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A look at some great Linux & SteamOS racing games available in 2017

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We’ve come a long way since SuperTuxKart, here’s my little listicle of interesting racing games available for Linux & SteamOS. All titles have been tested either by me, or someone else on the GOL team.

DiRT Rally

We finally have a decent rally game on Linux, although decent is possibly understating it quite a bit. It’s a gorgeous game graphically and the cars handle really well. It’s difficult too, which makes it that much more satisfying to play.

You will race across dirt, snow and ice and more. It will be a test of both your skill as a driver and your resolve in the face of long hill climbs.

The versus multiplayer is a little disappointing, but everything else makes up for it. If you want to know more, our original review is here.

Vector 36

Fancy racing across the surface of Mars? Well Vector 36 will give you that chance!

If you could imagine piloting a pod racer from Star Wars, I feel that would be a reasonably accurate description of how it feels. Your "Skimmer" is also highly customizable.

It offers up something completely different to all other racing games picked for the list that's for sure. It's quite difficult too, so it's a great pick for those looking for that extra challenge. Even doing the tutorial I managed to lose a part, catch fire and it was hilarious.

GRID Autosport

We’ve had masses of fun with this one in the past, we’ve done multiple tournaments that we’ve livestreamed and it was truly hilarious. Everyone knocking each other off the track, ending up finishing a race with no tyres and more.

It’s not exactly the most realistic racer around, but it’s good. With various classes of vehicles to drive, there’s hopefully something for everyone.

Probably one of, if not the best, Linux racing game when it comes to online play. You can see our original review here.

BlazeRush

One I haven’t talked a lot about, but damn is it fun. This racing survival game isn’t just about racing, it’s also about survival.

You will crash, smash and destroy your way to the finishing line. It has a career mode, different types of vehicles, weapons and more. There's even a mode where a large vehicle with a massive saw is closing in behind you — madness!

It’s almost like a much better looking version of Micro Machines.

F1 2015

It's maybe not the best F1 game, but it's the only proper F1 game available on Linux. I'm still surprised by the amount of negative reviews it got from users. It's a reasonably good game, still better than a lot.

In my review of the game, I thought it was pretty good overall. If you don't mind the slightly idiotic driving by the AI at times.

There's also signs of F1 2017 arriving on Linux, so keep that in mind.

Distance

Not a traditional racer by any measure. This high-speed survival racer sees you power through all sorts of crazy tracks, hoping from platorms and soaring through the air. Boost for too long and it could all be over. It has fantastic neon graphics, custom map support and online racing too. Watch out for those lasers, they might cut you in half.

Distance is still to this day one of my favourite indie games.

Road Redemption

Remember Road Rash fondly? Well this might be exactly what you’re after. High speed motorbike racing, while you take down others and avoid cars.

It even offers up 4 player splitscreen, for those times your buddies come over.

Race Online

Despite the silly name, it's not an online-only racer. What we have here is a simple top-down 2D racer built like some of the classics found on the Amiga. It's likely a good option for a younger audience as well as us oldies, since it's not going to be as maddeningly difficult as some of the other choices. It has single-player, local co-op play and online multiplayer to give the best of all worlds.

It comes with 100+ tracks built in, but it also has a track editor for those who like to create their own weird and wonderful courses.

 

And an obvious honourable mention to SuperTuxKart, the free and open source 3D kart racing game. It has also progressed quite a bit in the last few years, with improved tracks, better graphics and more to come in future.

Another honourable mention to Little Racers STREET, it didn't make the cut due to launching issues which need to be manually solved.

One to keep an eye on is ForeveRacers, I’ve been following it for some time and I’ve been testing a few builds of it. The fun online multiplayer racing game could be quite a hit when it releases. With low-poly graphics and hilarious handling, it’s going to be fun to play when it’s fully released.

