Racing games have historically been one of the genres in which a given console shows off its technical prowess. Their enduring popularity also helps us appreciate how far we’ve come in simulating something in which most people have some sort of relevant experience – driving. And after an extensive series of test drives, we’ve found five PlayStation 1 racing games whose attempts at realistic, simulation-style driving still hold up.
Licenced racing games age better than most other sports titles, it must be said. They serve as a time capsule of an era with completely different car styles and handling. They race alien tracks with different rules, sometimes vastly so.
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It’s worth noting that this list is for simulation-style racing games only, the arcade icons of the PlayStation 1 have had their day on track. And it’s Go! Go! Go!
Formula 1 (1996)
Bizarre Creations shut their doors in 2011, leaving a legacy of incredible racing/driving experiences. Their first foray onto the tarmac is the stuff of legend.
Formula 1 released in autumn 1996 and featured every single track of the 1995 F1 calender. Each one is rendered in a detail unheard of outside of arcades at the time. Tracks were recreated using surveyor’s laser-measured data with a realism in elevation that wasn’t matched until the next generation.
All 13 teams have a unique car model and the 1995 season saw plenty of outward difference. Tyrell’s high-nose concept hadn’t been copied by everyone yet so there’s a huge variety of front ends on show. McLaren was trying their tiny wing on the engine cover.
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And all of this detail is captured with a maximum of around 400 polygons per car with some impressive LoD scaling on show. The result is up to 26 cars on screen at an acceptable frame-rate.
In addition, every one of the 35 drivers who drove an F1 car during the 1995 season is here. There’s even an option to have the actual driver line-up for every race of the season. Nigel Mansell will pop in for two races and so on.
Despite a lack of compatibility with Dual Analog or DualShock controllers, the handling is predictable and precise. Formula 1‘s D-pad features probably the best digitally controlled handling of all time.
TOCA 2 Touring Cars (1998)
TOCA Touring Cars, or TOCA Touring Car Challenge, was published by Codemasters in 1997 and proved a surprise hit given the limited appeal of the the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), compared to something like Formula 1 or rally.
Like many surprise hits of the day, TOCA Touring Cars took off largely by word of mouth. Several had been brave enough to rent it, then bought it and then raved about it until the game went platinum.
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Its follow-up, TOCA 2 Touring Cars, is the perfect bigger-budget follow-up to that surprise hit. The realistic handling model has been refined. The driving is now more forgiving, but without sacrificing too much of the challenge.
The visuals have improved all-round and the game now runs in a higher resolution. There are also more hidden tracks and cars to unlock as well as more cheats with which you can mess around.
Each of the official cars feature impressive modelling and texture work. TOCA 2 Touring Cars captures the rough and tumble nature of touring car championship racing with aggressive AI unafraid to give as good as they get.
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Since all tracks were based in the UK, rain and wet weather driving were central to the experience. A drive around the wet in TOCA 2 Touring Cars still looks and feels good over 25 years later.
Codemasters introduced two support championship series in TOCA 2 Touring Cars – Formula Ford and the Ford Fiesta Championships. These cars handle completely differently to the main event and add loads of variety to the package.
Monaco Grand Prix: Racing Simulation 2 (1998)
Based on the 1998 Formula 1 World Championship season, Monaco Grand Prix: Racing Simulation 2 is a port from the PC series. The decision to port the game to PlayStation may have come after Formula 1 ’98‘s failure left F1 fans hungry for something else. And, dutifully, Ubisoft delivered.
The Bizarre Creations Formula games are the pinnacle of open-wheel handling on Sony debút machine, but Monaco Grand Prix: Racing Simulation 2 is a close second. There is great audio and visual feedback to indicate the limit of grip and you can run blistering times, just on this feel alone.
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There is a full suite of car tuning options with an easy four-bar chart to see what effects your changes are having. Though thanks to a robust physics model, you can feel the difference on the track.
There is also a deep damage system built into Monaco Grand Prix with a greater range of visual and mechanical damage effects that the great Formula 1 ’97.
It must be noted that Monaco Grand Prix: Racing Simulation 2 lacks any official licences. Players could change all the team and driver names, then select the faux livery that fits best to get the 1998 F1 season sim experience. And once they did, the disappointment of Visual Science’s Formula 1 ’98 grid stall was forgotten.
