Best PS2 racer OTHER than GT3/4?

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Hyst

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Thoughts? Getting a big fat paycheck tomorrow, going to buy a few PS2 titles and looking for some recommendations. I'm leaving this entirely open to interpretation - what racing (not driving, but racing) game have you had the best time on and would recommend?

EDIT: And other than Enthusia, I've already got that.
 
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Between the ones that I've played, my favorites are (and probably in this order, sans GT4):

1. NFS Hot Pursuit 2
2. Burnout 3: Takedown
3. NFS Most Wanted
4. ToCA Race Driver 3
 
BurnOut 3: Takedown, Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift 2...GTA San Andreas? (If you count GTA as racing games)
 
Cyborg -- He also edited the OP after I replied :D

Racing Evolution was alright as well, but after GT, toca, & Enthusia, there isn't much
 
The PS2 version of Hot Pursuit 2 is fun, as CyborgGT recommended. It's the only version of that game worth playing (the Xbox/GCN/PC versions were made by a different development team). I would also recommend Midnight Club 2 and/or 3, Outrun 2006, Burnout 2 and/or 3, and Ridge Racer V. I never had any fun with the TOCA series -- GRID was the first game I considered worth a purchase.

If you're okay with plunking down money on quirky, flawed Japanese racing games with unique car selections and race locations, there's also the Tokyo Xtreme Racer series. TXR Zero and TXR3 offer Wangan-Midnight-style hijinks on the Tokyo highway system, while Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift 2, which orimarc mentioned, offers drift competitions and races on remote Japanese mountain roads. If that sounds cool, go for it, but I'll warn you, the physics in these games are barely playable.

If you like motorcycles or would be interested in learning about them, there's also PD's own Tourist Trophy, though it's more of a riding game than a racing game, similar to Gran Turismo. For ultimate realism, though, Suzuki TT Superbikes is as close as it gets (on the PS2 anyway).
 
The best PS2 racer overall not in the GT series would most likely be Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit II. The only other one worth bothering with on the PS2 is Need For Speed Underground 2 (I have the PC version of Most Wanted, which is superb, but I imagine the transition wasn't made very well). Also very good is Test Drive Unlimited (just make sure you don't confuse it with Test Drive). An early game that I found a lot of fun on the system was Rumble Racing, which was a very classic style racing game with powerups.
One game I never see anyone suggest is the brilliant little rally title EA put out a few years ago called Shox. It wasn't a sim in the least (which is usually why people whine about it), but it had great presentation and just the perfect controls to match its hectic gameplay. Similarly, I also really enjoyed Grand Prix Challenge, which was a semi-sim style F1 game that pretty much everyone hated because it wasn't realistic. Judged by their own merits rather than expecting them to be sims, both games are quite fun.
The Tokyo Xtreme Racer series took a nosedive after they started to have to pay for the cars they had previously ripped off, as the game itself isn't good enough when the hundred or so cars was trimmed down in the 3rd game, so out of that series I only suggest Tokyo Xtreme Racer Zero. The Burnout series was kind of bleh until the 3rd one (and after the fourth one it went right down the toilet), so I suggest Burnout 3: Takedown or Burnout: Revenge. I second Ridge Racer V, though note that it hasn't aged that well (the graphics are jaggy, though they do run at a lock solid 60 FPS), and the gameplay may alienate you.
Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coasthttp://www.gamespot.com/ps2/driving/outrun2006coast2coast/index.html?tag=result;title;2 is a great racer, but it is very classic in gameplay (checkpoint races with no real AI competition), so you may not take to it very well.
I have played the Toca games on the PS2, and I wasn't much of a fan of them compared to Jarrett and Labonte: Stock Car Racing.
 
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24 Hours of Lemans is also good.
First the stuff that kinda sucks:
A bit basic, as there is not too much you can do to your car.
The graphics are only so-so.
On the old slide tray PS2, the load times are really long.
You may win cars, but they are the same basic cars in some cases, just in different livery. So like GT2 -GT4 You may have 9 different Porsche 911's or Corvettes or Vipers. Only real diff being the paint job.

The stuff that counts:
But the driving action rocks!
Vehicle dynamics are almost as good as Gran Turismo.
There are many tracks, from all over the world. (Actual tracks such as Donnington, Road America, LeMans, Suzuka, and about 15 others I can't remember)
Several classes of cars, in various livery.
each race has 17 other cars.
You can tell which cars you've lapped as their dots change color on the map.
In 24 Hour races you can save your game in the pits, and resume from that point in the future.
Also, it's been around for a while, so big payday or not, you can find it on the "cheap" rack.
 
Toronado
The Burnout series was kind of bleh until the 3rd one (and after the fourth one it went right down the toilet)
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What? The first one was challenging in that its collision detection isn't as "sloppy" as it is in later Burnout titles, and it had fine arcade physics and some neat music. It just lacked polish and could have been more fleshed-out. And the second game defined the series, IMO. I had a lot more fun with Burnout 2 than any of the others.
 
Toronado
I have played the Toca games on the PS2, and I wasn't much of a fan of them compared to Jarrett and Labonte: Stock Car Racing.
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I still have J&L. Great game. Thinking back, it almost seems ahead of its time, with its great selection of real-world tracks, awesome damage physics, and cockpit view. IIRC, its in-car view is even better than ToCA3's in terms of camera position.

Wolfe
What? The first one was challenging in that its collision detection isn't as "sloppy" as it is in later Burnout titles, and it had fine arcade physics and some neat music. It just lacked polish and could have been more fleshed-out. And the second game defined the series, IMO. I had a lot more fun with Burnout 2 than any of the others.
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I agree. I totally regret selling the first one, the gameplay felt so classic. I'll have to buy it again one of these days, along with #2.

This topic is actually helping me out as well. I need to check out Tourist Trophy, TXR Zero, TDU (although I was holding out until I got a 360), Test Drive Le Mans (I remember the PS1 version being very good) and Burnout Revenge. Outrun 2006 was looking decent until now, learning that there's only checkpoint races.
 
Outrun is...Outrun. If you don't know what to expect you probably haven't been in an arcade before. ;)
 
Wolfe
It just lacked polish and could have been more fleshed-out. And the second game defined the series, IMO. I had a lot more fun with Burnout 2 than any of the others.
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I find the second two games to have much more to come back to down the line than the first two, and the production values were vastly improved.
 
Wolfe
Outrun is...Outrun. If you don't know what to expect you probably haven't been in an arcade before. ;)
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I went to plenty of arcades as a kid. I just always played Cruisin'!

I'm playing Burnout 3 for the first time in a long time and I now recognise the menu voice guy, Stri(y?)ker, from Loveline with Dr. Drew. Awesome, I listen to that show all the time! People have odd sexual problems...
 
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