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

Speedemon (Giulia Lover)

Holy crap Mario kart for the DS is the best. I went to Toronto for 3 days on a big school field trip and did a bunch of stuff, but the best memories from that trip were playing Mario kart DS back in the hotel 😃

11/05/2016 - 11:39 |
8 | 0

Mario Kart DS? Completed it mate

11/05/2016 - 13:15 |
8 | 0
Anonymous

It was soo cool when you were suposed to create your own team in Race Driver GRID..

11/05/2016 - 11:49 |
4 | 0
TimRobbert

Missing the splitscreen the most

11/05/2016 - 11:59 |
10 | 0
Poke

NFS Carbon had Autosculpt

11/05/2016 - 12:06 |
6 | 0
Caro

holy crap i got in this

11/05/2016 - 12:54 |
2 | 2
Itsuki

In reply to by Caro

Well, it’s not like you’ve got a bad point. I loved the feeling on gt where you would have your first 500hp car and it was special. You’d worked for hours in hatchbacks and for that moment.
Meanwhile in forza the first car you drive is a 700hp lamborghini, and then your first car is a medium class sports car that within three races can have 1000hp

11/05/2016 - 13:05 |
6 | 0
Darude Her Right In The Sandstorm™

In reply to by Caro

Same

11/06/2016 - 01:27 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

and Lan multiplayer.NO matter the fast internet connection nothing beats the good ol lan connection…

11/05/2016 - 13:14 |
0 | 0
The S2K Guy

Appropriate pricing? Yeah, that doesn’t happen with iOS games.

11/05/2016 - 14:00 |
10 | 0

So true. On asphalt 8 i swear a 458 Italia is cheaper than a F430 or even a Nismo GTR😒

11/05/2016 - 19:07 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

When your comment/suggestion makes #9 on the list.

11/05/2016 - 14:10 |
2 | 2
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Also JackLeslie🏁 you used my tag instead of my actual username LOL

11/05/2016 - 22:51 |
0 | 0
James Leeder

“Having to work for it”
“Appropriate Pricing”
Wait, aren’t those the opposite of each other?

I do get what you mean though, just using Gran Turismo as an example, winning your first race in GT2 and GT3 gave you $1000. In GT4 they changed it to $600. Now in GT5 and GT6 it’s something like $4,600? and with the available 200% login bonus that could be $9,200 from the first race. Do that a few times and you can get like a C7 Corvette in about 30 minutes. In GT4, you couldn’t even get a 90s impreza in the used car lot with the massive $3000 you earned from the first set of 5 races.

So it’s easy to get cool cars in GT5/6? nah, some of the high end stuff is $20,000,000 or more and takes an impossibly long time to get. It’s frustrating to immediately have access to 90% of the game’s content and never be able to reach that last 10%, it feels like you aren’t progressing at all.

I just wish games dared to be more challenging at the start even though it might turn some people off the game. They probably do it so game reviewers can play the game for 2 hours and go “Cool, I already have all this cool stuff!” and give it better reviews that just saying “I’ve played for 2 hours and I feel like I’ve made no progress, this game is dumb”

11/05/2016 - 16:05 |
12 | 0

I remember how in GT4 you used to be able to transfer credits from GT3. so instead of starting with say a Mirage I could start with a 05 mustang

11/05/2016 - 21:37 |
4 | 0

i remember just keeping my credits for a SVT Cobra R in GT3 easy way of racking in wins

11/06/2016 - 00:04 |
0 | 0

The middle section of your comment is what he was all about with the “appropriate pricing” thing.
It just encourages cheats.
The work you needed to do was appropriate and balanced “back then”.

11/06/2016 - 09:38 |
2 | 0

m8 tomahawk x, barely slower than the redbulls and it’s only 1 mil

11/07/2016 - 04:42 |
0 | 0
Hevar

Gran Turismo 5 was something extra.

11/05/2016 - 17:51 |
0 | 0