• Many board games can be said to be racing games, such as Snakes and Ladders, Cribbage, or Formula Dé. (see race game)
• There are also toys made for racing, like slot cars and radio controlled cars.

One of the more common uses of the term racing game is to describe a genre of computer and video games. Racing games are either in the first or third person perspective. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to entirely fantastical settings, and feature any type of land, air, or sea vehicles. In general, they can be distributed along a spectrum anywhere between hardcore simulations, and simpler arcade racing games.

History

main: History of racing games

The arcade title Gran Trak 10, released by Atari in 1974 is generally considered as the progenitor of the genre. Gran Track 10 presents an overhead view of the track in low resolution white on black graphics, on which the player races against the clock to accumulate points. While challenging, it is not competition racing. Night Racer, released by Micronetics in 1977 extended the genre into 3 dimensions by presenting a series of posts by the edge of the road. There was no view of the road or the players car and the graphics are still low resolution white on black. Like Gran Trak 10, Gameplay was a race against the clock. True "racing" as we know it was started by the Namco game Pole Position in 1982. This time the player has AI cars to race against, and time limit to keep pushing the players to go faster. Pole Position is also the first game to be based on a real racing circuit. Pole Position introduced color graphics at a much higher resolution than earlier titles.

Racing games in general tend to drift toward the arcade side of reality, mainly due to hardware limitations, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. It is however untrue to say that there were no games considered simulations in their time.

In 1984 Geoff Crammond, later to develop the Grandprix series (Known collectively as GPX to its fanbase) produced what is considered the first attempt at a racing simulator, REVS, for the BBC Microcomputer. The game offered an unofficial, (and hence with no official team or driver names associated with the series} recreation of British Formula 3. The hardware capabilities limited the depth of the simulation and restricted it (Initially) to one track but it was far above any other games at the time in terms of detail.

In 1986, Sega produced Out Run, one of the most graphically impressive game of its time. It used two Motorola 68000 CPUs for its 2D sprite-based driving engine, and it became an instant classic that spawned many sequels.

In 1987, Namco produced Final Lap, the first arcade game that allowed multiple machines to be linked, allowing for multiplayer races. In the same year, Atari produced Road Blasters, a driving game that also involved a bit of shooting.