The Best car games on the web
Author: Robin Brown
Published: 18 July 2007
Here at MotorTorque we realise that every now and then - lunchtime particularly - you need something to take your mind off Ford´s ongoing financial woes, what the difference between PCP and BCH is, and whether you can afford that nine-year-old BMW 3-Series.
And if you don´t have the time or wherewithal to download games and play them while you´re supposed to be parsing a JPEG we have provided for you here too. We have cobbled together a selection of the net´s best - and cheapest - Flash games that you can play in your browser, so when footsteps approach you can jump back to analysing those figures from Jill in Accounts. It´s what tabbed browsing was made for.
Keep checking back for new updates - all games are tangentially car related - as we´ll be building our own games based on certain popular MotorTorque stories in the coming weeks.
Rural Racer
Honest good fun, and about as close as driving a car actually gets out of this month´s games.Rural Racer adopts the classic top-down racer perspective in an eight-lap battle to stay ahead of your opponent for all eight gruelling circuits.
Hogging the inside line, using understeer and slippy patches to your advantage and slamming on the turbo out of corners should see you keep ahead of your CPU opponent, but don´t blame us if you´re sweating like a lord by the end of it.
About as tense as your three-month appraisal, but a lot more fun.
• Play Rural Racer car game
Park A Lot 2
Ever dreamed of parking other people´s cars for a living? Of course you have - who hasn´t? In Park A Lot 2 your dreams can become reality as you battle to park cars, and then return them to their rightful owners and, er, that´s about it. Add in some irritating music and a frustratingly fiddly interface and you have virtually no reason whatsoever to play Park A Lot 2, apart from the only alternative being to go back to that Excel spreadsheet. What are you waiting for car-park boy?• Play Park A Lot 2 car game
Superbike GP
What may initially look like a pleasant, non-competitive tootle around a track is actually a fiendishly addictive race against time in Superbike GP.Taut handling and plenty of power make the game playable and enjoyable with minimal effort. There are, however, a few graphical bugs to be ironed out: select hi-def graphics and taking your bike around the track soon turns into a terrible lesson on oversteer in one of the most difficult games to play this side of ´guessing-why-your-girlfriend-is-in-a-mood-with-you´. Meanwhile lower-end graphics display your bike apparently indulging in a series of mini warp jumps. However there´s a certain enjoyment to be had in mastering the controls and smashing your personal best. Light on the wheel and heavy on the throttle is the order of the day.
• Play Superbike GP car game
Carbon Auto Theft
Rejoicing in the bizarre name Carbon Auto Theft is this strange little puzzler, which requires you to remove parked cars from particularly tricky parking spaces without attracting the attention of the fuzz.
Skipping over the rather unfortunate racial stereotyping, CAT is actually a rather fun little game if problem solving is your bag. More advanced levels add trolley boys and other motorists zooming around what are some of the most cramped car-parks this side of the Congestion Charge zone.
• Play Carbon Auto Theft car game
4 Wheel Madness
"How long can you stay off your back?" is the question that 4 Wheel Madness poses, in a monster truck shenanigan-style race to the finish line.
Staying alive is the order of the day as you struggle to keep your truck on four wheels - overbalance in either direction and you´re heading for an early bath.
Collecting money and spanners is good, collecting small symbols with skulls on them, unsurprisingly, bad.
Good, clean, fun that makes a pleasant change from 3D racers.
• Play 4 Wheel Madness car game
Hummer Rally Championship
All the pleasure of driving a Hummer without the inevitable guilt.
Owned by all true weirdos in the world (Eubank, Schwarzenegger) the Hummer is famous for being based on an army vehicle, crushing everything in its path and returning under 10mpg when you put your foot down.
However in this scrolling racer there are none of the real-world worries in evidence - they even corner with something approaching elan.
Your monster SUVs here don´t have much in the way of a turn of speed, so hogging the inside line is the way to victory.
You can also play in the principality of Monaco - a location that curiously bare and green.
• Play Hummer Rally Championship car game
Mini Moto
You know those men you see riding around parks on a bike that looks like something out of a Kinder Egg? You've always wanted a go on of them, haven't you? Course you have, and now's your opportunity!
Mini Moto essentially places you on one these tiny bikes and pits you against three other men on tiny little bikes on a circuit.
• Play Mini Moto car game
Road Burner
A pleasing RPG that combines with a fairly standard arcade-y drag racing game, Road Burner promises to take you into the world of illegal drag racing.
It doesn't, but it does provide a bit of fun in the same way that sim games give you small hits of achievement upon accomplishing incrementally more difficult tasks.
Here your job is to build up your dragster with new engines, carburettors, nitro injection systems and pimp it up to something a little more inspiring than an 80s Honda.
