The N64 had more Arcade racers and simulations than you can shake a hand at! (more then gamecube and wii has seen.)

What are some of your favorite racing games and why?

I have a lot that i thought were unique and memorable. Going top mention some not so obvious ones (ie. mario kart 64 and f-zero-x)

Extreme G was pretty cool for its time with it's high speeds (frame rate) and battle systems.

Top Gear Rally (one of my top favs.) I really love this title compared to all the other releases on the system. I think the level designs are superior and the physics/weather were quite sophisticated at the time. Not to mention the paint shop program where you could create some truly magnificent bodywork.

Beetle Adv. Racing introduced multiple paths with high flying jumps and breakable scenery. An amazing game.

Most people wont agree but i really spent tons of time playing arcade racing ports like San Francisco Rush, Hydro Thunder, Crusin' Series & Off-Road Racing which was a lot of fun with two or more players regardless of them being lesser than the arcade versions. Out of all of those mentioned San Francisco Rush has to top spot in my heart.

Why do you ask?

The hidden Alcatraz Course that was supposedly "deleted" from the Final Sale version which can be accessed with a Gameshark. I thought this was the coolest thing.

My alltime favourite has to be Top Gear Rally 2, I liked the first one a lot but the sequel was a huge improvement. In fact the entire Top Gear series were games I played a lot, Top Gear Hyper-Bike was insane, but Top Gear Overdrive was probably the biggest dissapointment to me, too Arcade'ish to be I guess.

Another game worth mentioning is Roadsters, the game was delayed over and over until it finally, thank god, saw the light of day.

I remember having played "San Francisco" too at some point. We had "an american" visiting us who happened to love that game and hyped it... not really my cup of tea though.

If i'd have to pick a true arcade racer on the N64, it would be Cruis'n USA.

I remember receiving top gear over drive for X-mas and was also disappointed. Returned it a few days later.

Rush's controls are stiff but exploring the rooftops and looking for hidden keys and jumps was so fun.

Played the heck out of Cruis'n Usa. It was a bit bland compared to Cruis'n World and Cruis'n Exotica.

Never did get a chance to play Top Gear Hyper-Bike

You should pick up Hyperbike then, it's really an awesome "off-road" bike racer :-)

i think i just may

Cruis'n World, Stunt Racer 64, Mario Kart 64, F-Zero X and Diddy Kong Racing are my favorites for N64.  8-)

Extreme G is really cool, but the frame rate is really awful and basically ruins the game for me. I liked fzero-x and beetle adventure racing a ton back in the day. I think fzero-x holds up quite well as the frame rate is great. Beetle Adventure feels a bit sluggish to me now.

I'd tried extreme G before and didn't like it - mainly for the bad controls. But I think it because I hadn't played with a thigh control stick. I've played a few racing on the n64 ( aero gauge, wipeout 64 and others) but my favorite is wipeout 64. Fast race ''à la'' F-zero style. Another that I want to get my hands on is one of the Cruis'N games. That were my favorite in the arcade back in the days ! :P

The N64 had alot of racers, racers is probably the most easiet game to make. Extreme G while "revolutionary" was no match for Starwars racer. However Extreme got a couple of series in it

The Crusin games is allways great. What is greater is playing it on Kalleria ;D. I could just sit their and play that game forever. Crusin USA was sappose to be my first game, when I was GA Ga for Nintendo. However the bastard made off with over 500 of my dollars.

The N64 racers was however overshadowed by the PSX games, which are still playable today. The difference was midnight club and the built in network playablity some PSX games had.