Race Driver: GRID gameplay.

2008’s Race Driver GRID is perhaps best known for its magnificent sense of speed and its detailed damage model which, at the time, was unrivalled. It also struck a fantastic balance between arcade and sim racing which made it accessible to newbies to the genre, while managing to appease sim purists.

One big strength of GRID which is often overlooked however, is its career mode. To begin with there is a great sense of progression. This is due to the game’s huge variety in cars and event types. You will start street racing beat up muscle cars before eventually progressing all the way to 24 hours at Le Mans where you will be presented with state of the art LMP1s.

The sense of attachment to your team is helped a huge amount by the ability to customize your own liveries. The detailed editor means you can choose everything from the size and position of your racing stripes, to the types of sponsors you want represented on your cars. The quality of sponsors on your car is also reflected in your earnings after each race, adding again to your sense of progression.