8 Racing Games We Can’t Believe Are Over 15 Years Old

After running through some racing games which are - incredibly - now 15 years old, you guys suggested a load more titles which are older than you might expect...
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Who can forget Burnout? The game kicked off a whole series of high-speed, crashy driving games when it was released back in 2001 for PlayStation 2. It’s difficult to really believe the original Burnout can be that old and ancient.

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Ah, those were the days. Playing Midtown Madness on your Windows PC. How can this game be that old? When it was released in 1999, there weren’t many open world games on the market, which set Midtown Madness apart. It gave people freedom they didn’t know they could have and there was even a multiplayer mode too.

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The game was just as violent as you’d expect from the cover design. This was the second instalment of the Carmageddon series and was released in 1998 for PC and (one year later) Mac. It came under criticism for the amount of violence in the game, mixing racing, combat and destruction. The damage model was unlike other games at the time too.

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Going back to when Need for Speed was picking up pace, the second game in the series was released on PlayStation and PC. The 1997 title included all of the usual features of the original, with exotic cars and different race modes, but also brought in car paint customisation and separate car components. It took good strides forward for NFS in many ways, although some felt it was easier than its predecessor to play.

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Driver set up a good foundation for the video game series, but 2000’s Driver 2 took things up a few notches with improved graphics, handling, a new character to play and big changes like the ability to get out of the car, explore the open world map (which featured four real-life cities) and even steal cars.

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Another original game in a successful racing title franchise, Project Gotham Racing hit our consoles in 2001 when it was released for Xbox. It was a little different compared to other racing games, because it wasn’t just about winning – the ‘Kudos’ points were also important and were picked up through fun drifts, power slides and overtakes.

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V-Rally was released way back in 1997 (and 1998, for some locations and consoles) for the original PlayStation and mixed things up by allowing two players to compete directly against each other in split screen mode, unlike in Colin McRae Rally. There were 10 locations and 11 official World Rally cars. It proved to be a big hit and spawned two follow-up games.

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This is one I remember well. I think anyone who played Crazy Taxi will struggle to forget it. It was originally released as an arcade game in 1999 but was ported to other consoles over the next few years. Who’d have thought a game revolving around being a taxi driver could be so fun.

Check out the original post right here.

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Comments

Joshua Lue

Burnout and Burnout 2 were my jam growing up. Lost sooo many hours on them and Gran Turismo 3.

Really enjoyed these posts. Going to set up my ps2 now today.

11/13/2016 - 08:53 |
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Thanks! Yeah I had one of the Burnout games on PS2, loved it

11/13/2016 - 08:57 |
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11/13/2016 - 11:34 |
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Anonymous

Ohhhh man Midtown Madness. I’ve lost countless hours on that game. It was the first game that I’ve bought.

11/13/2016 - 08:58 |
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Jack Leslie

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

The hours aren’t lost if you are gaming 😉

11/13/2016 - 09:14 |
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suchdoge

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Same here, my dad got me a Logitech wheel to play that back in 2002, countless hours wasted. The game had funny glitches where you could get any vehicle on top of one building, then crash test them…

11/14/2016 - 11:49 |
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Nassim 1

I spent countless ours playing Mario kar wii probably the best that has come out

11/13/2016 - 08:59 |
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Anonymous

Hear that? That’s the noise of 20-something old’s hips breaking.

11/13/2016 - 09:11 |
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Anonymous

Worth mentioning: even 15 years on (ooooh, me hip!), this song (from Crazy Taxi, before you jump up my arse!) still hasn’t gotten old. Anyone else rembember soaring through the air before inevitablly hitting an invisible wall and crashing to the ground? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us8OhI-OTHg&ab_channel=OffspringVEVO

11/13/2016 - 09:15 |
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Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

I dont listen to them anymore, but goddamn they have some badassS songs

11/13/2016 - 13:03 |
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Anonymous

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11/13/2016 - 09:17 |
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DL🏁

Haven’t played almost any console games in my childhood - it was very hard and expensive to get one even when I was an adolescent
So the only time I played console games was when I was visiting my school friends. And the only 2 games I recognise are Driver 2 and Crazy Taxi
Later on I got a NFS underground on my PC and that seemed to me like insane graphics, loved the game to bits

11/13/2016 - 09:26 |
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Anonymous

i still have crazy taxi in my pc

11/13/2016 - 10:15 |
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Anton 3

I feel nostalgic AF.

11/13/2016 - 10:15 |
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nobody 1

I spent lots of hours playing crazy taxy in arcade zones.

11/13/2016 - 10:23 |
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