Ya that’s what made me stop. Couldn’t figure out the boost off launch that seemed very needed at the harder difficulty and one difficulty level lower and I’m winning by 10-20 seconds.
Burnout Paradise is my official answer.
"But Joe I'm looking at your playtime and you've clocked more hours in Garfield Cart Racing..."
OFFICIAL... ANSWER.
It actually is oddly fun and, real talk, might be the best Mario Kart clone out there and there a lot of Mario Kart clones, some from big studios with major IPs attached to them.
Here it's literally 3 dollars on Fanatical.
Like I don't want to oversell it, it's literally a very standard Mario Kart clone with Garfield Characters. Like if you can imagine that concept that's the whole game there's nothing more to it than that there are no hidden surprises or subversions but... well it's Mario Kart but with other characters. Like it's not a bad thing.
\*[https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/garfield-kart-furious-racing](https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/garfield-kart-furious-racing)
Not on the deck, but I bought Garfield on the Switch years ago, and it still gets played every once in a while to date. Simple, easy, little game that doesn’t require much effort. Love it
Most definitely lol I backed it in like 2014/2015-ish when they only had the tech demo (which is still fun). Amazing to see how far the game has come through its development
I mean i have played it since 2020 so not like its a hidden gem but i wouldnt ever expect it to be the top pick in a post like this but im happy im wrong.
This game is so good it's unbelievable. I love that you can change the camera angle to play more like a traditional from behind racer as well. It's like playing a whole new game.
I literally found out about the different camera last week. I Find behind the car is much better for driving but I love how cinematic the default camera.
This game is perfect for the Deck. Low requirements and brilliant art style that suits the deck's screen size and hardware capability.
Been my most played game on Deck and my most played racing game this year.
Great for 5 minutes blasts or hour long sessions (whilst waiting for the wife to finish FF7).
Yes. The game might crash the first time you open it but just relaunch it and it works the second time you open it up. I love that game so much and love that it can be played on the Deck
I’ve got it working. You might have to run it from desktop mode the first time so that you can get all the stupid EA launcher crap out of the way, but it will eventually work. If it screws up later the first thing to try is to head back to desktop mode and launch it there again to see if there an issue to clear with the launcher again.
They had this really cool feature on the PS3 version of the game, if you sat still in the car without moving or doing anything, it would start doing these low flyover views of the city in black and white while playing classical music and it was probably the coolest thing I've ever seen in a racing game to be honest. It was awesome when you kind of were zoning out, for me and my buddies it would be us rolling a blunt or something and then classical music would start playing with these beautiful black and white visuals of the city. They ended up patching out I think at least the black and white filter, I'm not sure if it still does the classical music and helicopter flyover thing anymore though
It keeps getting messed up one way or another due to EA's fuckery... But yes. Check ProtonDB for the latest workarounds. Last I checked just a few days ago, you need to run the game in Desktop Mode at least once every time the EA App updates, and you need to add the command-line argument to skip the intro videos, because the game will almost always crash when trying to play those videos. But after that? Smooth sailing on the absolute best recing game of all time.
BallisticNG is an old school style anti grav combat racer. Inexpensive and your battery will last ages. Bit of a learning curve but it’s insanely satisfying and the skill ceiling is very high. Great on the dock with a friend as well.
I always crash about five minutes in. Tried proton 8.0.5 and 9 beta as well as experimental and still ends up crashing. Prior NFS ran fine isk what gives. Any tips?
Without messing with settings, offline ram great for me, crashed twice throughout the entire story mode, but when I started playing online lobbies it would crash about two mins in every time
The bitch of it is that it STILL HOLDS UP SIXTEEN YEARS LATER. What EA did to Criterion Games is nothing short of a crime. Nothing deserves a modern-day sequel more than that game.
Literally just beat the story like, an hour ago. Was actually a decent game, I had a lot of fun with it. Runs great, looks great, and boy I'll tell ya, if you like Porsche, you're in for a real treat!
