The top 50 best ever driving games: 30-21

The next time you’re at the breakfast table and someone starts making ramps out of breadboards and pots of jam, don’t panic – chances are they just spent too much time in their formative years playing this ace top-down racer based on the supremely swallowable model cars.

As well as building on the original Micro Machines with the addition of hovercraft and helicopter races, this sequel also kicked things up a notch in the multiplayer department thanks to a custom Mega Drive game cartridge that featured two extra joypad ports built in, helping you more easily inflict your obnoxious post-race victory dance on three mates instead of just one.

While its predecessor was solid, Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 was quite simply - and we appreciate we’re sticking our necks out a tad here - the finest arcade racer ever committed to floppy disk. Lap-based racing was done away with in favour of seven point-to-point stages, each set in wildly different environments that noticeably altered the handling of the game’s Elans and Esprits. By far the highlight was the motorway course, which saw you pelting through pitch-black tunnels and under the trailers of flatbed trucks, prompting a brilliantly rubbish-sounding ‘yee-haw!’ sound effect. The only thing missing from the first game was the ever-present shot of two mechanics working on the car as you raced, which is about as accurate a representation of 90s Lotus ownership as we've ever seen.

With biking games soaring in popularity during the 16-bit era, a strong USP was essential for anyone hoping to get noticed. Road Rash’s was simple: violence. Instead of perfecting the art of knee-down cornering and off the line acceleration, the key to success was a perfectly timed thump to the face of your rival. As well as club-wielding bikers with threatening names like Biff, Hammer and, um, Lester, players also had to worry about dawdling hatchbacks, unyielding trees and foolhardy cops, who were also fair game for a mid-race wallop. Grizzled veterans of the first console wars will remember that it's exactly the sort of thing that gave the Mega Drive its edgy reputation in the early 90s.

The first proper Formula 1 simulator worth bothering with. While its predecessor was one of the first racing games to pioneer 3D graphics, it was the addition of an official FIA licence and 16 faithfully modelled tracks that saw GP2 quickly amass a cult following. Physics wizard Geoff Crammond managed to coax convincing handling from PCs that are a fraction as powerful as a modern mobile phone and, thanks to brand new 3D texture mapping, cars were plastered with sponsorship just like the real thing.

Part of the fun was its groundbreaking damage system, which saw some unhinged players (not us, obviously) pelt round at full speed in the wrong direction in an attempt to make all four wheels fall off (they never did).

Making bus journeys through central London feel even duller than ever, PGR3’s street circuits remain some of the best - and best-looking - we’ve ever clattered our way through. As well as the English capital, Tokyo, New York and Las Vegas are also represented, and there’s the Nürburgring if you prefer crashing into tyre barriers rather than skyscrapers.

Theres no trundling around in a Honda Civic for hours before you get your hands on the good stuff either; the car catalogue is populated exclusively by vehicles that have top speeds over 155mph.

As with its predecessors, though, sheer velocity isn't everything. The game’s sticking power is down to its system of ‘Kudos’ points, which rewards players for drifting, slip-streaming and basically being a massive show-off.

Ferrying impatient idiots from A to B is nobody’s idea of fun, which is why ‘Sensible Taxi’ never made it off the drawing board. Here, however, passenger satisfaction was a secondary goal, behind making gnarly jumps and seeking out nifty shortcuts. In addition to the classic arcade mode, the console version also featured a selection of bizarre mini-games, including one in which you and your cab became the ball in a giant game of bowling.

It'll stick most in the memory, though, for the colourful graphics, bouncy punk soundtrack from The Offspring and Bad Religion and the fact that your fares happily splashed out on a cab on a 90 second journey to KFC and Pizza Hut. What are they made of, money?

Hey, wake yourself from the micro-nap induced by reading this game's name. R3E as we'll call it (in deference to your continued consciousness) is a monstrously underrated racing sim. Entirely free to download, you simply pick and choose what and where you want to race from an ever-expanding a la carte menu of purchasable cars and tracks.

The usual crop of GT3 racers are present and correct but there's a bunch of fascinating stuff in there that you can't drive anywhere else. Particular favourites include modern World Touring cars, lesser spotted Group 5 atom smashers and, in a brilliantly hipsterish move, the entire, officially licensed field of the 1992 DTM championship. Not to go all 'artisanal coffee works', but you haven't lived until you've rubbed doorhandles with Keke Rosberg's Merc 190E around a laser-scanned replica of the Nordschleife.

It's difficult to explain the transformative effect that virtual reality has on a racing game, but we're going to have a crack at it regardless. Rather than looking at a flat representation of a cockpit on your television, or even a three dimensional one on a 3D telly, virtual reality places your head inside that cockpit. It's some sci-fi stuff, make no mistake, and the closest most of us will get to booting a Pagani Huayra off the line.

As your introduction to the world of strapping a screen an inch or so from your corneas, DriveClub VR is perfect. It has 80 meticulously detailed cars, drift-happy handling and whisks you off to such exotic locations as India, Norway and, erm, Scotland. Back to the Future 2's utopian vision of the future might have lied to us about the hoverboards and flying cars, but DriveClub VR might well be the next best thing.

While it may have been a little light on variety (players were limited to the titular car only) this early Dreamcast title, converted from the popular arcade machine, delivered an impressive level of realism for consoles. Eager to do the car justice, designer Yu Suzuki (of Out Run fame) imported performance data from his own F355, meaning anyone incapable of keeping the rear end in check in the game probably shouldn’t rush out to spend £80,000 on a real one.

It was also the first game of the 3D era to include Fiorano - Ferrari’s Maranello test track - and boasted driver aids that would allow rank beginners to compete alongside experienced racing game fans in the linked up multiplayer mode. Or as we like to call them 'excuses for when you're beaten by a total novice'.

Less of a game, more a subscription-based driver training tool, iRacing boasts some of the most complex physics calculations outside of NASA HQ. If you're quick in iRacing, chances are if you stepped into a real racing car you'd be up to speed almost immediately. Which is phenomenally depressing if you aren't quick in iRacing.

While the subscription model makes it more expensive than everything else on this list short of an arcade cabinet, iRacing is still far cheaper than buying and maintaining a racing car and you're guaranteed decent competition thanks to a harsh-but-fair penalty system and a host of professional racing drivers who rely on it to keep themselves sharp.

Plus, nothing goes in the sim unless it's modelled to the millimetre, so although the car selection would fit on the back of a beermat and there's a distinct bias towards American oval racing, the level of quality is consistent across the whole lot. If you can't stomach the total financial ruin that's a common by-product of a real motorsport career, this is probably the next best thing.