Good racing games pre 1998 year?

[Ash]

My favourite racing game from the 90's is Network Q RAC Rally Championship if you like fighting with the clock. There is arcade/simulation option so if you don't want to repair your car you can always play it safe at the beginning. Nice variety of tracks, plus there is X-Miles addon which has even more of them.

Heh, that texture animation for the steering and gear shifting in first person is awesome.

 

[Endemic]

Need for Speed 2 SE. Back when EA even went to the trouble of renting supercars to make the showcase videos.

 

[racofer]

There's only one choice:

 

[Astral Rag]

 

[Astral Rag]

Most of my favourites have already been posted but here are some more.

 

[Astral Rag]

These were released in 1999:

Spoiler

 

[:Flash:]

Some of the games mentioned in this thread were all made by the same company (Lotus, Network Q RAC Rally Championship, International Rally Championship), Magnetic Fields. When you play them, there are several things that are unique to them, like the usable radio or the track editor (missing from Q RAC), where you can create randomized racetracks influenceable by several parameters.
I played those games a lot back in the day, but I don't think that they hold up very well. They are very monotonous, and the gameplay is lacking that special thing that makes me play other racing games from that time even today.
[/Random Trivia]

 

[Snufkin]

I came back to play Grand prix legends. This is so far my favorite racing game. Nothing compares, not even Burns Rally or GTR 2.

 

[Ovplain]

Grand Prix 2 was the SHIT back in the day.

But, dammit, why PRE-1998? TOCA 2 came out in 1998 and it was AMAZING! Also, 'Viper Racing' in 1998.

 

[Severian Silk]

So many pixels in this thread.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

Rajd Przez Polskę alias Polonez vs Maluch vs Cinquecento

 

[Astral Rag]

Grand Prix 2 was the SHIT back in the day.

But, dammit, why PRE-1998? TOCA 2 came out in 1998 and it was AMAZING! Also, 'Viper Racing' in 1998.

Yeah, I had to ignore that criterion, too many good racing games were released in 98 and 99.

Rajd Przez Polskę alias Polonez vs Maluch vs Cinquecento

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

No love for Scorcher?

 

[ghostdog]

RAD RACER !

 

[A user named cat]

Gran Turismo came out in 97-98 and pretty much stomped all other racing games into the mud, from PC to consoles. Nothing else really compared. All these years later and we finally get something similar for PC, that being Forza 6. Except it requires shitty Win 10. What a slap in the face. At least there's still GTR 2 and rFactor but they're missing the pseudo-RPG experiences and dealerships of GT.

 

[Carrion]

Gran Turismo came out in 97-98 and pretty much stomped all other racing games into the mud, from PC to consoles.

I never got the appeal of racing games where you can't wreck your car into a disfigured chunk of metal. You hit a wall and bounce off like both the car and the wall were made of rubber.

 

[A user named cat]

Gran Turismo came out in 97-98 and pretty much stomped all other racing games into the mud, from PC to consoles.

I never got the appeal of racing games where you can't wreck your car into a disfigured chunk of metal. You hit a wall and bounce off like both the car and the wall were made of rubber.

Because racing sims are not about crashing, they're about... racing? If you want to wreck, there are more than enough Motorstorms, Twisted Metals, Desctuction Derbys, Flatouts and Burnouts out there.

 

[Carrion]

Because racing sims are not about crashing, they're about... racing?

For me a racing game is not a sim to begin with if the car is indestructable. I barely play any racing games nowadays, but I used to prefer rally games, as in those games car damage added another layer to the gameplay (obviously slowing you down, but also requiring repairs between the different special stages) and made things all the more interesting because a single mistake could be so costly. Just a matter of taste, I guess, but I always thought that Gran Turismo belonged to a very different brand of racing games instead of being some be-all and end-all masterpiece.

 

[Mozg]

If you license real cars the makers also generally don't want you to show them ramping into the crowd and killing dozens of onlookers.

 

[A user named cat]

Many racing sims don't have damage physics and the ones that do are usually nothing impressive compared to the likes of say Motorstorm or Burnout. I think the devs just don't care and would rather focus on the actual driving mechanics and AI which is likely plenty difficult enough when you're aiming for realism. Most people playing racing sims are trying to avoid wrecking anyway so it's a non-issue.

 

[Gerrard]

GT is literally the most overrated racing game series.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Indy 500

Ivan "Iron Man" Stewart's Super Off Road

 

[taxalot]

Oh god, this, Indy 500. Half of the fun was going the wrong way and hitting the AI cars at full speed.

 

[Ovplain]

 

[Endemic]

Good picks Taka. There's also: