The Crew: Motorfest

The Crew Motorfest is the second open-world festival racer here, and it lives almost entirely in Forza Horizon 6's shadow. The playlist structure, themed islands, drift challenges on one, off-road on another, organises variety well, and there's real spectacle to the events. No offline mode, though. It needs a permanent connection to play at all, even solo, and that matters more to me now that half my gaming happens in evening gaps where I don't want to depend on a server staying up. The driving is solid rather than special, a notch below Horizon's handling in both feel and consistency. Good pick if you've already burned through Horizon 6 and want more of the same format without replaying the same game.

I picked up The Crew Motorfest because it landed on PS Plus and I had a free evening. It's good. It's just not Forza Horizon 5 good, and being the second-best open-world racer on PS5 is still a real compliment. The island setting is split into themed playlists, JDM night runs, rally stages, vintage muscle, and hopping between them keeps the pace varied in a way a lot of open-world racers don't bother with. The online-dependent structure is the one thing that nags at me, since it means the game's future is tied to Ubisoft keeping servers on. For now, though, it's a genuinely good time, and if you've already burned through Horizon 5's map, this is the next stop.

I have spent a lot of time with Need for Speed and Forza over the years, and The Crew Motorfest scratches the same itch while feeling genuinely current. The Hawaii setting gives it a visual identity that holds up on a good display, and the playlist structure means you can spend twenty minutes doing something completely different from what you did yesterday without the game losing its shape. It is always online, which I understand bothers some people, but servers are still active and you will not run into dead lobbies. For a subscription pick with no extra cost, this is the one I would tell a friend to download first. Nothing else in the PS Plus racing catalog comes close to this level of breadth.

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.