Any recommendations for a racing game? (emphasis on great graphics...also PC...not Forza)

The Game Room
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Title says it all.

I am looking for a very good looking racing game for the PC. Forza is out…looks nice but the Microsoft hook was so onerous I had to use Task Manager to stop the game…it was weirdly hard to impossible to exit the game. Also, it was sooo cheesy.

I did not try but looked at Project Motor Racing and there were many, many reviews that said it was a buggy mess.

Gran Turismo seems made only for consoles.

I am asking to impress a friend who is not a gamer but a car nut when he visits in a few weeks. So, emphasis on looks great. He will not have enough time to discern a deep simulation. Also, I am a sucker for good graphics. That said, any advice is welcome.

Thanks in advance!

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Here’s PC Gamer’s list with screenshots: Best racing games on PC | PC Gamer

I don’t know which Forza you meant, but I played Forza Horizon 5 a while ago (maybe it’s an older title?) and IMHO the graphics looked great. The Xbox tie-in was a bit annoying but not too terrible. Maybe it got worse in Horizon 6?

Assetto Corsa looks pretty good with mods: How to Make Assetto Corsa Look Realistic with Mods: A Step-by-Step Guide

PS Do you already have a good force-feedback racing wheel? IMHO that was way more impressive (and fun!) to play with than merely great graphics, which every big game and movie already has these days… having a good wheel turned up the immersion 10x for me.

Aside: Does it have to be a pure racing game, as in driving around in circles?

If not, I had fun with:

  • BeamNG.drive: A driving physics & materials simulator. You “can” race in it, sort of, but it’s more fun just driving around with different kinds of vehicles on the highway and crashing into things and seeing how they deform and break. It’s really cool to see an actual simulation of what a 200 MPH collision on the highway looks like.

    You can also design your own car and assembly line in Automation and then import it (the car) into BeamNG. The graphics are merely OK though — good enough to get the point across but certainly not “impressive” by modern standards.

  • Snowrunner lets you drive heavy machinery (logging trucks, military hand-me-downs, etc.) through snow and mud, with physically simulated ground and water conditions. It’s about navigating different terrain, not racing.

    • The spinoff RoadCraft has you building roads through these environments.
    • The other spinoff Expeditions has you going on adventures.
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For top-notch GRAPHICS on PC, you’re pretty much limited to Forza. If you really want to get into the mod weeds, Assetto Corsa can get you there. Other games are either console-only (GT7) or sim-focused, like iRacing (which is it’s own level of freemium/subscription) with non-impressive graphics.

ETA: AC actually has a newer version, Assetto Corsa Competizione, if you want to focus on the racing.

Also, what Reply said - a wheel turns racing from a game to an experience. Doubly so if you can toss in some VR goggles (PSVR2 how I love you).

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I would recommending trying this first before buying.
I’m a big fan of VR, and I have a higher threshold for motion sickness than most people…and I still find racing games basically unplayable.

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Do they work well well with PC, especially Steam games?

I was waiting for the Steam Frame, but who knows if that will ever come out now thanks to the AI RAM crisis :frowning:

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I’ve never played a better playing racing game than Wreckfest.

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PC VR games are very graphics card bound, both the GPU and graphics mem.
I have a Radeon 6750 10GB and everything runs fine, but you can’t go much cheaper than that.

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The second on that list, Project CARS 2, is no longer available on Steam. Not sure why. (I have not chased it down but that is a concern).

Thanks for the list though. I am checking it out.

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I mean the goggles :slight_smile: Like are they plug and play or do you have to jump through hoops like you did used to have to do with Dualsense? Sony traditionally hates PCs, apparently.

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Ah I see. Well I can’t speak to that, as my headset is a quest 2.

What I can say, is that in terms of the quest 2 setup experience, yeah I found it to be a PITA. Surprisingly un-user friendly, and you pretty much have to begin from online guides. And then, games which weren’t originally designed for VR (e.g. skyrim) add an extra layer.
But now that I have a working setup, it’s pretty much plug and play. I am reluctant to change any of my config though.

ETA: When I was first setting up VR though, it was with an inadequate GPU, so I was tinkering from the get-go. It’s possible that the happy path is much simpler than mine was. I’d still say steam VR is not very intuitive though. Equally messy as the concept of steam controllers.