Best racing games on Xbox in 2026

Forza Horizon 5 is our number one among the best Xbox racing games in 2026, with Forza Motorsport second and The Crew Motorfest third.

We ranked these 10 on how the driving feels and how long it stays interesting, not on how many cars sit in the garage. A game that gives you a reason to run one more lap beats a longer roster every time.

None of the Xbox listings behind this article publish a price, and three of them flag a free entry point that does not match the full retail release. Treat the store page as the final word on cost, use the table to pick a discipline, then read the entry for the catch.

Our top 10 picks compared

The best racing games on Xbox, ranked

The list runs from open-world driving to circuit work, rally, and two wheels.

1. Forza Horizon 5

No other pick here gives you this much room. Playground Games fills an open Mexico with hundreds of cars and events that run from dirt sprints to street races, and it holds up whether you are chasing a rival or just driving. Forza Horizon 5 also makes our best multiplayer Xbox games list.

Breadth wins it. Nothing else on this list serves the casual cruiser and the competitive racer from the same map, so this is where we send anyone who has not raced on Xbox in a while.

• Best for: Open-world driving that works as a race or a cruise
• Standout: An open-world game that is driving all the way down, with no second genre bolted on
• The catch: The Xbox listing gives you almost nothing to check, with no price, no player rating, and no published game modes
• Platforms: Xbox

2. Forza Motorsport

Turn 10 keeps everything pointed at circuit work, with live on-track scoring, weather that shifts mid-session, and 30 tracks carrying enough layouts to keep re-learning them. Over 500 cars fill the garage, more than 100 of them new to the series. Forza Motorsport also ranks on our PC racing games list.

Second place is the counterweight to our top pick, since lap time matters here far more than scenery. Its 3.5 rating comes from 9,878 ratings, the biggest sample on this list and nowhere near the warmest, so expect a stricter game than the store copy suggests.

• Best for: Licensed circuit racing with a career to grind through
• Standout: Fujimi Kaido, the Nürburgring Nordschleife, and Sunset Peninsula among 30 tracks, each with dynamic time of day
• The catch: A middling 3.5 rating from a large crowd, and a listing that shows a free entry point instead of a price
• Platforms: Xbox
• Price and monetization: No price published; the listing marks a free entry point, so confirm what the full game costs
• Rating: 3.5 out of 5 on the Xbox store (9,878 ratings)

3. The Crew Motorfest

Third place moves the open world to Hawaii, where O'ahu and Maui are both drivable and the playlists sort themselves by corner of car culture. Ubisoft hands you hundreds of vehicles and a trial that runs up to five hours before you commit. The Crew Motorfest also features on our PS5 racing games list.

Two open worlds earn their places because they barely overlap, and this one leans harder on themed events. Its 3.1 rating comes from 442 ratings, a cooler and much smaller crowd than the Forza pair above it.

• Best for: A second open world, organized around car culture rather than a map to conquer
• Standout: The Hawaiian archipelago, O'ahu through to Maui, driven end to end
• The catch: A lukewarm rating on a thin sample, and no game modes published, so multiplayer support needs checking
• Platforms: Xbox
• Price and monetization: Paid, no price published on the listing
• Rating: 3.1 out of 5 on the Xbox store (442 ratings)

Take a break from racing and earn some cash playing mobile games. HeyCash pays you for installing them and getting a few levels into each one. Rewards start at $1.

Explore HeyCash offers

4. Wreckfest

Forget clean racing lines. Bugbear Entertainment built this around contact, with a physics model that bends metal properly and a lineage running back through FlatOut.

Fourth reflects the strongest rating of any pick here with more than a thousand ratings, 3.6 from 2,358. A 2019 release makes it the oldest game in the top 10, and demolition racing leaves less to master than a circuit game does.

• Best for: Contact racing, crashes, and finishes decided by who is still moving
• Standout: Full-contact racing on a damage model built by the FlatOut team
• The catch: The oldest pick here, and the destruction focus caps how deep the driving goes
• Platforms: Xbox
• Price and monetization: Paid, no price published on the listing
• Rating: 3.6 out of 5 on the Xbox store (2,358 ratings)

5. Need for Speed Unbound

Street racing in Lakeshore means outrunning police, clearing weekly qualifiers, and reaching a final event called The Grand. Criterion Games spent its energy on style, from tuned custom builds to a soundtrack that carries the whole city.

Fifth is as high as we can put it against a 2.4 rating across 5,037 ratings, the weakest reception in this top 10. Buy it for the look and the attitude, because that is what the game is confident about.

• Best for: Street racing with police pursuits and a build-your-own garage
• Standout: A weekly qualifier structure that funnels into one high-stakes final race
• The catch: The lowest player rating on this list by a clear margin, from more than 5,000 ratings
• Platforms: Xbox
• Price and monetization: Paid, no price published on the listing
• Rating: 2.4 out of 5 on the Xbox store (5,037 ratings)

6. Dirt 5

Gravel, ice, snow, and sand do the work here instead of tarmac, and rally icons share a career with trucks and GT machinery. Codemasters threw in a livery editor too.

