Best Racing Games on Game Pass

I loved Horizon 5, and I did not expect to say 6 is even better. I have always leaned toward sim racing, where a missed braking point costs you the lap, so an arcade festival racer winning me over means something. The world is the reason. I will happily spend an evening on the Series X just driving between events, and on the S95F it looks superb, though the driving would carry it on any screen. Event variety keeps the next race different from the last, and the assists get a lapsed player fast quickly. Fair warning, with so much on the map, picking what to do next can eat ten minutes.

I sank many hours into this one, and it still sits second because Horizon is easier to recommend. Forza Motorsport is the proper circuit racer on the service, and it suits how I like to drive: one clean lap, a braking point you either hit or miss, and a tuning screen to fiddle with between sessions. I settled the Gran Turismo versus Forza argument by playing both, and this one has the advantage of already being in your subscription. A pad works. The game clearly wants a wheel. Newcomers will find it far less forgiving than Horizon.

I follow Formula 1 every season, so this was getting installed no matter what. Driving the cars you normally watch on a Sunday afternoon never gets old, and the 26 season pack brings the 2026 roster into the game. Handling is approachable on a controller, assists let you work toward harder settings, and career mode gives your evenings a structure. Expect to lose a few early races to tyre wear and pit calls before the strategy side clicks. Not a game for people who find F1 dull. If you do like the sport, it is the cleanest way in on Game Pass.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is not on Game Pass, so this is where the kart itch gets scratched, and it scratches harder than I expected. The drift is the whole game. You hop into a slide, hold it, and time a tap for a boost, and anyone who skips learning that gets lapped. I put it on for my kids first, then caught myself replaying time trials after they went to bed. Local split-screen works for a full couch. Younger players will need patience, because it is tougher than the mascot racer it usually gets compared to.

Rally is a different discipline entirely. No wheel-to-wheel traffic, just you, a co-driver reading pace notes, and a gravel stage that punishes a late brake. EA Sports WRC is the best rally game in the catalogue, and on a controller it took me a few evenings before sliding the car felt like a decision instead of an accident. Surface variety, from gravel to tarmac to snow, keeps stages feeling different. It is rougher around the edges than the Forza games, and the handling is demanding enough that casual racers may bounce off. If you want a lone stage and a clock, nothing else here does it.

I played far too much Need for Speed on the PS2 when I should have been studying, and tuning the cars mattered to me as much as the racing. Not much has changed. Unbound feels like those games always did, it just looks far better, and I am fine with that. The loop is what sticks: race by day, risk it all at night, and decide whether to bank your winnings before police heat gets out of hand. The stylised look will not suit everyone, and the driving is less sharp than the Forza games, which is why it sits sixth.

My first ten runs of Descenders ended with a ragdoll tumbling down a mountainside, which is rather the point. It is racing without a car. You get a downhill bike, procedurally generated courses, and a trick-scoring system that rewards flow over caution. I went in expecting a novelty and kept coming back for one more run, because runs are short and every crash shows you exactly where you got greedy. Time trials and score chasing give it focus. It is not a head-to-head racer, so it can feel solitary. On Game Pass, it earns its install.

Burnout 3 was my first Burnout, and I remember playing it with friends and laughing at every crash. Paradise Remastered brings that feeling back in a good way. This is arcade racing at its purest. You roll up to an intersection, pick an event, and go, with takedowns and enormous jumps filling the gaps. It is older and looser than the modern flagships, and the variety thins out over a long run. But nothing else on Game Pass gets you from install to grinning faster.

I came to The Crew Motorfest straight after Horizon, and that is the context it needs. It is sunny, set in Hawaii, and built around themed playlists that walk you through different car cultures in one sitting. Variety is wide and events are dense. I did a few playlists and kept wanting to go back to Horizon, because Horizon drives sharper and has more charm, which is why this sits ninth. Think of it as the second open-world racer, for after the first has run dry.

After EA Sports WRC bruised me on a controller, DiRT 5 felt like a palate cleanser. Handling is forgiving, the colours are loud, and surfaces shift from snow to mud to sand. Modes like Gymkhana and Ice Breaker break up the standard races. Events are short. Three or four fit my usual evening window. It is not the sharpest driving model on the list, so it closes the ranking, and rally purists will want something heavier. For someone returning to racing after a long break, though, it is the gentlest off-road way back in.