2024 Was a Slow Year for Our Fastest Genre

ign.com:

Around this time last year I criticised The Game Awards for continually forcing racing games to share a common category with sports games, to compete for recognition at what’s described (by The Game Awards) as “gaming’s biggest night.”

Up until this year it was an award no traditional sports game had ever actually won. The category had been totally dominated by racing games, with the exception of 2015 (Rocket League, which still has cars in it) and 2020 (Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2, which is still… on wheels).

This year FC 25 got the gong. Just a single racing game made the shortlist: F1 24. A great racing game, no doubt, but one that’s hard to argue was an immediately essential upgrade for those who already owned F1 23, or F1 22, or so on. What else could’ve made it? Monster Jam Showdown? Good fun (which shouldn’t be surprising given the developer’s recent form with the Hot Wheels Unleashed series) but I wouldn’t fancy its chances at The Game Awards. Le Mans Ultimate? Well, that’s still ostensibly in Steam Early Access, even though they’re… already selling in-game DLC before the game’s officially “finished.” Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown? No chance.

The sad reality is there simply weren’t enough racing games released in 2024, full stop. For the first time I can remember in my nearly 14 years at IGN, we didn’t even hand out an award for the year’s best racer. There just weren’t enough of them to even pad out a list of finalists.

Sad stuff.

Now, for clarity, I have had a number of fresh reasons to slide behind a steering wheel this year, but the bulk of these opportunities have arrived as updates to existing racing games I already own. Most months of 2024 have seen an injection of new cars and content for Gran Turismo 7. As is usually the case with GT, not all those cars have had a solid racing pedigree, but I won’t pretend I’m not at least mildly interested in seeing how fast an eight-year-old Toyota Hiace can lap the Nordschleife.

A 2024 expansion to EA Sports WRC