11 Old Racing Game Features You Miss Most

Racing games have come a long way over the last few decades but while new titles offer incredible graphics and handling models, there are some old racing game features we can’t help but miss
11 Old Racing Game Features You Miss Most

1. Used car garage

As suggested by: Me
As suggested by: Me

Here’s what sparked this community question. In the older Gran Turismo games there was a used car dealership - it was fun to keep checking it and it added a bit of variety. It’s a real shame it hasn’t featured in more recent installments.

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Split screen was such a simple but enjoyable way of competing with your friends, but a lot of new racing games are focusing on online multiplayer, rather than off-line split screen features. It’s a big shame and limits the kind of multiplayer racing you can do.

3. Free roaming

As suggested by: Daniel Hall
As suggested by: Daniel Hall

The example here is Project Gotham Racing 2, Daniel says: “The ability to walk freely around the autoshow in PGR 2. I probably spent more time walking around here than actually racing.”

Current games usually look for sleek car menus and smart graphics, compared to small but enjoyable features like this.

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This was a feature in Need For Speed Underground 2, adding to the whole performance customisation feature on offer in the game – so you could change tuning setups and get performance statistics.

5. Having to work for it

As suggested by: Caro F.Doom
As suggested by: Caro F.Doom

This is a pretty broad one but it’s so true. Older games definitely featured more unlockable content, so top cars and supercars were out of bounds until you achieved certain things or got to a specific level.

That’s not really the case in most modern games; you’re given free choice of even the most powerful and exotic cars available. It takes a little away from the story of the game and the sense of achievement.

6. Building your own team

As suggested by: Dylan Smit
As suggested by: Dylan Smit

There’s always something really cool about a game giving you the chance to build your own race team up, like in the original Race Driver: Grid game from Codemasters. This kind of involvement and customisation is rare in modern games and adds a whole new level of immersion and personalisation to the experience.

7. Simple Mario Kart circuits

As suggested by: Freddie Skeates
As suggested by: Freddie Skeates

It’s fun to see the Mario Kart map creators going all out with wacky stuff but sometimes the best tracks are the simple ones. We’re talking about the sort of circuit where there’s no going upside down or underwater - it’s just a track and maybe a few obstacles to keep things interesting.

8. Trim changes

As suggested by: Blacklist79
As suggested by: Blacklist79

As Musclecarlover7 said in reply to this suggestion, being able to customise more things on a car like the trim and interior colours adds a real sense of ownership to racing games. Test Drive Unlimited 2 is the example used for this one, adding a whole new bit of customisation to the cars – the inside is important too, not just the outside of the cars.

9. Appropriate pricing

As suggested by: TheZillaJunkie
As suggested by: TheZillaJunkie

This is a bug bear of mine and, it seems, quite a few people too. When I saw this comment I immediately thought “hell yes”. More modern games make prices for even basic cars way too expensive.

10. Sending cars to friends

As suggested by: AnOrangeHellcat
As suggested by: AnOrangeHellcat

While this feature was probably not immensely popular or regularly used by many gamers, it was a nice extra to have. Being able to send cars across to friends (which I used to do in Forza Motorsport 4) was a way of sharing the gaming experience, in some cases helping each other and adding a sense of community to the games.

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In Forza 4 gamers could actually play their own version of the epic Top Gear Car Football (or soccer, however you say it where you’re from). It was a fun little feature and was something different to the usual racing too.

You can see all of the suggestions on the community question post here.

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Comments

Anonymous

I seriously miss the days of split screen couch co-op. Theres nothing quite like tearing the controller out of your opponent’s hand when you’re losing.

11/04/2016 - 17:09 |
376 | 0
Jack Leslie

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

😂😂😂

11/05/2016 - 11:21 |
10 | 4
Joshua Lue

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Always me with or without friends.

11/05/2016 - 11:22 |
146 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

[DELETED]

11/05/2016 - 14:44 |
0 | 0
unicornjuice

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Yeah. Sad it seems to be going away on almost every game. Even halo doesn’t have it anymore, and that was sort of halos thing.

11/05/2016 - 16:06 |
48 | 2
DownshiftMedia

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Forza Motorsport 6 has it.

11/05/2016 - 19:21 |
10 | 0
Anonymous

Old features we miss - Forza 4’s Fujimi Kaido circuit!!

11/04/2016 - 17:09 |
6 | 2
Hellcat

I absolutely agree with you

11/04/2016 - 17:13 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

Appropiate pricing: the thing that GTA 5 items never got correct.

11/05/2016 - 11:07 |
128 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Dashboard doll? That would be $27,000 please, sir!

11/06/2016 - 00:24 |
50 | 0
Octa (jdm)(euro)(dorifto)(dank)(:>)(memes)(cringe)(logic)(ka

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Your whole veyron is destroyed and on fire , repairs 300$

11/06/2016 - 13:42 |
12 | 0
JenstheGTIfreak (pizza)

FM6 still has split screen and FH3(a kind of) used car market with the auctions

11/05/2016 - 11:11 |
2 | 0

FM6 was still pretty limited though. Especially since you couldn’t drag race!

11/05/2016 - 15:40 |
2 | 0
Just SniperBadBoy

You forgot TDU2 for the free roarming part

11/05/2016 - 11:13 |
14 | 0

I think the forza horizon series captures it really well

11/05/2016 - 19:20 |
8 | 6
Raregliscor1

I absolutely miss Choro Q games. These joyful (but flawed) games are incredibly endearing.

11/05/2016 - 11:19 |
40 | 2

What’s the console for this game?

11/05/2016 - 11:49 |
0 | 0

Oh! Road Trip Adventure! I loved that game.

11/05/2016 - 12:06 |
0 | 0

When they say become one with the car, they don’t mean become the car!

11/05/2016 - 21:20 |
2 | 0
Joshua Lue

And this glitch. Oooh the memories

11/05/2016 - 11:20 |
26 | 0

Getting a Suzuki Pikes peak escudo to 245683855428785km/h while pulling a sicko wheelie was my favourite thing to do on my PS2

11/06/2016 - 08:24 |
6 | 0
Ali Mahfooz
  1. DLCs were sold as a separate thing. There was a normal version, then there was the special edition with more challenges, cars and other options. Now its just a matter of monies worth download… and in some cases are rather expensive. cough EA cough
11/05/2016 - 11:30 |
40 | 0
Freddie Skeates

Take me back to SNES Mario Circuit 1 😫

11/05/2016 - 11:34 |
0 | 0