Underappreciated PS1 racing games

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Outside of the usual suspects of the Gran Turismos, TOCAs, Colin McRaes, Ridge Racers and even Wipeouts and Rollcages, what other PS1 racing games are worth playing now?

It seems like there is a whole world of PS1 Japanese tuner and touge games. If anyone has done the research I would love to know which are the good games.
 
These aren't touge games but I always enjoyed Total Drivin', the cars were based on real life models but weren't licensed. There were rally cars, single seaters, off road buggies and super cars:




I also really liked Motorhead, mainly for the futuristic setting:

 
These aren't touge games but I always enjoyed Total Drivin', the cars were based on real life models but weren't licensed. There were rally cars, single seaters, off road buggies and super cars:




I also really liked Motorhead, mainly for the futuristic setting:



Total Drivin' was amazing. Loads of different types of racing as well from rallying to GT racing.

For me it these:
Hardcore 4x4


Mobil 1 Rally Championship


Rage Racer


OK I know Rage Racer can be considered as part of the Ridge racer series. But a lot of people didnt know that and missed out on an amazing game. I preferred this to any of the Ridge Racer games.
 
@MagpieRacer I remember playing Rage Racer on the Demo 1 disc many, many times.

Rollcage was fun for something a little different.

Vanishing Point was decent.

Test Drive 5 & 6

I remember the Le Mans 24 Hours game being good, but no idea how well or badly it has aged.

The Italian Job was fun at the time but again, not sure how well it aged. I think that was more like Driver than racing though.
 
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Total Drivin' was amazing. Loads of different types of racing as well from rallying to GT racing.

For me it these:
Hardcore 4x4

Mobil 1 Rally Championship

Rage Racer

OK I know Rage Racer can be considered as part of the Ridge racer series. But a lot of people didnt know that and missed out on an amazing game. I preferred this to any of the Ridge Racer games.
I had all 3 of those and agree wholeheartedly.
 
Has anyone ever played Newman Haas racing? It was an indycar racing game by psychnosis, the same guys who did the formula 1 games.

The game was officially licensed and featured all the drivers and tracks (ovals and circuits). Driving was okay once you got used to the twitchy-ness. The only problem was the camera when you collided with some-one. It would go into a spectator camera and then back while you were driving...

Nevertheless I really enjoyed that game for a long time.
 
Probably the most unknown/underappreciated PS1 racing game I know is N.GEN Racing.

Air racing (plus some arcade-racing-style combat) in modern fighters, etc. with the wrinkle that too much altitude limits your top speed, so you must hug the terrain in the fastest way possible. You can choose between what I call "Star Fox style" control or actual flight controls.

 
These aren't touge games but I always enjoyed Total Drivin', the cars were based on real life models but weren't licensed. There were rally cars, single seaters, off road buggies and super cars:




I also really liked Motorhead, mainly for the futuristic setting:


I have Motorhead. It is super clean looking and I like that it has a 50/60 fps mode. Still it never grabbed me as much as Wipeout and Rollcage.
 
Has anyone ever played Newman Haas racing? It was an indycar racing game by psychnosis, the same guys who did the formula 1 games.

The game was officially licensed and featured all the drivers and tracks (ovals and circuits). Driving was okay once you got used to the twitchy-ness. The only problem was the camera when you collided with some-one. It would go into a spectator camera and then back while you were driving...

Nevertheless I really enjoyed that game for a long time.
I rented it back in the day. I believe it uses Bizarre Creations' Formula 1 97 engine, so it feels pretty good. Still F1 97 is better. I wouldn't recommend it unless you are into CART racing of that era.
 
Einhander



Edit: I misread the title, Einhander is not a racing game. :lol: You can delete this post if you want.
 
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Probably the most unknown/underappreciated PS1 racing game I know is N.GEN Racing.

Air racing (plus some arcade-racing-style combat) in modern fighters, etc. with the wrinkle that too much altitude limits your top speed, so you must hug the terrain in the fastest way possible. You can choose between what I call "Star Fox style" control or actual flight controls.


It certainly is underappreciated.

I think part of the problem is that it is very hard. Once you make one bad turn it really messes up your flow.

I would like to see more air racing games.
 
OP, you want obscure games, I got you covered.

Side By Side. The only PS1 game which has full Akina touge.


Touge Max


Option Tuning Car Battle (dare I say it better physics than GT)


NASCAR Rumble. One of the most fun car combat/racing games I ever played. The grandad of Blur.


Mille Miglia. Great idea but terrible physics.


Art Camion Geijutsuden. Euro Truck Sim meets Wangan Midnight :lol:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW0EQH-6WLw

Also this thread might be of interest to you ;) https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/little-known-or-forgotten-racing-driving-games.111265/
 
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I don't know if this fits under "underappreciated" (probably not) but i played the **** out of NASCAR Thunder 2003

NASCAR%20Thunder%202003-2.jpg


This game. This freaking game.

Picture me, a boy that didn't knew any english, didn't had access to internet or any international tv channel. I had absolutely no idea what i was playing.

But the numbers, the colors, the tracks, the oval racing... THE DAMAGE MODEL AND THE PITSTOP! I won't ever forget them. When the channel SPEED came to my country i could finally see what's a real NASCAR racing and immediately i remembered all those cars from this game.

