Why Does Nobody Play Racing Games Anymore?

This is down to the death of the mid-sized developers. The PS1 (for example) had a ton of racers and small developers making games for it. Now we only have AAA or indie developers. Basically, if we want the genre to return, it's up to the indie devs to make fun, arcade racing games. They don't all have to be simulators.

Racing games nowadays lack soul. I’ll give credit to NFS for trying a different aesthetic but there’s problems that still plague that game since NFS 2015. Remember back in TDU2 when you can drive like a normal citizen around the whole map and not get bored? It was a Carpg before we knew it. I’d also add this too, I don’t care for festival style racing games. That’s why the old NFS and even The Crew 1 felt fun to play there was a risk and reward factor to those games that modern racing games don’t have.

It's not that 'nobody' plays racing games anymore it's the fact that they all have that same P2W mechanic at least the new ones do.

I love racing games but I love offline single-player racing games. Most modern racing games just aren't for me as I have no interest in multiplayer and while many of them still have some things to do in single-player, it's more of an afterthought compared to the full-fledged single-player campaigns that we got in racing games up through the 7th generation. And if a game has always online DRM, I refuse to buy it unless they guarantee an offline patch at end of life.

since i don't want you to not have a career after failing your exam, you have gotten my sub bro, also please do more of these short form video essays, this video is amazing!

Track mania, hotshots racing, new star gp, hot wheels unleashed, wipeout, wreckfest, dirt 5, redout, art of rally, Circuit Superstars, and many more fun racing games exist, you just have to look for them, mainstream racing games are a snooze fest

it's refreshing to see someone who understands the actual reason this genre's declined. some of the best racing games ever succeeded in spite of their ties to car/motorsport culture, not because of them, and i can list a dozen awesome racing games that don't even feature cars or real world vehicles at all. the genre's insistence on being a niche for enthusiasts has only made it regress from what it once was.

One racing games series I really miss is Motorstorm. It was so unique being an arcade off-road racer with multiple different vehicle classes. Racing at the same time and it is something that still hasn’t been replicated to this day. Making a new game like it would definitely be something that stands out and the fact that no one has made a modern racing game of that formula which worked so well back then feels like a missed opportunity

People love racing games, people hate trend chasing games, racing included. Last racing game I enjoyed was NFS Shift The problem is no on really cares to make a good game, racing games make it easy to DLC everything, they cost more in the long run, rarely try to fine tune mechanics, and always opt for flashy over good mechanics. I don't want to be driving a Lambo with a F150 across me, a dude in a PT Cruiser, and some kid on a scooter. Racing games at their core are best when it's a power fantasy, no one wants a super close race, they want to blow out the competition with their car they have invested heavily in, however that doesn't work because you can't have an offline racer anymore, everything must be online against 12 people from all over the planet. Also 5:28 I'm 34 and for me these games where considered the start of the decline for most of the franchises. People are free to enjoy them I have no problem with that but at the time they where in no way considered peak and really viewed as the start of the decline for folks around my age back than at the time of their release. I guess it depends on your age and the games we played at the time but we do agree things have gotten worse.

What I need in racing game is a sense of progression, but modern racing games keeps throwing random stuff via wheel spins, or weekly random awards, best cars right from the start, where sense of progression from slow to fast or cheap to expensive is destroyed.

we need midnight club bck

I think why beamng drive is so popular and successful because it’s unique and doesn’t have the bs from these major game studios, even though the game does require a somewhat beefy pc and doesn’t have much base content to it

Apologies if this isn't related to the topic on why nobody plays racing games, but paying $10 for a new add-ons pack that's separate from a modern AAA/AAAA racing game's content pass is completely stupid. Why bother paying a hefty price for add-ons that aren't included in the content pass for an $80+ game when the developer could've just updated it with all of the separate add-ons included for free? It saves a lot of time and money for gamers who owns a physical/digital copy of the game. Although I don't advocate the idea of using cheats, glitches, and/or exploits in games, it's totally fine if you use a DLC unlocker mod/trainer to get all paid DLCs and content that was only available within a time period for games like Forza Horizon 5 and Need for Speed Unbound.

Rammers and corner bombers is what has turned me off from most online racing. I still play racing games but tend to avoid online play because people are either malicious or utterly incompetent. This Solar Crown info is seriously disappointing. Ive been waiting for this since it was announced and now Im probably not going to even buy it. TDU2 was one of my favorite games ever.

R.I.P. OG The Crew 🫡

Players: We want to start out in smaller cars and make winning and where you place actually matter Forza: Okay, start in any car you want, finishing position still doesn't matter. But you aren't allowed to tune or upgrade your car unless you drive around for 100hrs

NFS Carbon, Burnout Revenge, Midnight Club 3 DUB, Midnight Club LA and BLUR come to mind when I think of my most enjoyed racing games. Cruising USA, Mario Kart, Ridge Racer Type 4 and Tokyo Xtreme Racer as the OG's 🙌 the genre has come such a long way, I feel like its hit a wall. Personally, I'd love a time traveling racer. environments that constantly time shift while ur racing 👍

Wreckfest deserves to be talked about more. it's so much fun. Just being able to load it up, find a server and just start racing (and wrecking) is the main reason I have 800 hours in it. It's pure carnage all the time and I keep going back for the adrenaline rush that I get avoiding buses and heavy cars trying to put me into a tree. I just feel like nobody wants to try something different so they stick with the same racing game re-released over and over. All I can say is. If you're looking for something different, something fun from a racing game. Give wreckfest a shot. I personally want more games like it to come out. Not the festival racing snooze fest stuff

true arcade racing games need to return. currently the big majority of "racing games" are just simcade/simulator car games that try to be as realistic/inmersive as possible while this type of game is not bad at all, this "need for realism" has been happening ever since NFS started to flop, or even other arcade racing franchises just stopped releasing games (wich was a damn long time ago) so its obvious that people are starting to get a bit sick of recent car games. nowadays its just to see wich game provides the best experience, not the most fun one

Around 2 years ago I got this weird itch in my head. I had enough of racing games, NFS, Forza, Crew, everything just became repetitive for me. I thought to myself something which I'd never thought about or considered before. I thgouth "let's try the complete opposite, let's try the most realistic driving game now". I bought Assetto Corsa, and immediately realized this wasn't going to be fun or even close to "simulation" with a gamepad, so I ordered a wheel, then a little later I ordered a VR headset, then a little later I ordered a full on sim rig. 2 years on I can say that AC is one of the best gaming experience, and the most fun driving experience I've ever had. I haven't and won't go back to arcade or simcade any more and wouldn't play the latest games if they were given to me for free. I don't know why it took me so long but eventually I got the sim itch and never looked back. Now it's not about how fast I can drive, or how many xp or landscape points I can get due to how high my car flew up a ramp or cliff or how many trees I took out, now driving is like a university or a journey. AC is making me a better driver, I've learned about things like proper racing, trail braking, slip angles, I learned how to drift in AC from scratch and learned about things like oversteer, understeer, counter-steering, how to connect drifts, etc. I always used to think those guys with full sim rigs were a bit over the top and never thought I'd be one of them, and here we are. Long live AC, best driving game ever imho.