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The best racing games you can play in 2026 are found across all major consoles and PC. Even beyond our list of highly recommended titles below, there's plenty to love about the racing genre at present. The sim racing scene is massive, and we're seeing tons of quality arcade-style racers, an area which has seen a much-needed resurgence.
For our list of the best racing games below, we've tested and reviewed each and every title. That means we've spent countless hours racing in each, and really gotten a feel for their aesthetics, handling models, content and features, as well as general game feel. We loved our time with all eight games featured here, and we think you'll enjoy a handful of them, too.
Best racing games in 2026
"Lego 2K Drive is a tectonic shift for the kart racing genre, Featuring tight driving controls, energetic races, and an expansive open world, it speeds into pole position past its Mascot-dominated contemporaries." - Aleksha McLoughlin, TechRadar Gaming reviewer.
Lego 2K Drive was a bit of a surprise hit in its launch year of 2023. Coming almost out of nowhere, this spiritual successor to the Lego Racers series hits all the right notes. With an open-world format clearly inspired by Forza Horizon (which in turn has had Lego-themed DLC campaigns), it's easy to get lost for hours exploring each hub and ticking off side objectives.
Of course, it wouldn't really be a Lego game without a degree of customizability. Lego 2K Drive delivers with one of the most robust vehicle builders we've ever seen. Players are able to build intricate vehicles from scratch or follow preset instructions for a helping hand while building street cars, offroad monsters, and speedy boats.
- Read our full Lego 2K Drive review
"Having the arcade version of the original Ridge Racer on Switch 2 is a real blessing, and its support for online leaderboards allow for quickfire, moreish handheld play." - Rhys Wood, TechRadar Gaming
Alright, Arcade Archives 2 Ridge Racer isn't winning any awards when it comes to an abundance of features. You're getting one track, one car, and a small handful of tunes to race to. It's a bread-and-butter arcade port that adds little in the way of extra content.
I still highly recommend it, though. Arcade Archives 2 Ridge Racer is very much a score/time attack game, and each mode included in this Hamster release has a dedicated online leaderboard that makes chasing higher ranks super satisfying.
While the overall handling (or visuals, for that matter) doesn't hold up as well as future Ridge Racer titles, there's still a wonderful arcade-like feel here. The series' iconic drifting still feels fantastic here, and once you've gotten a grasp of it, you'll find a cheap and cheerful arcade racer that's fun to dip into for bite-sized sessions.
- Read our full Arcade Archives 2 Ridge Racer review
"Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds isn’t just the best racing game of the year; it brings a confidence and energy that the genre has rarely seen over the past decade and a half. Especially as arcade-like experiences have largely given way to more straight-faced sim racing affairs." - Rhys Wood, TechRadar Gaming
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a brilliant arcade racer that features characters from Sega-properties like Nights, Like a Dragon, and Super Monkey Ball. It's a real feast for the eyes, as players race through portals into other worlds, some filled with eye-popping visuals and clever routing. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds really nails track design, with a strong variety of courses to race through in single-player or with friends online.
What stands out the most about CrossWorlds is that it isn’t content to simply be a great kart racer; it innovates, too. The titular CrossWorlds mechanic is brilliant, lending unpredictability to every race by transporting players to a completely different track for the second lap. Meanwhile, the superb gadget system offers countless ways to tweak how your vehicle behaves.
Crucially, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is still receiving meaningful content updates well into 2026. New characters, courses, gadgets, and online festival events are being added at a steady clip with no signs of slowing down. The playerbase remains sizable, too, if you fancy some unbelievably hectic online ranked racing.
- Read our full Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds review
"Gran Turismo 7 isn’t just the best entry in the long-running series, it sets the bar astronomically high for all future racing sims. GT7’s stunning graphics are paired with a wonderfully slick presentation. That, in conjunction with best-in-class racing sim gameplay that’s easier than ever to pick up - and tough as ever to master - make for a constantly satisfying racer." - Rhys Wood, TechRadar Gaming Hardware Editor.
Gran Turismo 7 is an excellent upgrade over the PS4's Gran Turismo Sport, packing loads of content, cars, and modes for sim racing fans to dig their driving mitts into. The game offers a sublime driving experience offline, with hundreds of cars and tons of tracks and layouts both real and fictional. Gran Turismo 7's solo experience makes it a contender for one of the best single player games out there, but also one of the best PS5 games full stop.