I could finally understand those names: Jeff Gordon, Elliott Sadler, Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Todd Bodine, Jeff Burton, Dale Jarrett, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt Sr, Bill Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, Bobby Labonte, Terry Labonte, Ryan Newman...

I'm not ashamed to say: NASCAR games teached me everything about, well, NASCAR. After this game, i bought every nascar game for PS2. This is a series that i happily played for hours and hours. Pretty sad how we really didn't had any "good" NASCAR games on PS3. I played Eutechnyx's 2010 and 2014 but... they're not even close to be funny as EA's (sadly). Haven't got the chance to play the most recent ones.
 
OP, you want obscure games, I got you covered.

Side By Side. The only PS1 game which has full Akina touge.


Touge Max


Option Tuning Car Battle (dare I say it better physics than GT)


NASCAR Rumble. One of the most fun car combat/racing games I ever played. The grandad of Blur.


Mille Miglia. Great idea but terrible physics.


Art Camion Geijutsuden. Euro Truck Sim meets Wangan Midnight :lol:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW0EQH-6WLw

Also this thread might be of interest to you ;) https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/little-known-or-forgotten-racing-driving-games.111265/

That's the stuff. Thank you!

In the info I could find:
Side by Side Special 2000
Touge Max G, and
Option Tuning Car Battle Spec-R
did seem like games to check out. Good to hear some confirmation.

Have you tried:
Initial D
Racing Lagoon
Tokyo Highway Battle
Naniwa Wangan Battle
Advan Racing?

I do like that little known racing game thread, but it is getting pretty huge, and I'm only really interested in PS1.
 
That's the stuff. Thank you!

In the info I could find:
Side by Side Special 2000
Touge Max G, and
Option Tuning Car Battle Spec-R
did seem like games to check out. Good to hear some confirmation.

Have you tried:
Initial D
Racing Lagoon
Tokyo Highway Battle
Naniwa Wangan Battle
Advan Racing?

I do like that little known racing game thread, but it is getting pretty huge, and I'm only really interested in PS1.

The PS1 Initial D game is quite bad. I haven't played it personally but from videos it's not accurate at all track wise.

Tokyo Highway Battle is ok. Tuning is quite in depth but handling is very basic and track/car selection is quite limited. Poor man version of the TXR games basically.

Never played the others so can't comment.
 
The PS1 Initial D game is quite bad. I haven't played it personally but from videos it's not accurate at all track wise.

Tokyo Highway Battle is ok. Tuning is quite in depth but handling is very basic and track/car selection is quite limited. Poor man version of the TXR games basically.

Never played the others so can't comment.
I like the aesthetic of Tokyo Highway Battle. Looks more like Ridge Racer than the TXR games. It also seems to have more traffic than other Shuto Expressway games.
 
Not sure if this one falls under this category but Porsche Challenge is a game I remember fondly from PS1 and is still very playable and fun
but the graphics from back then to now make it very difficult to play for long periods.

hqdefault.jpg
porsche challenge_snap.jpg
 
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This topic just reminds me how lacking things are on the racing game front nowadays, on console. IIRC for PS5 GT7 is literally the only tarmac racer announced so far, plus the two rally games in DIRT 5 and WRC.
 
Not sure if this one falls under this category but Porsche Challenge is a game I remember fondly from PS1 and is still very playable and fun
but the graphics from back then to now make it very difficult to play for long periods.

View attachment 966169 View attachment 966170
The car model is really good for PS1. I guess it should be good when you only have one car.

This game doesn't have many tracks either, but it does have "Interactive" tracks where shortcuts and extensions change over the course of a race. I think this is a cool idea, and could have worked very well in a game like Ridge Racer which has multiple layouts at the same location.
 
The car model is really good for PS1. I guess it should be good when you only have one car.

This game doesn't have many tracks either, but it does have "Interactive" tracks where shortcuts and extensions change over the course of a race. I think this is a cool idea, and could have worked very well in a game like Ridge Racer which has multiple layouts at the same location.

Yes it is and that was one of the reasons I liked it a lot back then and as you say the course changed over the course of the race which made things interesting.

Also driver reactions to being hit and the sound effects of the crashes were quite good for the era as well.
 
Pretty silly to me, should add it instead on the console store.
Plus they should have given us a notification in advance, at least to save it for ourselves, as a reference.
It's practical to see if they are on sale.

These old games are less harsh on the eyes if you have held onto an old CRT.

Well there's my lesson for the day, didn't realise the old CRT; screen's affected it that much!
 
Amazingly, the guy who makes the soundtrack is still active and putting out cracking tunes even today:

Funny coincidence; I only realized just recently that I ought to have the Porsche Unleashed soundtrack in my MP3 collection.

"Where in tarnation did you people learn how to drive?"
 
Amazingly, the guy who makes the soundtrack is still active and putting out cracking tunes even today:


Alternatively playing on a small screen works too. I think a 7 or 8 inch tablet is perfect for PS1.

Thanks both for the info, I think I may just have to hunt out a copy of this old game again and revisit some racing history since I do have a tablet that it might work with.
 
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