The best racing games on PC in 2026 span a wide range of styles, from hardcore simulators to arcade racers and open-world adventures. Here are the top picks based on current consensus and performance:
Best Sim Racing (Realistic): iRacing remains the gold standard for authenticity, offering meticulous car and track modeling, live leagues, and a subscription-based model. It’s ideal for serious sim racers with a force feedback wheel. Assetto Corsa Competizione is another top-tier sim, praised for its GT3 realism and immersive visuals, though it’s being gradually overshadowed by upcoming titles.
Best Simulation Evolution: Le Mans Ultimate (LMU) is gaining strong traction as a next-gen endurance racer with official WEC and 24 Hours of Le Mans licensing, improved physics, and strong multiplayer focus. It’s considered a modern evolution of rFactor 2 with enhanced quality-of-life features.
Best Arcade/Action: Forza Horizon 5 delivers a vibrant, open-world experience with diverse events, tuning options, and a strong community. Despite initial criticism of its tutorial missions, it opens up into a highly replayable game. The Crew Motorfest offers a similar feel with themed playlists and dynamic environments, though it’s often seen as more "Forza-like" than innovative.
Best for Variety & Innovation: BeamNG.drive stands out for its physics-driven destruction and crash simulations, making it a unique choice for players who enjoy experimental, crash-heavy gameplay. Its Early Access status doesn’t detract from its fun and depth.
Best Free-to-Play Option: RaceRoom Racing Experience offers a robust free-to-play sim with licensed touring car content, a growing community, and strong VR support—ideal for newcomers or those on a budget.
Upcoming & Highly Anticipated: Assetto Corsa EVO is in Early Access and shows promise as a successor to ACC, with improved visuals and systems. Wreckfest 2 (released March 2025) and Tokyo Xtreme Racer (January 2025) are also notable new entries with strong arcade and street racing appeal.
For those seeking the ultimate sim racing setup, builds like the Origin Sim PC or custom rigs from ScatterVolt are designed specifically for high-fidelity racing experiences.
What are some good racing games?
Keep in mind all I have is a controller
I tried to play forza 5 but the one I disliked was the scripted events it hsd, and also the tuning mechanics and how vastly overwhelming everything is, also the game doesn't really have races for the first missions?? Open world fun but idk couldn't really enjoy it.
Would love to try any other racing games or open world driving games.
Or games you play custom tracks made by other players?
Videos
What are Racing Games?
Racing games involve racing any vehicle or planetary being against one or more competitors. Car racing games are probably the most popular type. These racing games can take place on tracks, busy roads, and muddy mountains. There’s a range of singleplayer and online racing games to play for free here.
Are there online PC racing games that are multiplayer?
What is a racing game?
I've tried and tried to find a good answer to this but I can't.
I got a Logitech g29 and have mostly played Gran Turismo 7 with psvr2. However, I'm getting a quest soon and am hoping to switch over to PC to have a wider range of compatibility (thinking of a csl dd but don't want to spend an extra 350 dollars just for playstation compatibility)
I've tried asetto Corsa. Worst experience I've ever had. The force feedback was... Very fake. And I adjusted every setting as recommended by articles and people in this subreddit and no matter what I did it felt so fake. It would randomly give me details like I was skidding out on dirt when in reality I was just driving in a straight line. Not to mention the turns felt god awful and the entire wheel was shaking so much I thought it was going to break.
I tried competisione on PS5 with ps plus, and it was a very similar experience. Worse in some ways but better than others.
Overall asetto Corsa is a no go. Maybe when I do go direct drive I'll try it but for now good god hell no it feels way too rough compared to gt7 and breaks immersion in every way.
So what's next? ETS2 looks really fun but it also doesn't look like racing. I also tried Forza horizon 4 but I know that game is notorious for having bad wheel support. Is Forza horizon 5 better? Some people say a wheel makes them better but if it's anything like 4 it's unplayable. What are Rfactor2 and project cars 2 and are they any good?
I need help. Playstation has 1 game and it's great but PC just doesn't seem to be doing it for me.
Also, don't say iracing. Monthly subscriptions are a hell no.