What Exactly IS a Good Racing Game?

What exactly is a good racing game? I'm not asking for a title, I'm asking for a description. What are the kinds of things that designers should be looking to bake into the system to make it a compelling play?

I played Moto Grand Prix for the first time last night and it was good racing, but with only four bikes on the track it was hard to get much going regarding blocking or teaming up. I liked the play in the corners better than Formula De (which I also like) though I wish I had selected an even tougher track. Bolide certainly has intensity and nails you when you make mistakes, but it tends to be dry.

So I'm trying to figure out what I really want out of a race game, rules-wise and even thematically. What are the parts of your favorites that work correctly and make them good racing games?

S.

And let's be honest, despite what the mechanics on BGG say Runebound is not a racing game, nor is Race for the Galaxy. I want to know a real honestly awesome racing game. Cars, bikes, bicycles, hookers in wheelchairs, I don't care. Just real things racing around a track of some kind.

Formula D or De!! Especially with 6, 7, 8. . . 10 people playing!

I mentioned Top Race on the front page article. I reviewed it awhile back, but here's why I like it:


1. The cards. In a lot of racing games, cars move one...player...at ...a ...time. This doesn't really feel like racing, most of the time. Everyone else sits still while I weave right through them? No way. In Top Race, multiple cars usually move with each cardplay. So the race itself feels more flowing and dynamic.

2. The cards again. You get a hand of cards and instead of just playing "Hey, I'm the red car", you can figure out which car to bet on based on the strength of your hand. And if you feel like your hand is really strong, go ahead and bid on two cars.

3. Bidding. Goes back to the whole "I'm not tied to one car" thing. You can drive up the prices of certain auctions, look for deals...it's all about sinking the least amount of money and raking in the big bucks afterward. Controlling multiple cars will keep you more involved in each and every turn.

4. Back to the cards. No more watching while other people go all the way around the table; because people can play and move your cars on their turn, screwing you over, blocking you, you're more likely to pay attention to every player's turn. Multiple cars moving keeps everyone's attention as the state of the race keeps changing.

5. The screwage. Let's face it, you want to gum up the curves in Forumla D, but the dice can sometimes betray you, meaning you can only block incidentally. With the cards, you can figure out when exactly to cram your car into a turn and slow everyone behind you, or find opportunities where someone else is blocked to burn off cards that have high movement value for them, wasting those moves.

6. The betting. Three times during the race, players will make secret bets on who will win, place, and show. The earlier bets in the race have higher payouts for getting it right; later bets in the race have higher penalties for getting it *wrong*. I had one game where I purposefully moved a lead car waaaay out, luring in people to bet on it. Then, I played a breakdown card on it and it had to wait several turns before it could move again. My car I was *actually* backing with my secret bets raced by it for the finish. The best part of that kind of play is the next time you can run a car full throttle, but they'll all question you...until you go ahead and push it past the line, raking in all the bets.

7. The betting again. Even when your hand screws you over, even when you get bad luck, even when other racers conspire to take you out, you've always got those secret bets. There may reach a point where you know the car you originally bid on isn't going to win the big prize. Then it's time to shift gears and find a new car to back...secretly.


With the cards moving multiple cars, the bidding, the secret bets, plus a couple of other variants I didn't mention, there's a whole hell of a lot of racing goodness in this game. It feels more like racing, it keeps everyone involved almost every turn, and you've got all kinds of mean blocking and screwage, not the kind you have to hope for, but the kind you can totally plan on.

Mix in a gorgeous production with pre-painted cars and four different tracks to race on, well...this is good shit. Get thee to a Pegasus Spiele Top Race (Boards & Bits still has them, no affiliation with the Fort), download the English Rules from BGG, and enjoy.

Only racing game I've ever really gotten excited about is The Great Space Race. Just moving around is boring as shit to me, but if you add in some direct fucking with other players and some random events it gets a lot more compelling.

That or make it a dexterity game like Pitch Car or Biscle.

Ken has pretty much nailed it but I would add this:

The game must be played QUICKLY! The one thing that can drag down a race game without fail is people who over analyze their turn, count out the spaces fifty times before rolling the die or what have you.

Bollide is great. I love that game...but use the sand timer. Makes people go with the gut like a real racer has to.

3. Bidding. Goes back to the whole "I'm not tied to one car" thing.

If you're not tied to car it's not a racing game. At that point it's a gambling game and, though it may be good, it's not about racing. It's about gambling on racing.

Sorry for being restrictive, but I'm invoking Branham's Razor -- this is me, these are mine. I like the simultaneous movement idea and I think that is something to put on the short list. But one of the critters on the board has to be me or I'm not racing.

S.

repoman wrote: The game must be played QUICKLY! The one thing that can drag down a race game without fail is people who over analyze their turn, count out the spaces fifty times before rolling the die or what have you.

I worked up a simultaneous movement chart for Rush 'n Crush awhile back but abandoned it. The moves go much faster when you're only talking about moving one space, and when broken down to that level you really get to control how your car is positioned compared to the others on the track. I wonder if that's something that should be in the mix.

S.

The only two racing games that I've played and really enjoyed are PitchCar and Thunder Road.