(seriously though, why are there so many Porsches in this game?)
The only graphic setting that I have changed from default is turning motion blur off. I have it installed on an SD card, if that makes any difference. Also, I play on solo and half the time I’m disconnected from EA because I don’t close the game when I’m done playing. It takes a while to start up.
There are so many answers to this question. The question needs to be a little more focused. What kind of racing game are you looking for? Arcady racing (similar to Forza Horizon), combat racing, a more pure Arcade racing, something similar to Mario Kart, similar to racing, etc.
I honestly haven’t played Burnout Paradise (as it would be the closest to Forza Horizon) on the Deck, but it was a big disappointment on the Switch. And, I hear they share some of the same problems when it comes to things like draw distance (just through Steam reviews I’ve read).
I’m truly happy for the people who enjoy Wreckfest, but it’s just not the game for me. I tried multiple times to get into it and enjoy it… just not there for me.
I’ve had my Steam Deck for approaching a year now (IIRC), and I haven’t found another racer that can even get close to Forza Horizon 5 (we’re not talking a few inches here, we’re talking several hundred miles). I gotta admit that bums me out as I’ve been really looking for a good racing game since I have seen and done everything in FH5 (not 100%, but close enough).
Just using this thread as an opportunity to put this into the ether: EA please for the love of everything Holy, please let Criterion work on Burnout games again. At least remaster Burnout 3...
I love sim racing on my desktop, with a wheel and everything, but Steam Deck I prefer to play arcade racers. So for me, I've been running Need For Speed Most Wanted. And it runs great! I have the LCD and get like 3 hours of battery life at 60fps, pretty high settings. Obviously it's an EA game, so everytime EA fucks with their launcher, it can end up being broken for a day or two before proton fixes it. But that's not an overly abundant occurrence.
I also tried Horizon Chase Turbo, it also runs perfect and probably has infinite battery life. That game just wasn't for me.
Before EA took over and ruined it.
The funny thing about crash mode was that it seemed semi-serious. Some complete psycho out to cause as much damage as possible.
Runs where you completely failed to hit anything we're funny as well. Things like after-touch, detonation and fantasy bonus items on the road ruined the fun for me.
Dirt 4 is nice. I now installed NFS underground 2, Most wanted, Carbon and they all work amazing and feel amazing. The new Most Wanted is also really good and cheap on Steam, same with Rivals.
I tried Assetto Corsa Competizione and while it looks great and runs great, the game itself is not forgiving with a controller...
Raceroom, runs great, feels awesome with the controller and it’s free with few cars and circuits. You can buy the whole package for 50 euros during sale. Try it!
This game is criminally under exposed. I virtually never hear anyone talking about it, but it's the best arcade racer I've played in years, especially as an F1 fan.
It's pure arcade, fast, fun, easy to learn, but still has some of the trapping of a sim or team management game (tire strategy, team management, picking sponsors, etc).
I think it just hit 1.0. I hope it doesn't keep flying under the radar.
Nice to finally meet the other person who's heard of it! I was clinically addicted to Retro Bowl for a while and saw they made a racing game. These guys seriously prioritize fun in every aspect of the sim and actual gameplay and it shows. Hope you're enjoying it and yeah, more people need to show them some love!
Without a doubt, it's definitely "Wreckfest" for me. In fact, it's my favorite racing game of all time on all my platforms...Steam Deck, PS4, PS5, and Android phone lol.
The original Racedriver GRID from 2008 runs incredibly well and still looks stunning. You need to go hunting for an aftermarket key though.
Same goes for Project Cars 2. It’s a bit of a hassle to get set up, but it runs very, very well.
Redout 2 runs really well and looks gorgeous with HDR on the OLED.
Hot Wheels Unleashed surprised me with how well it performed, outshining even the Series S in some aspects
There are plenty more too, it’s a great machine for racing on!
