Does the thought of tinkering with cars make you weak at the knees? Know your gear ratios from your suspension stiffness? Your intake manifold from your differential? Then chances are that you'll love the games we've listed here for you today.
Updated March 2021: If you're a gearhead and a gamer looking for the best and most realistic racing games on the market, we've updated this list with some more recent and relevant options for you.
While some games like to give you an arcade racing experience, with no real customization options, others like to go the exact opposite direction. Carrying on in the grand tradition pioneered by Forza and Gran Turismo, you can get as granular as you could possibly want in these incredible entertainment experiences. To top it off, they're also far cheaper than a real project car!
12 Forza Horizon 4
Forza Horizon 4 might not be the most realistic racing game, but it is still absolutely incredible. While those afraid to touch a wrench can use the auto-tuning option, if you want to get under the virtual hood, you're very much able to.
You can adjust downforce, springs installed on your car, tweak your differential, fiddle with antiroll bars, and more. The list of cars included in the game is huge, and the game's world is rich and immersive. We've even made a list of Forza Horizon 4's fastest cars.
11 Assetto Corsa
Made by Italian developers Kunos Simulazion, this game is very focused on realism. Any options that a car would have in the real world, its virtual equivalent in Assetto Corsa will have too.
It's available on PC and consoles, but the PC version is the best overall experience. Why? Mods, that's why. Hardcore modders have created cars, tracks, and more for you to enjoy, making it a practically limitless playground.
10 Richard Burns Rally
If you don't mind a bit of retro gaming, then you'll love Richard Burns Rally. This game may be 15 years old, but it has the greatest physics engine ever seen in a racing game.
If you smash into a rock, prepare for your race to be over, after you've smashed open your steering system and slid 100 feet down the road, of course. It's unforgiving and brutal, and that's just what rallying should be.
9 Project Cars 2
An absolutely fantastic little game, this one. If you want to experience what it's like to drive some of the greatest racing cars around, then you can't go wrong with Project Cars 2.
The game features a rather impressive 182 cars and 46 tracks, with most of the tracks being laser-scanned. The game is so realistic, that real drivers and car companies were brought in to guide development. It looks incredible, and it's great fun to play as well.
8 iRacing
No, despite its title, this game isn't made by Apple, but it does feature some tech that would make the tech giant jealous. Welcome to iRacing. What makes this game quite so spectacular is the fact that every track in the game is laser-scanned, featuring every little divot that pockmarks the real-world equivalent.
Boasting a dedicated player base, tons of mods to draw upon, and full VR support, this game places you in the cockpits of racing cars like no other game can.
7 F1 2020
As you might guess from the title, this game only focuses on one discipline. However, if you are a fan Formula One, then F1 2020 is a must-have. By far the easiest way to get behind the wheel of an F1 car, especially if your parents aren't rich enough to buy you a seat with a real team. F1 2020 features all the cars, tracks, and drivers from the 2020 season.
The game even has a story mode where you start out as a Formula 2 driver and move up the ranks. A first for the F1 video game franchise is that rivals, teammates, and AI drivers will change during off-season.
6 rFactor 2
Criminally unknown, rFactor 2 is, like iRacing, a hugely realistic racing game in every respect. There are a very good number of customization options available, and the scope of the game is almost beyond belief.
The developers' goal is to be able to emulate any car, from any era. The AI is incredible, and it also features one of the best tire simulations ever made. If you burn off a bit of the tire, that will be modeled and relayed to you through force feedback.
5 RaceRoom
Created by Sector3 Studios, formerly Simbin, creators of the fantastic GTR racing games, RaceRoom is free-to-play and basically, nobody knows about it. The car handling is incredible, just as you'd expect from Simbin, with the different disciplines really feeling different.
The WTCC cars bounce around like superpowered go-karts, while the F1 cars feel twitchy and fragile, as though they're just one wrong turn away from crumpling into a very expensive pile of scrap metal. Its player base is tragically small, but if you want a fun, free game to jump into and indulge your love of racing with, then you'll like this game.
4 GRID 2
It may not be the most technical game on this list, but GRID 2 is a whole heap of fun regardless. Situated halfway between a true sim and arcade gameplay, its damage modeling is punishing enough to make you drive reasonably sensibly while still having a lot of fun.
It looks gorgeous, has a solid online mode, and an excellent career mode to tear into. The only real downside with this game is its lack of a cockpit view.
3 Gran Turismo Sport
GT Sport has received some hate due to straying too far from the original. However, if you play it the right way and use a steering wheel instead of a controller, it's actually one of the best racing sims out there, which moves it even further from the original's sim-cade-like experience.
Online play is the name of the game when it comes to Gran Turismo Sport. There's a thriving community and realistic wheel-to-wheel online action. Those wanting to dive into this game should definitely subscribe to the official YouTube channel to watch FIA-certified National and Manufacturer Series Championships.
2 Forza Motorsport 7
While we're waiting for the next Forza Motorsport game, we'll keep enjoying the 7th installment in the series. Forza Motorsport 7 falls into the Sim-Cade racing game category, not really a simulator, yet more realistic than an arcade game. It's also easily one of the best-looking games on the Xbox One.
Those into tuning and modifying cars will not be disappointed in FM7's vast amount of modifying options. That's not the only area of the game that offers variety though, there are also more than 700 different vehicles to choose from! This should be more than enough to keep us going until the next game in the series arrives.
1 Automation Car Company Tycoon
Automation might be the only video game a gearhead needs. This game is very different from the rest on this list. Basically, it focuses on letting you design and build every aspect of your dream car from the ground up. The campaign mode is beyond difficult, but oh-so-satisfying when you get it right.
In order to actually drive the cars you've created in Automation, you'll need to export them to BeamNG Drive, a soft body physics simulator used primarily for driving and crashing cars. Automation is still in Early Access, but it has a community that's growing larger by the day.