Overall, it's easy to pour tens, if not hundreds, of hours into Gran Turismo 7 thanks to its moreish progression. Moreover, the game is receiving updates long after launch. In late 2025, the game's Spec 3 update added the iconic Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve and Yas Marina Circuit, a handful of new cars, and an all-new career mode. It's the best console-centric racing sim, and pairs great with the best PS5 racing wheels, too.
- Read our full Gran Turismo 7 review
"Racing-game fanatics will love Forza Horizon 5’s gorgeous open world, and the unlimited gameplay opportunities provided by the customization options." - Georgina Young, TechRadar Gaming contributor
The fifth entry in Playground Games' open-world racing series, Forza Horizon 5 takes its festival to Mexico's plains, deserts, jungles, and vibrant towns. It's an inspired and varied setting, carving an identity for itself next to the Australian beaches and outback of Forza Horizon 3 and the rolling British countryside and historical towns featured in Forza Horizon 4.
Forza Horizon 5 is one of the best Xbox Game Pass games available to download, offering buckets of compelling single-player content, and a rewards system that practically showers you with all kinds of vehicles. While much more generous than the rewards of Gran Turismo 7, it's a bit of a double-edged sword. The game's Wheelspin system rewards cars at such a high frequency that you'll never get around to racing in all of them.
- Read our full Forza Horizon 5 review
"Mario Kart World is easily the standout launch title on Nintendo Switch 2. And while that may not be saying much, I anticipate it’s comfortably going to be the best-selling Switch 2 game for the entire console generation. Nintendo has created a visually stunning kart racer here, chock-full of its trademark charm and personality." - Rhys Wood, TechRadar Gaming reviewer.
Mario Kart World is now here, having launched alongside Nintendo Switch 2. It's a very different game to its predecessor, adding wall riding and rail grinding into the mix alongside the standard drifting mechanics. There's a whole host of new characters to try, the chaotic Knockout Tour mode to learn, and a Free Roam option that presents a huge interconnected open world to explore.
Multiplayer racing is predictably brilliant in Mario Kart World, with large, expansive tracks allowing for greater creativity in how you move through them. Nailing a trick into a wall, riding the wall and tricking off onto a rail, and then kicking off into the start of a drift feels magical. There's a ton of variety in how the characters and karts feel, and a great suite of optional assist modes for driving. It'll take some time for our thoughts to settle on Mario Kart World, but for now, it's absolutely one of the best racing games out there.
- Read our full Mario Kart World review
"There’s a lot of fun to be had in F1 25, largely thanks to the excellent Braking Point 3 campaign and a very welcome upgrade to the My Team career mode." - Rhys Wood, TechRadar Gaming
While not quite as substantial an upgrade as F1 24 was, Codemasters still manages to put out a worthwhile annual entry with F1 25. This game concludes the Drive to Survive-esque Braking Point story saga, and boasts some welcome updates to the My Team career mode.
Elsewhere, F1 25 features a handful of LIDAR-scanned tracks, allowing for greater realism and accuracy in track layouts and surfaces. Driver AI has seen a bit of an upgrade, too, meaning you'll be racing smarter drivers in general throughout the single-player career modes. We can't say the same of real players when you hop online, though. The FIA would go into a full-blown meltdown if it saw what some of you get up to out on-track.
Keep in mind that F1 25 does not feature the updated cars, rules, and regulations of the real-world 2026 season of Formula 1. However, Codemasters does have an F1 26 expansion in the works; a smaller-scale project that should provide the foundation of next year's F1 27.
- Read our full F1 25 review
"Japan is wondrous to explore and race around, and new features like aftermarket cars help inject the series with newfound energy and heightened player expression." - Rhys Wood, TechRadar Gaming
It's been a while, but Forza Horizon 6 is finally here and its setting of Japan is one of the most refreshing open-world maps we've had the pleasure of racing around in quite some time. Exploring the massive Tokyo City is a real treat, but it's the surrounding countryside, landmarks, and vistas that really steal the show.
Multiplayer has been tightened up since previous entries, allowing for everything from casual drop-in exploration sessions to more high-octane racing. Furthermore, the aftermarket car system is just brilliant, letting you find souped-up cars around the map that perform (and look) far better than their stock counterparts.
It's just an incredibly moreish game overall, packed to the gills with things to do. From exploratory tasks like barn finds, photography, and treasure cars, to high-octane street, road, cross-country, and dirt racing events, you won't be short of things to do in Forza Horizon 6 anytime soon.
- Read our full Forza Horizon 6 review