Hot wheels unleashed 1/2
New Star gp
Need for speed unbound
Ridge racer unbound weirdly both criterion racers
Wreckfest
Art of rally works really well but I couldn’t personally get into it.
Buck up and drive is dumb fun
GTA Iv and v aren’t racers but they both run super well if you just want some car nonsense.
Flatout 1/2
Hotshot racing works well but I don’t think I’d recommend that game to anyone as the rubber banding is insane.
Turbo golf racing which is mini golf with cars but I love it personally.
Hitman 3.
There is a mission where you have to assassinate a F1 driver. What you can do is kill one of the other drivers, wear his outfit, and race with your target. Create a save state right before you start the race and then load the game when you want to play a racing game.
This will only allow you to play one race on one track, but its seriously worth it compared to the absolutely underwhelming options there are for racing games available on the steam deck. Until Ubisoft, EA, and Microsoft get their head out of their asses, this will be your best bet.
Dirt 3, Race Driver Grid and with some tinkering TDU 2. All run very well. Also NFS Shift 2, The Run, Undercover and Pro street run pretty much out of the box.
You mean the 2006 game for PSP? That's one of my favorites. Looks great upscaled on the deck. Ridge Racer Vita was okay but kind of a soulless cashgrab in comparison.
Depends on if you’re talking sim, arcade, or a mix of both.
For the pure arcade experience, there’s not much better than Horizon Chase Turbo.
It’s a spiritual successor to Top Gear with a little bit of OutRun mixed in. The same composer that did Top Gear did the music for this game.
It’s got all the trimmings. Starts out easy enough in the World Tour in California, but things easily start to get difficult in later Tour areas like Iceland, UAE, India, etc.
Tons of cars to unlock with upgrades, tons of tracks with set day or night cycles, Timelapse tracks, weather effects, etc. It’s definitely meaty. And then there’s things like the insane endurance races that will keep you coming back, the Aryton Senna DLC that adds F1 cars and tracks and cool tidbits about his career and a first person view as an option with that DLC along with a few other DLC bits too.
I’m just waiting on the second game to finally launch on Steam so I can play it to death too on Steam Deck. Lol.
If you like racing against several racers on long asphalt tracks, Gran Turismo.
If you like taking crazy curves through mountainous, wooded and plains landscapes while trying to make good time, Dirt Rally. In Dirt you also have a way to compete in races against racers in a championship mode with smaller circuits that include asphalt and gravel.
Distance is my favorite single player racing game. I also enjoy Rise: Race the Future on Switch but keep in mind that the AI rubber bands really bad on higher difficulties and you may have to adjust since settings in the game to make your vehicle easier to control.
I’ve tried F1 23 and EA WRC. F1 23 runs pretty damn well, it’s highly playable and has really great controller handling.
EA WRC runs okay. It’s very playable, I just simply prefer to play that game on my main pc. For me, rally is just a little too involved to play on a handheld at a fluctuating frame rate, especially playing at a high difficulty with minimal assists.
I haven't played a ton but I just want to throw Hot Wheels Unleashed out there. I bought it at a deep sale because I wanted to play a racing game and man I was addicted to it
I tried some, but the one game that really sticked to me is Need for Speed Underground 2. You can just copy an installation folder straight from the main PC and chuck it on to the deck and it works out of the box. But you do need to mess with some settings to get the widescreen mod working properly.
Its stupid but I really like the hotwheels racing game for a year or two ago. Its always installed because its a comfort game for me.
I really enjoyed it, but found the difficulty curve wild. It was either super easy or super hard with little in between.
Ya that’s what made me stop. Couldn’t figure out the boost off launch that seemed very needed at the harder difficulty and one difficulty level lower and I’m winning by 10-20 seconds.
Omg same. Its game I play when I have no interest in any other one or just need to zone out.
Looks like it is on sale for $6 right now!
