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Racing game

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A racing game is any game that involves competing in races through a surrogate playing piece or vehicle, either getting it from one point to another or completing a number of circuits in the shortest time.

One of the more common uses of the term racing game is to describe a genre of computer and video games. Racing games are either in the first or third person perspective. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to entirely fantastical settings, and feature any type of land, air, or sea vehicles. In general, they can be distributed along a spectrum anywhere between hardcore simulations, and simpler arcade racing games.

Contents

History

Night Driver (1976)
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Night Driver (1976)

What is normally considered to be the first arcade title Night Driver, released by Atari in 1976. The game's premise was very simple; drive a car down a road without crashing. While Night Driver was fun and a success, one of the first and most important racing games as we know them was Pole Position, which actually presented racing. After many years with developers making racing games as realistic as possible, Nintendo broke new ground by introducing the Mario Kart series. Using the familiar characters from the Mario franchise, the game not only departed from the realism paradigm by using small karts for the players to drive, but also featured fantastic environments and allowed the players to use items to improve performance or hamper another player's.

Racing simulators

See main article: Sim racing
Simulation style racing games strive to replicate the handling of a car as it feels in the real world. They often license real cars or racing leagues, but will use fantasy cars built to resemble real ones if unable to acquire them.

Although these racing simulators are specifically built for people with a high grade of driving skill it is not uncommon to find aids that can be enabled from the game menu. The most common aids are traction control (TC), anti-lock brakes, steering assistance, damage resistance, clutch assistance, automatic gearbox, etc. This softens the learning curve for the difficult handling characteristics of most racing cars.

The Formula One World Championship has a fan base all over the world and is one of the racing series with the most simulation adaptations.

Some of these racing simulators are customizable, as game fans have decoded the tracks, cars and executable files. Large internet communities have grown around the simulators regarded as the most realistic and many websites host internet championships.

Arcade racers

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Arcade style racing games put fun and a fast-paced experience above all else, as cars usually compete through odd ways. They often license real cars and leagues, but are equally open to more exotic settings and vehicles. Races take place on highways, windy roads or in cities; they can be multiple-lap circuits or point-to-point, with one or multiple paths (sometimes with checkpoints), or other types of competition, like demolition derby, jumping or testing driving skills. Popular arcade racers are the Daytona USA series, the Rush series, the Cruis'n Series and the classic Out Run.

Over the last three years there has been a trend of new street racing; imitating the import scene, one can tune family cars or coupés and race on the streets. The most widely known ones are the Need for Speed Underground series, , Street Racing Syndicate and Juiced.

Simulation style racing games

Semi-simulation style racing games

These games are neither simulators nor arcade racers; they stand in the middle of the spectrum.

Arcade style racing games

Futuristic/Extreme racers

Kart racers

Kart racers, popularized by (and often credited to) the Mario Kart series, are a style of racing game that introduces the ability to pick up items during the race, and use them to boost one's performance in a race, or to attack other players and hamper their progress. Like arcade racers, kart racers feature simple racing physics and imaginative environments to race in.

Kart racers include:

Arcade racing games time line

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