5 Best PS2 Racing Games That Still Hold Up Today

The PlayStation 2 is the best-selling console of all time, which means developers were falling all over themselves to release games on the system. One of the most prolific genres of the era was racing games. Between arcade racers and sims, players had plenty of options at their disposal, many of which looked incredible. While there are dozens of great racers to choose from, there are five games that stand out as the ones that best represent what it was like as a player back then.

Here are the five PlayStation 2 racing games that still hold up today.

5) V-Rally 3

Rally racing wasn’t quite as popular as some of the more arcadey options on the PlayStation 2, but the system still had its share of great options in the sub-genre. For my money, V-Rally 3 is the best of the bunch, largely thanks to its robust career mode. Other games might feature tighter handling or better physics, but if you’re going back to play an old game, you probably want a good single-player campaign.

V-Rally 3 does exactly that, giving you 20 cars to race with on your way to the championship. Four more cars are unlocked as you progress, giving you a nice thing to shoot for. Toss in a surprisingly detailed damage-modeling system for the time, and you have a great racer to spend a few weekends with.

4) Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition

Midnight Club 3 was one of the many games of the era that tapped into how popular tuners and street racing had become, thanks to the success of films like The Fast and the Furious. This arcade racer took players to open-world recreations of San Diego, Atlanta, and Detroit, while also partnering with DUB magazine to give it even more street cred.

It was a massive hit for developer Rockstar, which took its open-world expertise to make something of a throwback to the early days of Grand Theft Auto. Midnight Club 3 got even better when the Remix edition dropped, adding 24 new vehicles and Tokyo as a returning city from Midnight Club 2.

3) Need for Speed: Underground 2

Need for Speed fans might quibble about which is the best NFS game on the PlayStation 2. There were seven of them, after all. For what it’s worth, Hot Pursuit 2 and Most Wanted sit alongside Underground 2 in the holy trinity of PS2 NFS games for most players. That said, I think Underground 2 just barely eeks past those two to take the top slot.

This was 2000s car culture at its best. It mixed a comprehensive story mode with thrilling street races and in-depth customization. Sure, all the product placement was a little annoying, and not having a fast travel option was nearly unforgivable. However, the sheer number of things to do and the quality of the arcade racing were more than enough to overcome any negatives.

2) Burnout Revenge

Again, Burnout fans might disagree on which is the best Burnout game. The third game is the highest rated by critics and a fan-favorite for many. However, I’m going with Burnout Revenge as it’s the last good PlayStation 2 game for the series. Because of that, it has most everything players loved about Burnout 3, while adding a few fun features to the mix, making it the most comprehensive of the PS2 games.

Revenge is a car combat fan’s dream. It added several new features to make Takedowns hit even harder. That includes new features like traffic checking and Vertical Takedowns, as well as a new mode called Traffic Attack, which really ramped up the carnage. Burnout Revenge is best played with friends, but unfortunately, the online servers have been shut down for years.

1) Gran Turismo 4

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but some fans might disagree with this pick. To be clear, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec is also an incredible game that you will have a blast playing through. However, GT4 is the fan-favorite series’ swansong on the PlayStation 2, which means it is packed with content.

Seriously, there are over 700 different cars packed onto that disc. You’ll also find 51 different tracks to race on, giving you almost endless options. It also looked stunning at the time, showing that Polyphony Digital had mastered the PlayStation 2’s technology. There’s also an updated physics engine to make driving even more lifelike and a robust career mode with plenty of things to do.

GT3 might be the better-selling and more memorable game, but if you’re going back to experience the PlayStation 2 at its absolute best, Gran Turismo 4 is the pick. Simply put, this is the best racing gets on the system.

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10 Best PS2 Games, Ranked