A racing game is a video game in which the player drives a vehicle against rivals or the clock, aiming to finish first or set the fastest lap. For brands it puts a car, a can or a mascot on the track and gives people a lap time worth beating and sharing.
How it works
You pick a vehicle, line up and race round a track for position or the best time. Wikipedia places racers on a spectrum: simulations try to reproduce how a real car handles, while arcade racers put speed and fun first, with far looser physics. Kart racing, popularised by Super Mario Kart in 1992, simplifies the driving and adds obstacles and power-ups.
Two devices bring players back: the time trial, where you race the clock alone, and the ghost car, which follows the last or fastest path round the track, so you can chase your own best, a friend's run or a pro's. Brand racers in our library lean arcade: Red Bull Racers ran on one button, and Peugeot's RCZ R Test Race steered by tilting the phone.
Where brands use it
Automotive brands put the real model on the track and set a time to beat: Peugeot's RCZ R Test Race pitted players against its driver Kevin Abbring's lap of a hand-drawn Nürburgring. Energy drinks and motorsport sponsors race too. Red Bull's Augmented Racing, advertised on the box of a 12-pack, built a track from its 12 cans; Mobil 1 marked its 50th anniversary with rival laps set by racing pros inside Forza Motorsport. Food brands borrow the format: Stonefire set an unofficial naan-collecting route in Mario Kart, and Chobani sent oat milk across space in a Roblox race. Our racing and sports filter holds 147 games, football and tennis included.
When it fits
Choose a racing game when motion belongs to the product or the story: a car, a tyre, an energy drink, a motorsport sponsorship. A lap time is a contest everyone understands, so it carries a leaderboard and dated prizes well; anyone who beat Peugeot's driver went into the running for a real drive at the Nürburgring. Short laps invite another go, and a dare to beat your time is easy to share: Acura's racer below passed 300,000 plays in its first week with no paid support. Built as a template, a racer travels: EPIC says Red Bull Racers was deployed in more than 60 countries. If your audience already races in Forza, Mario Kart or Roblox, meet it there with an in-game event.
When not to use it
Skip it when speed would become the message. The UK CAP Code bars motoring marketing that condones irresponsible driving or makes speed its main message, though a car may be shown on a track clearly not used as a public road. The code can apply to advergames on a brand's own site (ASA), and animation is no shield: in 2012 the ASA ruled against an online Toyota GT86 video set in an animated city, finding its driving and speeds could be copied on real roads. Check with counsel. Players compare handling with racers they own: X-Play found Burger King's racer less fun than Mario Kart (Wikipedia). A lap explains no features; a trivia game does. For one-thumb play with no track, try an endless runner.
Examples from the library
PocketBike Racer — Burger King (2006)
Agency: Blitz Games (developer), CP+B · Platform: Xbox and Xbox 360
Players pick a rider from Burger King's cast, among them The King, Subservient Chicken and Whopper Jr., and race pocketbikes on five tracks, one of them a Burger King car park. Instead of grabbing items, you drive through gates to fill a meter, then spend it on a turbo or a weapon such as a homing rocket. The disc sold only in Burger King restaurants, $3.99 with a value meal.
Result: Burger King reported sales only for its three Xbox games together. In its results for the quarter to 31 December 2006, its CEO called the collection the holiday season's best-selling video game, with more than 3.2 million copies sold, and credited it and the Value Menu with higher sales and restaurant traffic. More in our story of Burger King's Xbox games.
Kart Fighter 3 – Unbeaten Tracks — Red Bull (2013)
Agency: Kempt Ltd. (developer, UK), published by Red Bull Media House · Platform: App, iOS and Android
A top-down kart racer in the spirit of Micro Machines: players picked an oddball vehicle such as a lunar buggy, snowmobile or hovercraft and raced laps across more than 25 tracks at launch, later 45. Before each race they chose full manual control, auto-accelerate or auto-steer. Around the races sat a career ladder, a garage for repaints, a free daily spin in the randomised Quick Play mode and fastest-lap challenges with Facebook friends. The game was free.
Result: More than 10 million downloads in the five days after release and a top-10 place in over 100 countries, according to Zooom, the agency that made its media kit.
Beat That — Acura (2020)
Agency: MullenLowe U.S., Active Theory, Plan8 · Platform: Web and Facebook Instant Games
Spun out of a TV spot in Acura's "Less Talk, More Drive" campaign, the game opens in a phone or desktop browser, with nothing to install. Six tracks each paired an Acura with a gaming era, from a 1991 NSX on an 8-bit beach to more photo-real looks. Laps lasted 30 to 60 seconds, and beating the target time opened the next car. Best laps went on daily and all-time leaderboards; share cards dared friends to beat them.
Result: More than 300,000 plays in 160 countries in its first week with no paid support, according to American Honda as reported by MediaPost. Acura's social team said players averaged more than five minutes, and a couple of hundred had already played more than 25 times.
FAQ
What is the most popular racing game?
Sales point to Mario Kart. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had sold 71.53 million units worldwide by 30 June 2026, counting bundled and downloaded copies, more than any other Switch game, according to Nintendo. Brands have ridden along: in August 2014 Nintendo added three free Mercedes-Benz cars to Mario Kart 8 and ran an online Mercedes Cup, its press release says.
Where can I play a branded racing game for free?
Most branded racers closed with their campaigns. Acura's Beat That, above, still runs in the browser at playbeatthat.acura.com. Two more that our library lists as playable: Interparfums' The Race, a neon night drive in a desktop or phone browser, and NASCAR Tycoon on Roblox, where you build a race team and then race the other players on your server. Our still playable collection gathers more games you can open today.
Is a racing game the same as a driving simulator?
Not quite. A racing game is about the competition; a driving simulator reproduces how a vehicle behaves and is also used for driver training and research, with no race at all. Wikipedia treats simulation as one style of racing game and arcade as another; brand racers lean arcade.