The Best Racing Games From Days Past

The Best Racing Games From Days Past

One of the thrills of visiting the arcade as a kid was sitting in the newest racing game and experiencing the thrill of driving years before it was legal. As time went on and home consoles improved, that feeling of exhilaration came to the living room. Although this list is for from comprehensive, here's a smattering of some of the cream of the crop from generations past.

My first exposure to racing games in the arcade was Pole Position in the arcade. Namco made a game I wasted way too many quarters on. Not until Spy Hunter did I find a game so challenging and engrossing. Speaking of Spy Hunter, that game changed the world of arcade racing with the high and low gear and the ability to change vehicles and weapons. The added level of skill made it so much more challenging! Later there came Out Run with its smooth graphics and Hard Drivin' with its first person glory, but Pole Position still holds a pace in my heart. Honorable mention to Ivan Ironman Stewart's Super Off Road. The ability to upgrade features of my car made me blow whole weeks worth of allowance to destroy my competition.

While Pole Position was my first arcade racing experience, my grandparents were awesome enough to get an early home console, the Magnavox Odyssey 2. With this came the long forgotten 1978 multi-cart Speedway! / Spin-Out! / Crypto-Logic! Only the first two caught my attention for very long. Speedway! and Spin-Out! are simple by today's standards, but they were great for their time. Very basic racing that relied on the shortest distance between two lines and avoiding collisions. 

Later I got the NES and the first game I got with it was a port of my old favorite: Pole Position! It was a little disappointing compared to my old arcade favorite, but it had some of the same features. Then came an avalanche of racing games. Excitebike, R.C. Pro-Am, and of course Rad Racer took up so much of my childhood. I could have gone outside and thrown rocks into a stream or something I guess, but I call my time well spent. 

By the time SNES came around, my childhood was all but over. I came back to gaming later in life, but the SNES era of my life is marked by a little sadness. It represented turning away from on old and trusted friend. The last few that I remember are first the futuristic F-Zero with its amazing graphics, responsiveness, and fun. Then came Super Mario Cart. Imagine the fun of cart racing with cool weapons and familiar characters. There's a reason why there have been so many sequels. It was and remains one of my favorites.

I know that there are hyper realistic games to play both in the arcade and at home. I now own a PS4 and I play the newest games from time to time. Still I look back and wish I could play my old favorites again for the first time and experience the wonder and amazement of racing with cutting edge 8-bit graphics.

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Written By: Todd Hendrickson