Sim-racing covers virtually all motorsport disciplines, across all 3 categories of racing game. There’s arcade, sim-arcade and simulation, each with its own games. The aim here is to appeal to as many virtual drivers as possible, whether on consoles or PC.
If there’s one motorsport discipline where danger is omnipresent, it’s rallying. The special stages take place all over the world, on roads that are usually very narrow, with unfavorable weather conditions, and speeds well in excess of 150 km/h. To say that rally stages are treacherous is a mild understatement, as I prefer the expression: either it goes around the next bend, or it breaks.
So you don’t have to blow up your car thinking you’re Sébastien Loeb, sim-racing lets you enjoy the motorsport discipline of rallying. In what follows, we take a look at the best rally games on Playstation, Xbox and PC.
Dirt Rally 2.0
Dirt Rally 2.0 is a sim-racing title developed by Codemasters and released in 2019 on older-generation consoles, namely PS4 and Xbox One, and on PC too. It’s a racing game where you drive numerous rally cars that are entered in the WRC championship.
The license has its roots in a PS1 title that old-timers will immediately recognize: V-Rally. We’re talking about a game that’s more than 25 years old, and that was all the rage at the time, especially as it allowed us to drive the legendary 206 WRC, Subaru Impreza and Mitsubishi Lancer, as well as the Toyota Corolla.
In Dirt Rally 2.0, you drive several cars, and the driving experience is rather realistic, I must say, for a title that tends slightly towards the arcade (like Need For Speed, for example). The game is technically last-gen, but its graphics engine still holds up well, offering realistic physics, and graphics that are beautiful by today’s standards.
You’ll find it on the various platform stores for not too much money at the moment, making it a good addition to your sim-racing collection. What’s more, Dirt Rally 2.0 offers you the chance to drive in open-world mode on fairly large maps, which is a considerable plus.
EA Sport WRC
EA Sport WRC, or just WRC, is a sim-racing title published by EA, as is F1. It is officially licensed by the World Rally Championship (WRC), and is available on both PC and current-generation consoles, namely the PS5 and Xbox Series S/X. The title is recent, benefiting from beautiful graphics, even if some racers think Dirt is a hair better. Graphically speaking, and as far as I’m concerned, the two titles are equal.
As an officially licensed WRC game, EA’s title puts you in the shoes of a young rally driver who has to prove himself in order to win the world championship. You’ll start your career with a linear progression of race wins.
Where WRC differs from Dirt is that the career is much more squarely structured. You start out in a driving school with a small car, then go on to race and progress in competition. There’s none of the open-world aspect of Dirt, where you can simply drift on gravel in an open environment. Limited, yes, but big enough.
In terms of cars, there’s a wide selection to choose from, and the same goes for the circuits, or rather the special stages. WRC is a great game for rally fans, especially if you have a sim-racing setup to go with it, like the one offered by Fanatec (the CSL Elite WRC) with an officially licensed FIA steering wheel.
WRC Generations
Let’s end this list with WRC Generations, a game from Kylotonn. This is another officially licensed WRC title, released in 2022, so it’s not that many years ago. It’s a complete game, with over 100 rally stages on offer, accompanied by cars spanning several generations of racing cars.
Graphically speaking, it feels like what’s under the hood is old. The textures aren’t as detailed as the other titles on show, the physics are a little shaky and the audio just isn’t up to scratch yet, if you ask me.
Nevertheless, if you’re looking for a sim-racing title that touches on rallying, WRC Generations remains a choice worth considering. It’s available on several platforms – in fact, all platforms, whether Sony or Microsoft.
Which Rally Games to choose?
When it comes to making a choice in sim-racing, it’s always a tricky business in the sense that it’s difficult to be objective. My favorite sim-racing titles may not be identical to yours, and the same applies to sim-racing equipment in certain respects.
We’ve seen 3 sim-racing titles that specialize in rallying, namely Dirt Rally 2.0, EA Sport WRC and WRC Generations. There’s also Forza Horizon 5 and Dirt 5 with their rally and rallycross competitions, but I find that these are titles that touch on a bit of everything in sim-racing. However, each entry on the list is aimed at a very specific audience, which isn’t necessarily the same one, and it’s for this reason that the choice, in my opinion, can be made in the following way.
- Availability on your platform. There’s no point in buying an Xbox sim-racing game if you’ve got a PS5, even if Microsoft has changed its tune and wants to conquer Sony’s market. Spoiler Alert: it works! For our selection, all 3 are available in multiplatform, so no worries there.
- The price. Of the lot, Dirt Rally 2.0 is probably the cheapest because it’s a technically last-gen game, and you’ll find it for under €20 on most stores. EA Sport WRC is usually more expensive, but is on special offer at the time of writing. In fact, it’s the cheapest of the 3 at the moment.
- Graphics. On this point, it’s a toss-up between Dirt Rally 2.0 and EA Sport WRC, with a slight advantage for Dirt.
- Immersion. If you’re looking for total immersion, EA WRC is the game for you. The game is officially licensed, with a rally training school, a championship, realistic physics and all the rest. Dirt is also realistic in terms of vehicle behavior, but tends slightly towards the fun side with open-word tracks.
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