Best Street Racing Games of All Time, Ranked

The street racing genre has piqued the interest of gamers for many years, as speeding through brightly lit streets at night while avoiding crashes by the narrowest of margins can give players a rush of adrenaline from the comfort and safety of their homes. Street racing games have gone through many changes over the years, most notably with how prominent online multiplayer is in recent releases, but the genre's high-speed action and beautiful city locations remain in place.

For those looking to revisit some of the street racing genre's greatest-ever releases, there's no shortage of the best street racing games ever made. Achieving high speeds and overtaking opponents is exhilarating no matter how many times players experience this gameplay loop.

Updated on March 9, 2024 by Ritwik Mitra: The allure of street racing is something that can't be put into words. Racing across busy streets and making high-speed overtakes without wrecking a car is a gameplay loop that never ceases to be engaging. Players will love acquiring the best cars possible to tackle tougher races and check out different competitions that reward skill, speed, and control in some form or another. Street racing games are pretty abundant, and as such, there are plenty more worthy of being added to this list.

13 Need for Speed Heat

Metascore: 72

Need for Speed Heat's 72 Metascore may strike some people as being surprisingly low, as many consider it to be one of the better titles in the rebooted NFS series. There may be a fair bit of grind involved, but racing in both the day and night in a detailed open world never ceases to be entertaining.

Even with the release of NFS Unbound attracting a ton of eyes toward the series, Heat still holds a special place in the hearts of many. There really aren't a lot of negatives to focus on once players get over the somewhat unjustifiable grinding.

12 The Crew Motorfest

Metascore: 76

The Crew Motorfest is a step in the right direction for Ubisoft's racing series that more people need to check out. While The Crew 2 was fun in its own right, the long wait for a new game after its release made most people think that Ubisoft wasn't prioritizing this series anymore.

So, the release of a new game that was a marked improvement in every way is something that many fans celebrated. The Crew Motorfest lets players explore a tropical landscape based on the islands of Hawaii, a great setting for some fun street racing shenanigans.

11 Burnout Dominator

Metascore: 76

• Platform(s): PlayStation 2, PSP
• Release Date: March 6, 2007
• Developer: EA UK

Burnout Dominator is the first - but certainly not the last - Burnout game on this list. It's also the only game in the Burnout series that was not developed by Criterion Games, as they were busy working on Burnout Paradise (more on that game later).

Development duties for Burnout Dominator were handed to EA UK, who didn't shake things up too much, keeping the core gameplay very similar to previous entries in the series. EA UK did delight fans by bringing back an old feature, though, as "Burnouts" made a grand return.

10 Need For Speed Unbound

Metascore: 77

The latest Need for Speed game may feature a grind that has angered many, but most people will get over it once they experience the fun racing action and cel-shaded visuals of what is easily the most visually creative racing game to have come out in a long time. Fans of the genre are so used to witnessing state-of-the-art carbon-copy visuals in their racing games that they didn't know how to feel about NFS Unbound's experiments in this department.

Need for Speed Unbound may have its faults, but fans of fun street racing action will have a blast with this game. The grind is the only negative in an experience that is perfect for fans of fun racing games that aren't afraid to prioritize fun over realism.

9 Need For Speed: Carbon

Metascore: 77

Need For Speed: Carbon

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Released

October 31, 2006

Developer(s)

Electronic Arts

Platform(s)

GameCube, PC, PS2, PS3, Wii, Xbox (Original), Xbox 360

Genre(s)

Racing

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Fans of tough racing games will love what Need For Speed Carbon has to offer. It's a shame that getting one's hands on this title has become more challenging than ever before, but players who fork over the cash to get this title will love the racing goodness on offer here.

Racing at night is always a blast, and Carbon doesn't disappoint in this regard. The act of hunting down rivals and beating them in cinematic canyon races never fails to be entertaining, making Carbon one of the more underrated titles in the NFS series that more people need to check out.

8 Need For Speed: Underground 2

Metascore: 82

Due to the success of its predecessor, Need For Speed: Underground 2 was a highly anticipated release. Thankfully, the game didn't disappoint, offering a tremendous amount of race variations, such as Drag racing, Sprint race, and the newly included Street X mode. The game also featured great depth in its customization features, which let players spend hours adjusting and fine-tuning their vehicles.

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Like its predecessor, Need For Speed: Underground 2 also stands out with its memorable soundtrack, which features great songs from a wide range of genres.

7 Need For Speed: Most Wanted (2005)

Metascore: 83

Need For Speed: Most Wanted is an open-world racing game that takes place in a fictional city named Rockport and features a fleshed-out career mode where players compete against the city's top 15 street racers. The game also significantly enhanced the fan-favorite police pursuits in Free Roam mode, making the chases far more complex and ultimately enjoyable than before.

Need For Speed: Most Wanted was remade in 2012. Need For Speed: Most Wanted (2012) is also well worth playing and only narrowly missed out on this list.

6 Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix

Metascore: 85

Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition was released in 2005 by Grand Theft Auto creator Rockstar Games. As would be expected from the iconic studio, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition offers players the chance to explore a US-inspired open world.

DUB Edition Remix was released just under one year after the original Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition hit stores but implemented numerous new features, including new vehicles, new races, and the welcome return of Tokyo as a city to compete in.

5 Burnout 2: Point Of Impact

Metascore: 86

• Platform(s): PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube
• Release Date: April 8, 2003
• Developer: Criterion Games

The second entry into the Burnout franchise was released in 2002 and greatly improved upon its lackluster predecessor by not only fine-tuning the core driving mechanics but also by significantly fleshing out the amount of content available.

Among the most notable changes in Burnout 2: Point of Impact was the addition of the "Crash" mode, which is now synonymous with the Burnout series. Although the mode may initially seem like nonsensical arcade fun, it actually offers fairly in-depth puzzle gameplay that requires both great driving skills and a well-thought-out strategy.

4 Burnout Paradise

Metascore: 88

The penultimate release into the critically acclaimed Burnout series, Burnout Paradise offered an enormous open world for its time. The game's open world is today recognized as being hugely influential in the prominent rise of open-world games, largely due to data revealing that players were favoring participating in the game's social aspects and simply exploring the game's world rather than competing in events.

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Along with an impressive Xbox 360 Metascore of 88, Burnout Paradise was awarded Best Driving Game at the Spike TV Video Game Awards. The game received the remaster treatment in 2018, giving Burnout Paradise some of the best visuals in street racing history.