The Evolution Of Racing Games

Since the first ever racing game came out in 1969, racing games have evolved into wickedly fun games
that look and feel like the real thing. It’s not just the games, hardware has evolved with it. Racing
wheels, VR headsets, and even full-motion cockpits have all transformed racing games into a stunning
recreation of what it feels to drive a car. Whatever the discipline, there is a game for it. Road racing?
Rally/Rallycross? Open world? Yes, there’s a game for that. “But where did this all start?” you might
have asked while clicking on this article. Well, it’s time to tell you just that.
The 60s
It all starts with Sega’s Grand Prix. The year is 1969, you would have never guessed to see something
as “advanced” as a racing game back then, right? It was hard to send a rocket to the moon, calculators
are still slow (Editor: I think we lost him), but Sega was able to bring it into existence. It had a steering
wheel and a dashboard! Looking at that, I’m extremely impressed on what Sega was able to do for the
time. It started a trend of games that would last for decades.
The 70’s
Fast forward to the 70’s, and we are met with a game called “Speed Race.” Speed Race used simple
sprites and used a vertical scrolling road. The game could be played with a steering wheel/shifter setup,
impressive for the time. Unlike Grand Prix, this game could be played with two players. There were
many other games published in that time, “Moto-Cross” and “Super Bug” being most popular in the
racing game industry. These aren’t exactly car games, but I thought that they deserved an honorable
mention for this era.
The 80’s
The 80’s might have been one of the most fantastic eras of racing games, what I like to call “The golden
age of racing games.” Starting strong, we are greeted with “Rally-X” on the first year of the decade. I
have a soft spot for this game, I used to play it a lot at a friend’s house, he had an arcade table with a
bunch of 80’s era games on it. (Editor: We lost him again?) Back to the point, the aim of the game was to
escape from another car by piloting your vehicle through a maze. You could “blind” the enemy by using
a smoke screen that used up your virtual fuel. With all of this in mind, “Rally-X” was the first of its kind
to have background music! However, the game was quite overshadowed by one of the most influential
games ever made. The game in question is “Pole Position.”
Pole Position is what I consider to be the world’s first sim-racing game. The first-person racing game was
based off a real circuit (Fuji Speedway, to be exact) and featured advanced features like a qualifying lap,
checkpoints, and a scoring system based off what position you finished the race in. This is considered by
many people, me included, as the very first sim-racing game to exist. It was the highest grossing arcade
game in 1983 and started a category of games that would continue to this day. Because of this, the rest
of this article will probably contain mostly sim-racing games. In 1989, Atari published Hard Drivin’, a game that evolved from the pixelated graphics of previous
games to chunky, polygonal figures. The game featured some more spectacular features like Force
Feedback and a fully functional clutch. As the name implies, the game was hard, a learning curve was
expected for any player of the game.
In the same year, Papyrus Design Group produced their first sim-racing game, known as Indianapolis
500: The Simulation. This might be the first sim-racing game that was readily available on personal
computers. It had impressive graphics for the time and featured setup options and car failures. This
game wasn’t like any other game before it, focusing heavily on physics and telemetry. You lost grip
around a corner when going too fast. The player had access to their “garage” making the modification of
tires, suspension, and wings. The damage model, albeit a little dated by today’s standards, made for
some spectacular looking pileups.
The 90’s
Wow, we’re past the 80’s! We’re in the 90’s now, and a bunch of new games are already competing to
see who’s the best. When Formula One Grand Prix debuted in 1992, it immediately took the crown as
the best sim-racing game out there. It has amazing graphics and recreated all the tracks, cars, and
drivers for the 1991 season. The version sold to the United States, known as World Circuit, was never
approved by the FIA, so they had to replace the team names and driver names. Because of this, you
might be able to spot the differences. (For example, Ayrton Senna became Carlos Sanchez) However,
this victory was short-lived, as Papyrus came back to launch IndyCar Racing the following year. It was
just a sequel from their first game, with minor updates to physics, graphics, and telemetry. These were
all fun and games compared to the bombshell that Sony dropped on the sim-racing world…
In 1997, Gran Turismo was released for the PlayStation, bringing an immersive sim-racing experience to
the living room. Apart from offering the best racing simulation available at the time, the game featured
an extensive amount of tuning options and a “Career Mode,” where players had to take driving tests to
earn certain licenses. The franchise is now the second-most popular racing game today, with 61.41
million copies currently sold worldwide.
In 1998, A game known as Colin McRae Rally was created. Named after Subaru’s most popular driver,
the game introduced rally racing to the sim racing world, bringing a new audience of people to the sim-
racing world. Because Colin McRae Rally had a terrifying sense of speed, the game is still referred to as
one of the best rally racing game today.
The 2000’s
With the new millennium, things start to get serious. Thanks to the internet becoming more widespread,
online racing is much more common, sparking the creation of many new games. Games started showing
up around 2005 with the introduction of Live for Speed, NetKar Pro, GT Legends, GTR2 and RFactor.
These games introduced new features like drifting, updated physics, and a slew of online features. These
games were successful out of the gate, still being played to this day. The turn of the millennia even
brought us Forza, a game to rival the legendary fame of Gran Turismo. Just like Gran Turismo, Forza
continues today, with Forza Horizon 4 just around the corner at the time of writing. These all sound like good games, but they’re quite overshadowed by another game, a game that is still reported to be the
most realistic sim racing game in the world…
iRacing was the name of the game. This game was insanely realistic, with the most realistic physics
engine on the market. Professionals of real-life racing used iRacing to train regularly, and even required
a paid subscription to play! You could do, for example, $100 for a year, $10 a month, the sky was the
limit! With regular updates, the game has held the crown ever since, even beating out today’s lineup of
games at the time of writing this.
Today (The 2010’s)
This is the era of games that most of you reading can relate to. The arcades are starting to disappear,
but that doesn’t mean that this era of games was limited in any way. The biggest stars of today include
Assetto Corsa, Project CARS 2, DiRT 4, and BeamNG. Drive. (Is BeamNG a sim-racing game?) Back to the
point, these games have really moved the game on with amazing graphics that are almost
indistinguishable from the real world. Hardware has moved on with them, bringing us advanced tools
like Force-Feedback racing wheels, advanced cockpits, VR headsets, the list goes on.
The living-room giants have kept their high role in racing games with titles like Gran Turismo Sport,
Forza Motorsport 7, and Forza Horizon 4 (coming soon). Let’s not forget about mobile racing, though.
With the smartphone becoming more mainstream, we start to see more and more racing games arriving
to these palm-sized devices. My personal favorite of the bunch is Real Racing, with the third game in
their series still going strong. We’re starting to see many new games now, including Asphalt 9, Top
Drives, CSR2, the list goes on.
Looking over the different categories of games, I’m confident that sim-racing will stay strong for a long
time. I’d even consider making my own game one day, the sky is the limit. Until then, this’ll be the end
of the article. Thank you for reading! Have a nice day.

Written by Aero777