Little-Known or Forgotten Racing/Driving Games

[Alex p.]

Holy damn, guys. This thread is a time machine!

Formula 1 Championship Edition 2006 - Look, i don't want to bash on Codemasters (as always) but imo, this game is, BY FAR, better than any other Cody F1 game. Last F1 game made by a Sony studio (SCE Studio Liverpool). Both PS2 and PS3 games are great. The sunset on Interlagos in Time-attack mode... gods! And there's also a trophy room with 7 classic F1 cars that you can use in Time-attack as well. I enjoyed all Sony F1 games, 2003-2006. I also have F1 2000, made by EA. That intro is the best intro of all F1 games

You might like this:

Some great games there Scaff. I used to love playing Vanishing Point & Le Mann's 24hr on my Dreamcast, in fact it's still set up ready to go I'm interested what you think of the Ferrari games, I might pick them up myself if their any good.

Vanishing Point has like the worst handling EVER.

 

[MrCrynox]

You might like this:











Vanishing Point has like the worst handling EVER.

It's a bit tricky for sure but I wouldn't say worse handling ever just very sensitive, once adapted though I thought it was fine. You just gotta be gentle with your inputs

 

[mjm23race]

Someone mentioned Sports Car GT. Had it not been for both SCGT and the modding community, I don't think rFactor would have been born. That is one of many racing games I think people need to appreciate if they to call themselves ANY sort of racing game fan.

SCGT was the **** back in the day. I probably logged more hours on that than any other game. Was single back then too so I had more gaming time.

 

[Yarf]

Thrill Drive: the arcade predecessor to Burnout, the HUD looks similar as well

 

[MotoPunk]

Came across this thread and fell extremely far down the rabbit hole. Spent the past few days test driving a lot of these games. This may be my only post ever but at this point I feel obligated to contribute. Apologies if these have been mentioned.

Generally Racing - I started playing this game on Windows 98 and to this day it still has a small modding and competitive community. It's an awesome Isometric game that is extremely customizable.


Crusi'n USA - Not sure if this is considered little known or forgotten but it was a staple of my childhood on N64. Nowadays it runs great on MAME especially with some FFB plugins and a wheel.


Rally Cross - This was a solid game back in the day and still held up when I picked it up on the ps3.

 

[Nismonath5]

Rally Cross - This was a solid game back in the day and still held up when I picked it up on the ps3.

Holy smokes, I remember Rally Cross!! I had it on PS1 plus I picked it up on the PS3 store back in the day

It was a pretty neat little game, good for a bit of arcade racing fun and the water / mud splatter effects were quite cool for the time. I still remember the cheat code that unlocked all the cars, tracks and track variants too

Spoiler: THE CODE

Enter "weeoo" as your name at the start of a season

 

[Jdramirez]

I just found a video of this forgotten racing game for the PS2, but sadly...



...the video is all Japanese even though the game is entirely English. Heck not even TV Tropes never heard of this one.

Are there any English videos about this racing game? I don't speak Japan.

 

[Megamarcx84]

Don't know if it's been mentioned or not, but I was a big fan of Top Gear Rally(1997) for N64, and never really heard it in discussion amongst other racing game enthusiasts.

 

[MrCrynox]

Don't know if it's been mentioned or not, but I was a big fan of Top Gear Rally(1997) for N64, and never really heard it in discussion amongst other racing game enthusiasts.

Ive got it and loved playing it back in the day. Preferred it to the second one.

I remember it being be difficult at first due to the directness of the steering but once you adjusted to it, it was ace.

 

[RandomCarGuy17]

I learned about the racing game "Apex" or "Racing Evoluzione" for the original Xbox and it can be played on Xbox 360 via backwards compatibility. It actually looks like it can be a bit fun. It also has a few cars I rarely seen in racing games like the first gen AMG Mercedes SLK and a Ford Mustang "Terminator" Cobra.

 

[MedigoFlame]

Bringing this thread back as I'm curious to know more about this game and I can't seem to find much. I know @JohnBM01 mentioned the Mille Miglia arcade games before (after using the search function for this thread), but no mention of the PSX/PS1 Mille Miglia game that came out in 2000. Not sure if it is related to those arcade classics in some way, but would love to find out if it came out for the console in the US or not. Guessing it might only be PAL region?

Found some gameplay footage on YT:


Certainly an interesting list of cars shown on IGCD:

https://www.igcd.net/game.php?id=10000086

Seeing plenty more games I'm curious of learning, but I imagine a lot are region exclusive.

