The oldest driving video games date back to 1972 when titles such as Wipeout came out on the first ever home console, Magnavox Odyssey. However, the genre of vehicle-driving games didn't pick up hype until the 3D era rolled around in the late 90s. From then till now, over a hundred great racing games have come out, including Midnight Club, Burnout, Need For Speed, Mario Kart 8, etc.
Surprisingly, most popular racing games have only played around with the idea of breaking the rules and driving fast. Still, a few games genuinely reward players for following the traffic rules, even if it is not in the most direct way possible. Let's take a look at a few such driving games.
9 Grand Theft Auto 5
It is hard to believe that it's been almost ten years since the first installment of Grand Theft Auto came out on PlayStation 3. After all, the game is still quite relevant, and people from around the globe love playing it religiously. At its core, Grand Theft Auto 5 is a game about running from cops, stealing, shooting everything up, and driving recklessly.
However, few people realize there's much more to GTA 5 than just breaking the rules. Rockstar Games did an outstanding job creating a city that feels real, and it's completely different fun when a player decides to role-play and follow the traffic instructions.
8 Mafia 2
The Mafia series never got to become the GTA-killer some people expected it to be. Yet, it holds a special place in many players' hearts for trying things differently. Mafia games are about story-driven narratives with a minor focus on the open world.
Hence, they feel more like classic gangster movies than other free-roam titles with hundreds of useless collectibles. The series reached its height in Mafia 2, where the pacing is perfect, and the story is relatable. Moreover, the game features a realistic traffic system with a speedometer and fully functioning traffic laws.
7 Driver: Parallel Lines
Since 2011, there has been no news of a new game in the Driver franchise, and it seems there won't be. The popular game series is Ubisoft's hidden gem that players have long forgotten due to the publisher's lack of interest in it. Still, a few titles in the franchise are worth remembering for different reasons.
One is Driver: San Francisco, which is more or less a tight-knit story-driven racing game with a mind-blowing plot. Another is Driver: Parallel Lines, which focuses on realism while expanding the open world. The 2006 game also has a feature called Felony, which forces players to follow laws but for their own good.
6 MudRunner
MudRunner is a sequel to the 2014 off-roading simulation video game titled Spintires. The game relies heavily on driving right and navigating tight roads without making mistakes. In MudRunner, players must become pros at handling all-terrain vehicles while venturing across intense Siberian terrains with nothing but their instincts to guide them.
Apart from featuring an extremely real vehicle simulation, the popular off-road game offers gameplay where following the traffic rules benefits the players in the long run. After all, overspeeding or taking wrong turns in such a realistic video game could end badly.
5 SnowRunner
As the name implies, SnowRunner is a sequel to MudRunner and the latest entry in the Spintires series. The game first came out on last-gen consoles in 2020 and recently on PlayStation 5 & Xbox Series X in 2022. SnowRunner does everything MudRunner did but takes it to another level by adding realistic weather visuals into the game's core formula and expanding the terrain types.
In the latest off-road simulation game, players can drive through the thick sludge of muddy areas and the slippery slope of snow-filled roads. Once again, following the traffic rules massively helps players in SnowRunner.
4 18 Wheels Of Steel
18 Wheels of Steel titles are probably one of the oldest automobile simulation games that were quite popular between 2002 to 2011. The games offered realistic gameplay, where players must expand their trucking business by calling the shots. One of the game's Steam pages states the main objective of these games as, "Build your empire one rig at a time to dominate the roadways and outbid the competition."
Over the years, 18 Wheels of Steel has featured unique locations such as Montana, Bangladesh, and over thirty other cities between northern Mexico and southern Canada. Since it is a simulation title, a major focus of the game is on realism and traffic, where following the rules is always more beneficial for the players.
3 Euro Truck Simulator 2
Euro Truck Simulator 2 is one of the highest-rated driving games, with nearly half a million positive reviews on Steam. It's a transportation simulation open-world game where players must drive a truck through vast distances while pushing their "endurance, skill and speed" to the limits.
Euro Truck Simulator 2 in 2022 is a ten-year-old game that still shines because of its satisfactory gameplay, a huge map with over 60 European cities, business management features, and realistic traffic regulations. The entire point of this game is to follow traffic laws and drive safely.
2 City Car Driving
City Car Driving is a realistic car driving simulator that came out in 2016 on Steam. It is an open-world automobile sim, similar to the likes of Euro Truck Simulator, yet different enough due to the type of vehicles involved.
City Car Driving offers gameplay where players must drive regular cars, vans, and more while navigating through a cityscape full of realistic traffic, immersive environments, unique road conditions, true-to-life weather, and various other features. City Car Driving is the most normal title on the list, where following the traffic laws is part of the game.
1 Mafia Definitive Edition
Mafia Definitive Edition is a 2020 open-world game and a remake of the original Mafia title that came out in 2002. Overall, the new remake completely reimagines the first game, from gameplay to design, characters, story, and missions. Yet, it retains some of the best parts of the old game, including the tight-knit narrative, car models, city structure, the difficult racing mission, and more.
While the open world of Mafia Definitive Edition is in a similar vein to other titles in the series, it offers players a few reasons to explore, including the cab missions. Since the traffic of the game is quite realistic, players will have a blast picking up customers and driving calmly around Lost Heaven.