I suppose crash team racing would be considered retro now.

I spent countless hours finding all the secret paths and shortcuts

Sonic the Hedgehog for Sega, Super Maro Bro for the NES, along with Zelda, and Hotwheels micro racer. Blaster Master waa also a super fun game that I am on the hunt for. Far as Road Rash loved the PS1 version. Also play the shit out of Cruising the USA for the Nintendo 64.

Lots of great ones mentioned here and while I don’t know if it’s my favorite, I have a deep soft spot for Super Off-Road. It has an incredible spatial sense and fluidity for its time and still holds up at any barcade.

Lotus III or Micro Machines probably. Maybe Road Rash (either version).

I hate that I can call this “retro” now, but 100% INITIAL D arcade machine or PSP game.

SPEEDY SPEED BOY

GASOLINE’S BURNIN’ IN

Outrun, especially Outrun 2. I like arcade style racers the most.

Also in that vein, San Francisco Rush.

Ridge Racer for the PlayStation

Radical Psycho Machine (RPM) Racing for the SNES!

Fun fact, this was one of the few games that played entirely in the SNES’ High Resolution graphics mode!

Ridge Racer 4 on PlayStation. Such great mechanics. It’s genuine fun.

Mario kart is the only racing game I’ve ever been good at.

So, I’ll take Mario Kart 64 as my best retro pick.

The first that come to mind are, in no particular order:

Need for speed hot pursuit (PC)

Sonic drift 2 (game gear)

Monaco F1 (mega drive)

Death Rally (PC)

Big Red Racing (PC)

Ballistics (PC)

WipeOut (psx)

The racing game in the Sega 4in1 pack (game gear)

Virtua Racing (mega drive)

Micromachines (mega drive)

Penny Racers (psx)

All very different from another.

I guess it depends on the definition of “Retro”. I never got into racing games until Jet Moto and Wipeout on the original Playstation.

Top Gear 3000. It’s the main reason why I have a SNES emulator installed on every device I own lol.

Grand Prix on Atari was pretty fun.

I was going to say SNES Mario Kart, but really I think it’s GC Mario Kart: Double Dash.