Best Racing Game of 2023 - Article

by Craig S , posted on 10 January 2024 / 4,106 Views

It was something of a strange and surprising year for the racing genre, at least when it came to our Nominees for Best Racing Game of 2023. There were unexpected changes to long-established series, fruitful reunions, and highly unexpected returns. The WRC license went to EA and subsidiary Codemasters for the first time in over 20 years, resulting in one of the most acclaimed WRC titles in years; the mainline Forza Motorsport series made its long-awaited return after a gap of six years; F-Zero went one further by getting a new entry almost 19 years(!) after the last one; and Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 built upon the solid foundation of the first title to create a new series that's not to be slept on.

The Shortlist:

EA Sports WRC

Forza Motorsport

F-Zero 99

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged

The Runner-Up:

F-Zero 99

Remarkably, many of the people who played F-Zero 99 this year probably weren't even born when the last entry launched, and even if they were they almost certainly didn't get to play the Japan-only GBA title F-Zero Climax. F-Zero's return in 2023 was surprising in numerous other ways too - from its shock announcement, to its equally sudden release, and the fact that, of all things, it's an online battle royale racer. That might not have been what F-Zero fans were hoping for upon hearing that a new entry had been in the works, but the game was well-received regardless. Now we just have to hope that F-Zero 99's success results in a full-blown F-Zero title being greenlit.

The Winner:

Forza Motorsport

The runaway success of the Forza Horizon sub-series has given the mainline Forza series chance to breathe and, perhaps, the confidence to experiment. The result is 2023's Forza Motorsport - a melting pot of new features, old defects, improved handling, unusual race structure, beautiful visual effects, huge roster of cars, and the most exhaustive attempt to RPG-ify the genre to-date. The controversial nature of some of these changes meant the quirky F-Zero 99 ran it close to the line, but there was enough power under the hood for Forza Motorsport to claim the top spot and win our Award for Best Racing Game of 2023.