Most racing games are about precision and speed — getting from point A to point B faster than everyone else. But some go beyond the finish line and give players something extra: a world worth getting lost in. These are the kinds of games where the joy of exploration is just as rewarding as the races themselves.
In these racing games, exploration is a part of the experience, whether players are mudding through swamps, drifting across salt flats or stumbling upon aircraft carriers parked in the middle of nowhere.
6 Need for Speed Most Wanted (2012)
Billboards, Jack Spots and One Massive Playground
Despite its name, Criterion’s reboot of Need for Speed Most Wanted in 2012 has little in common with the 2005 title aside from its open-world cop chases. What it does have, though, is Fairhaven — a sprawling urban landscape that blends downtowns, industrial zones, highways and wooded outskirts into one interconnected map without loading screens or mission barriers.
Exploration here revolves around two main mechanics. First are the Jack Spots, which are scattered across the map, each one for a different vehicle, and let players instantly swap their rides. It’s what encourages players to scan alleyways, rooftops and tunnels for randomly parked supercars that they haven’t unlocked yet.
Then there are the destructible billboards that reset after each crash and demand players approach jumps from different angles or faster cars to smash through them. It’s not traditional exploration in the scenic sense, but it’s deeply interactive thanks to the Autolog system which encourages healthy competition between friends by tracking who traveled the most distance while driving through a billboard.
5 SnowRunner
Getting Lost Is Just Part of the Route
Every journey in SnowRunner starts with a lie — a seemingly simple delivery job that turns into a 45-minute struggle through mud pits, collapsing bridges and forests that look navigable until a truck gets wedged between two trees. What makes SnowRunner so effective is that there are no preset tracks. Players must carve their own path through regions like Michigan, Alaska and Taymyr, all of which span massive, detail-rich maps.
Where most racing games reward speed, SnowRunner rewards caution, planning and the will to recover from failure. The terrain itself becomes the puzzle. Is it faster to take the longer asphalt loop or try a swamp shortcut with a winch-equipped truck? Every detour is a gamble, and it’s that unpredictability that makes exploring so satisfying.
Time of day and weather also play into this, often making areas that were once accessible turn into impossible slogs. It’s a game where just reaching the destination is a victory in itself.
4 Burnout Paradise Remastered
Every Road Is the Right One
Long before open-world racers became the norm, Burnout Paradise threw players into a fictional city and told them to make their own fun. Paradise City doesn’t have race tracks in the traditional sense — instead, races begin at any of the city’s traffic lights, and players are left to choose their own route to the finish line. It’s an ingenious system that turns every street, alley and shortcut into a viable racing line.
But the real reason exploration thrives here is the way the game rewards it. Smashing through fences, discovering hidden stunt jumps or taking the long scenic route around the wind farm all feel intentional. Every corner of the map has been designed with interactivity in mind — not just something to drive past but something to drive through, over or into.
The remastered edition improves textures, lighting and frame rate, but more importantly, it revives a game where freedom of movement was part of the core design well before it became industry standard.
3 The Crew 2
Where the United States Shrinks, But the Adventure Doesn’t
Ivory Tower’s The Crew 2 doesn’t just give players one city or a single country to explore — it condenses the entire continental United States into a playable map that still somehow feels massive. From snowy peaks in the Rockies to dense urban grids in New York and the swamplands of Louisiana, this game offers a buffet of landscapes stitched together without loading screens.
But what really elevates its exploration is the way it allows players to switch vehicles on the fly. With one button press, a car transforms into a boat mid-air, or a jet bursts into the sky from a runway. The seamless transitions between land, air and water make for some of the most dynamic open-world traversal in any racing game.
The world is big and dense, with photo ops, stunts and hidden events tucked into every corner. The map might not be to scale, but the possibilities within it are almost overwhelming.
2 Test Drive Unlimited 2
Island Life Meets Open Roads
Set across a meticulously recreated Ibiza and later Hawaii’s Oahu, Test Drive Unlimited 2 was one of the earliest racing games to treat exploration as the main draw. Players can leave their cars, enter houses and even visit dealerships physically to inspect cars. But the real charm lies in how it encourages players to simply cruise and take in the scenery.
The map includes over 1,600 miles of drivable roads, ranging from tight mountain switchbacks to coastal highways that stretch endlessly. Hidden car wrecks are scattered across the islands, pushing players to comb every forest trail and backroad for rare vehicle parts. And just like real road trips, it often rewards curiosity more than speed.
Its online mode allowed seamless multiplayer interaction, where encountering another driver on a deserted stretch could lead to impromptu races or just a peaceful tandem cruise at sunset.
1 Forza Horizon 5
Viva La Exploration in Mexico’s Playground
Set in a fictionalized version of Mexico, Forza Horizon 5 isn’t just one of the best-looking racing games ever made — it’s also one of the most explorable. Its map, which includes deserts, jungles, beaches, cities and even an active volcano, is the biggest in the series and among the most diverse ever put into a racing game.
Every region feels handcrafted, with natural landmarks and biomes flowing into each other. Roads turn to dirt paths which lead to undiscovered ruins. Weather effects like tropical storms or dust clouds aren’t just visuals either — they affect driving conditions and force players to adapt their routes.
Between the barn finds, danger signs, XP boards and the pure fun of free-roaming in a hypercar off-road, Forza Horizon 5 treats exploration not as a feature, but as the main event. Even with hundreds of races and events to do, it’s often the aimless drives that leave the longest-lasting impressions.
