Need for Speed is considered dead, and the arcade racing game genre is in decline. But hope is coming from a very unlikely corner.
Sorry for the pun, but the racing game genre seems to be pretty stuck right now. Sure, the industry still has its top dogs. In the simulation sector, Assetto Corsa, Automobilista, iRacing, and others are reaching their hardcore communities, Gran Turismo 7 is fishing in the pond of hobby enthusiasts, and in the arcade sector, everyone wants to be like Forza Horizon.
The sixth installment, set in Japan, has just been announced, The Crew Motorfest has been emulating Microsoft for a year and a half, and Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown also wants to be like Forza and is therefore cruising around in mostly negative Steam rating regions.
What I find so unfortunate is that the classic arcade racer is falling by the wayside. Most of the current racing games require a huge time commitment from me. But sometimes I just want to drive cool races like in the good old days™️, when I fired up Need for Speed to complete a few courses against picturesque backdrops.
Games like the old Test Drives or Ridge Racer or—God forbid—Autobahn Raser. After the presumed end of Need for Speed, I had already given up hope that these gems would still get a lot of love in the age of service games and multiplayer hype.
But I was wrong! Entertaining arcade racers are not only making a comeback, they are returning with a bang. Let me introduce you to three games that are currently making my racing game heart sing.
1. Tokyo Xtreme Racer
- Release: September 25, 2025
- Subgenre: Highway speedster (I just invented this genre)
- Steam Reviews: 94 percent positive
No one in this country knows Tokyo Xtreme Racer, especially since the series was known internationally under dozens of names. Shutokou Battle, Import Tuner Challenge, 首都高バトル – but you don’t need to worry about any of that, because the series has been gathering dust for 20 years, but now it’s back for a spectacular revival!
Tokyo Xtreme Racer has a well-deserved 94 percent positive review rating on Steam, because this racer offers you a gaming experience you won’t find anywhere else: you thunder down the Tokyo highway in strictly Japanese cars and challenge other speedsters to duels.
However, unlike other games, this doesn’t take place on circuits or in sprint races where you have to come first, but the races are freeform
and strictly 1-on-1. You have to get as far ahead of your opponent as possible to win the race.
And in fact, each of the well over 100 rivals has their own car and their own backstory. Tokyo Xtreme Racer remains incredibly accessible: you choose a stretch of highway, race down the asphalt, challenge someone, the race is over in a few minutes, you buy upgrades with the money, and the fun continues.
Tokyo Xtreme Racer is an arcade racer through and through, uncomplicated, beginner-friendly, and it simply occupies a very fresh niche: the Japanese street racing scene away from all the drifting that you usually see in Initial D and Fast & Furious 3. Speaking of which…
2. JDM: Japanese Drift Master
- Release: May 21, 2025
- Genre: Drift Racer
- Steam Reviews: 74 percent positive
JDM: Japanese Drift Master has a lot to be forgiven for. The open-world racer comes from a relatively small team, but has incredibly big ambitions. After all, you drift through an entire Japanese open-world landscape full of varied locations. Despite various updates, there are still many rough edges: the driving physics take some getting used to, the AI of civilian vehicles is… difficult, and so on.
But if you factor that in, you also get a unique gaming experience in return: JDM is all about the famous Japanese drift sport. You slide around corners, maneuver your skidding rear end around obstacles, and become the king or queen of the Japanese countryside.
JDM also tells a pretty cool story in manga form, so the game has a lot to offer and is still getting new updates and DLCs. For example, an America Pack with six new US cars was released on November 6, 2025.
3. Screamer
- Release: 2026
- Genre: Sci-fi racer
- Steam Reviews: Not yet released
I’m really looking forward to Screamer. There’s a pretty interesting publication history behind this Italian speedster (it’s basically the new Bleifuss), but that’s not what this is about, because I’m mainly interested in the game itself: Screamer will be a linear sci-fi racer in which your character is firmly linked to your car. And I know that many of you aren’t into anime aesthetics, but in my opinion, a few crazy effects really do the genre good.
Screamer takes arcade gaming to the next level, and not just with a capital A: for example, I can use the right stick to drift the rear end at any time while driving. That’s about as realistic as buying a house in Munich, but it sounds like a lot more fun. When I recharge my energy, I can also attack opponents with all kinds of sci-fi gibberish attacks.
Combined, it finally looks like a racing game reminiscent of the good old Blur or Split/Second, those shoot-’em-up racers where things are constantly breaking. Sure, I can’t say yet whether it plays well, because Screamer won’t be released until 2026, but I’ve already circled the date in my calendar. And those are just three examples of a racing game industry that is becoming more and more diverse again. Mario Kart is getting competition from a new Sonic Racing and Nintendo’s own Kirby Air Riders, Wreckfest 2 has been available in early access for all the Flatout fans out there for a few months now – and even in the very corporate simulation segment, there’s solid competition on the horizon with Project Motor Racing, which is set to be released at the end of November 2025. So it’s more exciting than it’s been in a long time to be a racing game fan.
