2024 proved to be a bit of a quiet year in terms of major racing game releases. There was nothing in the crowd-pleasing franchises like Forza, Gran Turismo or Need for Speed. The sim-racing space, meanwhile, only really saw Le Mans Ultimate, a game that (for now) is a little limited in scope, and faces an uncertain future thanks to a troubled developer.
It’s only really been a steady stream of indie titles, the inevitable annual F1 game and the, erm, eventful release of Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown that have given racing game fans anything totally new during the last 12 months.
Thankfully, 2025 looks likely to reverse that trend with a whole host of new titles on the way, from hardcore sims to smash-’em-up arcade racers, to some that aren’t strictly racing games but definitely deserve a spot on this list. You know which one we’re talking about. Here are all the racing games to get excited about for 2025.
Assetto Corsa Evo
Confirmed platforms: PC
Release date: 16 January (early access), TBC (full game)
One of the very first to arrive on the scene – in early access, at least – is a biggie: Assetto Corsa Evo. The long-awaited successor to a decade-old game that’s still pretty much the most popular racing sim around, Evo looks set to offer a more gamified, Gran Turismo-ish experience than before, with a proper career mode, a bigger variety of cars and even a free-roam mode.
We’re still promised a properly serious physics model, though, and the first batch of trailers and screenshots show an incredibly pretty game. Developer Kunos Simulazioni has said the early access version, launching on 16 January, will include around five tracks and 20 cars, with the full game set to arrive at an unconfirmed later date. We’re holding out hope for a console release, too. In the meantime, we’ve compiled everything we know so far here.
Project Motor Racing
Confirmed platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox S/X
Release date: TBC 2025
Project Motor Racing is the first title from Straight4 Studios, which rose from the ashes of Slightly Mad Studios, creator of the NFS: Shift and Project Cars franchises. After the poorly-received arcade racer that was Project Cars 3, PMR looks set to return to the earlier PCARS games’ sim racing roots, seemingly with a particular focus on ’90s and ’00s GT racing.
Some eyebrows were raised when it was announced that it’ll be based around the same physics engine as, of all things, Farming Simulator, but Straight4 is confident that it’s a strong base for a racing sim too. With ex-Stig Ben Collins on board as a handling consultant, we believe it.
iRacing arcade title
Confirmed platforms: PC, consoles (unspecified)
Release date: TBC 2025
Bit of a curious one, this. Earlier in 2024, iRacing – the wildly popular subscription-based sim racing service – announced it has an arcade title in the works, in collaboration with Original Fire Games, developer of pick-up-and-play top-down racer Circuit Superstars.
All we know so far is that it’ll be built upon Circuit Superstars’ infrastructure, be geared towards a wide audience, and feature a career mode “and other diverse racing offerings.” We don’t know if this means another top-down racer or a halfway house simcade racer – something like Grid. We’re hoping for the latter, but we probably won’t have to wait too long to find out more – iRacing says the game will be released by the end of 2025.
F1 25
Confirmed platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox S/X (expected)
Release date: Q2 2025 (expected)
There’s not been an announcement yet, but a yearly F1 title from Codemasters – now under the EA Sports umbrella – is all but inevitable. They tend to launch in the second quarter of the year, and while the last few have varied in quality, we’ll never really complain about another one.
As a simulation of the upcoming real-life F1 season, there’ll be no major regulation changes or new tracks to get to grips with in-game, but there will be a very different-looking grid (Hamilton in red, for a start). We also expect a return of the Braking Point ‘story mode’, which has appeared every other year starting in 2021, as well as the My Team mode that allows you to create… well, it’s pretty self-explanatory.
NASCAR 25
Confirmed platforms: consoles (unspecified)
Release date: TBC 2025
After a rough couple of releases under Motorsport Games, the licence for the official NASCAR title is now held by iRacing, and it’s brought Monster Games – which has a long history with NASCAR games – on board to develop it.
Officially, NASCAR 25 hasn’t been confirmed for a 2025 release, but… it’s kind of in the name. Combining Monster Game’s proprietary physics engine with Unreal Engine graphics and iRacing’s laser-scanned assets, it all points to a return to form for the NASCAR franchise, although it’s so far only confirmed for consoles – PC players might need to turn to iRacing itself for a licensed NASCAR fix.
Wreckfest 2
Confirmed platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox S/X
Release date: TBC 2025
2018’s Wreckfest is something of a hidden gem, an easy-to-play, hard-to-master racer built around full-contact, demolition derby-style events and featuring gratuitously destructive soft-body crash physics.
