10 Best Racing Games For People Who Don't Like Cars

Cars. They’re fast, they’re expensive,  they make a fun ‘vroom vroom’ noise when you push the accelerator, and perhaps  most importantly (at least to us, anyway) they make for some great video games. As technology has improved, it’s no surprise that virtual driving is getting closer to the  actual thing, andthat console racing games have been moving farther away from the arcade-y  experience. Titleslike those in theGran Turismo and Forza Motorsport series have made cars  more realistic, ditching

the floaty physics and ridiculous power-ups for accurate driving  simulation. However, there are still some less serious racers out there, and we’ve collected  just a few of them to take a look at today. Before we begin, it’s important to clarify that by  ‘people who don’t like cars’, we don’t necessarily mean having a deep-seated, irreparable hatred  for them as a whole. Instead, it simply refers to those of us that want to get right to the fun bit  of racing, without messing around with catal

ytic converters and other alliterative machine parts.  So, what are we waiting for? Let’s get racing! I’m Peter from TripleJump, and these are the 10  Best Racing Games for People Who Don’t Like Cars. 10. LEGO Racers Okay, yes, we said in the intro that this was a list for people who don’t care much for  tinkering with cars, and part of the appeal of this game is that it offers the option to  customize vehicles, meaning that some tinkering is involved. Consider this as a counterpoint, though:  i

t’s LEGO. Do you hate LEGO? I didn’t think so. 1999 karting game LEGO Racers combines the  appeal of the titular brick-building toy with the power-up madness of Mario Kart.  The utterly bizarre storyfollows Rocket Racer as he creates his own tournament by  finding the greatest speedsters in history and using a dimensional warp machine to bring  them together for one last match-up to ensure he becomes the Greatest LEGO Racer of All Time. The game boasts a variety of themed courses, all rendered i

n blocky goodness and each with their  own main rival. There are also power-ups scattered across the tracks, which can then be upgraded  by combining them with one or more white bricks. These range from a simple projectile, which  is useful as either a weapon or a way to open shortcuts, to a game-breakingly powerful wormhole. LEGO Racers is a bit tougher than you’d expect, but it’s nothing compared to the  pain of stepping on a stray brick. 9. Wreckfest Sure, regular racing is fun and all, but w

ho doesn’t love a bit of demolition? As its name implies, the main appeal of Wreckfest comes from the destructible  car physics, which means that there will be bits flying everywhere as you drive  around and slam into opponents and walls. The game does have a multiplayer online option,  but a lot of the fun andweirdness comes fromthe career mode, where players can progress through  different levels of difficulty by completing races, demolition derbies, and challenges. This  is where new vehicles

can be unlocked as well, some of which are pretty standard whilst  others are completely ridiculous. Although, at least, with a drivable couch I can both  relax andrun errands at the same time. There is, admittedly, a bit of  vehicle customization in the game, but a lot of it is fun stuff like armor or  spikes,which also help to protect against getting demolished before finishing an event. It’s  not too in-depth, either, with it being a case of bigger numbers equalingbetter stat improvements. R

aces and challenges will give the player points, which they can use to unlock more cars and  upgrades as they continue playing. Just don’t get too attached to the paint job; it’ll be  scraped off by the competition before you know it. 8. Zeepkist Zeepkist is both the Dutch word for soapbox, or, more specifically,  a soapbox car, and a neat little video game in which you race soapboxes down hills. This cutesy racer has players guiding their wacky waving arm-flailing bean person through  a variety

of courses, which can include loops, jumps, and wall-riding sections. As they are  just soapbox cars, there is no way to accelerate; instead, players have to rely on momentum and  boost pads to ensure that they make it to the end. They have to be careful, though, as going  off the course and slamming into obstacles will cause the soapbox to break apart, and  they’ll have to start all over again. It can be played by up to 4 people locally,  or as many as 64 players online. There’s also a single-

player adventure mode with over 50  levels, as well as unlockable hats and soapboxes. There’s also the option to build custom levels,  with over 1000 different blocks to place, paint to customize with, and trees to plant,  as well as NPC cats you can place if you feel like traumatizing the poor things. While still in Early Access at time of writing, it’s hard to stop playing  once you get the cart rolling. 7. Hotshot Racing Despite being released in 2020, Hotshot Racing looks and feels very much

like a classic arcade  game, allowing players to jump right in and drift, boost, and slam their way to victory. This blocky racer has eight characters to choose from, each boasting four unique  cars with varied stats. In addition to that, there are sixteen tracks, ranging from a  standard beachside affair to a dinosaur park, all of which can also be played in mirror  mode. Can we count that as thirty-two tracks, then? Hmm, the jury’s out on that one. Players can choose to take part in one-off r

aces as well as Time Trials and Grand  Prix, plus a couple of special modes as well. Cops and Robbers takes the classic game  of chase and mixes it up a bit, making tagged players become additional cops to increase the  difficulty. Drive or Explode, on the other hand, sees players driving cars with bombs attached,  with an ever-increasing speed threshold to reach in order to keep them from detonating.It’s  a bit like if you were watching Speed and decided to fast forward every five minutes. In s

hort, Hotshot Racing allows you to enjoy all the fun of the arcade without  draining your pockets of quarters. 6. Road Rash Unlike actual road rash, the unpleasant friction burns people  experience if they fall off of a motorcycle, Road Rash:The Game is actually a lot of fun. Originally debuting on the Mega Drive in 1991, this high-speed motorcycle racing and  vehicular combat game was ported to a variety of other systems afterwards, and has  received several sequels throughout the years. Road R

