5 Best PS1 Arcade Racers That Still Hold Up Today

The original PlayStation brought fans several all-time great racers. Most notably, the system gave us Gran Turismo, which was one of the great early simulation racers that pleased gearheads with its realistic approach. However, players looking for fast-paced thrills that didn’t require quite as much perfection still had plenty of arcade-style racers. These games put players into high-speed racers with more forgiving handling. You still need to have a steady hand at the wheel, but arcade racers are about having a blast with your friends rather than replicating real-world racing.

Here are the five best arcade racers on the original PlayStation.

5) Destruction Derby 2

The original Destruction Derby put the focus squarely on wrecking your opponents. You can still turn the other cars on the track into metal husks in the sequel, but it introduced more actual racing. The team put a lot of work into modeling real-life crashes, leading to some truly spectacular car-on-car explosions. If you’re looking to smash your enemies to pieces, this is the place to be.

Truthfully, the destruction part of Destruction Derby 2 is the highlight of this one. You can have fun in the races, but taking on the aggressive AI in a destruction bowl is a blast. Still, this is very different from most of the other racers on the list, providing players with a nice middle ground between Twisted Metal and Gran Turismo.

4) Need for Speed: High Stakes

Some fans might prefer Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit, and while that’s a solid racer, I think High Stakes just barely pips it for this list. Granted, it veers ever so slightly closer to being a sim racer, but it’s still holding the arcade banner relatively high. You can just tell EA saw the success Gran Turismo was having in the late ’90s.

Regardless, this is a fast-paced burner of a racing game, featuring a more realistic damage system, which helped it stand out from earlier entries. It also expanded Hot Pursuit mode, letting players jump into a police cruiser to try to stop racers. Being able to have a friend play as the cop, while you play as a racing led to countless hours of fun. It’s not perfectly balanced, but it’s still a hoot.

3) R4: Ridge Racer Type 4

Ridge Racer is one of the best PlayStation racing series, and R4 is the one to get if you’ve never tried the series. It takes everything players loved about the previous games and adds a massive career mode that’ll give you hours of content to play through. You pick between one of four teams and work through the mode to unlock hundreds of cars.

Plus, Type 4 introduced local split-screen. Being able to power drift around these courses while listening to its excellent soundtrack alongside a buddy was a dream for long-time Ridge Racer fans. Sadly, the series has fallen off the map in recent years, but veteran PlayStation fans know this was the place to be for racing fans who wanted a solid mix of arcade and sim. It’s almost like the ’90s version of Forza Horizon.

2) Crash Team Racing

Crash Team Racing isn’t the behemoth that Mario Kart is, but it’s still a quality kart racer. In fact, until recently, it might have been the best non-Nintendo kart racer PlayStation fans could get. Sure, it was relatively slim pickings for players without a Nintendo, but CTR made the sting a little easier to manage.

Don’t get me wrong, CTR is a solid take on the kart racing genre, giving players an easy-to-pick-up, arcade-style racer. It smartly keeps its levels relatively simple, letting you focus more on blowing your opponents up with all the items. It also looks great and features a fun Adventure Mode that switches things up with boss fights and collectibles. CTR was successful enough to get a sequel on the PS2, which wasn’t quite as well-received, but still pretty solid.

1) Wipeout 2097

Wipeout 2097 is the second game in developer Psygnosis’ iconic series. It was a major step up in just about every way. 2097 was better looking, controlled better, and gave fans plenty of new content to dive into. Toss in the new weapon system that lets you blow up other racers, and you have the best arcade racer on the PlayStation.

2097 also does a great job of on-ramping players with its difficulty curve. The campaign can get ridiculously tricky, but you slowly learn how to dominate the field. The futuristic take on racing was Sony’s answer to F-Zero, blending stunning visuals with pure speed. Psygnosis tried to add some character to 2097 via the racing teams you can join, but it doesn’t quite match up to the charm of Nintendo’s series. Still, it’s an all-timer of an arcade racer, and a must-play for PS1 fans.

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5 Classic Arcade Racers That Still Hold Up Today