Best games
Best Racing games on Sega Genesis
The 8 best Racing games on Sega Genesis, ranked from 570 critic and player ratings.
The best Racing game on Sega Genesis right now is Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament, with a critic score of 84/100 — updated September 2026.
How this ranking is built
- Games are ranked on the aggregated critic score out of 100 imported from IGDB and Metacritic, never on Tier's own grades.
- A game only enters the ranking with at least 30 external ratings, so a single enthusiastic review never outranks a proven classic.
- Community grades from F to S are shown next to every game, and only stated as a fact above 5 Tier ratings.
- Release window covered: 1970 to 2026.
- 8 games are listed on this page, carrying 570 ratings between them.
- Rankings are recomputed hourly; this one was last rebuilt on 29 September 2026.
Top 8
01
Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament
Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament featured cars that require different handling techniques for each course and also hovercraft and helicopters. There are different playing modes including "head-to-head", in which each player earns points by driving a full screen ahead of the opponent. TV presenter Violet Berlin features as a playable driver. The MS-DOS version featured a track editor. A selling point for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive version was the J-Cart, a cartridge including two control ports, thus eliminating the need for a 4-player adaptor. It also included a 'pad-sharing' feature which allowed 2 players to share a single joypad; thus it enabled 8 players to compete simultaneously, on certain tracks.
84
/100
02
Rock n' Roll Racing
The game pits four racers against each other, with up to two of them being player-controlled and the rest being AI opponents. Each race consists of four laps around tracks viewed from an isometric perspective, which enables players to discern the presence of frequent sloping sections spread throughout the game's various tracks. In addition to navigating the turns, racers must also maneuver hills and dips without falling or jumping over the guard rail at the track's edge.
80
/100
03
Road Rash II
Road Rashing isn't just a sport. It's an attitude! Road Rash II is the ultimate 2-player racing game with a radically unique split-screen for distinguishing between racers. Cruising cross-country was never this hairy! Spectacular new body-torquing wipe outs! More obstacles to crash into than ever before. Terrorize your opponents on 5 new tracks, each with 5 different levels. Swing a steel chain for some real heavy metal damage! 15 brand new, lightning-fast cycles, including nitro-equipped Super-Bikes!
72
/100
Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament
Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament featured cars that require different handling techniques for each course and also hovercraft and helicopters. There are different playing modes including "head-to-head", in which each player earns points by driving a full screen ahead of the opponent. TV presenter Violet Berlin features as a playable driver. The MS-DOS version featured a track editor. A selling point for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive version was the J-Cart, a cartridge including two control ports, thus eliminating the need for a 4-player adaptor. It also included a 'pad-sharing' feature which allowed 2 players to share a single joypad; thus it enabled 8 players to compete simultaneously, on certain tracks.
84
/100
02
Rock n' Roll Racing
The game pits four racers against each other, with up to two of them being player-controlled and the rest being AI opponents. Each race consists of four laps around tracks viewed from an isometric perspective, which enables players to discern the presence of frequent sloping sections spread throughout the game's various tracks. In addition to navigating the turns, racers must also maneuver hills and dips without falling or jumping over the guard rail at the track's edge.
80
/100
03
Road Rash II
Road Rashing isn't just a sport. It's an attitude! Road Rash II is the ultimate 2-player racing game with a radically unique split-screen for distinguishing between racers. Cruising cross-country was never this hairy! Spectacular new body-torquing wipe outs! More obstacles to crash into than ever before. Terrorize your opponents on 5 new tracks, each with 5 different levels. Swing a steel chain for some real heavy metal damage! 15 brand new, lightning-fast cycles, including nitro-equipped Super-Bikes!
72
/100
04
Road Rash 3
The Rash is back in the latest, nastiest, baddest race game for your Genesis. This time there's five NEW weapons, including the cattle-prod and crow bar. NEW race tracks take you across the globe, from the Aussie Outback to nighttime urban Japan. NEW modes raise the ante with the other Rashers while the NEW digitized graphics and interactive obstacles charge NEW life into the gameplay!
72
/100
05
Out Run
OutRun is a racing game originating in the arcades. The player can race across varied terrain in a readily available Ferrari, complete with a female passenger, over a series of short tracks. Gameplay is viewed form just above and behind the car. The roads are full of sharp bends and hazards, contact with which can cause the car to roll and lose the player's time. On each section of track there is a fork in the road, allowing the player to choose which direction he or she wishes to go in. The player has to to complete five track sections in total, out of the fifteen in the game.
