- TDU
Of course this one is the one that resulted in me entering your lives and you owe Atari a lot as you'd all be so much worse off without me and TDU ever existing :p It was the chilled back approach of the game, although it did revolve around racing you could have a lot of fun doing things that did not require skill. Being able to cruise in great cars around amazing scenery was just groundbreaking to me.
- Need For Speed Underground 2
This might come as a shock to you but I was once young and immature, and during this time I was not as classy as I am now :leaves: I loved creating chav-tastic cars on NFSU2 and it was unrivaled at the time. Of course it was NFS so the usual criticisms apply but at the age I was playing it, it was exactly what I wanted.
- Forza 3
I got the Limited edition with the USB etc and it was just a good game, the game allowed me to push myself and get better at driving on the game. Was it this one we had a fair few evenings racing together online? I seem to remember mellors being an absolutely awful driver.
- Gran Turismo 4
This is the first proper racing game that I got competitive on, I absolutely loved doing the endurance races on the game but my save files used to always corrupt and on a game that takes forever to get to a decent place it was heartbreaking.
- Midnight Club
Some good fun was had on this game, it wasn't amazing but it was a good time killer.
Notable mentions:
Outrun 2006 - I loved the Arcade style gaming on this, you didn't have to think much or put much effort into interacting with the game, it was just pure fun.
Crazy Taxi - I forgot about this games existence until I read Diablo's post. Much like above, very fun, not much thinking :D
The Simpsons Hit & Run - Is it a driving game? Meh, probs not, but still, I enjoyed the driving elements of the game :D
PGR4 - I loved the graphics on this, the gameplay wasn't quite as revolutionary but I felt the graphics were better than most of its rivals at the time.