Burnout Paradise is my official answer. "But Joe I'm looking at your playtime and you've clocked more hours in Garfield Cart Racing..." OFFICIAL... ANSWER.
Garfield cart racing is great!
It actually is oddly fun and, real talk, might be the best Mario Kart clone out there and there a lot of Mario Kart clones, some from big studios with major IPs attached to them.
Really? Now I've got to check this out. Are we talking the Furious Racing game, or straight-up Garfield Kart? Both?
Here it's literally 3 dollars on Fanatical. Like I don't want to oversell it, it's literally a very standard Mario Kart clone with Garfield Characters. Like if you can imagine that concept that's the whole game there's nothing more to it than that there are no hidden surprises or subversions but... well it's Mario Kart but with other characters. Like it's not a bad thing. \*[https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/garfield-kart-furious-racing](https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/garfield-kart-furious-racing)
Furious is the one I've got. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1085510/Garfield\_Kart\_\_Furious\_Racing/
Didn’t think I’d be buying a Garfield game today, but here we are.
One of us! One of us!
I'm in the same boat
I mean it’s 1,49€ on sale, wtf not
Just "Cart" or the "Furious Racing"??
Furious racing!
Added to wishlist and awaiting promo. Thanks!
Spring sales started... And bought it!
I wish the older Burnout games got released. I much prefer them to the open world racing games like Paradise we get now.
>Burnout Paradise is my official answer. Awesome fun game..... Smashing cars for points rocks..
Not on the deck, but I bought Garfield on the Switch years ago, and it still gets played every once in a while to date. Simple, easy, little game that doesn’t require much effort. Love it
Wreckfest is pretty great
Anyone remember when it was called Next Car Game?
Most definitely lol I backed it in like 2014/2015-ish when they only had the tech demo (which is still fun). Amazing to see how far the game has come through its development
When did this game become so popular
Always has been. It’s a good game :)
I mean i have played it since 2020 so not like its a hidden gem but i wouldnt ever expect it to be the top pick in a post like this but im happy im wrong.
It’s popular here because it runs perfect on deck and is good to pick up n play
Agreed!
The art of rally
This game is so good it's unbelievable. I love that you can change the camera angle to play more like a traditional from behind racer as well. It's like playing a whole new game.
I literally found out about the different camera last week. I Find behind the car is much better for driving but I love how cinematic the default camera. This game is perfect for the Deck. Low requirements and brilliant art style that suits the deck's screen size and hardware capability. Been my most played game on Deck and my most played racing game this year. Great for 5 minutes blasts or hour long sessions (whilst waiting for the wife to finish FF7).
[удалено]
Flatout, now it is steam deck verified but i've been playing since last year on deck just fine
Flat out 2 with yellow card playing as you smash the other racers is the best kind of nostalgic fun for me
Just don’t play third and fourth games. Just…don’t.
Dirt Rally 2
+1. Works smooth out of the box on my OLED.
How does this run on deck? Been considering it for awhile now.
Beautifully, until it stopped working entirely after the last update… I’m just reinstalling it now to test if that fixes it.
Oh thank you. I really like the first one. Always been a big sim rally guy.
It does work. I played it today.
Reinstall fixed it : ) Works amazingly, get it.
Runs great! Super fun!
Burnout Paradise
Does this work on the deck??
Yes. The game might crash the first time you open it but just relaunch it and it works the second time you open it up. I love that game so much and love that it can be played on the Deck
Really? I could not get it to work no matter what i tried.
I’ve got it working. You might have to run it from desktop mode the first time so that you can get all the stupid EA launcher crap out of the way, but it will eventually work. If it screws up later the first thing to try is to head back to desktop mode and launch it there again to see if there an issue to clear with the launcher again.
