The best arcade "racing" game is Crazy Taxi, no doubt. You don't really race others, but you race against the time through a city, picking up fares and dropping people off at certain locations, all while listening to some amazing music.
Outrun is a very old racing game. That was out when I was a kid 20+ years ago. Maybe back then, that game was decent at best in my opinion. Hydro Thunder was a better arcade style boat racing game. I have played Crazy Taxi in the arcades and it was different. It wasn't racing against other taxis. It was to pick up and drop off people for fares.
There is only one Outrun in the arcades. Here's a snapshot. It came out back in 1986. Most of you here weren't even born yet. If you don't believe me, then check this out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_Run
Yeah, Outrun is really, really outdated so I don't think you should take this game into consideration. There aren't too many arcade racing games, but as others have already said Crazy Taxi is a good option.
Have arcade games died out in recent years? Maybe I'm just not looking but I haven't seen any lately. Anyway, I'd say the best arcade racers for me are Burnout 1 & 2, and I'd have to add on the Road Rash series. If we're talking arcade racers you can play in an arcade then definitely Daytona USA.
When Daytona first came out in the Arcades it was a sight to behold. It was truly innovative at the time. Soon after there was a bunch of other racing games that did follow. But it's too bad the port over to the Sega Saturn was bad. I bought it for the Saturn and they tried to copy it but it just fell short of the arcade experience. A 2D console trying to render a 3D arcade machine. It wasn't pretty.
For me it's MotorStorm Apocalypse. One of the best, and most underappreciated, racing series of the PS3 era.
I remember first coming across it in the mid-90's in an arcade on holiday. I couldn't get enough of it. I did hear they ported it to console but likewise I hear it pretty much flopped. Do you think if it was ported to the consoles of today it would be able to recapture the feel of the arcade experience?
My favorite will always be Daytona because I loved the handling in that game the most. Other games just had too loose of controls where you would turn the wheel a little and the car would make a 360 but with Daytona the controls were much more contained and the wheels even had some resistance to them.
I also think that Crazy Taxi, is one of the best arcade racing games . . . . . . but if I must pick the very best, I'm torn between giving that #1 spot to it [Crazy Taxi] and Blur. For those of you who played Blur, what say you to this? Was it great or not?
I've never played blur but I agree that crazy taxi is one of the best racing games out there even if it's not technically a racing game. The fact that you have an additional challenge of picking up customers on top of beating a time limit adds a lot to the experience.
Out Run was a cool game though. Why is everyone downgrading it? Other good arcade racing games are Cruis' n World and Super Hang On from Sega Genesis. These are classic games.
I'm hard-pressed between Daytona and Initial D myself. Both were really popular and well-made arcade game machines.
I used to play Crazy Taxi a lot. But I stopped, I was bored. Daytona was great too. I can remember playing these two games
Wow, Out Run takes me back. I remember playing that as a kid. Racing games have really moved along since them. Burnout is my favourite. I have a good feel for the physics behind it and I like seeing the cars crumple up.
Excellent choice, yes, crazy taxi was super fun both in arcades and even in home consoles because those even had extra game modes. Even their tablet version is pretty good even though they sacrifice a lot of the regular features.
