The 10 Worst Racing Games Of Our Day

1. Ferrari: The Race Experience (2011)

Don’t get ‘Ferrari: The Race Experience’ confused with other Ferrari licensed titles. This one is by far the worst game that has ever taken the Ferrari name. On the surface, it looks as though there will be some pretty smooth graphics and realistic gameplay. Players looked forward to driving an array of automotive legends on the track, but the reality is a massive let down. The showroom looks great with all its shiny prancing horses, but during gameplay the graphics are hideous. Suddenly, smooth body curves look jagged, and the interior is a mess.

For a 2011 game, and coming with the Ferrari name, we would have expected much higher quality graphics.

2. Big Rigs: Over The Road Racing (2003)

It’s been blasted as the worst racing game of all time from hundreds of game critics, and they’re right. Big Rigs is like the bare bones, scrap version of a game idea that hasn’t yet been finished. It looks like the work of grade school children that was somehow mass produced.

Gamespot said during the original review: ‘It’s as bad as your mind will allow you to comprehend.’ The roadside buildings and bridges don’t hinder your driving. In fact, you can drive right through them. The trucks automatically drive straight, just in case you find yourself bored of steering, and you are almost guaranteed to win every race. No challenge = no fun.

3. Mercedes-Benz World Racing (2003)

Also known as World Racing, this game was hyped big time by the media. On arrival, though, it just didn’t deliver. The game promised over one hundred cars from the long Mercedes-Benz production history, but most turned out to be copies with only minor differences in the game. Claims of ‘breathtaking graphics’ in a ‘stunningly accurate sim’ will make you laugh. Sure, this was more than a decade ago, but we saw games with more polished graphics back then.

Yaris was a free downloadable game on the Xbox Live Arcade. Obviously, Toyota wanted to use the game as a marketing plot, but its attempt failed. Instead of showing off the car’s new design, handling or really anything that related to features of the actual car, the game challenges racers to battle futuristic threats while racing through a tube-like track. The car itself doesn’t even look like it’s moving. It looks more like a paper cut-out that sits atop a moving screen.

5. Madout (2015)

There aren’t any real rules or restrictions in Madout. The objective is to beat all the other cars, using whatever weapons are available to assist you. Poor translation from the Russian development team and obnoxious user controls make it a chore to play this game. The focus on weaponry makes having any amount of driving skills completely unnecessary.

6. Ford Street Racing (2006)

With three game modes and 18 car models, Ford Street Racing gets old quick. There is only so much to do in the game, although the makers did succeed at showcasing the new Ford cars as intended. For petrolheads, there are a few key flaws that make this game less than enjoyable: every car is an automatic, the AI is critically dumb and damage has little impact on driving ability. The game was so terrible at the time of release, the producers didn’t send early copies to the press for review. Maybe they thought more people would buy the game if they didn’t read the poor reviews.

7. Hooters Road Trip (2002)

Once again, here is an example of branding gone wrong. Somewhere along the way, the Hooters execs thought they would drive brand awareness by having a video game built. In the game, players tour America, racing along popular highways to Hooters restaurant destinations. Players start with the basic cars, giving them terrible handling. They are forced to swerve between cars, bumping into traffic with no consequences. Once the better handling cars are unlocked, there is no challenge in the game. Just race to the next city and listen to the virtual Hooters girls as they flirt with you.

The concept here is nice, but a few overlooked errors makes it an overall fail. The goal of Driving School Simulator is to drive the instructed route without earning point deductions from mistakes like hitting other cars or objects. There are so many flaws in the scoring system that players will walk away from this game. Sometimes, you can run right into another car without any point deductions. Other times, you may be penalised for running a red light, even though it was green. The controls are equally obnoxious, sometimes responding the opposite to the direction the user is pointing the car.

9. Death Track: Resurrection (2008)

This combat racer is filled with crude graphics and glitches. The handling on any vehicle is so terrible, players have a hard time staying on the road. While the weapons and destruction add to the action, everything else seems slow paced. Nothing about this game makes it feel as though you are racing. The textures look like sloppy work from a novice designer, making it feel like a late nineties destruction game rather than a 2008 release.

10. Fast & Furious: Showdown (2013)

What an injustice to the movies! This game is riddled with bad graphics and poor physics. The challenges are so short and easy to master, that it really proves to be no fun at all. When you think of the FF movies, you think of high speed action and stunts. Neither of those things come to mind after playing Fast & Furious: Showdown. The game’s only attraction is its relation to the movies, something that is hardly evident during gameplay.