WHY HANDLING PHYSICS ARE INSANELY IMPORTANT IN RACING GAMES

Added: 2026-05-04

[00:00:00]What's going on everybody and welcome to another video. I think handling physics or driving physics in a video game especially a racing game are really really important to make the experience of that game actually last and kind of make you or invite you to play the game.

[00:00:17]Feel like when this aspect is ruined in a video game, it makes me not want to play it. I feel the same with a lot of other games. It's like if there's a massive portion of its gameplay that is just flawed, it makes me not want to play the game. I think a lot of people would agree with me saying that. I don't think this is like a a weird take or anything like that. I feel like if again, if it's a massive portion of the game, such as for driving games, if the handling physics or the driving physics in the game are ass, I feel like it pushes you away from the game. So, in today's video, I want to talk about the five or six different driving physics of the games that I have listed in today's video. So, I'm going to go through some of these and obviously we're going to talk about the differences of all of them and what's inviting you to play the game. You know, what's what's the best thing about their handling physics or what's the thing about their handling physics that make you not want to return to play the game? I'm a fan of the Forza franchises because of their handling physics. I think it's simple. It's arcade-like obviously, but it's simple enough, but it has aspects of real life added to them, right? So, I'm going to kind of describe and go through a lot of these. I have a bunch of different games that I kind of want to compare. I'll put the gameplay up on the stream for each game as well, and I'm going to talk about it. I'm going to leave Forza until the very end because that's the game that like I said I kind of like the most in terms of its handling physics. But I'm also going to group together Gran Turismo with that game because it follows the same sort of dynamic I guess. So those two I'm going to leave till the very end and I'm going to talk about those why those are kind of the best in my opinion when it comes to the driving physics. Not the best as in like it's the the the most realistic or the most real to life, but it's the best as in so many people can just hop on with different peripherals and be able to play the game and enjoy it because they've done a good job with the type of assists that they used for controller, for the wheel, for keyboard and mouse or whatever it is that they used so people can play the game. And I'm also going to leave probably some of the games out of this list. There's obvious obviously a lot of games out there, but I'm going to try and pick like the biggest ones in my opinion. So, we'll start off at the very very low end of the scale in my opinion.

[00:02:30]And that is that is a set of Corsa. Now, I'm talking about original Sento Corsa.

[00:02:36]And before people are going to cry at me, they're like they're going to start moaning at me. It's like, I can't believe you put this game at the bottom of the list for handling physics. This is this is literally similar. This is what people like. Yes. And no. I think this is this is a fantastic game if you want to play on a wheel. That's it. Full stop. Period. Whatever you want to call it. That's it. This is one of, if not the best game to play if you are playing on a wheel. Okay, that that's there's no doubt about it. Okay, I'm not denying that. But when it comes to a mass population, like when it comes to a lot of people that want to play game like this, it's not very good because you're kind of excluding all the people that have keyboard and mouse, people that want to play on a controller. You're excluding a lot of those people and it's very difficult to get controls done right because they don't have the correct handle physics. They've done a really good job with a set of Corsa Evo though, which is kind of where I'm going to give give them like some props. A set of Corsa Evo has done a very good job at trying to uh I guess uh get better with uh creating handling physics or assists for the people that are using a controller or a keyboard and mouse and it makes the game so much more enjoyable for those people that are playing that game. Okay, with those peripherals.

[00:03:49]Again, playing on a wheel completely different story. I 100% agree with everybody saying that it is one of, if not the best game to play on a wheel.

[00:03:56]Again, it also requires a lot of mods if you want to try and have loads of different types of cars in the original set of Corsair. But that's a different story. We're not going to go there. But I think a set of Corsera when it comes to playing on controller and keyboard and mouse and the versatility of the game, I think it's super super low. And that's the only reason why this is at the bottom of the list at the moment because when you're driving around in that game, you basically have your left analog stick, which is kind of like just a wheel, right? That it's supposed to simulate the wheel that's in front of you and how the wheels turn left and right, where it's very difficult to try and do a balance of both of those because it's split into so many little sub menus, trying to force it to be able to handle the way you want it to handle.

