Wccftech’s Best Sports and Racing Games of 2023 – Cruising to the Finish Line
03.01.2024 - 19:59
/ wccftech.com
/ Best
2023 wasn’t necessarily a banner year for either sports of racing games. The various annualized sports franchises largely kept things safe and predictable, although MLB The Show 23 did some interesting things with its new Storylines mode. On the racing front, the new Forza Motorsport was the headliner, although Ubisoft delivered a surprise in the easy-to-get-into new open-world racer The Crew Motorsport. Rev up your engines for Wccftech’s Best Sports and Racing Games of 2023…
Also in Wccftech's Best Games of 2023 lists: Shooter, Fighting, and RPG, Action, Indie, Adventure, and Horror
The Football Manager series may not seem like it changes all that much from year to year, and frankly, that’s how the franchise’s dedicated fans like it. The foundation is rock solid, so there’s no need for a major overhaul. Instead, Football Manager 2024 provides a variety of smaller tweaks and tech improvements. Add a very supportive community and healthy modding scene to the mix, and those who love to play armchair club manager should have a reliably great time with this year’s game.
Visual Concepts (the folks behind the NBA 2K and WWE 2K franchises) took their first crack at the Lego IP this year, and the results were fairly solid. Lego 2K Drive isn’t a groundbreaking sandbox racer by any means, but if you’ve got Lego-lovin’ kids in the house, they’ll have plenty of fun with this one. Just beware the game’s shifty microtransactions. Here are my thoughts from my full review…
“Lego 2K Drive is a nicely-polished ride, offering up unexpectedly-intense kart-racing action and a handful of diverting sandbox stages to explore. Unfortunately, the game is also a bit light on content and its aggressive microtransactions may make parents looking for something light to play with their kids pump the brakes. Lego 2K Drive is still worth considering, particularly once it goes on sale, but it feels like it’s a few bricks short of what it could have been.”
While Wccftech never got around to writing a full review, I have had the opportunity to play some of The Crew Motorfest and found Ubisoft Ivory Tower’s open-world racer a surprisingly smooth ride. Approachable driving physics, a nicely laid out Hawaiian sandbox, and a generally chill atmosphere makes this a fun racer to just zone out with. Does The Crew Motorfest break any particular new ground? Not really, but it’s been a couple years since the last Forza Horizon game and other potential competitors like Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown skipped 2023, so The Crew Motorfest did a solid job of filling an otherwise empty niche in 2023.
As mentioned, 2023 wasn’t a particularly exciting year for annualized sports franchises, but MLB The Show 23 did add some significant new features like the