This week’s topic is a top 5 of my favorite car video games. Video games and automotive are both my great passions that I will share with you now!
5. Colin Macrae Rally 2005 on PS2
This game is my first car video game that I have ever played. It is a video game about realistic rally simulation. I have a lot of memories with it, and I also had a steering wheel and pedals simulator.
You can find a lot of famous 2000s cars, as Subaru Impreza WRC, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and Ford Focus WRC.
For the time, the physics of vehicles were very realistic, like destruction, deformation and consumables.
4. BeamNG.drive
BeamNG Drive is the most realistic video game. At the beginning, this game was designed for educational and the industrial research.
Developers use Torque 3D, an open source engine for game’s physics systems. The technology used is « soft-body physic » to simulate dynamic and collisions between objects.
During the time, BeamNG team’s upgrade it to become a large public game, with adding several features, like different maps, vehicles and now some arcade games.
3. Forza Horizon 5
This is a famous open world car video game. Forza Horizon is the last episode of the Horizon franchise edited by Microsoft Xbox games. This game is closer one of the GTA (Grand Thief Auto) game than a classic car game.
We can find a huge variety of vehicle, and this is the game which has the most number of cars, around 815 uniques vehicles.
In 2026, the 6th episode will be released!
2. Grand turismo 7
Gran Turismo is the most popular PlayStation game edited by Sony Entertainment. The last game, GT 7 is the game in which the driving experience is the most realistic.
This game is only available on PlayStation platform (on PS4/5) and it is possible to play it with a car simulator device, such as a Logitech G920 (PC and PlayStation devices) that I have.
1. Dirt Rally 2.0
My favorite game is a Rally game named Dirt Rally 2.0. The automobile sport that I preferred is the Rally, especially during the 80s with B Group.
In this game, we can drive a lot of rally cars ranging from the oldest to the newer models. There are a lot of history rally scenarios and mythic runs.
This game gather the realistic destruction and consumable parts like BeamNG and the realistic behavior of a Gran Turismo.
Thank you for reading, I hope that you found this topic useful!
« Great post! I like how you talk about your favorite car games. You explain each game very well, and it is fun to read. I also think *BeamNG.drive* is a very realistic game, and it is cool that it was first made for research. Your story about *Colin McRae Rally 2005* is nice, and it sounds like you have good memories with it. Thank you for sharing this list, I enjoyed it a lot! »
I didn’t know the first two games, but I have already had the opportunity to play Forza Horizon and Grand Turismo ! Do you like Formula One simulation games ?
I’m not really a farmula 1 fan, but I’ve already had the chance to play F1 on a simulator on a hydraulic cylinder and with a VR headset!
Wow that’s crazy, it must not be the same feeling as with the little gamepad on our consoles !
Gran Turismo is truly iconic! Being the most popular PlayStation game from Sony Entertainment, GT 7 takes the driving experience to a whole new level of realism.