[00:04:36]And there's so many, like I said, little sub menus and you're never going to get it completely right. and the assist are just not there for you to help you do what you need to do to make the game playable on a keyboard and mouse or on a controller. So, you're always either going to have the steering wheel spin too quickly or spin too slowly. You're going to be able to catch slides that happen too quick. Like, it just again the assists just aren't there and it's just not very good for the mass majority of people. Not the mass majority of people being people that play with cheaper peripherals, stuff that's not on wheel basically. Um, next up, I think I'm going to give it to Need for Speed Unbound or just the Need for Speed franchise in general. Over the past 10 years, they've kind of used a very, very similar handling model since Need for Speed 2015 came out. I've talked about this uh I think a little earlier as well, where I just think that Need for Speed has has been plagued with this whole break to drift thing. It it doesn't really focus too much on the handling side of it. It's more like let's just go as quick as possible around a corner no matter what and try and make it look as stylish as possible. Right. That's that's that's what that's where my mindset is in this. I've also played I think some of the older neutra speeds on a wheel. They're not great. It it you still have to drive them the same as you do on a controller. So when you're like when you go out into a slide or something like that, you're kind of still steering more into the corner to try and increase its angle in it instead of steering against it and you have you can you know when you like let go of the wheel or you let the the car counter steer, you know, the weight of the car, it just doesn't it you just don't do that. It doesn't feel like that. So again, it's a very strange experience driving that game on a wheel. Keyboard and mouse and controller. Again, it's very very arcadey and of course everybody knows it's arcadey, but the handling physics just I don't know.

[00:06:20]there's something about them that just don't click with me, if that makes sense. Again, they're super arcadey and of course if you get used to the driving physics in the game, it it it's not that it's unplayable, you know, like I'm not calling it completely unplayable. Um I think I called the original Need for Speed 2015 somewhat unplayable due to the fact that it was a very very long time ago and a lot of the the cars in the game just tunnneled very very poorly. But again, it is very much a kind of break to drift sort of thing. I feel like that's the fastest way to go around corners and it just feels strange, you know, when you're trying to do like a a regular proper driving line around a corner and you and you're just basically slow. You're slower if you were to drive the way the game intends you to drive, if that makes sense. So, when you're doing any sort of races against actual other people where they utilize the mechanics in the game properly, break to drift is like massive in that game. Like you just getting a car to a slide, even if it's just a tiny bit of a slide, going around a corner is just very very strange in that game. The handle physics and Need for Speed in my opinion need a need a big rework. If they ever release or when they ever release the next Need for Speed, I think they need a rework and they have to try and focus more on uh on how the cars drive in real life. Not necessarily make the game a simulator, but try and make it so it's understandable and easy to to use. I think in my opinion, Need for Speed Underground 2 had some of the best driving physics. They're fully arcade, by the way. Very, very arcadey. It has nothing to do with break the drift and all of that. You go around the corner by actually hitting the proper lines around the corner. You drift by actually drifting. Again, the drifting in the game was garbage, right? You don't even go around counter steering. It's the same as like I don't even know how to explain it to people, but like you just kind of increase or decrease the angle of the car. It's actually a lot closer to what like car X is than what Need for Speed nowadays is to Need for Speed on Ground 2, if that makes sense. You kind of just increase the angle by steering more into the corner and decrease the angle by steering away from the corner.

[00:08:16]Again, it just feels very arcadey, but it's it's understandable driving physics. Does that make sense? Like especially when you're racing that it just it makes sense. That's why this is very very low on the list in my opinion. I'm not really rating these, but in my opinion on how good or bad the dragon physics are in this game, I think I'm going to try and like put them in that sort of list. Next up, I want to add The Crew there. I think The Crew has had a very interesting few iterations. Obviously, the Crew one and The Crew 2 um I have played quite a bit. Actually, the Crew 2 I've played a lot of. Uh the Crew Motor Fest I've played a good bit as well.

[00:08:54]Feel like the driving physics in this game are just a bit weird. You know why they're weird? Because it doesn't feel like you're actually controlling the car itself. What it feels like in this game is that the car itself on top is just a block of something, right? It doesn't feel like it has any weight to it or anything like that. It just feels like it's a it's a block of something. I don't know why I want to call it a block of cheese, but it's like a block of cheese on some sort of a support underneath. It doesn't feel like you're actually controlling the wheels themselves. Um, as in like, you know, when you're accelerating and the wheels slip and or you're steering and the car turns because of the wheels turning, it feels like I'm turning the car because of the big block of cheese at the top that's turning direction. If that makes sense. I I don't know if that makes sense. It doesn't feel like you're actually controlling the the the wheels of the car themselves. It feels like you're controlling the actual like top of the car itself on how the direction changes. That's what makes the game feel very very weird to me. It's still very much playable and I think you can still play it on a wheel and enjoy it, I guess. But the arcade physics in this game just feel a little bit off to me in my opinion. That's why I'm not I've never been a big fan of the Crew uh in general in terms of driving physics.

