Best PS Plus Racing Games for PS5 & PS4

Why it's here: My pick for the best racer on PS Plus: a festival across a faithfully rebuilt Oahu that sorts its cars into themed playlists, Japanese street tuners one night, vintage muscle the next. I went through the reviews expecting Forza Horizon comparisons and found them everywhere, mostly as a compliment. The complaints I kept hitting were microtransactions and an AI host that never stops talking. On Extra you can ignore both: this is the closest thing PlayStation has to Horizon.

Why it's here: The sim pick, and I will be straight about the rating: it is the lowest of any modern game I kept on this list, and the reviews explain why. Wheel owners call it the most realistic GT3 racing on console, singling out the physics and audio again and again; pad players and beginners bounce off the learning curve, and that split drags the average down. So the verdict writes itself: with a wheel, essential on Extra. On a controller, start with Motorfest.

Why it's here: The breadth play: street car to seaplane to powerboat mid-race, across a shrunk-down model of the whole continental USA. I compared its reviews against Motorfest's and the pattern is clean: people love the map and the variety, while the handling and the ageing polish take the hits. My honest advice for an Extra subscriber: download Motorfest first, then come back here when you want coast-to-coast scope over per-corner feel.

Why it's here: The arcade pick I hand to lapsed racing fans: one absurd stunt track at a time, a restart that fires instantly, and a ghost of your own best lap taunting you. Four-player split-screen seals it for a couch. In the reviews I went through, the joy of the driving is nearly unanimous; the anger is aimed at Ubisoft's launcher and account hoops, not the game. Budget five minutes for login friction, then lose the evening to one track.

Why it's here: The precision pick: a physics motorbike, a booby-trapped 2.5D course, and your own heavy thumb as the final boss. Reading the reviews, I found exactly the split you would guess: players who love a rage-and-retry loop rate it superbly, and the recurring gripes are the Ubisoft Connect login and the odd crash, never the riding itself. If shaving a clean run out of a course you have failed forty times sounds like joy rather than torture, this is your game on Extra.

Why it's here: My retro soft spot, recommended with open eyes: sun-bleached low-poly tracks straight out of the Daytona era, a drift-and-slipstream loop that feeds one boost meter, and four-player split-screen. The reviews I read agree on both halves: the speed and style are nailed, and the content is thin, with rubber-banding AI that can sour a close race. Perfect as the party-night racer on Extra. As your only racer, it runs dry in a weekend.

Why it's here: The free pick I suggest trying before judging: a mobile-born arcade racer that treats every straight as a launch ramp, barrel rolls and nitro chains included, and it costs nothing on any PSN account, no PS Plus needed. I checked the reviews for the obvious worry and yes, it is there: grindy progression and pay-to-skip offers that never stop. My rule: play it as a free stunt reel and never open the store. On those terms it earns its slot.

Why it's here: The newer, bigger Trials, and the one I point couches to: Tandem mode splits one physics bike between two riders, which is exactly as gloriously stupid as it sounds. Going through the reviews, the track design and learning curve draw the same praise as Fusion's, the grind-heavy progression and busy menus draw the fire, and most launch complaints trace to the PC build rather than PlayStation. Between the two on Extra: Fusion for purity, this one for company.

Why it's here: The lowest-rated game I kept anyway, because the score is about the business model, not the racing. It is a free time-trial racer whose community builds tracks faster than anyone can master them, and the reviews I read love exactly that while hating the subscription that walls off much of the rest. My framing: the free tier costs you nothing and shows you everything that matters. If it hooks you, the subscription becomes a fair question instead of an insult.

Why it's here: The classic I will defend hardest: the 1996 blueprint of car combat, Paris to a floating Antarctic base, an unhinged roster fighting for a wish. A game this old has no review feed for me to mine, so I am going off its PS Store rating, which is remarkably strong, and a reputation three decades of sequels never quite matched. The controls are mid-nineties and proud of it. For one nostalgic evening on Premium, nothing here touches it.

Why it's here: The curiosity pick: the Jak and Daxter studio detoured into weaponised combat racing, and it worked. There is no modern review base for me to dig through, so here is the honest basis instead: a strong PS Store rating from the players who came back for it, and a story that genuinely continues the trilogy, cars, guns and all. If you hold Premium and any history with Jak, it is a fun, strange afternoon.

Why it's here: The style pick, and I mean that as a verdict: powerslides built on flow instead of friction, scored by an acid-jazz soundtrack people still rank among gaming's finest. A 1998 game gives me no reviews to summarise, so I will tell you what I can verify: its PS Store rating holds impressively high, and its standing as the most elegant arcade racer of the PS1 era has never seriously been argued. Twenty minutes in on Premium, you will either shrug or fall for it completely.

Why it's here: The deep cut: racers in wheeled exosuits riding the walls and ceilings of looping tracks, made by the studio that went on to build God of War. I could not find enough written reviews to mine, which is partly why I kept it: its PS Store rating is quietly solid, and on Premium it costs nothing to visit a strange corner of PlayStation history. Expect early-PS2 rough edges and a genuinely wild sense of speed.