OS X Best Racing Game for the Mac?

There are none. Unless you want to play old, outdated boring racing games.

You'll need to bootcamp it unfortunately

For a fun racing game something like DiRT or GRiD.

For a full on sim you will want iRacing.

TheLegend said:

I just picked up an i5 2011 MBP, and I'm looking to pick up a racing game or two. I'd hopefully be looking for a fairly modern game... Maybe 2009+ Does anybody have any opinions on a favourite? And where it's available? I'd always prefer a disc over downloading online

Thanks.

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You can run LFS Live for Speed through wine or cider. It runs great and you can even drive with a wheel like Logitech G25 or DFP. The game is not fairly modern in terms of graphics but it is a very good simulation.

For Mac, there are some racing games, like Cro-Mag Rally, Rally Shift ... these games are universal binary.

But there exist some games, that are multiplatform so they work under Windows, Linux and some of these under MacOS X too:

Racer:
http://www.racer.nl

Or try Buggy Race:
http://buggy-race.pl/download_eng.html

Most of these games exist for multiple platform:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_video_games

Try VDrift, TORCS, SuperTuxKart, ...

Here are some other freeware racing games, but these works only in Windows environment (or emulators like Wine, Codeweaver etc.):

http://www.gametop.com/category/racing.html

A nice free racing game - GeneRally:
http://alternative.gene-rally.com/

Try asphalt 6: adrenaline
runs nice and smooth

FlatOut 2, hands down...probably the best ever porting effort for Mac, perfectly fluid, good graphics and still a lot of fun...

Need for Speed Carbon is also OK, but in my opinion a lot less fun than FlatOut...

opeter said:

For Mac, there are some racing games, like Cro-Mag Rally, Rally Shift ... these games are universal binary.

But there exist some games, that are multiplatform so they work under Windows, Linux and some of these under MacOS X too:

Racer:
http://www.racer.nl

Or try Buggy Race:
http://buggy-race.pl/download_eng.html

Most of these games exist for multiple platform:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_video_games

Try VDrift, TORCS, SuperTuxKart, ...

Here are some other freeware racing games, but these works only in Windows environment (or emulators like Wine, Codeweaver etc.):

http://www.gametop.com/category/racing.html

A nice free racing game - GeneRally:
http://alternative.gene-rally.com/

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None of those are *real racing games

Race Driver 3.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOCA_Race_Driver_3

Ace134blue said:

None of those are *real racing games

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But Racer advertises itself as "The Real Deal". They may take you to court for that one.

AndyR said:

You'll need to bootcamp it unfortunately

For a fun racing game something like DiRT or GRiD.

For a full on sim you will want iRacing.

Click to expand...

I'll second that, all of that actually.

I've got bootcamp on my MBP purely for the purpose of playing DiRT. I don't use it for anything else. Even got a wheel and pedals, that game rocks. Can't say I regret that investment, it's been a lot of fun.

GRiD is a great game too, and just had a look at iRacing and it doesn't look bad either.

I was wondering about this myself, guess I'll stick with bootcamp. Nobody has "wined" or "cidered" DiRT successfully have they? I don't really know about that stuff.

laserbeam273 said:

I'll second that, all of that actually.

I've got bootcamp on my MBP purely for the purpose of playing DiRT. I don't use it for anything else. Even got a wheel and pedals, that game rocks. Can't say I regret that investment, it's been a lot of fun.

GRiD is a great game too, and just had a look at iRacing and it doesn't look bad either....

Click to expand...

NFS Shift 2 is coming this month and it looks its going to be great but only on consoles and windows and it's better than GRID (better physics).

In my opinion...

Flatout 2
DiRT 2
NFS undercover or carbon or most wanted (with cider or wine)
Real Racing 2

Edit:
And by the way you can play almost any windows game via cider

Flatout 2 has graphical glitching.

Well, if you are looking for native Mac OSX Racing Games, unfortunately, there are not many. But here are some that may fit your needs.

If you are looking for a racing sim, here is a "casual" sim I developed called Auto Sport Driving (http://www.siniscope.com/autosportdriving). It is available on the Mac App Store. It has been favorably reviewed by Inside Mac Games and AnalizandoMac. It can accomodate wheels and even use FFB for Logitech wheels though you will have to install the FFB kext back into 10.7 or 10.8 because Apple left it out. But it is very easy to do.

A real good one is Dirt 2 from Feral Interactive (http://www.feralinteractive.com) that are AAA titles that run very nice on mid to high end Macs. Games like Real Racing 2 on the Mac App Store are good too. But not really hardcore sim. I have not tried any wheels on RR2, but it does allow for gamepads. Feral also previously released Colin McRae Rally Mac but it is no longer available through them as the license ran out. You can probably find it on ebay or another auction site.

Also coming soon is F1 2012. Feral will be releasing this game hopefully before Christmas!

Ambrosia Softwares, Redline (http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/redline/), is older, but has a crapload of mods for it and was quite fun back in the day. But the AI was pretty bad and no one really plays online anymore. It looks fairly dated now also.

Too bad the Mac version of Nascar 2003 is PPC only! That game is still great and has a lot of mods for it too, but it only runs on PPC or under Rosetta for intel which is no longer available on intel Macs running Lion or Mountain Lion. I still run that game on my PowerMac G5 Quad!

There are also the free games like Torcs (http://www.torcs.org), Racer (http://www.racer.nl) and VDrift (http://www.vdrift.net) that used to run on Macs. I am not sure about whether any of them are universal or only run on PPC as I have not tried them in a very long time. So make sure you read up on them first.

I am sure you will hear many just tell you to Bootcamp the PC sims as there are so many of them. But we need more OSX native sims on the Mac!

I will go.....

with Feral F1 2012 when ships in December

Auto Sport Driving (http://www.siniscope.com/autosportdriving): this one looks really promising.