71
/100
06
Paperboy
Paperboy is a 1985 arcade game by Atari Games originally developed in 1984 . The players take the role of a paperboy who delivers newspapers along a suburban street on his bicycle. The game was ported to numerous video game consoles and personal computers. Paperboy was innovative for its theme and novel controls. The player controls a paperboy on a bicycle delivering newspapers along a suburban street which is displayed in a cabinet perspective (or oblique projection) view. The player attempts to deliver a week of daily newspapers to subscribing customers, attempts to vandalize non-subscribers' homes and must avoid hazards along the street. Subscribers are lost by missing a delivery or damaging a subscriber's house.
71
/100
07
Road Rash (1991)
Road Rash is a high-octane motorcycle racing game where players become bikers competing in illegal races across the U.S.A. The game focuses on a series of races in California, which players must win to progress to more challenging competitions. Along the way, they engage in both unarmed and armed combat to outmaneuver other racers.
65
/100
08
Top Gear 2
This third-person racing game resembles Gremlin's earlier Lotus series, in terms of its general look and feel, right down to the text font used in the game. Your task is to race through 16 countries, each of which features four races, with many real-world circuits recreated in incongruous locations (such as the Monza layout in Ayers Rock, and the old Hockenheim in Vancouver). These four-race blocks each represent their own mini-championship, in which you race against 19 cars, needing to finish in the top 10 to continue, and with the top 6 scoring points 10-6-4-3-2-1, and the respective amount of money in thousands. This can be spent on various upgrades, ranging from engine to tires (wet and dry) and from shocks (front, side and rear) to gearboxes. The ideal approach is to buy the more expensive versions ASAP, as you get no saving when upgrading. If you win the four-race championship, you get the next password. You get a set amount of nitro boost to use during each race, although bonus nitros, money and instant speed-up token appear on many tracks. Hazards such as puddles, barriers and ramps are also frequent.
58
/100
Road Rash 3
The Rash is back in the latest, nastiest, baddest race game for your Genesis. This time there's five NEW weapons, including the cattle-prod and crow bar. NEW race tracks take you across the globe, from the Aussie Outback to nighttime urban Japan. NEW modes raise the ante with the other Rashers while the NEW digitized graphics and interactive obstacles charge NEW life into the gameplay!
72
/100
05
Out Run
OutRun is a racing game originating in the arcades. The player can race across varied terrain in a readily available Ferrari, complete with a female passenger, over a series of short tracks. Gameplay is viewed form just above and behind the car. The roads are full of sharp bends and hazards, contact with which can cause the car to roll and lose the player's time. On each section of track there is a fork in the road, allowing the player to choose which direction he or she wishes to go in. The player has to to complete five track sections in total, out of the fifteen in the game.
71
/100
06
Paperboy
Paperboy is a 1985 arcade game by Atari Games originally developed in 1984 . The players take the role of a paperboy who delivers newspapers along a suburban street on his bicycle. The game was ported to numerous video game consoles and personal computers. Paperboy was innovative for its theme and novel controls. The player controls a paperboy on a bicycle delivering newspapers along a suburban street which is displayed in a cabinet perspective (or oblique projection) view. The player attempts to deliver a week of daily newspapers to subscribing customers, attempts to vandalize non-subscribers' homes and must avoid hazards along the street. Subscribers are lost by missing a delivery or damaging a subscriber's house.
71
/100
07
Road Rash (1991)
Road Rash is a high-octane motorcycle racing game where players become bikers competing in illegal races across the U.S.A. The game focuses on a series of races in California, which players must win to progress to more challenging competitions. Along the way, they engage in both unarmed and armed combat to outmaneuver other racers.
65
/100
08
Top Gear 2
This third-person racing game resembles Gremlin's earlier Lotus series, in terms of its general look and feel, right down to the text font used in the game. Your task is to race through 16 countries, each of which features four races, with many real-world circuits recreated in incongruous locations (such as the Monza layout in Ayers Rock, and the old Hockenheim in Vancouver). These four-race blocks each represent their own mini-championship, in which you race against 19 cars, needing to finish in the top 10 to continue, and with the top 6 scoring points 10-6-4-3-2-1, and the respective amount of money in thousands. This can be spent on various upgrades, ranging from engine to tires (wet and dry) and from shocks (front, side and rear) to gearboxes. The ideal approach is to buy the more expensive versions ASAP, as you get no saving when upgrading. If you win the four-race championship, you get the next password. You get a set amount of nitro boost to use during each race, although bonus nitros, money and instant speed-up token appear on many tracks. Hazards such as puddles, barriers and ramps are also frequent.
58
/100
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Racing game on Sega Genesis?
Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament currently tops the ranking with a score of 84/100 across 41 ratings. Ranking updated September 2026.
How is this ranking built?
Games are ranked on their aggregated critic score out of 100, with a minimum vote threshold so a single glowing review never outranks a proven classic; the Tier community's own F-to-S grades are shown alongside each game.