ashtakes place in California and  follows a series of illegal motorcycle races which players must win in order to  progress, all while trying to beat other motorcyclists senseless in the process. The default attack is a punch, but players can take weapons from other opponents if  they attack at the right time. However, they also have to take care not to get flung  off of their bike or crash into any obstacles. If this does happen,and the bike’s stamina  depletes, the vehicle will be destroyed, e

liminating the player from that race. Officers  also can cause problems if players get caught sprinting back to their bike after a crash  and don’t have enough money to cover the fine. If players have this happen to them too  often, then Road Rash could turn into good old-fashioned road rage. At least they’ll  have plenty of targets to take it out on. 5. F-Zero GX While everyone who is a fan of the languishing series will have their  own favorite, F-Zero GX is the highest rated of the F-Zero gam

es according to Metacritic,  so it’s the one we’ve chosen to highlight. This GameCube exclusive, released in 2003,  retains the series’ trademark high-speed racing, with an emphasis on twitch reflexes. Its story  mode allows players to once again take control of Captain Falcon and guide him through  nine different chapters worthof missions. The courses themselves have all sorts of  obstacles and tricky elements to navigate, including enclosed tubes, cylinders,  jumps, and curvy confusing paths,

as well as hazards like dirt patches or mines. Each of the futuristic racing vehicles is rated on an A to E scale, and has an energy meter  which not only measures the machine’s health, but can also be used to provide the player with  a boost if they need it. Tracks have pit areas, where players can stop to repair  their vehicles and gain back energy, and dash plates, which provide a speed  boost without using any precious energy. Depending on how hard you find the game, F-Zero  may feel like it

’s referring to your skills as a racer, but hey, there’s nowhere to go from  there but up! And around, and over, and through…. 4. Split/Second Driving fast is fun. Explosions are fun. Stunts are fun. So  surely, a game that includes all of these would be triple the fun.Spoiler alert: it is. In 2010 action racerSplit/Second (or Split/Second: Velocity if you want to get European  about this), players are participating in a fictional 12-episode reality TV show  in order to gain fame and fortune. Ea

ch track has destructible environments which  can be triggered by the player using what the game refers to as “power plays”, built up  by doing stunts and precision driving such as drifts and drafting behind competitor cars. These destructible environments can be used to create obstacles, shortcuts, or just generally  alter the shape and feel of the course. However, the AI can use these environments as well,  meaning the player always has to be on the lookout for falling buildings and rubble. Th

ere are different levels of event that can be triggered depending on how much of their  meter the player has filled up, and some, such as helicopter projectiles, can be used  multiple times. All of this creates a chaotic environment for players to race through, and it  can be made even more chaotic with multiplayer. Unfortunately, the Steam version of the game  removes onlinemultiplayer functionality, but split screen co-op is still available.  Or should that be Split/Screen co-op? 3. Wave Race

64 Do you not only dislike cars and/or the customization thereof, but also  despise the very concept of being on solid ground? In that case, Wave Race 64 has got you covered. The premise of Wave Race 64 is simple:players are given jet skis and it’s up to them  to race aroundcourses, performing stunts and overtaking opponents in order to win. There is also a buoy system that must be followed, with red buoys that have to be passed on the right  and yellow buoys that must be passed on the left, and

doing this correctly will increase the  player’s speed. Miss five, though, and they’ll be disqualified, and forcedto start all over again. If this all sounds a bit standard still, players are able to unlock the ability to ridea dolphin  instead, by going to the appropriately named Dolphin Park track and performing all of  the stunts before reaching the finish line. When they go back in to select their racer, all  they have to do is hold Down on the d-pad and voila! Now you’re in for a fin time.

You know,  like fun time? But dolphins? I’m here all week. 2. Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament Toy cars have been popular for years – pretty much ever since cars themselves became a standard  mode of transportation. Many video games have tried to bring the fun of playing with these toys  to the virtual space, but none has been quite as successful as Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament. Themed around the collectable Micro Machines that first became popular in the mid-1980s, the game  lets playe

rs select from a range of racers, who are then plopped into one of the  tiny vehicles and dropped onto a course. Because they are tiny and based on toys, however,  these aren’t your standard race courses. Instead, players will be looking down on common household  scenes, such as a kitchen countertopor a pool table, and racing around scattered,  discarded items that would be at home in these environments. These can help to form  tunnels and jumps, but they can also cause road blocks, stopping pla

yers in their tiny tracks. Both the MS-DOS release and an updated release for the Mega Drive included a construction kit  andtrack editor, allowing players to both paint their vehicles in whatever waythey’d like and  create any crazy courses they could come up with. They may be small, butthese cars certainly  deserve a big chunk of your time. 1. Wipeout Omega Collection Is it cheating to include a collection of games on this list? Maybe a little bit, but  it’s our videoand we’ll cheat if we want

to. As the name implies, Wipeout Omega Collectionis  a bunchof entries from the Wipeout series. Specifically, it includes two remasters,  Wipeout HD – along with its expansion, Wipeout HD Fury – and Wipeout 2048. That’s not  all, though, as Wipeout HD itself has content from both Wipeout Pure and Wipeout Pulse. …is  anyone else getting tired of the word Wipeout? The nine different modes in the collection  have players guiding an anti-gravity race ship around each track. Each of these  vehicles

is equipped with a shield, which will block oncoming damage from  obstacles and collisions, and if it disappears, the ship will explode and the player will be  eliminated from the race. However, if they’ve sustained damage, they can regaintheir shield by  changing unwanted power-ups into shield energy. The game’s signature high-speed  thrills still hold up to this day, even more so thanks to the remastering they’ve  been given and the updated futuristic soundtrack. All of this can even be enjoye

d in VR, thanks  to an update. It’s important to take breaks if you opt for this mode, though; you  wouldn’t want to wipe yourself out.