The 10 Best Racing Game Soundtracks

A soundtrack has never been a make-or-break deal for a racing game, but a perfectly executed one can elevate a good game to a great one.

We’ve all got our favourites, be it the licensed soundtracks we grew up on shaping our music tastes today or original scores that game developers executed so perfectly. We’ve picked out our 10 favourites, but make sure to tell us any you think we’ve missed on socials.

10. Colin McRae Dirt 2

Colin McRae Dirt 2 nailed pretty much every aspect of the late ‘00s alternative vibe. Graffiti-style graphics at any given opportunity? Check. Grungy yellow filter you’d otherwise call by a name not suitable for the first entry into a web article? Check. Monster Energy ads littered everywhere? Check. Indie rock soundtrack? Absolutely check.

The first time hearing the late, great Ken Block welcoming you to the game over the opening riff of Bloc Party’s Helicopter will forever be etched into our minds. More bangers came from The Cribs, Biffy Clyro, Queens of The Stone Age, The Subways, The Temper Trap… you get our point.

Just listening back makes us want to crack out the graphic tees, get a chequered flag belt on our waist and jump into some rallycross with an Xbox 360 controller at our hands.

9. Race Driver GRID

Race Driver GRID didn’t feature any officially licensed music beyond the UNKLE remix of QOTSA’s No One Knows for its intro, but rather its whole soundtrack was composed of original scores. That approach doesn’t always resonate with racing games, but GRID’s was executed perfectly.

Its serene menu music playing as you flicked through the menus was appropriately calming before you jumped into the game’s famously high-octane racing. Music wouldn’t always play, but it would instead brilliantly fade in at climatic moments on track. Those last few minutes during the 24 Hours of Le Mans always got our hearts racing.

8. Mario Kart 8

Really, we could’ve thrown any Mario Kart game on this list. The series is littered with bangers throughout. N64 Rainbow Road, Waluigi Pinball from the DS, literally anything from Mario Kart Wii… we could go on.

Mario Kart 8’s diverse and expansive list of brilliant scores means we have to put it on this list, though. As well as new tunes like Mario Circuit, Mount Wario and Dragon Driftway, Nintendo went back and remastered so many returning classics. When MK9 arrives, it’s going to have to offer something special to beat it – although we’re hopeful it will.

7. Burnout 3: Takedown

Causing as much destruction as possible? Great fun. Doing so while listening to My Chemical Romance? Even better.

We’re sure many of the elder emos out there could attribute Burnout 3: Takedown to contributing a little bit. After all, who wouldn’t get hooked into the lifestyle after blowing up a tanker with Funeral For A Friend playing over it?

Genre-wise, Takedown was pretty one-dimensional – although a few indie and lighter rock tunes were sprinkled in for good measure. Not that we’ll complain.

6. Ridge Racer Type 4

When your OST is so good that people will go to a nightclub just to listen to it, you know something is right.

Every track in the game had a unique electronic song to go with it, and every single one was immaculate. If we had to pick just one to listen to forever, it’d have to be Pearl Blue Soul though.

The worst bit about listening back to it is reminding ourselves that no new Ridge Racer game is in sight, and the world feels a bit emptier knowing that.

5. Gran Turismo 4

We really don’t need to tell you how great Gran Turismo 4 was as a whole. There’s a reason it’s widely considered as the best racing game ever made, bar none.

It helps that it had a belter of a soundtrack to go with it, though. There’s a huge mix, the original stuff like the wonderful Moon Over The Castle and the brilliant menu soundtracks, and the licensed music that plays in race.

Feeder of course made an appearance, as with any great GT soundtrack, plus deeper cuts from Snow Patrol, Jimmy Eat World, The Hives and Eagles of Death metal. We’re only scratching the surface, there.

4. Forza Motorsport 2

Daft Punk is playing at my house, my house. Sorry, we had LCD Soundsystem stuck in our heads – Daft Punk isn’t literally at any of our houses.

Forza Motorsport 2 had a pretty wide-ranging selection of songs with tracks from big acts like Bloc Party and The Prodigy to more often-forgotten artists like Gnarls Barkley and The Crystal Method. It was an immaculate line-up and came before Motorsport opted for more generic OSTs for its menus. We’re a little sad about that.

3. Need For Speed Underground 2

Nothing quite screams 2004 like purging nitrous from the bonnet of a Nissan 350Z while Skindred’s Nobody blurted out your CRT’s speakers. It’s a feeling that nothing in life has quite captured since.

Many of NFS’ soundtracks over the years have been great but for us at least, none are as good as Underground 2. A great mix of hip-hop tracks like Snoop Dogg’s remix of Riders On The Storm and Capone’s I Need Speed, to heavier tracks like Rise Against’s Give It All, Underground 2 had a bit of everything.

2. Forza Horizon

Before Forza Horizon came along, most racing games were a case of ‘here’s a selection of songs, deal with it’. Selectable radio stations weren’t really a thing outside of GTA and Saints Row.

Horizon changed that though. Bass Arena gave you some exceptionally early-’10s EDM and Dubstep to listen to, Pulse allowed the indie pop in us all to escape a little and then Rocks was for those of us who enjoyed cutting holes in our skinny jeans. Sorry mum, I know you didn’t like it.

Every Horizon since has carried the feature over and expanded on it, but the line-up of the originals is hard to match to our ears.

1. Burnout Paradise

Yes, Burnout Paradise borrowed its name from that Guns N’ Roses song. The entire city was even named after it.

That made it magical hearing that G chord for the first time booting the game up, readying you for an utterly wonderful city. Only to go and quickly smash everything in sight.

Paradise City would’ve been enough to give Burnout Paradise a place on this list, but better still, the soundtrack was packed with some utter greats. Nothing quite hits like landing a super jump with Jane’s Addictions’ Stop! as a backing track, or taking on a Road Rage event with Alice In Chains in your ear.

Play the game long enough and you’ll find yourself inadvertently listening to some classical too, and it was probably time to switch the Xbox off once you hit Chicken George from the original Burnout. Only, it stayed on, didn’t it?