Over the years, racing games have carved a niche genre that pushes boundaries of speed, precision, and adrenaline. Today, racing games excel at providing a blend of competition, skill mastery, and realistic driving simulation.

Powerful gaming consoles like the Xbox Series X allow developers to take advantage of the available graphical processing power to deliver experiences like never before. Many racing games today feature realistic graphics, tight driving mechanics, and large worlds to drive your favorite vehicle in. If you’re in search for the best racing games to enjoy on the Xbox Series X, the following list ranks ten of the best racing games you should consider playing on the console.

10 TT Isle Of Man – Ride On The Edge 3

Challenging Bends That Test Your Motorbiking Skills

What makes this a great racing game:

• Large Open World: The open world in Isle of Man 3 is vast with roads that lead you through packed cities, open fields, and mountains. Also, the races are sprinkled throughout the world, which means you can start a challenge while out riding in the world.
• Bike Variety: The game offers almost 40 bikes, each behaving differently from others. Some bikes have faster acceleration, cubic capacities, and top speeds.
• Multiplayer Lobbies: If you really want to put your motorbiking skills to the test, you can also jump in the multiplayer mode to challenge human opponents.

TT Isle of Man – Ride on the Edge 3 is a motorbike simulator that offers a large open world connected via long stretches of empty roads, whose objective is to test your riding skills. The striking feature of Isle of Man 3 is how realistic the game can sometimes look. Also, the sense of speed that the game delivers is truly unmatched.

The campaign mode directly drops you in the open world along with your starting sports bike, and you’ll need to ride around the map to participate in challenges, which include time trials and races against AI opponents.

Metacritic Score: 70

9 Hot Wheels Unleashed

Nostalgic Gravity-Defying Arcade Racer

What makes this a great racing game:

• Car Collection: The game features over 66 unlockable cars, each with its own unique stats and handling.
• Track Builder: The game’s track builder is robust enough to bring your imaginative inner child to the surface, enabling you to build exciting custom tracks to play on and offline.
• Local Multiplayer: In addition to online multiplayer, the game also includes local multiplayer, allowing you to play the game with a friend or a loved one in splitscreen mode.

If you ever owned a Hot Wheels track set and built your own custom tracks, you’ll notice the nod that Hot Wheels Unleashed makes through its track designs. You’ll find the tracks set in rather memorable locations like garages and kitchens.

This arcade racer includes everything that you ever wanted from a Hot Wheels game, and more. The tracks have generous play length and include many surprises like jumps and gravity-defying loops. Also, you get the freedom to customize your car, allowing you to create and share custom liveries and customize the in-game basement.

Metacritic Score: 72

8 Assetto Corsa Compitizione

Ultimate Racing Simulation For GT Fans

What makes this a great racing game:

• Realistic Physics: Unlike arcade racers, driving in Assetto Corsa Competizione is a simulation of what it feels like driving a car in reality. This means, crashing into other racers or driving on gravel will have implications.
• SRO GT World Challenge License: This license allows Assetto Corsa Competizione to feature all official cars, tracks, and teams from the SRO GT World Challenge, enabling you to experience the thrills of racing in the 1:1 replication of the world championship.
• Active Online Community: Assetto Corsa Competizione has a thriving online community of sim racers who compete in online races and leagues. If you outrace your opponents, you quickly climb the ranks, allowing you to challenge highly-skilled players.

Assetto Corsa Competizione is touted as one of the best racing simulators available right now. If you’ve never played a racing simulator before, trying Assetto Corsa Competizione for the first time will have you over-accelerating, spinning out, and crashing your car frequently.

However, once you have the game’s mechanics and car physics figured out, you’ll come to appreciate the precision required to drive a sports car on racetracks against challenging opponents, all while trying to secure a clean lap.