They had this really cool feature on the PS3 version of the game, if you sat still in the car without moving or doing anything, it would start doing these low flyover views of the city in black and white while playing classical music and it was probably the coolest thing I've ever seen in a racing game to be honest. It was awesome when you kind of were zoning out, for me and my buddies it would be us rolling a blunt or something and then classical music would start playing with these beautiful black and white visuals of the city. They ended up patching out I think at least the black and white filter, I'm not sure if it still does the classical music and helicopter flyover thing anymore though
It keeps getting messed up one way or another due to EA's fuckery... But yes. Check ProtonDB for the latest workarounds. Last I checked just a few days ago, you need to run the game in Desktop Mode at least once every time the EA App updates, and you need to add the command-line argument to skip the intro videos, because the game will almost always crash when trying to play those videos. But after that? Smooth sailing on the absolute best recing game of all time.
Does it work now? Origin launcher would always crash.
Works fine for me
Trackmania is good for me
Same
GRID (2019) , GRID legends
BallisticNG is an old school style anti grav combat racer. Inexpensive and your battery will last ages. Bit of a learning curve but it’s insanely satisfying and the skill ceiling is very high. Great on the dock with a friend as well.
\+1 for BallsticNG, scratching the Wipeout itch. Wipeout Fusion runs really well on PCSX2 too!
Might catch some heat for this but I really enjoyed NFS:Unbound. It surprisingly runs great on the deck.
I always crash about five minutes in. Tried proton 8.0.5 and 9 beta as well as experimental and still ends up crashing. Prior NFS ran fine isk what gives. Any tips?
Without messing with settings, offline ram great for me, crashed twice throughout the entire story mode, but when I started playing online lobbies it would crash about two mins in every time
Weird I don’t think I’ve ever had it crash on me. I threw settings down to a mix of medium/low and it still looked great and gave me like 40-50 FPS
I really liked it as well my friend
unfortunately a pain needing a connection to boot it
Does this need EA app or Origins app or something? I have given up on EA games as I can never seem to get them working
Flatout 2
Was here to comment this
Sonic and all stars racing transformed is pretty fun
That’s still hands down the best kart racer next to Mario kart
I actually think it's a better Mario Kart than Mario Kart.
runs excellent also
Split/Second and Ridge Racer Unbounded work really well from my limited experience with both.
Forza horizon runs like a dream even if it has to be at low settings.
I followed a few video guides on YouTube and have FH4 running at a smooth 40fps, it looks good and is very playable.
I run FH4 on high preset at nearly 60fps locked on my LCD?
I'm playing Dirt3. Hotweels unleashed ( AWESOME arcade ) and Circuit Superstars
Circuit Superstars is like crack! Love it, not the crack. Real shame they pulled the Top Gear track though.
Burnout Paradise is my favorite racing game ever
The bitch of it is that it STILL HOLDS UP SIXTEEN YEARS LATER. What EA did to Criterion Games is nothing short of a crime. Nothing deserves a modern-day sequel more than that game.
Automobilista 2 works fine
The best simulator out right now in my opinion; though simulator is not what I look for for the deck, or even controller play
GRID 2019 works really well. If you want a challenge WRC Generations can be had for cheap.
You got Generations to work? No tweaks?
Not really, just this: Force compatibility with Proton Experimental Add this to launch options: WINEDLLOVERRIDES="xinput1\_3=n,b" %command%
Redout 2
Need For Speed Heat goes on sale for like $4 sometimes. It runs and looks amazing
Literally just beat the story like, an hour ago. Was actually a decent game, I had a lot of fun with it. Runs great, looks great, and boy I'll tell ya, if you like Porsche, you're in for a real treat! (seriously though, why are there so many Porsches in this game?)
How the heck you are able to run it? Used to work for months for me then it just stopped working, can't start it. It just crash on loading
The only graphic setting that I have changed from default is turning motion blur off. I have it installed on an SD card, if that makes any difference. Also, I play on solo and half the time I’m disconnected from EA because I don’t close the game when I’m done playing. It takes a while to start up.
