Around this time last year I criticised The Game Awards for continually forcing racing games to share a common category with sports games, to compete for recognition at whats described (by The Game Awards) as gamings biggest night.Up until this year it was an award no traditional sports game had ever actually won. The category had been totally dominated by racing games, with the exception of 2015 (Rocket League, which still has cars in it) and 2020 (Tony Hawks Pro Skater 1+2, which is still on wheels). This year FC 25 got the gong. Just a single racing game made the shortlist: F1 24. A great racing game, no doubt, but one thats hard to argue was an immediately essential upgrade for those who already owned F1 23, or F1 22, or so on. What else couldve made it? Monster Jam Showdown? Good fun (which shouldnt be surprising given the developers recent form with the Hot Wheels Unleashed series) but I wouldnt fancy its chances at The Game Awards. Le Mans Ultimate? Well, thats still ostensibly in Steam Early Access, even though theyre already selling in-game DLC before the games officially finished. Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown? No chance. The sad reality is there simply werent enough racing games released in 2024, full stop. For the first time I can remember in my nearly 14 years at IGN, we didnt even hand out an award for the years best racer. There just werent enough of them to even pad out a list of finalists.Sad stuff.Now, for clarity, I have had a number of fresh reasons to slide behind a steering wheel this year, but the bulk of these opportunities have arrived as updates to existing racing games I already own. Most months of 2024 have seen an injection of new cars and content for Gran Turismo 7. As is usually the case with GT, not all those cars have had a solid racing pedigree, but I wont pretend Im not at least mildly interested in seeing how fast an eight-year-old Toyota Hiace can lap the Nordschleife.A 2024 expansion to EA Sports WRC added several new cars and two new countries: Latvia and Poland. The new countries feature some excellent stages, and it makes a lot more sense for Codemasters to improve WRC this way than immediately put it on a yearly, F1-style cadence (if only the asking price for the DLC wasnt as uncomfortably close to the cost of an entirely new game anyway).I wont pretend Im not at least mildly interested in seeing how fast an eight-year-old Toyota Hiace can lap the NordschleifeOn the flip side, The Crew Motorfest literally became 50% larger for free, with all players getting access to the entire island of Maui, added to Motorfest in November. Maui is not a bespoke area; its been seamlessly injected into the games existing world (and developer Ivory Tower has even added a fantasy connecting bridge, meaning you have a choice to either fly, boat, or drive to Maui from Oahu without any loading screens. It admittedly hasnt turned me into a Motorfest regular, but there are some satisfying stretches of road and some nice areas on Maui which is obviously a lot quieter than the more densely-populated Oahu.Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown has grown in a similar fashion with its Ibiza expansion (although dont expect a bridge from Hong Kong to the Mediterranean). Solar Crowns Ibiza map is a fairly small section of the island that may come as a nostalgic bonus for those players who recall blasting around the Spanish party paradise in 2011s Test Drive Unlimited 2, but its hard to say whether itll turn around Solar Crowns slow start. The map, after all, wasnt Solar Crowns main problem.PlayMount Panorama has finally found its way back into Forza Motorsport in its most-recent update, but I have to admit Im extremely disappointed with all the fake sponsors used throughout the track. It just makes it appear totally inauthentic compared to Bathurst in Assetto Corsa Competizione, Gran Turismo 7, and even Forza Motorsport 7 all of which feature real sponsors. It feels like a bizarre step backwards for the series, but hopefully it can be redressed. The update arrived along with a bunch of antipodean automobiles that have largely been seen in the series before, but nonetheless appeal to me as a dedicated Australian meathead. Theres only one new car, but it is a great one: a 1991 HSV Commodore VN Group A SV. If theres one thing I like more than Australian cars, its the 1990s, so this fills both of those criteria. Despite its faults, Forza Motorsport's garage philosophy is still more global than GT or NFS.And speaking of the 90s, Need for Speed Unbound just added a motorbike, which is a surprising and impressive first for a series thats literally celebrating 30 years since its 1994 debut this month.So, sure, theres been plenty of tinkering still going on beneath the bonnets of most of the biggest racers in the business, but very little new blood in the genre in 2024.Thats worrisome, particularly as younger generations continue to exhibit an increasing disinterest in cars in general, but I do think 2024 is probably just an aberration.The Greatest Racing Games EverI say this because 2025 is looking extremely exciting in the racing space. Assetto Corsa Evo promises to be one of the biggest racers of the year and, with the 1,600-square kilometre open world map in development for it, I do mean that literally. JDM: Japanese Drift Master from Polish studio Gaming Factory has shown promise for some time, and you can already check out a free demo of this on Steam now. Tokyo Xtreme Racer is set to return after a nearly 20-year absence. Project CARS spiritual successor Project Motor Racing is scheduled to arrive in 2025. Its got the Lister Storm in it.Yes please.And thats just some of what we know about already. Will Wreckfest 2 arrive in 2025? The planned release date for that is yet to be confirmed, but that should be something special. Is 2025 the year we hear about the future of Forza Horizon? Next year will mark four years since Forza Horizon 5, after all.Either way, Ill see you at the starting line.IGN's 2024 AwardsLuke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.