[00:10:04]They're very much playable, super super arcadey. Once you get used to them, you you'll have no problem driving them, but you don't have the same sort of vibe or like it doesn't feel, like I said, as if you're controlling the actual car itself. It's like you're controlling what the car is about to do, if that makes sense. That's why I was never a big big fan of the Crew franchise when it came to its itic physics. I think they have a lot of good things about the the game itself. Like there's there's many things about the game that's that's uh inviting to play. The map, the cars, customization, all that sort of stuff.

[00:10:36]Um it's an inviting feature of the game to play, but the handic physics just lack in my opinion and they they seem a bit lower. I think it's a lot more playable and I think it's a lot more enjoyable to drive the cars in the crew though than it is to drive in Need for Speed though. That's that's 100%. Um, but I still don't think that they they're good enough, if that makes sense. Next up, I want to go up to Car X. Car X are a bunch of games that obviously they've brought out without having licensed cars or anything like that, but they've done a good job at trying to replicate or mimic uh handling physics, real life handling physics, cars under steer, cars over steer.

[00:11:17]However, the only thing that is different about these games when it comes to driving on a controller or a keyboard and mouse is once the car enters a slide, the game auto counter steers for you. I think you can turn this feature off in pretty much every single car same though. So you can just go counter steer yourself. It's not going to have the same handling physics and I feel like it's going to be very very difficult to try and drift for example without having this assist on.

[00:11:44]Um but once the car actually gets sideways, you have to try and then control the angle of the slide with your left stick. very very similar to what the original Need for Speed on ground one and underground two was like when you go out drifting. Um, but in this game they've kind of stepped it up a a little bit more. It's really really enjoyable. There's something about it.

[00:12:08]They they've created their own driving physics when it comes to drifting and it's actually very very enjoyable. If you play it on a wheel, it's actually very good. The the the the wheel support for the Car X games is actually very very good. I think there's a bunch of wheels I think that still need to be reworked. I think for the new uh Carrick Drift Racing Online 2. I've seen people that are kind of thinking that they need a bit more work on their support. But Carak Street, for example, or Carri Drift Racing Online, the original one.

[00:12:36]I've seen a lot of people play on a wheel and they enjoy the hell out of that game. The force feedback is very good. I've even tried it on a wheel.

[00:12:41]I've tried both of the games on a wheel.

[00:12:43]They're very, very enjoyable. When it comes to handling physics on a keyboard and controller, again, they're really, really enjoyable. It does feel like you're controlling the tires, like the the grip of the tires is there. And the handling physics of your suspension and everything just seem to actually all take place and and work in that game properly. Again, the only thing that's kind of holding it back, if you can even call it that, is the drifting in the game. I feel like again, you're controlling the angle of the car with your left stick. It's like you increase it by steering more into the corner, or if you steer away from the corner, you decrease the angle. That's that's basically the only difference with with this game. So you don't you're not technically counter steering and then doing the whole decreasing or increasing the angle by counter steering still.

[00:13:29]You just don't counter steer at all. The game just counter steers for you. All you do is increase or decrease the angle. And it's it's an interesting aspect. It's it's it's an interesting thing. It makes the game very very easy to slide in in the game. But it's also very very satisfying when you're doing it. So, there's something about that game that for whatever reason, they've done a good job with turning arcade physics into something that's enjoyable to drive. And again, like I said, when you're actually racing regularly, it does feel very, very solid. It feels like, again, you're controlling the car's wheels underneath you, like the the cars under steer and over steer, and you can tune your cars in very specific ways where you can get the car to either over steer or under steer or make it incredibly balanced. You can go around corners very, very quickly. But it it's I think in my opinion a very very good arcade game if you want to try and get into into some arcade driving. Um I think CarX is a very very good choice for it if you're playing on a keyboard and mouse or on a controller. Now let's move up to Gran Turismo and Forza which I'm going to put these guys in the same category pretty much because they follow the same sort of rules.