Metacritic Score: 76

7 Need For Speed: Unbound

High-Octane Underground Racing Set In An Anime-Infused City

What makes this a great racing game:

• High Risk & Reward: In NFS Unbound, your primary goal is to earn cash and reputation as you progress through the qualifier races. These qualifier races are spread across a period of four weeks, and each time you bank the cash at your safe house, it brings the day to a close. However, if you’re busted before making it to the safe house, you lose all the cash earned that day.
• Cel-Shaded Graphics: NFS Unbound takes a bold step in a new direction, introducing a vibrant art style to the racing formula that NFS is known for. You can see these unique graphical elements coming to life as you activate nitrous, drift around a corner, or overtake your opponents.
• Car Customization & Character Personalization: In addition to customizing your favorite cars with liveries and paint jobs in NFS Unbound, you can also personalize your character with driving gear to match your taste.

Need For Speed: Unbound is the 25th installment in the popular NFS franchise. Like all other Need For Speed games, Unbound is also set in a fictional city called Lakeshore City, where you take on the role of a street racer.

Need for Speed: Unbound focuses on arcade racing, but it does shift away from the realistic visual design. The developers have gone a long way with a unique anime-like art style that matches your actions while out racing on the streets.

Metacritic Score: 77

6 The Crew Motorfest

Gorgeous Arcade Racer Set In Hawaii

What makes this a great racing game:

• Endless Activities: Whether you’re cruising the island solo or along with a friend, you’ll always find exciting events and challenges to tackle.
• Regular Updates: Since the game is entirely an online experience, it is being constantly updated with new content to keep things fresh for players.
• Large Vehicle Collection: Unlike most racing games, The Crew Motorfest not only offers you an excellent collection of car variety, but you can also enjoy races on motorbikes, planes, and boats.

The Crew Motorfest is a dream come true for every racing fan who wants to explore a beautiful open world in their favorite vehicle of choice. Set on a vibrant and sun-soaked island in Hawaii, The Crew Motorfest invites you to participate in some of the most thrilling races where you can tackle challenges along with a squad or solo.

The game also features over 200 vehicles, including sports cars, off-road vehicles, and even planes and boats. You also have the freedom to customize your rides with performance upgrades and cosmetics to spice things up.

Metacritic Score: 76

5 Riders Republic

Participate In Extreme Sports In Varied Playgrounds

What makes this a great racing game:

• Big Multiplayer Races: Riders Republic allows you to compete in whopping 50-player races. You can also participate in trick battles to show off your favorite stunts.
• Open-World Parks: Unlike most racing games, there are no official racing tracks or city streets to drive around in Riders Republic. On the contrary, you enjoy a vast open world based on the iconic US national parks. So, there’s going to be lush greenery, narrow hill trails, and snowy mountaintops, all available to explore.
• Gameplay Variety: Given its arcade style, certain races in Riders Republic will have you switch from a wingsuit to a snowboard, and a mountain bike. So, you get to enjoy a racing experience that’s not very contemporary.

Unlike traditional racing games that we have all come to know, Riders Republic takes a new spin on the genre, introducing new ways of having fun in extreme sports racing competitions. The game is a mashup of high-action mountain biking, wingsuit racing, and snowboarding.

The playground in Riders Republic is inspired by some of the iconic US national parks, so you’ll get to witness and explore breathtaking vistas. While you can always participate in competitive multiplayer races, you can also team up with a friend for a co-op session, or enjoy solo freestyle competition.

Metacritic Score: 77

4 Burnout Paradise Remastered

Fantastic Racing Demolition Derby (In HD)

What makes this a great racing game:

• Arcade Racing Freedom: Burnout Paradise is all about breaking street rules as you race against challenging opponents. You can also slam into other racers, causing them to crash and giving a leg up in races.
• A Remaster Done Right: This remaster isn’t just a port of the original game; it introduces a number of important features that improve the visual fidelity of the game, deliver a smooth 60 FPS experience, and the “Year of Paradise” DLC has also been thrown in for good measure.
• Multiplayer Experience: Once you’re done with the single-player campaign, you can also jump into the online game modes where you challenge other human players in PvP races or challenge a ghost to climb the leaderboards.

Burnout Paradise isn’t an average racer that most of us have come to know these days. This is a game where road rules go out for a toss, and meticulously navigating around the traffic is forgotten. Your goal in Burnout Paradise is to race against some of the most ferocious racers in Paradise City to come out on top.