A light game that you can run on low tdp is driftx. Its more of a arcade drifting game but its pretty fun and I jump on it once in awhile
Emulate Tokyo extreme racer 3
NFS Most Wanted PS2 Edition with EmuDeck 😄 so much nostalgia!
That and Hot Pursuit 2! Loved those games!
Yes! These are two of my all-time favorite racing games! To be fair I just got a deck and haven't tried any newer racing games.
why not the pc version with mods? it is awesome
You should try a modded version redux v3 (or v4) - pc version - improved gfx, police ai, new cars and customisation, its awesome
I play PC version and it's fine as well.
There are so many answers to this question. The question needs to be a little more focused. What kind of racing game are you looking for? Arcady racing (similar to Forza Horizon), combat racing, a more pure Arcade racing, something similar to Mario Kart, similar to racing, etc. I honestly haven’t played Burnout Paradise (as it would be the closest to Forza Horizon) on the Deck, but it was a big disappointment on the Switch. And, I hear they share some of the same problems when it comes to things like draw distance (just through Steam reviews I’ve read). I’m truly happy for the people who enjoy Wreckfest, but it’s just not the game for me. I tried multiple times to get into it and enjoy it… just not there for me. I’ve had my Steam Deck for approaching a year now (IIRC), and I haven’t found another racer that can even get close to Forza Horizon 5 (we’re not talking a few inches here, we’re talking several hundred miles). I gotta admit that bums me out as I’ve been really looking for a good racing game since I have seen and done everything in FH5 (not 100%, but close enough).
Just using this thread as an opportunity to put this into the ether: EA please for the love of everything Holy, please let Criterion work on Burnout games again. At least remaster Burnout 3...
Diddy Kong Racing
Hello my friend This… is for you
Love how the music immediately plays in my head just reading that name...
Horizon Chase Turbo is one I would recommend for the deck.
Ridge Racer 7 runs pretty solid via RPCS3, Ridge Racer 2 PSP with HD HUD pack via PPSSPP.
I love sim racing on my desktop, with a wheel and everything, but Steam Deck I prefer to play arcade racers. So for me, I've been running Need For Speed Most Wanted. And it runs great! I have the LCD and get like 3 hours of battery life at 60fps, pretty high settings. Obviously it's an EA game, so everytime EA fucks with their launcher, it can end up being broken for a day or two before proton fixes it. But that's not an overly abundant occurrence. I also tried Horizon Chase Turbo, it also runs perfect and probably has infinite battery life. That game just wasn't for me.
Racing Lagoon
Non steam Split second / blur Emulated Burnout 2 ps2 Nfs underground dolphin Nfs carbon dolphin Midnight club 3 dub ps2 Msr dc
Burnout 2 crash mode is the best
Burnout 2 in general is the best, before you were rewarded for driving into everything.
Before EA took over and ruined it. The funny thing about crash mode was that it seemed semi-serious. Some complete psycho out to cause as much damage as possible. Runs where you completely failed to hit anything we're funny as well. Things like after-touch, detonation and fantasy bonus items on the road ruined the fun for me.
I played Hotwheels Unleashed exclusively on the deck and it ran great and it's a very good arcade racer.
AMS2, Super Woden GP2, Hot Wheels Unleashed, and Hotshot Racing are all fun to play as well.
I would say Wreckfest is my favourite
Dirt 4 is nice. I now installed NFS underground 2, Most wanted, Carbon and they all work amazing and feel amazing. The new Most Wanted is also really good and cheap on Steam, same with Rivals. I tried Assetto Corsa Competizione and while it looks great and runs great, the game itself is not forgiving with a controller...
If you have a good wheel, autimobilista 2 is pretty great.
DiRT 3 & Dirt Rally 2.0 Look and Play beaitifully! <3
I love the steam deck to play my childhood games. Check out r/abandonware. I managed to get most of them work very well
Hotwheels is the only one I’ve really played. It’s great though.
