If you were born in the past half-century and read Autocar, chances are that your obsession with all things automotive was at some point fuelled by video games.
Be it a hyper-realistic simulator, the childlike innocence of Mario Kart or the ultra-violent Grand Theft Auto series, the medium has presented many different takes on the driving experience.
As Christmas approaches, you might find yourself with a spare few moments to get stuck in. Here are some of the Autocar team's favourites that are worth your time over the holidays:
Microprose Formula One Grand Prix, 1991, Commodore Amiga
I stand by a claim that I made in a column I wrote earlier this year that Super Mario Kart is the greatest racing game of all time. But if you're looking for realism, you can't beat Geoff Crammond's early 1990s masterpiece.
Okay, realism is a relative term (compare F1GP's blocky 3D graphics with today's photorealistic efforts), but Crammond's game was one of the first true F1 simulators, in which you could play a full season- practice sessions and all - and tiny set-up changes would profoundly affect your car's handling.
It even offered multiplayer action, although none of this online nonsense: play-by-mail allowed you to save games onto a floppy disk and post them to a friend. Glory days.
James Attwood
Grand Theft Auto 3, 2001, various systems
There are few video games that proved truly game-changing, but GTA3 was certainly one: a world where you could go anywhere and, infamously, do more or less anything you liked. Yes, even that...
The producers didn't (or couldn't) license any real vehicles, instead not-so-gently reimagining existing famous designs.
Even today's driving games mostly lack the visceral thrill of real driving at speed, but some 25 years ago few things matched the joy of driving a stolen unmarked FBI sedan real fast through dense, chaotic city streets, pursued by endless cop cars, choppers and even tanks if you were really naughty.
Yes, it was more comic than real, but Lord it was fun.
Tom Evans
Mario Kart DS, 2005, Nintendo DS
Mario Kart DS wasn't the best racing game to come from the Italian plumber's long line of banana-peel-filled adventures, but it was one of the most groundbreaking.
It was the first to use Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and therefore the first to allow you to race against other players from around the world. It was the first to revive circuits from previous games. And, most importantly, it supported the DS's Single-Pak multiplayer function, meaning friends who didn't own the game themselves could join in the fun.
I have fond memories of school trips, lunch breaks and end-of-year 'fun days' sat playing this handheld masterpiece with all of my friends. It helped that I was bloody good at 'snaking' too, which meant I won quite a lot...
Jack Warrick
Gran Turismo, 1997, Sony PlayStation
I played this game as a very impressionable primary schoolchild, and it was life-changing. Here was a load of everyday cars that you could rag around a track, with realistic (for the time) physics and graphics.
I could never get over the choice of cars: there were about 140, and at the time that felt like 140,000. And best of all, the disk would simply sit there, safe inside my matt-grey PlayStation, waiting for me to play after double maths: there were none of those annoying online updates.
I'm still hit by a wave of nostalgia whenever I see a Mazda Demio.
Murray Scullion
Dirt Rally 2.0, 2019, various systems
Don't cut. For the love of all that is holy, when Phil Mills tells you not to cut, don't you bloody dare cut.
Dirt Rally 2.0 is less a game and more an existential experience in despair: you'll clip a rock and go flying off a cliff, ending your rally, more times than you'll score stage wins. Yet it will get you hooked.
Be it the gorgeous audiovisual presentation, the fantastic car and location lists or the impressive physics (simulating even the wear and tear of a stage's surfaces depending on where you are in the running order), you'll find hundreds of hours of enjoyment.
And when it finally clicks, you'll get the full Colin McRae experience.
Charlie Martin
Need for Speed Underground 2, 2004, various systems
This gift from Dad was what first made cars seem exciting to me. The premise is reckless street racing through a generic American city all night, weaving at insane speeds between civilian vehicles - which are spectacularly launched skyward in slow-mo when you inevitably get it wrong.
