Interesting Racing games

Games focused on fast movement or time trials.

Absolute Drift (link)

Focused on drifting as much as possible to maximize score.

Bomberman Fantasy Race (link)

Players ride animals that can temporarily sprint and can jump. It is possible to jump against a wall to quickly change direction, sometimes walls have boost pads on them. Players can throw unlimited amount of bombs to slow down opponents or boost themselves, if done correctly. They can also pick up one use items with special effect. These items can be also purchased from shop before starting a race. Maps contain various hazards.

Carmageddon TDR 2000 (link)

Player has limited time to win by racing through checkpoints, killing all pedestrians or destroying all opponents by ramming into them. During the mission, credits are earned that can be spent on repairs and between missions of upgrades. Pick ups randomly appear and grant temporary positive or negative effect.

Clusterball (link)

Players have limited time to fly around the level, collecting balls and delivering them to the central gate to obtain points. You can pick up speed boost and various weapons that will help you disable/destroy opponents or steal their balls.

F1 Pole Position (link)

Before the race, you can change many settings on your car, like the softness of tires or breaks, to make it better suited for the next race. During the race, parts of your car, like tires or breaks, get worn out and you have to visit the pit to get them replaced.

Fatal Inertia (link)

Hovercar racer. You can control your pitch to regulate air time, with sufficient speed you can find shortcuts by flying over obstacles. Weapon pickups have secondary fire which usually fires them behind you but some will boost you instead. When you get damaged, it will change how well your vehicle handles. To defend yourself you can spin to shake off magnetic mines etc. There is also a brake boost mechanic – when you hold brake you charge up boost, useful in corners and shakes off mines too. Also, you can customize your vehicle.

Micro Machines (link)

The tracks have various obstacles on the path. Multiplayer is on single screen, so when one player gets so far ahead that the other player disappears, a scale moves in their favor. If the scale is filled all the way for one of the players, they win.

Motoroader MC (link)

Single screen racing game. Every car has unlimited front shooting missiles and bombs dropped behind them. Car that hits an obstacle is thrown back. Car that gets hit by weapons gets into a spin. Tracks have various hazards, like ice, water or speed up pads and sometimes shortcuts and teleports.

Psyborg (link)

You have a limited time to get through a tunnel, which has from 3 to 20 sides that you can switch between. You can change your speed and you have to stay on tiles. Staying off tiles for too long or running out of time will cost you one life. Some tiles help you, like giving you extra time or points, others can change your speed, teleport you or lock your controls. One tile allows you to enter a shop, where you can spend points for extra time, lives or temporary invulnerability.

Quarantine (link)

Semi open world. You can buy weapons and armor to protect yourself from other drivers which fill the streets. Deliver people to places on time to earn money and progress the story.

Rocket League (link)

Football, but the players are cars. They can jump, flip and rocket boost. Boosting consumes fuel which is replenished by driving over specific points on the playing field.

Toy Story Racer (link)

Racing game with karts that have little weight but good maneuverability. The levels have quite rough terrain, shortcuts and randomly spawning one use items. Some of them are weapons which can temporarily knockout an opponent or permanently remove them from the race, depending on game mode (some have no racing, just elimination of other players). Holding an item protects player from one hit.

TrackMania United Forever (link)

Arcade racer with complicated tracks on different surfaces and with different car types. Physics allow for weird jumps and tricks like driving on the back. Has a puzzle mode where you build a track through predefined checkpoints and then race it under certain time.

Trailblazers (link)

Cooperative racer. Players can paint the track behind them which will boost all players in their team. It lasts until the other team paints over it.

Vangers (link)

The world has destructible terrain. You drive armed vehicle, visit colonies, do missions and fight other drivers to get more money and reputation. There are races that you have to win to progress into the next world. Vehicles can go underwater, may lose parts or cargo when hit, can jump around and with the right devices can tunnel, float or hover. Some weapons refuel by submerging in water.

Honorable mentions

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