• Play Road Racer car game
Sim Taxi
Ever wondered what it would be like to be a taxi driver who had no idea where he was going?
That's exactly what happens in Sim Taxi, where your fares will request a certain location around their city and expect you to know where it is.
This is actually a smart move on the part of the developers, as the longer you play the easier the game becomes. It also becomes more immersive as you attempt to raise money to repair your car and upgrade it.
• Play Sim Taxi car game
Dirt Bike 2
Like a kind of Kickstart for your computer, Dirt Bike 2 simply requires you to drive over some easy-looking objects as fast as you can.
Rather like the addictive 4 Wheel Madness that's also available on the site, you simply have to negotiate gentle hillocks and other obstacles without landing on your head.
It may sound simple, but it's not. It's all about carefully matching your bike's revs to your front-to-rear balance. Overdo it in either direction and you're heading for a painful head/rock interface in quick fashion, and there won't be any St. John's Ambulance men to fall over on their way to help you.
• Play Dirt Bike 2 car game
18 Wheeler
There's a fiendish difficulty to these apparently-simple Flash games.
All that's required here is that you park an 18-wheeler rig in the space indicated before your time runs out. However, this truck is clearly American-built as it's near-impossible to steer with any accuracy.
It's simply, but it's oh-so-tricky, and bound to have you coming back for more until you best the damn game.
• Play 18 Wheeler car game
Dare Devil
Ever fancied yourself as the next Eddie Kidd or Evel Kneivel?
Almost certainly not - who wants all those broken bones to deal with? Just play Dare Devil instead.
• Play Dare Devil car game
Dune Bashing in Dubai
Dune Bashing in Dubai does what it says on the tin. Play the game, jump dunes, try not to overturn, don't get smashed into a million pieces.
Are you listening Mayall?
• Play Dune Bashing in Dubai car game
Crash Test Dummy Olympics
Smash a crash test dummy as far up a wall as you possibly can. It's not big or clever, but it's fun.
Somehow, we're not sure NCAP would approve...
• Play Crash Test Dummy Olympics car game
Planet Racer
Combining a drag racer with a sim, Planet Racer is a legitimately good little Flash game, with a nicely addictive quality and simplicity of 80s racers.
It's probably the most complete car game hosted on MotorTorque.
• Play Planet Racer car game
Rickshaw Jam
Rickshaw Jam is a fiendish puzzler that will keep you playing again and again as you try to navigate your aforementioned carriage out of a crowded car-park.
Forget taxing your car, and tax your brain instead!
• Play Rickshaw Jam car game
Micro Tanks
Micro tanks - Shoot bouncing canon balls and destroy the enemy tank in different battle fields, in this enhanced tank battle war.
• Play Micro Tanks car game
Big Truck Adventures
Monster trucks, speed boosts, crashes and backflips! In Big Truck Adventures the stupider the better.
• Play Big Truck Adventures car game
Bombay Taxi
Avoid cars, people washing their cars at midnight and dead dogs to park your taxi in this tricky car-parking game. In Bombay.
• Play Bombay Taxi car game
Get a Grip
Can you pull off the longest front-wheel wheelie ever? If the answer to that question is yes, try Get a Grip - the car game for trying to pull off the longest front-wheel wheelie ever!
• Play Get a Grip car game
Heavy Metal Rider
Heavy Metal Rider is a first - a game that actually made MotorTorque feel ill. Kids will love it, your computer's keyboard won't. Collect coins, avoid traffic, drift around corners.
• Play Heavy Metal Rider car game
Amazing Race
You know the drill - jump over hills, don't wreck your car. It's not a race, it's not even amazing - but it's called Amazing Race. It's possibly a pun on Amazing Grace, but probably not.
• Play Amazing Race car game
Diesel and Death
Games that require you - a biker called Death - fighting on a bouncing motorbike against a competitor called Diesel are few and far between. Luckily this one's a cracker.
• Play Diesel and Death car game
Ice Racer
Navigate icy terrains, big hills of snow and, er, other cold obstacles. Pretend you're in the Top Gear Toyota Hilux pick-up all the way to the North Pole. Marvel at the untouched wilderness your SUV will soon be responsible for melting.
• Play Ice Racer car game
Dirt Bike
The original! Dirt Bike - a classic of the genre - requires you to negotiate tricky obstacles without smashing your face into a plank. All it needs is Peter Purves!
• Play Dirt Bike car game
Gone in 60 Seconds
Steal cars, avoid the cops, race against time! About 60 seconds to be exact. You've avoided watching the film, now avoid playing the game!
• Play Gone in 60 Seconds car game
Warning: these games will waste your time.
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