Gaming
© Pregan Pillay / Red Bull Content Pool
Gaming
Racing game highlights 2025: The top 10 racers
We are starting the 2025 gaming year at full throttle. Fans of the racing game genre will get their money's worth in the new year. Here are the 10 best racers of 2025.
Last year already had some real highlights in store for racing game fans. With F1 24, MotoGP 24 and Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown, there was plenty of new fodder for gamers with petrol in their blood. But the 2025 gaming year is shifting up a gear: here are the 10 best racing games of 2025 that you can look forward to.
01
Assetto Corsa EVO
- Release: 16 January 2025
- Platform: PC
Assetto Corsa from Italian developers KUNOS Simulazioni is considered a milestone in the field of sim racing games and continues to inspire with its ultra-realistic gameplay and plenty of playful variety.
With Assetto Corsa EVO, the successor will be launched in the Steam Early Access programme in mid-January, and it has a lot to offer. More cars, more vehicle classes, more tracks and, above all, even more realism paired with photorealistic graphics.
What more do you need to make the hearts of racing game fans beat faster? Well, how about an open-world approach, which the development team only unveiled in mid-December? The racer will feature an open area based at the legendary Nürburgring in the Eifel region of Germany, which mirrors the region in western Germany almost one-to-one as a freely drivable game world. 1,600 square kilometres were scanned for this purpose and can be freely explored in the game. The open-world part will be added in summer 2025, until then you can let off steam on the racetracks of this world.
- What would you do if you had an F1 car for a day? F1 legend David Coulthard brings Formula 1 to Scandinavia in this episode of our show'Red Bull Racing Road Trips'.
7 min
David Coulthard takes Formula One to Scandinavia
David Coulthard embarks on a road trip in an Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 car through breathtaking Scandinavia.
02
Over Jump Rally
- Release: 2025
- Platform: PC
Modern rally games like EA Sports WRC are too demanding and... modern? Then Over Jump Rally could be something for you. The arcade off-road racing game pays homage to the genre classics of the 1990s, above all the legendary SEGA Rally.
Complete with nostalgic music and retro visuals (created using the modern Unreal Engine 5). The game, which has been lovingly cobbled together by a single developer, aims to provide a welcome change of pace with a fun arcade driving experience. It is set to be released exclusively for PC in 2025. You can already add the game to your wishlist on Steam.
03
Volt Recharge
- Release: 2025
- Platform: PC
Speaking of unofficial remakes and new editions. Older generations will certainly remember the legendary Re-Volt from 1999, in which you could fight for victory with remote-controlled model cars in a fun arcade racer.
Volt Recharge is bringing this iconic gameplay back this year. The premise is the same. You get behind the wheel of various model cars to fight for victory in varied and dynamic courses (for example on a road or in a supermarket).
The RC cars can be customised quite freely and equipped with new upgrades or paint jobs. There are also unique abilities that can be found on the track - Mario Kart sends its regards. The focus of the game is on multiplayer: in addition to an online mode, there will also be a split-screen multiplayer.
04
JDM: Japanese Drift Master
- Release: 2025
- Platform: PC
Fans of drift racing will also be catered for this year, as JDM: Japanese Drift Master celebrates sideways driving and smoking tyres. As a simcade racer, the game strikes a balance between uncomplicated driving fun and realism. The developers focussed on making the game just as playable on a controller as on sim racing hardware.
As the name suggests, everything here revolves around the automotive culture of Japan. In an open game world in the fictitious prefecture of Guntama, you can burn rubber on over 250 kilometres and fight for the high score.
Of course, there is also a tuning workshop, customisable paintwork and a dynamic weather and day-and-night system.
- Drifting in Japan: Follow "Mad" Mike Whiddett at Formula DRIFT Japan 2017 in our show'Nippon Dorifuto'.
3 min
Okayama International Circuit
With the constant rainfall making tough racing conditions, Mad Mike had some difficulties.