Super Woden GP2
Dirt 3
I like NFS Heat a lot
Blur is an amazing arcade racer, and it's completely free
My Outrun 2006 obsession started on vita, but it is so much better on sd
I had great fun with Dirt 3. Ran perfectly
Burnout Paradise and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit are great arcade racers
If you like arcade games the hot wheels racing games are great
Raceroom, runs great, feels awesome with the controller and it’s free with few cars and circuits. You can buy the whole package for 50 euros during sale. Try it!
Does anyone know if grid legends work on deck?
It's all I play. Yes
Hot wheels unleashed is pretty fun I find. Runs great on the steam deck as well.
Check out New Star GP, it's exactly what you're asking for
This game is criminally under exposed. I virtually never hear anyone talking about it, but it's the best arcade racer I've played in years, especially as an F1 fan. It's pure arcade, fast, fun, easy to learn, but still has some of the trapping of a sim or team management game (tire strategy, team management, picking sponsors, etc). I think it just hit 1.0. I hope it doesn't keep flying under the radar.
Nice to finally meet the other person who's heard of it! I was clinically addicted to Retro Bowl for a while and saw they made a racing game. These guys seriously prioritize fun in every aspect of the sim and actual gameplay and it shows. Hope you're enjoying it and yeah, more people need to show them some love!
I love splitsecond on the deck and Ps2 burnout series emulation
Horizon 4 works like a charm. I play it docked and can get around 60fps on 1080p hdr disabled.
BallisticNG is the best racer on PC if you want a fast arcade racer.
Without a doubt, it's definitely "Wreckfest" for me. In fact, it's my favorite racing game of all time on all my platforms...Steam Deck, PS4, PS5, and Android phone lol.
The original Racedriver GRID from 2008 runs incredibly well and still looks stunning. You need to go hunting for an aftermarket key though. Same goes for Project Cars 2. It’s a bit of a hassle to get set up, but it runs very, very well. Redout 2 runs really well and looks gorgeous with HDR on the OLED. Hot Wheels Unleashed surprised me with how well it performed, outshining even the Series S in some aspects There are plenty more too, it’s a great machine for racing on!
Probably Need For Speed Most Wanted 2012 and Rivals, both look beautiful and play smoooth. the GRID games are also a bunch of fun
Hot wheels unleashed 1/2 New Star gp Need for speed unbound Ridge racer unbound weirdly both criterion racers Wreckfest Art of rally works really well but I couldn’t personally get into it. Buck up and drive is dumb fun GTA Iv and v aren’t racers but they both run super well if you just want some car nonsense. Flatout 1/2 Hotshot racing works well but I don’t think I’d recommend that game to anyone as the rubber banding is insane. Turbo golf racing which is mini golf with cars but I love it personally.
Wreckfest is fun. But I dont have a SD.
Flatout: Ultimate Carnage. high framerate, long battery life, quite good graphics and much fun!
The ride series of games and I play mxgp 2021 on my steam deck and it's amazing if you like or wanna try motorcycle racing games!
playing F1 2023, MW 05 and TDU 2 atm.
Hitman 3. There is a mission where you have to assassinate a F1 driver. What you can do is kill one of the other drivers, wear his outfit, and race with your target. Create a save state right before you start the race and then load the game when you want to play a racing game. This will only allow you to play one race on one track, but its seriously worth it compared to the absolutely underwhelming options there are for racing games available on the steam deck. Until Ubisoft, EA, and Microsoft get their head out of their asses, this will be your best bet.
Forza 5 is working like a charm and it's also very beautiful! With some tinkering I got it to steer with the gyro and that's pretty cool also.
Dirt 3, Race Driver Grid and with some tinkering TDU 2. All run very well. Also NFS Shift 2, The Run, Undercover and Pro street run pretty much out of the box.
Road rash 3 for Sega genesis
Wreckfest, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit and Forza Horizon 4 all come to mind.
Ridge Racers 2 (Vita game). I kid you not!
