The Greatest Demolition Derby Games

There’s something deep down inside us that wants to smash cars into each other. While you might scratch that itch by driving into your friends in Grand Theft Auto Online or a racing game like Forza Horizon 5, sometimes you need something more focused and impactful.

Demolition derby games are based on the namesake motorsport, also sometimes called destruction derby, which is all about crashing cars with purpose.

What separates these games from other vehicular combat games like Crossout or Twisted Metal? There are generally no weapons, only cars smashing into each other. And, similar to real demolition derbies, there’s often a bit of chaotic and violent racing mixed in.

8 Destruction Derby 2

Until The Wheels Fall Off

Dating back to 1996, Destruction Derby 2 is extremely simple, but it pioneered destructible cars that can lose parts as they receive damage, and destruction derby games wouldn’t be the same without that.

It’s extremely similar to the original Destruction Derby game, but improved in almost every way, from the physics to the graphics.

Given its age, it may not seem spectacular, but as basic as it is, it’s still a lot of fun today. The physics is pretty bad by today’s standards, but that wonkiness adds another layer of fun.

Hitting your friend into the air and watching as it takes several seconds for them to fall back to Earth can be hilarious.

7 Dirt: Showdown

Another Way To Drive Dirty

The Dirt series is known for its fairly realistic takes on rally racing, however, the series does lean into arcade-style gameplay on occasion. Dirt: Showdown is one of their more arcade-style racers with a focus on destruction derbies.

While the game is rather arcade-like and stylized, it still scratches the itch of having two heavy metal beasts crash into each other.

If you go into the game aware of its unrealistic physics, it’s a very enjoyable experience filled with all the crashes you crave.

That said, it probably would’ve been more satisfying had they kept the series’ more grounded style over the arcade-like one, but you can’t blame them for paying homage to classics.

6 Trail Out

A Legend Returns

Trail Out is the spiritual successor to the iconic and over-the-top FlatOut series, complete with drivers flying out of their cars and silly mini-games utilizing that. It captures everything that made that series great but with a new coat of paint and destruction physics.

It’s not the most adherent to real-life demolition derbies, with a few races through destructible environments like the middle of a city and the completely unrealistic mini-games, but it’s clearly grounded in demolition derbies and has a charm that you don’t see in modern racing games.

It even has a rival system akin to Need for Speed: Most Wanted’s Blacklist to provide a simple story to motivate you to progress in the game.

5 Carmageddon

A Nightmarish Twist

Carmageddon started off as a straightforward demolition derby game in the early 90s, but took a grim, graphic, and post-apocalyptic twist often seen in vehicular combat games like Twisted Metal and Vigilante 8.

However, unlike competing vehicular combat games, Carmageddon steered clear of having your car mounted with machine guns and missiles, instead opting for ramming to be your weapon of choice, maintaining its demolition derby roots.

The game is bizarrely gore-filled for a racing game, with you gaining points for running over pedestrians. However, because of the controversial nature of running innocent people over, some versions replace the pedestrians with zombies.

Regardless of what you’re running over, it does provide an additional gameplay mechanic you won’t see in other demolition derby games.

4 FlatOut 2

Is No One Wearing A Seat Belt?

FlatOut 2

Racing Vehicular Combat

Released August 1, 2006 ESRB Teen // Mild Lyrics, Violence Developer(s) Bugbear Entertainment Publisher(s) Strategy First Engine ROMU Engine Multiplayer Online Multiplayer Platform(s) PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox (Original), macOS Powered by

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The FlatOut series is known for its unusual mechanic where you can eject the driver. This allows for some interesting, mini-game-style stunt modes like curling. However, the main modes revolve around chaotic racing and demolition derbies.

FlatOut 2 improved significantly on the FlatOut formula by adding more cars, tracks, and mini-games. Much of the content from the original FlatOut made its way to FlatOut 2, although the driving physics are slightly different.

It’s not the most realistic take on demolition derbies, but if you ignore the mini-games, it’s not too far. The core of the game revolves around derbies, so even though you can play a short game of darts by shooting your driver through the windshield, it’s absolutely a demolition derby game at heart.

3 Destruction Derby: Arenas

Style And Substance

Destruction Derby Arenas took the Destruction Derby series to an over-the-top and stylish place, complete with unique characters and cars to match their personalities, as well as extremely interesting environments.

It’s an arcade racer, with pickups on the ground and everything. However, it maintains that it’s a demolition derby game, with your only weapon being the car you are driving.

Each track has a track champion, often reflecting the exaggerated style of the track, and you have to score more than that champion to unlock them.

The score is generally earned by causing chaos like crashing into others, creating a surprisingly compelling reason to replay the game, as it can be difficult to get a high enough score and win the race or arena match at the same time. After all, crashing your own car isn’t exactly a winning strategy for a race.

2 Wreckfest

A Festival Worth Crashing

Wreckfest

Vehicular CombatRacing

OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg:80/100 Critics Rec:77%

Released June 14, 2018 ESRB T For Teen Due To Mild Lyrics, Mild Violence Developer(s) Bugbear Entertainment Publisher(s) THQ Nordic Engine ROMU Engine Multiplayer Online Multiplayer Number of Players 1-16 Platform(s) Android, iOS, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S How Long To Beat 18 Hours Metascore 79 PS Plus Availability N/A OpenCritic Rating Strong Powered by

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Wreckfest is a spiritual successor to the demolition derby games of the late 90s and early 2000s, coming from the developer of the FlatOut series, but taking cues from more realistic games.

The genre may have waned a bit, but Wreckfest treats it with respect and serious admiration rather than as a gimmick to tack on, like the Battle Royale mode in The Crew Motorfest.

It has a good combination of rough banger races complete with jumps, t-bones, and head-on collisions, as well as your classic, hit-anything-that-moves style destruction derby complete with a variety of unusual vehicles.

Who doesn’t want to crash fixed-up lawnmowers into each other?

1 Test Drive: Eve Of Destruction

It's A Way Of Life

Test Drive: Eve of Destruction isn’t just a great game, it’s a love letter to demolition derbies. It has surprisingly realistic and satisfying driving physics, especially for the time, and collisions are hard-hitting.

What makes it really stand out, however, is the unique race types and events that are based on actual events you might see at a demolition derby like chain races or school bus races.

There is a lot of variety that will keep you from tiring of the game. You will even unlock footage from actual demolition derbies as you progress, showing the team was willing to go all out on research.

The campaign also has an interesting, almost ​​​​​​roguelike element to it, where damage to your car can be permanent. This means you often have to manage a revolving fleet of junky vehicles to make it through events where you’re expected to damage cars.