We’re very glad, then, that it’s getting a successor. Again, developer Bugbear hasn’t actually confirmed a 2025 window, but with a trailer released in August 2024, we can’t imagine we’ll be waiting any more than another year. Said trailer promises more of what made the first game so fun, but with added cheesy one-liners. Excellent.
Tokyo Xtreme Racer
Confirmed platforms: PC
Release date: TBC 2025
This was a welcome surprise. Earlier this year, it emerged that Japanese studio Genki is reviving its cult classic Tokyo Xtreme Racer series, which – aside from a few Japan-exclusive mobile releases – has been dormant since 2007.
Inspired by the anime Wangan Midnight, the series has traditionally revolved around high-speed racing along Tokyo’s network of expressways, and what we’ve seen of the game so far looks like more of the same, with a roster of customisable JDM cars spanning from the ’80s to the modern day unveiled so far. We’re keeping a close eye on this one, and have put together everything we know here.
Endurance Motorsport Series
Confirmed platforms: PC, PS5 Xbox S/X
Release date: TBC 2025
A fascinating upcoming sim racer, Endurance Motorsport Series looks set to go up against Le Mans Ultimate with its endurance racing focus and roster of modern GT and prototype cars. Unusually, though, it aims to blend traditional racing game elements with those of a sports management title, allowing you to swap on the fly between driver and pit engineer roles.
Given the botched launch of TDU Solar Crown, we’re a little wary of the fact that EMS is being published by the same outfit, Nacon. Hopefully, though, things will go smoother this time around, because it’s a promising concept.
Grand Theft Auto VI
Confirmed platforms: PS5, Xbox S/X
Release date: Autumn 2025
Ah, yes. The giant cloud hanging over every other game due in 2025, and quite possibly the single most anticipated video game of all time. No, GTA isn’t strictly a racing title, but driving is pretty much its core mechanic – it’s even named after a form of automotive crime.
Speaking of which, there’ll be plenty of that to indulge in in GTA VI. With a likely enormous map, realised in typical Rockstar Games detail, and a huge variety of cars visible just in the trailer (some of which seem to feature heavy customisation), it looks like there’ll be more content to satiate car enthusiasts than any GTA game before.
What else is on the (cough cough) Horizon?
There’s a notable absence from this list: Forza Horizon 6. It’s now been a little over three years since Horizon 5 released, equaling the gap between 4 and 5, and Playground Games has been awfully quiet about a sequel. There are hints that it could be on the way: the monthly updates seem to be getting smaller, and Playground has called it quits on its monthly ‘Let’s Go!’ stream, so it’s starting to feel like an announcement is imminent.
Will we actually see a 2025 release, though? All the previous Horizon titles have launched in the autumn, and this year, that would risk the juggernaut that is GTA VI burying Horizon 6. The sheer popularity of Horizon 5 doesn’t show any signs of subsiding, either, so it wouldn’t surprise us at all if Playground isn’t in a rush to get a sequel out. Could we be waiting until 2026?
We can’t imagine there’ll be anything new from Horizon’s track-based cousin, Forza Motorsport, either. The rebooted Motorsport is just over a year old, and there were six years between that and Motorsport 7. Another studio that likes to take its time is Polyphony Digital, so we think it’ll be a long time yet before we even hear a peep of Gran Turismo 8.
We could see a follow-up to 2023’s EA Sports WRC, which received a 2024 season expansion rather than a whole new title. We spoke to developers Codemasters earlier this year, and they were noncommittal.
EA also hasn’t mentioned much about future plans for the Need for Speed series. Unbound is now two years old, and there’s no confirmation of fresh content for next year. Could it be gearing up for a new title?
Elsewhere, there have been hints this year that revivals of two beloved but long-dormant franchises – Burnout and Driver – could be on the cards. These are only very vague teases so far, though, with nothing set in stone.
There is one more thing. Maverick Games, a young studio that’s home to multiple people who used to work on Forza Horizon, announced earlier this year it’s working on a triple-A, “narrative-led” open-world racing title. It’s set to be published by a little company you might have heard of called Amazon. Details on the game, which has Skins co-creator Jamie Brittain on board as a lead writer, are very sparse for now, and there’s been no hint of a release date, so it wouldn’t surprise us if we didn’t see anything of this until at least 2026.
Read our previous article: 10 times the sky amazed us in 2024
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