6 Racing Video Games to Make Quarantine Fly By – Autoweek

All right everyone, we’ve weathered Day 1 of coronavirus outbreak/social distancing/work from home life, but we have at least three weeks to go. In fact it could be longer than that if cities start following the lead of San Francisco, now shutting down everything except essential services. It’s a good time to start playing through your video-game backlogs. And since you’re here at Autoweek, we’re guessing that backlog includes a lot of racing games. If it doesn’t, we’re now at a time when you can download anything you want, without having to leave the friendly confines of your residence. Also, check out our Autoweek Twitch channel; we’ll be there today from 3:30-5 p.m. Eastern.

NASCAR Heat 4 (simulation); PS4, Xbox One, Windows PC

Heat 4 is the first NASCAR game I’ve played in a long time after years of brashly skipping the series. Here’s the reason: NASCAR was never appointment viewing for me, so I figured the game wasn’t for me either. I was dead wrong. Between dirt track racing, Trucks, Xfinity and Monster Cup, this game has something for everyone, including people with steering wheel controllers. It has the best force feedback system I’ve used since Forza Motorsport 7.

Need for Speed Heat (arcade); PS4, Xbox One, Windows PC

The Need for Speed series has been around for decades, and Heat is the best one in a long time. Unlike many others, it’s a more arcade-type driving game, meaning the controls and the handling model aren’t super-precise. However, there is now steering wheel controller support with a recent update, and for us on the Twitch stream it gave us a reason to play it again. There are also several disciplines to master (race, street, drift, off-road) so even after you complete the main story, there are still plenty of things to do.

Dirt Rally 2.0 (sim); PS4, Xbox One, Windows PC

Dirt Rally 2 is obviously a rally game and features dirt, snow and tarmac courses across the world from Australia, New Zealand, Poland, the U.S. and more. It features a total of 50 cars from both rally and rallycross along with classics from the ’60s through the ’80s, ’90s and 2000s. Maker Codemasters added more tracks in later updates. This game, like other rally titles, has a steep learning curve. Your best bet is to start out in small, less powerful cars and work your way up.

WRC 8 (sim); PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows PC

WRC is the official game of the World Rally Championship. Unlike Dirt Rally it features real drivers and real cars from the latest rally season. It also features locations with 102 stages spread across the championship’s 14 countries. Like Dirt, WRC is tough at first, so start with the slower cars and easier track.

Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled (arcade, karting); PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch

Nitro Fueled is the latest in a long line of Crash Bandicoot games, featuring both racing and semi-story missions as you progress through the world. It’s hard not to compare it to the king of karting games, Mario Kart, and in that respect it falls short. But if you only have a PlayStation or Xbox, it’s a good substitute. It features solo and versus play, and like Mario Kart, courses are filled with upgrades like speed boosts, projectiles and other items.

F1 2019 (sim); PS4, Xbox One, Windows PC

F1 2019 includes race cars from this season, as well as famous versions from the past. There are career and championship modes, as well as Grand Prix weekends and online play. In the career mode, you can start in Formula 2, working your way up to the big show. You can adjust the opponent difficulty and damage model to make it as easy or as hard as you like.

READ SOURCE