05
Wreckfest 2
- Release: 2025
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Drifting and circuit racing aren't quite your thing and you'd rather cause as much damage as possible? Then there's good news for you in 2025 because the cult crash racing game Wreckfest is returning to the screen for a second installment.
Wreckfest 2 builds on the foundation of the first instalment. With destruction derbies, crash races and other varied game modes, you'll be competing for victory for as long as your car can keep up. Rules? There are none. Anything that causes as much damage as possible is allowed.
Thanks to a brand new physics engine, the whole thing should feel even more realistic and intense. This time, even the old rust mills can be customised down to the smallest detail. It's going to be a (wreck)fest when the game is released for PC and consoles in 2025.
06
Exo Rally Championship
- Release: 2025
- Platform: PC
The Dakar Rally is the toughest and longest off-road race in the world. Over 7,700 kilometers, cars, motorbikes, trucks, and quads battle their way through the scorching heat of Saudi Arabia. That's not tough enough for you?
Then this is where Exo Rally Championship comes into play, which takes the off-road racing action into space. With a variety of Rovers, you compete in races on unexplored, wild planets. With stormy weather, icy temperatures and other environmental hazards, these will demand absolutely everything from you.
It's a good thing that the racing cars are equipped with RCS jets, which enable unique jump and air control. The ultra-realistic driving experience of the Rovers, including realistic off-road physics, tyre models, drives, suspensions and damage, adds an extra spice.
- Ready for the Dakar: Our show 'Journey to Dakar' tells the story of the Ford Performance Raptor T1+ and the drivers Carlos Sainz Snr, Mitch Guthrie, Nani Roma and Mathias Ekström.
18 min
A state of mind
Ford's Raptor T1+ is pitted against other top vehicles in the T1+ category at the gruelling Rallye du Maroc.
07
F1 25
- Release: Summer 2025
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
We currently do not know when the new Formula 1 game from EA Sports will be released. But we do know that there will also be an F1 25 this year. After the last installment F1 24 had some exciting new features in tow, and the latest installment in the series is likely to bring some fresh ideas with it.
Fan favourites such as the MyTeam mode are sure to return and the varied F1 World is also likely to have secured another cockpit. In any case, we can hardly wait to fight for victory with Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson.
08
MotoGP 25
- Release: Summer 2025
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
There has also been a clear upward trend in the quality of racing games in the series of official MotoGP games in recent years. The developers at Milestone have been working hard behind closed doors on MotoGP 25, which should once again improve in terms of driving behaviour in particular.
However, no real new features have yet been announced. However, fans of motorbike racing are eagerly awaiting the new racer ahead of the start of the 2025 MotoGP season on 2 March, which is likely to roll onto the starting line again at the beginning of May.
09
Project Motor Racing
- Release: 2025
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Formerly announced as GTRevival, the sim racing game now operates under the title Project Motor Racing and was created by game developer Ian Bell and his team.
With 20 years of expertise in the field of racing simulations, the title from GIANTS Software (the makers of the farming simulator) is set to be a realistic high-end racer. Apart from realistic driving physics and graphics, as well as licensed racing cars, not too much is yet known about the racing game.
However, it is due to be released in 2025 for PC and the current console generation around PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
10
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
- Release: 2025
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch
Alongside Mario Kart and Crash Team Racing, the racing games centred around SEGA's blue hedgehog Sonic are undoubtedly among the best spin-offs of the fun racer genre. While rumours suggest that Mario Kart 9 will also be released as a launch title for the Nintendo Switch 2 in 2025, Sonic is also making another attempt at the crown.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds , a new instalment in the series, was only unveiled at the Game Awards 2024, but real details are still scarce. The game is no longer being developed by Sumo Digital, who were responsible for the predecessors, but internally by the so-called Sega Elite Racing Game Team.
The studio is said to consist of former makers of titles such as Out Run, Daytona USA, Sega Rally or Crazy Taxi, which gives hope for high quality. From a gaming perspective, the focus is apparently on the black hedgehog Shadow, as in the current cinema blockbuster Sonic 3.
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