[00:14:30]The cars that you drive around will handle very similarly to what real life cars are like. I'm not saying this because the cars are simulated. I'm not saying because the the games that you're playing are simulators, which they're not. They're still arcade games. Granted, there is no still an arcade game. You can play it on a wheel and it makes a world of difference. It makes the game really really enjoyable on a wheel and, you know, you have the best like some of the best force feedback. The game is fantastic to drive on. You can feel so much through the wheel. It's the same with Forza Motorsport. I feel like it's a it's a very good game on a wheel. The games are still arcade games, right? I think they've done a very very good job with the assist. I mean, they've had many, many, many years of practice. These are two absolute titans in the in the industry. Like, it's always been Gran Turismo and Forza. Those two are always like head-to-head since the early early days uh in in like the late '9s or the early 2000s, right? I think early 2000s is more like I think Forza, if I remember correctly. Uh Gr obviously came out on the PS1 as well. I think Forza Motorsport came out on the Xbox 360 first. Am I I'm probably wrong with this, but I remember playing on the Xbox 360. I remember playing Forza Horizon or Forza Motorsport 2 or three. Regardless, they are old games. They've had a lot of time and a lot of practice. I feel like Sweet did as well to be fair. But I feel like Grand Moment 4 has kind of perfected it because they want the cars to kind of drive like real life, but they had to make the assist very usable or like user friendly um to be able to get the game to actually sell and make it fun and enjoyable for people to return and play the game. What they do well is they have the assists in the game still work with the real life style of driving physics. The car's under steer, the car's over steer. It feels like you're controlling the slip of the tires. It feels like you're controlling the the the under steer, the the over steer of the car itself, not by controlling the top of the car, like in the crew, but like how the wheels move underneath the car. And that is the biggest thing. That is why these games, in my opinion, have some of the the best driving physics is because it does feel like you're still controlling the actual wheels of the cars in the game, right?

[00:16:42]So, as you're turning, the car obviously leans and turns. Again, there's so many different types of assist. I'm not talking about, by the way, when I say assist, I'm not talking about like traction control and stability control and all that. I'm talking about the assist, the the the the steering dampening and stuff that needs to happen and steering assist that need to happen for you to be able to have an enjoyable experience of the game. If it didn't have any at all, it would be like a set of Corsair where if you turn the left stick to the right fully at a certain speed, it doesn't matter what speed it is, you will end up under steering like the your you're it's like your character just denies any sort of uh you know handling that happens because basically what you're doing is from the center of the actual uh you know analog stick on your controller right from the center of that to the left of it which is a very very small movement if you're doing it with your thumb. In real life, you're technically turning the wheel from the middle of the wheel to full lock left or full lock right if that makes sense. So that's why it's very very important to have really good assists where obviously you try and you know you do that even if you do like very very small movements.

[00:17:51]You're not twitching the wheel so rapidly to the left or to the right. The game actually kind of allows you to create a smooth driving line by kind of reducing the amount of steering that's inputed to a certain degree. Cars will still end up under steering because of you steering a bit too harshly or too much, but they've definitely made it so you can have a much more enjoyable time when you're doing it. Again, it's it's that whole aspect of you having a good time with the game while still also maintaining a realistic type of handling physic.

[00:18:28]That is why I think Forza and Gran Turismo are going to be at the top of the list for me. I feel like some people would agree with me. I feel like some people may enjoy other games more, which is perfectly fine. You guys are free to basically enjoy whatever it is that you guys want to enjoy. This is kind of how my list goes for the for these the biggest games the biggest racing games out right now or the biggest racing games that have been out in the past decade. I feel like there's always other games that you can include to this list.

[00:18:52]You can include Grid, you can include uh B&G. Some people may even include GTA, but I don't see that as a racing game.

[00:18:59]That's more of like an open world game.

[00:19:02]Again, there's other games you can add to this list. Like I said, BMG is also very, very good, but it's not one of the big ones. It's not one of the titans, the ones that people play the most. And again, it's one of those games, B&G, where it's more of like the here's the really really like fun handling model, but it's also like a a very very good like crashing model, if that makes sense. So, most of the time when you're playing that game, you got to crash a lot because it's it's really really enjoyable to just crash in that game.

[00:19:28]But again, it makes it super super fun in that game to to try and play it that way instead of just being taken the game kind of seriously. And there's not really a lot of stuff to do in that game unless you mod it. So having mods in that game, having different tracks, having different cars, I feel like it's a lot more fun to mod. And again, that's the same with the original set of course. A set of course Eva obviously can be completely different now. But yeah, I think as the biggest games out there right now, that is kind of how I think I'd rate them. Like I said, some people may agree with me, some people may not, which is all fine. I mean, you guys can have your own opinions, of course. Um, don't slate others for having a differing opinion to you.

[00:20:06]That's just weird. Uh, but again, you can't call something the best, all right? Because it's not the best in my opinion. This is what my favorite ones are. Basically, I'm not saying that Forza has the best driver physics because the best just means something that nothing else can beat it where I'm talking about a personal preference in a game, if that makes sense. You know what I mean? up. That's why I think that some uh some of you guys are going to say, "Oh, but this is the best." Because I say it's the best.

[00:20:41]No, but it's funny. Uh regardless, I'm going to leave it there. Thank you for watching today's video. Let me know your thoughts down below. I'll speak to you guys later. Goodbye, everyone. Have a good day.