What are the best PS5 racing games? If you’re looking for high-adrenaline action, demolition, or perhaps a little off-roading, you’re in the right place. It’s a saturated market and one of the most popular gaming genres, so unsurprisingly there’s a lot to choose from. Somehow, by the power vested in us at The Loadout, we’ve managed to whittle down the list to just ten racing games you’ll want to try out on the PlayStation 5.
In this guide to the best PS5 racing games, we’re looking at the full spectrum of the best racing games available to play right now from arcade racers to hardcore sims to full-on arena destruction. Away from our list of the best PS5 games, there’s a little something for everyone, and we promise they’re wheel-y good.
Here are the best PS5 racing games:
- Gran Turismo 7
- Need for Speed Unbound
- F1 2023
- Lego 2K Drive
- DiRT 5
- TrackMania
- Wreckfest
- Hot Wheels Unleashed
- Riders Republic
- RiMS Racing
1. Gran Turismo 7
Gran Turismo 7 takes advantage of the PS5’s very own horsepower and delivers a pristine racing experience that lands at the top spot on this list. It takes everything Sony’s premier racing game team have learned over the past two decades and improves on it in every way.
Gran Turismo is an iconic franchise and the features for Gran Turismo 7 like weather and temperature affecting the circuits just slap more realism on top of what was already there. With a recent update enabling VR support, it’s now also one of the best PSVR2 games.
Still conflicted? Read our Gran Turismo 7 review.
2. Need for Speed Unbound
While retaining the Need For Speed formula and tropes we all know and love, 2022’s Need For Speed Unbound looks to inject some new life into the series with a striking new art style and hip, fashion-focused aesthetic.
As you’ll learn in our Need For Speed Unbound review, that aesthetic often struggles to land, but it certainly delivers on the gameplay front. Unbound also looks gorgeous on the PS5, and it has a wide variety of popular cars to buy, modify, and race.
3. F1 2023
Developer Codemasters has been in the business of racing games for over 30 years, and with F1 2023 it isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Unsurprisingly, with such a large foothold in the racing gaming genre, Codemasters appears on our list multiple times.
F1 2023 is the latest in the Formula One franchise and features two brand-new modes, visual enhancements along with the newer car models with updated physics, adaptive AI, and much, much more that puts this sim racer out in front with a lot to offer. What’s more, the new F1 World mode is the perfect replacement for F1 Life that fans found rather hollow in the previous game in the series.
It’s the most authentic F1 racing game to date – something you can read more about in our F1 23 review.
4. Lego 2K Drive
Lego 2K Drive might look a bit too family-friendly to be taken seriously as a decent racing game, and while it’s definitely something younger gamers could jump into, it still offers some great action for experienced racers.
As well as a Mario Kart-esque Cup Series, which drops you into a series of competitive races and crowns an overall winner after they’ve all concluded, there are also mini games and a story mode to keep you entertained. Lego 2K Drive is basically one big sandbox, taking you to a variety of locations, and your vehicle can even transform seamlessly during races to cover different terrains. It’s light-hearted, but still offers awesome racing.
5. DiRT 5
Hello to Codemasters once again, but this time we’re off-roading for some extreme racing. DiRT 5 is an arcade rally racer that, first and foremost, brings heaps of fun for PS5 players everywhere.
Travel around the globe, race around some incredible tracks, and do so behind the wheel of some of the world’s most iconic cars. Sounds good to us. DiRT 5 also has some cool utilization of the DualSense’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, which add to the rallying experience.
6. TrackMania
Unlike a lot of the other racing games on this list, here’s a completely free-to-play racer for you to try. TrackMania toes the line between frustrating and fun expertly, and while it looks fairly basic on the outside, it actually offers super intricate racing.
There’s even a competitive esports scene around TrackMania, if you find yourself enjoying it that much. It’s one of the most fun free PS5 games you can pick up right now, so it’s definitely worth a go.
7. Wreckfest
Wreckfest is a demolition derby themed racing game with chaos at the forefront. It’s very pick-up-and-play in nature making it a great, easy choice for an online racing game with friends. While cars are fun and all, let’s not forget to mention you can also do demolition derby with a lawnmower, if you fancy it.
It’s a lot of fun and there’s lots to do from different events to online multiplayer that all spell out carnage. Demolition and destruction truly is at the heart of all the fun.
8. Hot Wheels Unleashed
Hot Wheels Unleashed is an exhilarating, vibrant, and very fun PS5 game from the iconic toy franchise. Developer Milestone has made this arcade racing game that boasts retro cars and crazy tracks for players to whip round in style.
From basement to skyscraper to college campus, Hot Wheels has a range of environments on which to race and you can even create your own tracks. Like Lego 2K Drive, this is one for all ages too.
9. Riders Republic
How about a racing game that is open-world, reeks of adventure, and takes you out of those boring old cars and puts you on something a bit more extreme? Well, that’s where Riders Republic steps in. You’ve got a range of sports to compete in from mountain biking, skiing, snowboarding, and wingsuit flying all on offer.
This one’s from Ubisoft and the French developer excels at bringing a massive multiplayer playground to the PS5. In satisfying 60FPS, riders can meet and compete in a variety of modes including, of course, fast-paced mass racing.
10. RiMS Racing
RiMS Racing is a motorbike simulation with a bit of a twist. You’re not only racing in this one, but adjusting the bike parts to give you the best ride, depending on what you’re after. It combines mechanics with racing in what developer RaceWard Studio explains as being perpetuated by the fact, “a race is not purely won on the track.”
To truly excel in RiMS Racing, you must channel your inner engineer and begin to understand what goes into your ride to make it come out on top.
And we’re at the end of our best PS5 racing games list. There are ten top games there that should satisfy your need for speed – in whatever form it takes. Some of these titles even make the list of our best games of all time.
