Game of the Year 2023: Best Racing Game –

We've been really spoiled this year when it comes to racing games. In addition to the regular annual sequels, 2023 also saw the release of anticipated and highly anticipated titles and entertaining arcade sequels. With this lineup, which racing game caught our attention the most?

5. Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharger

First up is Milestone's Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged. If you had told us a few years ago that the creator of the Ride series would jump into the arcade racing scene and take over the reins with the first title in the series, we probably would have been surprised, not to mention knowing that the sequel so managed to improve and impress even more. Turbocharged has taken the excellent gameplay we know and expanded it with additional mechanics and items, new tracks, more cars, and a host of new ways to play.

4. Al-Qarif Car Festival

Ubisoft has had the huge task of competing with Forza Horizon with The Crew series for some time now, and The Crew Motorfest is the next stage of that battle. Motorfest transports players to the verdant island of Hawaii and combines car culture with Horizon-like festival dynamics to create a game where Oahu's vibrant surroundings become your playground. While the game lacked a physics engine and realism, the customizability and vast gameplay options improved, making this game stand out in a very crowded year.

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3. F1 23

Codemasters already managed to do that with F1 2021. Then they managed to get onto the starting grid with F1 22. Fortunately, the British developer learned from that failure for F1 23, keeping the parts of last year's game that were exhilarating and then improving the parts of the game. Last year was hugely disappointing. To that end, F1 23 introduced a more realistic and acceptable framerate and physics engine, as well as better multiplayer options, all on top of a great tracklist. Hopefully, Codemasters can continue its upward trend and deliver a knockout blow with F1 24 next year.

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2. EA Sports WRC

It's been a great year for Codemasters, as the British studio not only delivered an impressive F1 23 car, but also celebrated its return to the world of rally games. EA Sports WRC marks the first time Codemasters has gotten its hands on the official WRC brand in years, and as our resident rally master will tell you, this game has shown a lot of potential. Considering that it comes from the developer that brought us the fantastic Dirt Rally 2.0, EA Sports WRC proves that maybe it's best that KT Racing and WRC divorce, because there really is hope for official Rally video games in the future.

1. Forza Motorsport

Xbox Game Studios released a few big games this year, and one of them was the impressive Forza Motorsport. After years of development and with some delays, this racing title was supposed to wow fans, and while it wasn't quite as impressive as many of its Horizon counterparts, Motorsport debuted as a very solid and powerful racing experience.

With a huge roster of cars, a wide range of tracks, a physics engine and a framework model that feels responsive (if a bit creaky), Forza Motorsport stands out as the most technically impressive racing game of 2023. Combine this with great performance and a great UI/UX design The graphics are high quality and you get a game that could be a leader in the field of racing simulation games on consoles right now.