PitchCar I like because "I'm driving" so to speak. I don't need rules to tell me if I'm out of control or not...The actual physical properties of the game tell me that.

Thunder Road might not be a traditional "run in circles" race, but it is a race to kill everyone else before you're killed. And a player may at times does want to jump out way ahead of the pack to knock out those stragglers as the boards shuffle.

In general I want fast paced, exciting, quick moving and little rules overhead. If it slows down the pace of the game then any feeling of being in a race is lost for me.

EDIT: OHH! And Magical Athlete! How did I forget that one?

These games provide me all that I need for a race game. Now if there was some dexterity game where you could blow people up and draft special powers that would be my perfect racing game.

The few times I've played it, Speed Circuit has impressed. It has quite a following at WBC, where the GM constructs the track so that it is big enough for about a dozen people to be seated around it. Everyone pre plots their move in secret, selecting speed ( and thus movement allowance ) , then they are all revealed and resolved from front to back. Players have a limited amount of wear chips they can cash in to help negotiate corners at high speeds.

I didnt enjoy rush n crush much. The only racing game we play with constitency that we enjoy a lot is Snow Tails. We really have fun with it and havent gotten tired of it because there are tracks with obstacles such as trees, narrow bottlenecks and because of the way the damage system works: if you hit a wall or another dog sledder you take damage, which reduces your speed cards and gives a press your luck element versus reduced options. it is great.

Have yet to try rallyman which is supposedly good too.

Sagrilarus wrote:

3. Bidding. Goes back to the whole "I'm not tied to one car" thing.

If you're not tied to car it's not a racing game. At that point it's a gambling game and, though it may be good, it's not about racing. It's about gambling on racing.

Sorry for being restrictive, but I'm invoking Branham's Razor -- this is me, these are mine. I like the simultaneous movement idea and I think that is something to put on the short list. But one of the critters on the board has to be me or I'm not racing.

S.

Well, okay. I misspoke a bit. You *do* have direct control of certain car(s) based on pre-race bidding. If you're the high bidder on the Red car, then that car is "yours" for this race and how it finishes directly impacts you and your payouts. You'll want that car to finish in the best place possible.

But you race more than one race, so the car you're in control of might change.

The "during the race betting" is a side game to this, though one that can be very lucrative. Yeah, this might affect your actual racing performance of "your" car. But for that race, it's still "yours."

I can respect your viewpoint, though, and see where you're coming from. If "I own ONE car" is the prereq, then it's hard to go wrong on the old standby Formula D...you just need a group of at least six to make it fun. There you've got dice rolling, some blocking, risk management (how fast will you take this curve so you can come out of it in as high a gear as possible?) That would be my recommend outside of Top Race.

I want to re-iterate the above sentiment--PLAY FAST. It is a race. Analysis paralysis is the death of decent racing games. I like MAGICAL ATHELETE, SPEED CIRCUIT, and WIN, PLACE & SHOW for different reasons. All of them need someone to keep things going. Letting someone hem and haw and "j'adoube" bullshit their pieces all over the place will just kill the game for everyone. Keep it light, keep it quick, and keep going.

Definitely keeping an eye on this thread, because there's something wonderfully evident about a racing game. Just about anyone "gets" them instantly.

The best racing game I've ever played is Das Motorsport Spiel. We had a league going for a while, but it petered out after the new year. I definitely want to try another league later on this year, maybe selecting our racers a little more carefully. That one works best because it really emphasizes the split-second decision making that you need, and the idea that you don't get takebacks. It's lucky and pretty simple, but it's also a ton of fun.

And Magical Athlete. That game is stupider like a fox. I just love it.

GMT has that game Thunder Alley on the P500. It's not very far along, but it does look like something I'd like.

Ken B. wrote:

Sagrilarus wrote:

3. Bidding. Goes back to the whole "I'm not tied to one car" thing.

If you're not tied to car it's not a racing game. At that point it's a gambling game and, though it may be good, it's not about racing. It's about gambling on racing.

Sorry for being restrictive, but I'm invoking Branham's Razor -- this is me, these are mine. I like the simultaneous movement idea and I think that is something to put on the short list. But one of the critters on the board has to be me or I'm not racing.

S.

Well, okay. I misspoke a bit. You *do* have direct control of certain car(s) based on pre-race bidding. If you're the high bidder on the Red car, then that car is "yours" for this race and how it finishes directly impacts you and your payouts. You'll want that car to finish in the best place possible.

But you race more than one race, so the car you're in control of might change.

The "during the race betting" is a side game to this, though one that can be very lucrative. Yeah, this might affect your actual racing performance of "your" car. But for that race, it's still "yours."

I can respect your viewpoint, though, and see where you're coming from. If "I own ONE car" is the prereq, then it's hard to go wrong on the old standby Formula D...you just need a group of at least six to make it fun. There you've got dice rolling, some blocking, risk management (how fast will you take this curve so you can come out of it in as high a gear as possible?) That would be my recommend outside of Top Race.

The problem with just controlling one car in a racing game is that you can very quickly find yourself in a position where you cannot win, no way no how. We usually race Das Motorport Spiel with two cars each, just to keep people in the game. And even then, it works best when you're playing for points in a league.