But it's okay, because there is no police to worry about and the badass racer girl who guides you through 'the scene' always implores you to "only race in the game". Which I did, a lot.
I unwittingly learned about racing lines, realised that not all cars were boring boxes and discovered a lot of horizon-widening 'grown-up music'.
The characters' slang and the cars' modified appearances have since aged to cringeworthy effect, yo, but if ever I win bank on the lottery, I might just buy a green Nissan 350Z and paint a purple dragon down the side.
Kris Culmer
Snowrunner, 2020, various systems
On the face of it, Snowrunner seems almost relaxing: you use a variety of vehicles, ranging from a Land Rover Defender 90 to a 1980s Soviet missile carrier, to carry cargo along off-road trails. It's not.
You'll want to scout routes across whichever boggy hell you end up in before you start hauling loads - a process that will inevitably result in you getting stuck in a quagmire and needing to send a second scout vehicle to rescue it. Which you'll then either roll, run out of fuel in or also get stuck.
It's slow, steady and genuinely infuriating at times but rewarding to get right.
I really ought to find a less stressful way to pass my spare time, like base jumping or competing at the Isle of Man TT.
Jack Harrison
Forza Motorsport 2, 2007, Microsoft Xbox 360
It has been 18 years since I unwrapped my Xbox 360 on Christmas Day (cue existential crisis) and fired up this unfairly overlooked gem of the genre one that I would enjoy for many years as obviously superior successors came and went.
For the time, the graphics and physics were pretty impressive, but if I'm honest the big sell was the extent to which you could modify and personalise the cars.
Many a lurid green Mitsubishi Eclipse and gold-rimmed Audi RS4 met their grisly ends at the first hairpin of Maple Valley Raceway or were sent far clear of 200mph on the Döttinger Höhe, courtesy of a ridiculous stage-three tuning package. Usually with an absolutely gopping bodykit to seal the deal.
Felix Page
Mario Kart 8, 2014, Nintendo Wii U
You might think that this is just another Mario Kart game, but actually it isn't quite like any of the others.
Mario Kart 8 brings back the magic of all the previous games with its remastered maps from older consoles. The best thing about it is that you can play virtually every version of the ultra-tricky Rainbow Road track out there in one game. And there was a download pack that added Coconut Mall, a fan favourite from the original Wii.
Playing this game transports me to the nostalgic worlds of older consoles like the GameCube with colourful, tight-turning circuits and retro soundtracks. In my opinion, nothing beats it.
Sophia Grace
Gran Turismo 5, 2010, Sony PlayStation 3
No, it's not as nostalgic as some of the earlier Gran Turismo games, but it moved the game on when it came to the simulation and the graphics. Plus it has my favourite opening montage of the series, courtesy of My Chemical Romance.
Alex Wolstenholme
TOCA 2: Touring Cars, 1998, Sony PlayStation
There's a chain of second-hand entertainment shops called Cex (extraordinarily, the 'C' is pronounced 'S'...) and, a couple of years ago, with an hour to kill in Banbury town centre, nostalgia took over and I bought an original PlayStation console from there.
I'm not usually a fan of hanging onto stuff, but one period game from the PS1's heyday stays in that box at the top of the wardrobe: Toca 2. It was absolutely nails to try to keep the car on the track, let alone take any type of glory, but what fun I had trying it again.
The game is so colourful and vivid, and fully licensed for the full nostalgia shot.
I was rubbish, so did the obvious thing: drive the wrong way and just crash into everyone else.
Mark Tisshaw
Driver: San Francisco, 2011, various systems
This is an unusual driving game, with a pretty abstract and bizarre storyline: after crashing his bright yellow 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T while chasing the game's villain, police detective John Tanner gains the ability to travel out of body and possess anyone else driving around suburban San Francisco.
Yes, I know it sounds weird, but the game is as much about cars as it is about the plot, with a fascinating roster of vehicles at your disposal to explore the city, from supercars to classic muscle cars to trucks.
Danny Davies
Add your comment