Racing games have been a major part of the racing industry for decades. F1 titles deliver authentic track racing experiences, while franchises like Need for Speed dominate the street racing scene. Each game typically focuses on one specific racing style.
GTA 5 took a different approach. Despite being an open-world action game centered around heists and story missions, it managed to deliver a comprehensive racing experience that combines multiple racing types into a single package.
The racing mechanics in GTA 5 offer everything from organized track races to chaotic street competitions, off-road challenges, and even water-based races. In this article, we'll explore what makes GTA 5's racing system unique, how you can access the game and its racing content, and everything you need to know about the racing experience it offers.
What is GTA 5?
If you have been living under a rock over the last 12 years, GTA 5 is one of the most successful video games ever created. Released by Rockstar Games in September 2013, the game has sold over 215 million copies worldwide as of May 2025, making it the second best-selling game of all time, trailing only behind Minecraft.
The game follows three protagonists, Michael, Franklin, and Trevor, through a crime-filled story set in the fictional city of Los Santos. Players navigate through heists, missions, and an open world packed with activities that go far beyond the main storyline. The game has generated nearly $10 billion in revenue since its release, cementing its position as one of the most profitable entertainment products ever made.
GTA 5's popularity reached new heights in May 2020 when Epic Games Store offered the game for free, leading over 7 million people to create new Epic Games Store accounts specifically to claim the title. This promotion added millions of gta accounts to the platform and introduced a massive wave of new players to Los Santos. The demand was so overwhelming that it crashed the Epic Games Store servers for several hours.
What makes GTA 5 remarkable isn't just its initial success. The game continues to sell approximately 5 million copies every three months, numbers that most games never achieve in their entire lifetime.
GTA V Racing Experience
GTA V’s racing content goes far beyond traditional street races, offering players multiple racing modes and the ability to create their own tracks.
GTA Online currently features 20 different race modes, supporting up to 30 players across various categories including land races, bike races, air races, sea races, and the game's signature stunt races. Players can choose from different vehicle classes, adjust environmental settings like weather and time of day, and enable features like slipstream and catchup to balance competition.
The game's racing evolution came with the Cunning Stunts update, which introduced Stunt Races. Stunt Races utilize ramps, loops, wall rides, tubes, raised tracks and dynamic objects with tracks coiling up into the sky and skyscraper jumps. These aren't your typical ground-level races. Instead, they feature elaborate constructions built hundreds of feet in the air, complete with loop-the-loops, vertical wall rides, and massive jumps between floating platforms.
Rockstar gave players access to the Stunt Race Creator with over 250 props, allowing them to build custom racing tracks that spiral through Los Santos skyscrapers or summit Mount Chiliad. The creator includes everything from track pieces and ramps to speed boost pads, rings of fire, and even dynamic props like massive footballs. Players can snap pieces together to create seamless tracks, stack props to build multi-level structures, and design courses that would be impossible in real-world racing.
Final Words
GTA 5 proved that open-world action games can deliver racing experiences that compete with dedicated racing titles. The combination of diverse race modes, creative freedom through the Stunt Race Creator, and continuous community-driven content has kept the racing scene active for over a decade. Rockstar's decision to give players extensive customization tools transformed GTA Online into a platform where the racing possibilities are limited only by imagination. The game is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, with cross-generation support ensuring a large active player base for racing content.