Best VR Racing Games in 2024

Project Cars 2 rightly turned heads for offering a good balance between realism and fun, free of surplus complexity in the mechanics, but with just enough depth for purists.

Project Cars 3, on the other end, throws that formula out the window for a far more accessible, arcade-style experience that makes excellent use of VR capabilities for a light, accessible driving game, earmarking it as the perfect first stop for VR newbies before they move on to more unforgiving titles, of which there’s no shortage.

In keeping with what we’ve come to expect from the series, Project Cars 3 is even more stunning than its predecessors with gorgeous environments, dynamic seasons and weather, a genuine hair-raising sense of speed, and explosive collisions. In VR, this is only intensified, and it’s a real pleasure exploring everything Project Cars 3 has to offer with a 360-degree view.

Alongside, you get the full spread of over 200 cars, 120 tracks, and game modes, both single-player and competitive multiplayer, as the PC and console version. Although quickly passed off as superficial due to the bite-sized qualities of the content on offer, Project Cars 3 isn’t as daunting as other VR racing games and offers hours of light fun.

Despite being suitable for those looking for a more effortless driving experience, Project Cars 3 requires quite the gaming rig for a palatable experience with no less than an RTX 2080 and 16 GB of RAM, a point to consider if you’re running an older PC.

A revered name in the motorsport genre, Gran Turismo is synonymous with one of the best console racing experiences. The series’ first foray into VR in Gran Turismo Sport, while not perfect, is a must-play for racing game fans.

Gran Turismo Sport is certainly showing its age but remains one gorgeous game, something that’s only enhanced when you plop on a VR headset. However, there’s naturally a bit of a downgrade to some environments that come with the territory. The lighting, in particular, is exceptional considering it runs on what is now considered a previous-gen console. The car handling is as good as ever, and the details of both the courses and the cars are only limited by the power of the PlayStation 4.

And herein lies one of the major drawbacks of Gran Turismo Sport; it’s only available on PlayStation VR, and even there, the experience is pared down compared to what’s on offer when playing on a TV.

With a PSVR headset, Gran Turismo Sport is limited to what’s called a VR Tour Mode. In practice, the Tour Mode breaks down to one-on-one races against AI and a somewhat gimmicky gallery to view cars in all their stunning detail. No more, no less. It’s slim pickings for what is otherwise a compelling VR racing experience, and the lack of competitive online play hits is disappointing.

With this in mind, we’d be hard-pressed to recommend PC VR headset owners dart to the shops to pick up a PlayStation 4, but if much of your VR-ing is already on PSVR, Gran Turismo Sport’s VR mode is well worth a visit.

A legendary entry in the annals of racing game history, Assetto Corsa’s jump to VR was once rough around the edges, but thanks to a vibrant modding community, it has become one of the best VR racing games money can buy.

Much of the Assetto Corsa’s ultra-precise and realistic sim elements port incredibly well to VR, and few games channel the genuine thrill of controlling a racing car to such a convincing degree.

As we noted above, Assetto Corsa truly comes alive thanks to modding support, which grants access to all manner of cars, tracks, locations, and improvements. The focus is primarily on drifting, but if that tickles your fancy, there’s no shortage of great mods to sink your teeth into. Without mods, the VR experience lacks much of the content that makes the game a fan favorite among racing enthusiasts, so they are essential, in our opinion.

Assetto Corsa is best experienced with a racing wheel, and to that end, the game boasts broad support for all manner of racing game add-ons, from steering wheels and gearboxes to rigs and pedals. Proof of how well Assetto Corsa mimics the experience of sliding into a high horsepower motor is that many professional drivers turned to the game during Covid lockdown as a distraction but are now competing in-game regularly.

As a SteamVR title, Assetto Corsa is compatible with Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. Unfortunately, the PlayStation version doesn’t support VR.

Dash Dash World is an accessible racing game designed through and through for VR; no shoddy after launch mode here, it’s a fully-fledged VR experience with a fun experience at its core.

Dash Dash World is easily one of the player-friendly VR racing games out there with both single and multiplayer modes. It features over 100 hours of content across a story mode, quests, challenges, achievements, and eight-player online matchmaking. Develop MOTIONX Studio even hosts regular online tournaments to spice things up.

The art style is also a strong point with bright colors and plenty of bombastic charm. It even has a robust set of motion sickness prevention options to reduce the intensity of the VR experience to suit each individual player.

Rather than straight driving, Dash Dash World combines racing and an explosive weapon system styled on what we’ve come to expect from Mario Kart. The combination is frantic, fun, and fast. And with a variety of modes designed to cater to all skill levels, it’s a game for everyone, from children to those looking for a real challenge. That said, the arcade-style gameplay won’t go far for those looking for a simulator that’s both unforgiving and realistic in its handling and physics.

As it stands, Dash Dash World is available on Steam and the Oculus Store, with compatibility for the Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest, Valve Index, HTC Vive, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. Having launched only in late 2020, Dash Dash World benefits from regular updates to add to its early access launch.

If you are looking for the unbridled intensity of off-road rally racing in VR, look no further than Dirt Rally 2.0. One of the best rally racing games comes to VR and does it in style.

Unlike many other big-name VR racing games, Dirt Rally 2.0’s VR offering has all the content as the straight ‘flat’ game with all the stunning locations, courses, and cars for you to sample. The matched content also extends to unrivaled realistic car physics and handling, making for a genuinely challenging but rewarding VR driving experience. The immersion of driving in full 360-degrees through the sharp turns of a tree-lined rough track delivers bucket loads of adrenaline-pumping gameplay, especially when paired with some choice add-on accessories.

Carving the perfect line around muddy Scandinavian farm tracks is a dizzying experience under normal circumstances. Multiply this twofold with a VR headset, and you are in for quite the jerky, twisting, and bumpy experience that might trigger motion sickness in some players. We’d recommend sampling straight-track VR games first before moving on to Dirt Rally 2.0 if you’re a newcomer to VR racing.

You’ll need the Steam version to play Dirt Rally 2.0 in VR, but other than that, Dirt Rally 2.0 is pretty forgiving in terms of what headset you can use: Valve Index, Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest, and HTC Vive are all a go. Sadly, developer Codemasters confirmed back in 2019 that it has no plans for VR on PlayStation 4.