It’s also a damn shame Dirt: Showdown is no longer available, as it would have easily made the list. I had a massive amount of fun with that title, hopefully the rights holders will sort the situation out so it can be put back on Steam.

We still have a long way to go before we a truly great platform for racing enthusiasts, even so we do have a number of pretty good titles to look into, these are just a few. Hopefully in another year we will see some more quality racing titles on Linux.

What are your current favourites that I didn't mention? Feel free to tell me how wrong I am for not including them in the comments.

Thanks to Ashworth for requesting this article.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Racing
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About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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45 comments
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Beamboom Sep 20, 2017
Vector 36 - now there's a title that's passed under my radar. Looks awesome!
Added to wishlist.
Shmerl Sep 20, 2017
Is it a coincidence, or something else is going on, but very few if any racing games for Linux come out DRM-free. I don't think any of the major titles listed above were released on GOG, itch.io or Humble. Unless I missed some of them.

UPDATE: Correction, looks like Humble have the DRM-free version of Distance.


Last edited by Shmerl on 20 September 2017 at 8:52 pm UTC
Xpander Sep 20, 2017
Quoting: Linas
Quoting: liamdaweWow, how low are you settings? Mine looks nothing like that.
This is supposed to be Ultra. I would really like to see a screenshot from a similar location. The screenshot is Värmland, Sweden, Elgsjön (Sprint), Midday / Sunny.

i can make a screenshot tomorrow if someone doesnt beat me...

but yeah i dont remember seeing such a blocky shadows
sayem Sep 21, 2017
A bit disappointed to not see my favorite racing game mentioned here.
Absolute Drift is criminally underrated.
tuubi Sep 21, 2017
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Quoting: Xpander
Quoting: Linas
Quoting: liamdaweWow, how low are you settings? Mine looks nothing like that.
This is supposed to be Ultra. I would really like to see a screenshot from a similar location. The screenshot is Värmland, Sweden, Elgsjön (Sprint), Midday / Sunny.

i can make a screenshot tomorrow if someone doesnt beat me...

but yeah i dont remember seeing such a blocky shadows
I went shadow hunting last night, and true enough, if I drove right next to the snowbank in Sweden I did find some shadows with blocky edges. Never noticed them before either. They seem to be most noticeable in the cabin and dashboard views.

This doesn't mean that the screenie in the article is fake like Linas suggested. Environmental shadows look smooth enough if they're even a bit further away (or if you're actually moving). They wouldn't look blocky in that particular view.

Sorry, I didn't think of making that screenshot. Or checking my settings. I blame the flu and the fever. It did look similar to what Linas saw though.
Linas Sep 21, 2017
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Yeah, calling it fake was a bit harsh. Carefully placed might be better wording. ;)

But it's a curse, I'll tell you. Once you know the blocky shadows are there, you start noticing them. But anyway, before I upgraded my gaming box, I could not afford to have shadows all. So a first world problem for sure.
evergreen Sep 21, 2017
I already have Road Redemption, Dirt Rally and Grid Autosport and played them a lot. My personal wish is Project Card 2, but without linux support... NO WAY!!! My friends hate me, but my switch from one os to the other onces is between antergos and ubuntu gnome. and my third ssd is for testing steamos ;)
darkszluf Sep 21, 2017
in my experience road redemption is still a mess and don't deserve to be bought for now.
charliebrownau Sep 21, 2017
road redemption looks like a good rehash of road rash
but they still after 3-4 years doesnt have online mp or lan mp
seems like mp is last on the effort which is odd because
road rash mp was loads of fun back in ipx/spx days
Arthur Sep 21, 2017
"Since" SuperTuxKart? We're not dead yet. And unlike proprietary games, you actually continue to get improvements and can make your own improvements. It will continue to work, and you can see what it's doing. I get it though - I also play proprietary games. But considering how much time and money people have given to games never living up to their promises of Linux support among other things it's a little sad that STK is considered cold leftovers. But thanks for the mention, especially further down in the article.
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