You can have the best racing system in the world but without the proper games, you'll be missing all the fun. Here are some good driving games . . .

This one totally amazed me. You take part in the 1967 Formula one season, when 'wings' were strictly used on airplanes, and 'savety' was a word yet to be invented. Sounds just about right for a driving game doesn't it?

This is the first game where you can drive on the dangerous Nurburgring, a 174 turn cirquit in Germany, arguably the best racetrack in the world. It certainly is the most challenging cirquit in any driving game yet.

Apart from great graphics and sound, everything just moves so realistically, that it could well be real. Papyrus (David Kaemmer) certainly know their physics. As realism goes, this leaves all the other games far behind. Make sure you read the David Kaemmer interview available in the MAIN section of this site.

Tips

You need hours of practice before you're capable of completing a lap without spinning, so be patient. Don't play it without a steering wheel, and make the steering linear. Start out with the 'novice' car. 140 horsepower is more than enough to start with.

Get the version 1.2 patch and check out the parc-ferme.de page. Download some replays to see what it takes to be fast. And take the year off to learn the ubitucous (frontpage doesn't incorporate a spelling check) Nurburgring. 

Should you think that all this is a bit to difficult, try the demo first. It's a bit old and buggy, better still, GPL should be out on budget any day now (source THEUSPITS.COM)

Required system

P200 32Mb with 3DFX card. Planning to race against 19 cars? buy a P450 first. (and some Voodoo2 cards)

French. But I'll go on: this game claims to be the most realistic F1 simulator out there. But it isn't. They haven't translated mr Physics properly. The car always has this weird understeer type tendency, and when you spin the car, the center of rotation is just rediculous. When you come out of a fast corner too fast, understeering into the gravel traps at 120Mph, you 'magically' come to a stand still in about 2 seconds, without a bounce or a change of direction. Should you actually manage to 'spin' into the gravel traps, your car will have the weird tendency to start traveling in the opposite direction in which you entered the sodding gravel. (I can see Mr Newton rolling over in his grave, with all respect)

the engine sound 'on the throttle' is totally different from the 'off the throttle' one, so it's a pain in the, er, ears when you're give throttle pulses, coming out of a corner.

It is playable however, but I just don't really like it. And thats the most important thing about a game, you have to like it. And I don't. Really. And you shoudn't too.

Tips

Lose all the help functions (I said ALL of them!) and don't forget to make the steering LINEAR. You can get away with quite a bit of wing difference between the front and rear. (i.e. lots of front wing and very little rear wing) without making the car too nervous. (It will always feel as vague as a french car though) 

Required system

P166 with DIRECT 3D / 3DFX and 16Mb ram. If you're planning to do a race against 21 other cars, a fast P2 is required.

Although real live Nascar is popular, to me it's not much more than some cool engine sounds and the occasional crash. It can't touch rallying or F1.

This game however is totally great. Watching Nascar on T.V. might not be the most exiting thing you'll ever do, but driving a 1500Kg car on 30 degree banked corners at 160Mhp is.

The frame rate while racing against 39 other 'tanks' is also impressively high, and your opponents are quite aggressive. Like other Papyrus games, they don't actually seem to 'drive' but the moment you go wide, they will try to pass you. And they won't back off a second. Kewl, as some say.

Tips

Lose all the help functions (I said ALL of them!) and don't forget to make the steering LINEAR. Start out with the 'ACE' car setups, (supplied with the game) and see if you can improve that.

Required system

On my P200 it runs playable in 640x480 while racing against a full field of computer opponents. I've seen a 3DFX patch, but that strangely slowed the game down (?) And 16Mb RAM is enough.

This is the most realistic formula one simulator available. Although some say that UbiSoft did it beter with their F1 Racing Simulation, real driving nuts know better. Incredible, given the fact that almost 4 years down the line, nothing has beaten it yet. Everything feels just right. Did I mention this that this is cool? Yes? Well, it's worth mentioning again. This is cool. (etc.)

Tips

Lose all the help functions (I said ALL of them!) and don't forget to make the steering and pedals operate LINEAR (on the advanced controls menu) This LINEAR stuff is essential to make the game react realistically to the wheel / pedal movements. When driving, toggle F7 (traction control) off.

Check out the links page, as there's a lot of GP2 on the net. (there used to be anyway, now everebody is waiting for GP3 which I really (like REALLY) hope will be the best thing since sliced bread, but any game taking on GPL will probaly turn out to be a dissapointment.  Fingers crossed then.

Required system

P120 8Mb for 320x200, at least a P200 for 640x480. No 3D card support.

This Indycar game is in my opinion underrated by the game magazines. It might not be as great as GP2, but the AI (Thats artificial Intelligence) of the competitors is astounding (on most of the cirquits), making each race a thriller. It shouldn't cost you that much, as it's out on budget. And it runs fine in lo-res lo-detail on a 486/66 (do those machines run Internet explorer? otherwise those 2 people cannot read this stuff . . )

Tips

Lose all the help functions (I said ALL of them!) and don't forget to make the steering LINEAR.

Required system

486/66 8Mb for 320x200, a P133 for 640x480. No 3D card support.