Dirt 5 is the only listing here that advertises four-player split-screen, and that local hook is most of why it holds sixth. Set against that, a 2.5 rating from 1,806 ratings is low, and the listing points to online play for the full experience.

• Best for: Off-road racing with three friends on one couch
• Standout: Four-player split-screen plus a livery editor, across surfaces from ice to sand
• The catch: A 2.5 player rating, and a listing that ties the best of the game to being online
• Platforms: Xbox
• Price and monetization: Paid, no price published on the listing
• Rating: 2.5 out of 5 on the Xbox store (1,806 ratings)

7. EA SPORTS WRC

This is the official FIA World Rally Championship game, built by the studio behind the DiRT Rally series. Car building sits at the center of it, so the machine you take onto a stage is partly your own work.

Rally asks for patience that circuit racing does not, because one bad corner on a blind stage undoes a careful hour. Seventh place matches that narrower appeal, and the 3.1 rating rests on only 448 ratings.

• Best for: Licensed rally stages and the slow craft of learning them
• Standout: The official World Rally Championship license in the hands of the DiRT Rally team
• The catch: Stage racing punishes small mistakes hard, and the listing shows a free entry point instead of a price
• Platforms: Xbox
• Price and monetization: No price published; the listing marks a free entry point, so confirm what the full game costs
• Rating: 3.1 out of 5 on the Xbox store (448 ratings)

8. F1 24

Formula One followers get the 2024 championship here, its 20 drivers, and the circuits that came with them. Codemasters knows this formula better than anyone, and the official license does a lot of the work.

That season stamp is what holds it at eighth in 2026, since a two-year-old grid dates faster than a fictional one ever could. Only 414 ratings back its 3.1 score, and the listing in our data carries no release date at all.

• Best for: Racing a licensed Formula One season from the cockpit
• Standout: The official 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship license, grid included
• The catch: Tied to the 2024 season, with no release date on the listing and a free entry point in place of a price
• Platforms: Xbox
• Price and monetization: No price published; the listing marks a free entry point, so confirm what the full game costs
• Rating: 3.1 out of 5 on the Xbox store (414 ratings)

9. HOT WHEELS UNLEASHED 2 - Turbocharged

Toy-scale racing sounds like a novelty until the track builder gets hold of you. Milestone packs in over 130 vehicles and environments you can rebuild into your own loops and jumps.

Ninth place comes down to who this is for. Arcade handling on plastic track will not satisfy anyone chasing lap times, the listing leans on online play, and 320 ratings is a small crowd to judge a 3.3 by.

• Best for: Arcade racing plus building tracks of your own
• Standout: A track editor that turns each environment into a set of your own layouts
• The catch: Best played online, and the toy-car handling is a long way from a simulator
• Platforms: Xbox
• Price and monetization: Paid, no price published on the listing
• Rating: 3.3 out of 5 on the Xbox store (320 ratings)

10. MotoGP 24

Two wheels instead of four, and every instinct you brought from car racing works against you. Milestone builds the 2024 season around a riders market, so contracts and transfers give a career more shape than a points table alone.

Highest published rating in this top 10, 4.2 out of 5, and it still lands tenth. Only 49 ratings stand behind that score, and bikes are the narrowest ask on a racing shortlist most people come to for cars.

• Best for: Two-wheel racing with a career worth following
• Standout: A riders market that moves contracts around the 2024 grid
• The catch: Motorcycles suit a specific taste, and 49 ratings is a thin basis for a 4.2 score
• Platforms: Xbox
• Price and monetization: Paid, no price published on the listing
• Rating: 4.2 out of 5 on the Xbox store (49 ratings)

How we picked these 10

Every rank above is our editorial recommendation, not the output of a benchmark. Official Xbox store listings supplied the developer, publisher, release date, age rating, player rating, and game modes behind each entry, and five things shaped the order.

• Genre fit: whether racing drives the whole design or shares the wheel with another genre
• Quality: how well the handling, the presentation, and the career hold together
• Current relevance: whether the game is still sold, supported, and worth starting now
• Accessibility: how fast a newcomer gets competitive
• Replayability: whether there is a reason to come back after the credits

Where a listing publishes no price, no rating, or no modes, we say so in the entry instead of filling the gap. How each game drives, and where it lands in the order, is our own judgment.

Which Xbox racer to load first tonight

Start with Forza Horizon 5 if you cannot decide, because the same map covers a quiet drive and a competitive race. Anyone who wants the driving itself to be the challenge should install Forza Motorsport and run one car on one circuit until the braking points stick.

Company changes the answer entirely. Reach for Dirt 5 when three other people are in the room, and load Wreckfest when nobody wants to take it seriously.

• Undecided, or new to the genre: Forza Horizon 5, The Crew Motorfest
• Serious circuit driving: Forza Motorsport, F1 24
• Off-road and rally: Dirt 5, EA SPORTS WRC
• Split-screen on one console: Dirt 5
• Arcade racing and building your own tracks: HOT WHEELS UNLEASHED 2 - Turbocharged
• Something different on two wheels: MotoGP 24