Monaco Grand Prix: Racing Simulation 2 is probably the best way to relive the 1998 Formula 1 World Championship from the long list of games based on that season. And this includes the venerable F-1 World Grand Prix for Nintendo 64.
Formula Nippon (1999)
Practically the definition of a hidden gem, Formula Nippon was buried by the blizzard of sim racing titles blowing on PlayStation in 1999. It was greeted with a handful of positive reviews before being forgotten.
However, Formula Nippon has survived the test of time. The handling across three different grades of machine is impeccable, with all three having completely different characteristics.
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The karts are twitchy and love to spin. The light weight and low downforce of the Formula 3 cars begs you to drift. And the big league machines are closer to top-level open-wheel series, like Formula 1 or Indy.
Moving from 100cc karts to Formula 3 to Formula Nippon gave the career mode a longevity uncommon in games based on real championships. There are about a dozen tracks in total with a few layouts for some of the bigger circuits. And this is just about enough to stave away boredom along that extended single-player experience.
Formula Nippon is very difficult, even on the middle of the three difficulty settings. The other racers run a quick pace and the game’s sim pretensions quickly force you to be gentle. You’ll be tapping the brake and leaning the wheel to turn rather than hacking away at it.
The three formulae let you tinker with various aspects of your machine’s tuning. The F3 and F-Japan machines feature a rich set of options but also allow you to ask your mechanics to take care of it for you. You can ask for high speed, fast corners, slow corner and even make your car easier to drift.
Colin McRae Rally 2.0 (2000)
Colin McRae Rally 2.0 is another PlayStation 1 sim racing game sequel that took a competent package to the top of the podium. 1998’s Colin McRae Rally featured 12 rally beasts, each recreated in painstaking detail.
More impressive was the environmental engine, with its complex and, for the time, realistic natural gradients. Colin McRae Rally also featured realistic handling and enough feedback to give players that all-important feel for the surface.
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Colin McRae Rally 2.0 improves the presentation and refines the incredible racing engine of the first title. The licenced rally racing machines are more detailed and more rounded. The tracks are more complex and have more trackside detail. The weather effects look more like the real deal and have a greater effect on the handling.
Colin McRae Rally 2.0 features the most advanced damage modelling of its console generation. The visual dents and deformations are surprisingly robust, even to modern eyes. The mechanical damage and wear wrought by the rigours of rally racing are captured with remarkable depth. And the strategy around repair times to keep the car running is finely balanced.
Colin McRae Rally 2.0 added an arcade mode where you could race against seven AI racers. This was a fun diversion from racing the clock in the main mode. It also showed off how Codemasters could push the PS1’s limits. Six detailed cars on those complex tracks is a sight to behold, even if the draw distance and frame-rate take a dive.
Codemasters produced some of the best sim racing game on PlayStation 1 and, for a period, they had the midas touch at the wheel on the console.
Honourable Mentions
Some of the best-looking games on any platform have been racing titles – Gran Turismo, Forza and Formula 1 titles have been just a few that have pushed their consoles to the limit. The PlayStation 1 was no different and some of the licenced racing games on this list were marvels in their day.
One of the games in the honourable mentions, one of the best-selling licenced racing games of PlayStation 1, was definitely one such marvel. Gran Turismo 2 was one of the best racing games of the platform in its day and is worth revisiting for the millions of gamers who 99%ed it decades ago.
Gran Turismo 2 offers remarkable depth, plenty of content and a sort of historical value for aficionados – but it is not easy to play these days. The graphics, while the height of realism in 1999, are hard to look at. The rubber-banding of the AI drivers is frustrating to return to after decades with fairer techniques to elicit challenge.
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V-Rally 2 or V-Rally ’97 is another game that, while remarkably complete upon release, just hasn’t aged well. The V-Rally series aimed for the more casual crowd newly introduced to the sport as it enjoyed a golden age. The handling models feel unnatural to modern hands.
Cars in V-Rally 2 feel as they they rotate around their centre rather than turning from their wheels. You can also adjust your car’s momentum and heading while airborne. While neither of these were a big deal back in the day, they undermine the entire driving system once you’ve experience better.
