Best Racing Games for PS5 2026

Gran Turismo 7 is the game that made me actually care about tire compounds. I play on a PS5 with a DualSense and even without a wheel the haptic feedback through the triggers when front grip starts washing away is genuinely communicative. License tests ease you in, Menu Books push you toward cars you would never choose, and Sport Mode gives you structured online competition when you want real stakes. The always-online requirement is still irritating, and the in-game economy has attracted its share of complaints. Neither changes the fact that no other PS5 racer balances feel, content, and long-term structure as well.

Forza Horizon 5 was an Xbox game I assumed PS5 owners would never get. Then it arrived in 2025 and immediately became one of the more discussed racing releases on the platform. The Mexico map is enormous and genuinely varied, the car roster dwarfs almost everything else on this list, and the Playlist system keeps weekly goals rotating so there is always a reason to log back in. It sits just behind GT7 because the handling trades some precision for accessibility, which is the right call for a festival racer. For anyone who wants breadth over depth, this is the one.

I have spent more hours than I should admit in F1 career modes across multiple entries in this series, and F1 25 is the tightest version yet of what Codemasters has been building. A full race weekend here actually feels like a race weekend. Qualifying matters. Tire strategy matters. Your engineer's radio chatter during a safety car period matters. The career mode pacing is the best reason to buy it, though if you play for three seasons and move on, the longevity gap compared to GT7 is real. For Formula One fans specifically, nothing else on PS5 comes close to replicating the season structure.

The Crew: Motorfest is the game you put on when you have forty minutes and want to feel something. No setup, no commitment. Pick a Playlist, get pushed into a car you have never driven, race through Hawaiian scenery, and feel good about it. The handling is looser than the sims above it, and the online side has some of the usual live-service friction. Neither matters much when the variety is this good. Ubisoft keeps the Playlist content rotating, so even returning after a break feels fresh. For players who want a broad driving playground rather than a dedicated discipline, Motorfest delivers.

CTR looks like a kids' game and then humiliates you on the first real circuit. The boost-chaining system rewards practice in a way that most kart racers deliberately avoid, and the shortcuts are genuinely worth learning rather than decorative. My kids can play it and enjoy it at one level while I am optimizing reserve boosts at another. That range across skill levels is rare. Online remains active as of mid-2026, which matters on a game this age. If you want a kart racer with real mechanical depth underneath the cartoon presentation, this is the pick.

Trackmania on PS5 is the current live game, not the 2003 original. Worth stating clearly. What you get is a precision time-attack racer with community-built tracks, leaderboard competition, and an almost meditative quality once you find your rhythm on a track. No wheel-to-wheel racing. Just you, a line, and a timer. I played a session expecting to drop it after twenty minutes and came out an hour later still chasing my ghost car through a loop section that had no business being as satisfying as it was. Narrow appeal, deep execution. If leaderboard chasing is your thing, it holds up.

RIDE 5 is for people who find car racers slightly boring and want to think about lean angle instead of braking distance. I do not have a motorcycle licence and probably never will, but this game scratches something adjacent to why I would want one. Throttle control at the exit of a long curve, watching the lean sensor read at maximum before lifting, then powering out clean. The career gives you a structured ladder to climb through, the bike roster is deep, and the DualSense does real work communicating what the front wheel is doing. Narrower audience than the entries above it, but excellent at what it is.

ACC is the most serious thing on this list. Every lap is a negotiation between tire temperature, brake bias, and your own discipline. It earns its place here specifically because of GT3 and GT4 racing, which it models better than anything else on PS5. The console version is rougher around the edges than the PC release, and the track selection is narrower than GT7 by a significant margin. Neither is a dealbreaker if you bought this game knowing what it is. If you turned up expecting a broad car collection experience, you are in the wrong place. Know what you are buying.

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 is the one I put on when my kids want to race. Toy cars on absurd tracks, boost ramps, loop sections over kitchen counters, and races that last three minutes and feel complete. The momentum system is more interesting than the presentation suggests. You manage boost, weight, and jump timing in ways that reward attention without demanding hours of practice. The track builder extends the lifespan well past the campaign. Progression depth is lighter than the top entries, and the competitive scene is thin. Still, for pure arcade fun with a family-friendly look and real momentum mechanics underneath, it works.

WipEout Omega Collection is the best-looking game on this list at 4K on a good display. The ships blur through neon canyon walls at speeds that should be unreadable and somehow stay perfectly clear. I have played WipEout since the PS1 days and the Omega Collection is still the definitive version of everything good about the series. It ranks here rather than higher because the progression structure feels its age and online is not where it used to be. There is no new WipEout coming to fix that. What exists is polished, fast, and unlike anything else on PS5.