The Most Fantastic Racing Video Games from Your Childhood

I’m not sure if you’ve seen it, but everyone says that Gran Torino is a fantastic movie.  I would go to the theater and check it out, but my dad ruined the ending for me about a week while gushing about how much he loved the movie.

In any event, I hear that Eastwood’s car, a Gran Torino, figures prominently into the movie.

That car looks fairly fun to drive and it got me thinking about my greatest driving experiences. Since I’ve owned a Ford Taurus and Ford Fusion, my greatest driving experiencea have to be gathered from the world of video games.  In honor of the warn out buttons on my Nintendo, Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis controllers, we present the best racing video games of all-time.

Pole Position – Atari:

F-Zero- Super Nintendo – I almost forgot how awesome this music was/is:

Ivan Stewart’s Off Road – Arcade - You had the steering wheel and the pedals on this stand-up off-road arcade racer.  I would have lived at the arcade to play this game if my parents would have let me.  The only thing that bothered me was that occasionally Ivan Stewart’s grey car just beat the hell out of everyone.  He went two times as fast as your car could go and we would lap everyone.  I know its your game Ivan, but you don’t have to be a prick.

RC Pro-Am – Nintendo

Rad Racer – Nintendo – No one does it like Lucas:

Road Rash – Sega Genesis – Simply the best motorcycle racing game ever:

Top Gear 2 – Super Nintendo

Days of Thunder – NES - If you didn’t like the game, you can at least enjoy this nerd’s commentary in the video:

Outrun – Sega Genesis - I always thought that that chick with the flowing locks in the passenger seat weighed the car down and eventually led to me being caught by police.

Uniracers – SNES - This was a pretty solid game, despite the fact that you were racing unicycles instead of cars or space ships.

Excite Bike – NES

Gran Turismo 1 – Playstation – Since it was released in 1997, this game isn’t exactly old school.  However, I refuse to make a list of the best racing games ever without putting this game on the list. I can distinctly remember whipping my controller against the wall in anger after failing to gain my “International Liscene” for the 137th time in a row.  There was a real sense of accomplishment when I finally did recieve the liscene, even if I did have to miss three straight weeks of school and repeat the 9th grade, for the second time, to get it.

UPDATE:

I don’t like the fact that I left off Cruisin’ USA – Arcade:

Or Mario Kart for SNES:

The Angry T

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