon, PGR was brilliant in all four of its iterations.

We think PGR4, the final one, was the best. Arguably the most complete of the lot, it featured the most cars and tracks of any title while bringing in weather effects for the first time – no mean feat in 2007.

If you’ve still got an Xbox 360 kicking around, it’s worth the few quid to pick up a used copy.

Driveclub

What PGR was to Forza Motorsport is what Driveclub was supposed to be to Gran Turismo.

This was meant to be Sony’s headline arcade racer, focusing on closed-course races with stunning graphics and weather effects.

Yet, it was hindered by a shallow single-player experience and the eventual culling of its online servers. You’ll need to track down a physical copy, but if you do so, because we reckon it’s worth giving another go – if only to feel sad at what could’ve been.

Ford Racing 3

Ah, the weird and wonderful world of manufacturer-branded standalone video games. A time that brought us Lotus Challenge, Squadra Corse Alfa Romeo and of course the brilliant Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed.

Then there was Ford Racing, popular enough that it had not one, but seven entries – plus the Off Road spin-off featuring Land Rover too, owned by Ford at the time.

Although clearly just a big shill for the blue Oval and met with a mixed reception, Ford Racing 3 was a pretty fun game if you gave it a chance. We’re also fairly certain it’s the only game to have had a Mondeo ST220 in it, so there’s that.