You’ll be participating in a series of races, and beating them unlocks more challenging races. Along the way, you’ll also grow your car collection with over 100 powerful machines. The remastered version of the game includes many graphical enhancements and quality of life improvements.

Metacritic Score: 82

3 F1 23

Celebrate F1 Glory Across Challenging Circuits

What makes this a great racing game:

• Interesting Campaign: Campaigns and simulation racing do not usually go hand-in-hand. However, Codemasters have outdone themselves with a great campaign that stays true to the formula racing spirit. There are dedicated voice actors and fully-motion captured cutscenes, breathing life into the campaign.
• Race Strategically: F1 2023 introduces a new red flag mechanic and increased tire physics that compel you to race in a disciplined manner and abide by the race rules.
• Online Competition: Once you’re done with racing against AI opponents and completing the campaign, you can jump into F1 2023’s online mode where you can put your driving skills to the test against human opponents.

F1 23 brings the joy of experiencing what it’s like to drive your favorite formula race cars on meticulously-crafted racetracks. The game also continues the Braking Point story, which it kicked off in F1 2021.

The Braking Point Chapter 2 serves a short campaign for F1 2023 that is beautifully presented with cinematic cutscenes between races. Speaking of races, the game includes over 20 challenging racetracks, official drivers, teams, and updated cars from the 2023 season.

Metacritic Score: 82

2 Forza Motorsport

Master Precision Driving In This Beautiful Racing Sim

What makes this a great racing game:

• Realistic Driving Simulation: Fueling Forza Motorsport’s realistic driving experience is Forza’s proprietary physics engine that replicates how an in-game car would behave in real-life scenarios. Meaning, the same car will behave differently under different conditions. For instance, dirt accumulation on the tires and rainfall will have an effect on how your car feels when driving under those conditions.
• Challenging Competition: Even the AI in Forza Motorsport has been overhauled in comparison to the previous installments. Races will feel more challenging, demanding you to push the limits and when the AI detects that you’ve been making mistakes, it will capitalize on the opportunity.
• Ultimate Car Collection:With over 500 unique cars to choose from, Forza Motorsport has just about every race car you could ask for. Moreover, each of these 500 cars is fully customizable with upgrade parts and endless visual personalization.

If you’ve mostly played arcade racers up until now, you may love the satisfaction of precision racing that a well-tuned simulation racer like Forza Motorsport brings to the table. Being the latest installment in the Motorsport franchise, Forza Motorsport has perfected the nuances of car handling and precision driving.

The game features over 500 unique cars and over 20 detailed circuits, some of them being one-to-one replicas of real-life circuits, like the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Daytona International Speedway, and Suzuka Circuit.

Metacritic Score: 84

1 Forza Horizon 5

Endless Freedom In Sun-Kissed Mexico

What makes this a great racing game:

• Stunning Open World: Set in the fictional version of Mexico, Forza Horizon 5’s open world is more diverse than ever. As you drive across the map, you’ll come across deserts, swamps, packed cities, and even roads leading to the top of a giant volcano.
• Full-Fledged Single Player Mode: In terms of gameplay variety, Forza Horizon 5’s single player experience includes a lot of road races, rallies, and drifts. Additionally, you can also complete a series of side activities, involving driving unique cars or completing assigned challenges with a given car.
• Massive Car Collection: Forza Horizon 5 includes over 700 unique vehicles, which can be customized and tuned to your heart’s content with performance upgrades and liveries. You can also find and download the best tunes for specific cars, making the process of upgrading your vehicles a breeze.

Forza Horizon 5 takes everything that was great in Forza Horizon 4 and bumps it up by multiple notches. Moreover, a few things that the community complained about in Forza Horizon 4 have also been rectified in the new installment. Cars now sound way better, and the inclusion of a lengthy highway allows you to push your favorite cars to their limits.

While Forza Horizon 5 is an arcade racer by design, the skill-ceiling is quite high when it comes to acing some of the challenges in the game. The game also includes a variety of events, some that can be done solo, while others are more fun to pursue online. Whether you’re in it for competitive drifting or simply enjoying a leisurely drive through the countryside, Forza Horizon 5 delivers everything you want from an arcade racing experience.

Metacritic Score: 92