 

[Scaff]

Bringing this thread back as I'm curious to know more about this game and I can't seem to find much. I know @JohnBM01 mentioned the Mille Miglia arcade games before (after using the search function for this thread), but no mention of the PSX/PS1 Mille Miglia game that came out in 2000. Not sure if it is related to those arcade classics in some way, but would love to find out if it came out for the console in the US or not. Guessing it might only be PAL region?

Found some gameplay footage on YT:


Certainly an interesting list of cars shown on IGCD:

https://www.igcd.net/game.php?id=10000086

Seeing plenty more games I'm curious of learning, but I imagine a lot are region exclusive.

I reviewed it here, which might give your a bit more info

Retro Rewind - Retro Racing Titles Reviewed and Revisited

@Scaff Race Driver 3 was one of my favourite racing games for it's time. The sheer variety and volume of content was incredible back then. It had a bit of everything. I used to enjoy creating custom races in the classic Muscle Cars going around the Australian street tracks, it was a bit chaotic...

www.gtplanet.net

 

[Matej]

Vanishing Point has like the worst handling EVER.

It's difficult to control but oddly enough, ONE particular car in the game handles slightly different than the others, almost like they wrote different physics code for it. It's the Mini Cooper and you can steer it with much, much higher precision. I was blown away by this since the car felt so much different than the rest. Shame other cars don't handle like the Cooper.

 

[MrCrynox]

It's difficult to control but oddly enough, ONE particular car in the game handles slightly different than the others, almost like they wrote different physics code for it. It's the Mini Cooper and you can steer it with much, much higher precision. I was blown away by this since the car felt so much different than the rest. Shame other cars don't handle like the Cooper.

Whilst I on the other hand liked the handling. Yes it was difficult at first but then it just worked. I remember flying along dodging in and out of the traffic feeling so tense, great fun. Interesting about the Mini Cooper though, I can't remember that 👍

 

[MedigoFlame]

I reviewed it here, which might give your a bit more info

Retro Rewind - Retro Racing Titles Reviewed and Revisited

@Scaff Race Driver 3 was one of my favourite racing games for it's time. The sheer variety and volume of content was incredible back then. It had a bit of everything. I used to enjoy creating custom races in the classic Muscle Cars going around the Australian street tracks, it was a bit chaotic...

www.gtplanet.net

I'll have to take a look at some point. Thank you for that!

Another one I'm not sure if it's worth mentioning is Spirit of Speed 1937 for Dreamcast.

Interesting list of vintage racers.

https://www.igcd.net/game.php?id=30072159

 

[Inferno251]

I remember Spirit of Speed being in a topp 100 worst games video released about 10 years ago:



Also it was the last game with the ljn logo.

 

[Jtheripper]

Viper racing was a small game, low budget, but one of 1st i remember that felt a little more sim.
Was fun challenge on win98 i think. Can't remember if i played it with just kb or a basic wheel, maybe both.

Jeff crammond f1 was cool when came out.
Gplegends, gtr1 had cool vipers too if i remember, gtlegends i liked a lot, cool cars, pretty sim.
I guess these latter games aren't unknowned though.
Nfs Porsche unleashed was cool at the time, arcade but with a little more real feel maybe.

 

[TumeK5]

Another loved/hated game, although remembered by many, and at the same time forgotten is the first real rival of the Gran Turismo Series...

Enthusia. Professional Racing

I came this || close to messaging "I'm heartbroken no one mentioned Enthusia"

I quite like the game. My main minuses are:

• Lack of open circuits
• Lack of completion
• Lack of certain cars
• 4:3
• Weird rally physics

Other than that, it's a brilliant game with really good physics for its time, perhaps even better than Gran Turismo 4. However, the game fell into obscurity, and as mentioned, lacks content.

 

[toastet]

I came this || close to messaging "I'm heartbroken no one mentioned Enthusia"

I quite like the game. My main minuses are:

• Lack of open circuits
• Lack of completion
• Lack of certain cars
• 4:3
• Weird rally physics

Other than that, it's a brilliant game with really good physics for its time, perhaps even better than Gran Turismo 4. However, the game fell into obscurity, and as mentioned, lacks content.

it's that big that it has his own sub forum on GT Planet

Enthusia

A dedicated forum for Enthusia racers.

www.gtplanet.net