Racing games are about speed against a rival or the clock: finishing first, beating a lap time or covering as much ground as you can before time runs out. On the Atari 2600 they range from simple two-player contests on a single screen to scrolling courses with changing scenery, all drawn with the console’s handful of moving objects and coloured lines.
The genre was there from launch day. Indy 500 was one of the nine games sold when the console arrived in September 1977, and it came with its own driving controllers. They look like paddles, but the dial spins endlessly in either direction, so you can steer round a track without running out of turn. Carla Meninsky’s Dodge ‘Em (1980) mixed racing with a maze, as you collect dots while a computer car drives straight at you.
Activision brought more detail to the track. David Crane’s Dragster (1980) is a quarter-mile sprint where changing gear at the right moment matters most, and Larry Miller’s Enduro (1983) is a long-distance race through day and night, snow and fog. Atari’s Pole Position (1983) adapted Namco’s arcade game, making you set a qualifying time before the race itself. Racing also lasted into the console’s later years, with Atari releasing the top-down Sprint Master in 1988.
Pick a race from the list below, get on the grid and play right here in your browser.
Dodge ‘Em is a 1980 driving maze game for the Atari 2600, programmed by Carla Meninsky and published by Atari. Sears sold it under the name Dodger Cars. You drive round a four-lane track collecting dots while a computer car drives the other way, trying to hit you head-on. It takes seconds to learn and works just as well against a friend. You can play it here in your browser.
Fatal Run is a post-apocalyptic driving and shooting game made by Sculptured Software, programmed by Steve Aguirre and published by Atari. It was only ever sold in Europe, as a PAL cartridge in 1990, and it was one of the last official Atari 2600 releases. This page is the American NTSC version, which was never sold: it comes from the only known NTSC prototype, dated 1989. With 32K of program data it was the largest cartridge Atari released for the 2600. You can play it here in your browser.
Up’n Down is the Atari 2600 version of Sega’s 1983 arcade game, published by Sega for the console in 1984. You drive a little dune buggy, the “Baja Bugger” in the manual, along a winding road packed with traffic, and your one trick is a jump that lets you hop over other cars or crush them from above. It is a driving game where you need timing more than speed. You can play it here in your browser.
Street Racer is one of the nine cartridges that were on sale when the Atari 2600 launched in September 1977. Larry Kaplan programmed it, and Sears sold its own version as Speedway II. Despite the name, it is really a collection of six short paddle games: car racing, skiing, a jet shooter and more, with 27 variations in total. Every game lasts just over two minutes, so it works best as a quick head-to-head challenge. You can play it here in your browser.
Sprint Master is a top-down racing game that Atari released for the 2600 in 1988, late in the console’s life. It was programmed by Bob Polaro. One or two players race tiny cars around a choice of tracks, from simple practice squares to winding championship courses, on blacktop, dirt or ice. It is quick to pick up and works well as a two-player duel on one keyboard. You can play it here in your browser.
Spy Hunter is Sega’s 1984 Atari 2600 version of Bally Midway’s 1983 arcade hit. You drive a heavily armed spy car up a scrolling highway, taking out enemy agents before they take you out, and at the waterways the car turns into a speedboat. The 2600 cartridge was unusual because it needed two joysticks to play. You can play it here in your browser, with nothing to install.
Sky Jinks is a 1982 air racing game for the Atari 2600, designed and programmed by Bob Whitehead for Activision. You fly a low-level P41 racer through a course of pylons, watched over from above as the ground scrolls past, and try to beat the clock. It is a quick, one-player time trial that is easy to learn and hard to fly perfectly. You can play it here in your browser, with nothing to install.
Road Runner is a side-scrolling chase game based on the Warner Bros. cartoons, released for the Atari 2600 by Atari Corporation in 1989, one of the last games Atari put out for the console. Programmed by Bob Polaro, it puts you in the role of the Road Runner, racing along a desert highway, eating birdseed and staying one step ahead of Wile E. Coyote. It is short on rules and long on challenge. You can play it here in your browser.
Racer is an unreleased Atari 2600 driving game from 1982, programmed by Joe Gaucher at Roklan Software. It was Roklan’s first 2600 game and an original design rather than an arcade conversion. Roklan offered it to Atari, but Atari turned it down, so it only exists as a prototype. It is a very simple game, but its two-player mode, where you can ram your friend into the walls, is good fun for a few rounds. You can play it here in your browser.
Racing Car is an obscure Atari 2600 racing cartridge released in Europe under the Home Vision label. Home Vision was a Belgian brand, used by the company VDI, for 2600 games made by the Taiwanese company Gem International Corporation. Very little is documented about this cartridge, but you can still try it here in your browser.