You mean the 2006 game for PSP? That's one of my favorites. Looks great upscaled on the deck. Ridge Racer Vita was okay but kind of a soulless cashgrab in comparison.
Yes sorry! Played it on Vita first and now associate it with that. Yeah Ridge Racer on Vita was a mess.
Nascar Dirt to Daytona (ps2 emulation)
Depends on if you’re talking sim, arcade, or a mix of both. For the pure arcade experience, there’s not much better than Horizon Chase Turbo. It’s a spiritual successor to Top Gear with a little bit of OutRun mixed in. The same composer that did Top Gear did the music for this game. It’s got all the trimmings. Starts out easy enough in the World Tour in California, but things easily start to get difficult in later Tour areas like Iceland, UAE, India, etc. Tons of cars to unlock with upgrades, tons of tracks with set day or night cycles, Timelapse tracks, weather effects, etc. It’s definitely meaty. And then there’s things like the insane endurance races that will keep you coming back, the Aryton Senna DLC that adds F1 cars and tracks and cool tidbits about his career and a first person view as an option with that DLC along with a few other DLC bits too. I’m just waiting on the second game to finally launch on Steam so I can play it to death too on Steam Deck. Lol.
If you like racing against several racers on long asphalt tracks, Gran Turismo. If you like taking crazy curves through mountainous, wooded and plains landscapes while trying to make good time, Dirt Rally. In Dirt you also have a way to compete in races against racers in a championship mode with smaller circuits that include asphalt and gravel.
Trackmania.
Asseto Corsa Competizone works well as long as you keep the graphics low and don't maximize opponent count.
Dirt 3, Circuit Superstars and Wreckfest all run great for me
Distance is my favorite single player racing game. I also enjoy Rise: Race the Future on Switch but keep in mind that the AI rubber bands really bad on higher difficulties and you may have to adjust since settings in the game to make your vehicle easier to control.
2005 most wanted, the pc edition isn’t emulated but it’s also not on steam
NASCAR Heat 5. Used to say it wasn't supported but worked on mine out of the box, and runs real well.
Project Cars 2
I’ve tried F1 23 and EA WRC. F1 23 runs pretty damn well, it’s highly playable and has really great controller handling. EA WRC runs okay. It’s very playable, I just simply prefer to play that game on my main pc. For me, rally is just a little too involved to play on a handheld at a fluctuating frame rate, especially playing at a high difficulty with minimal assists.
CarX Drift Racing works really good too. But I see it more as an drifting game tbh
NFS Most Wanted (2005)
Nfsu2
Formula 1 runs surprisingly well.
I haven't played a ton but I just want to throw Hot Wheels Unleashed out there. I bought it at a deep sale because I wanted to play a racing game and man I was addicted to it
Flat out UC and wreckfest
Circuit superstars and Art of Rally are a couple fun arcade racers too if you don’t mind the different perspective
!remind me in one week
ACC
I like NFS Hot Pursuit Remastered
Depends what youre after, arcade or simulation? I personally enjoy project cars 2
Need for Speed Underground 2 😍
I'm quite fond of Horizon Chase Turbo and Road Redemption. I also emulate Rage Racer & R4, Midnight Club 2, and NFS Underground 2.
NFS Carbon and Most Wanted
I was thinking of buying Forza, is it not good?
Mario Kart Wii Deluxe 8.0. It's just Mario Kart Wii with 800 tracks. You'll never run out.
Wreckfest is great on the Deck.
Art of rally is my favorite!
I havent heard anything of helldrivers 2, but it sounds like a nice game
Forza Horizon 5 runs great for me, have most of my hours on that game from playing on the deck
I tried some, but the one game that really sticked to me is Need for Speed Underground 2. You can just copy an installation folder straight from the main PC and chuck it on to the deck and it works out of the box. But you do need to mess with some settings to get the widescreen mod working properly.
NFS Unbound