2024 DICE Racing Game Award Nominations Have Some Surprising Omissions

Next month, the annual DICE (Design, Innovate, Communicate, and Entertain) Awards return for the 27th year running to celebrate the best video game achievements.

Unlike The Game Awards, which are primarily voted by the media, the DICE Awards are voted by game developers. This arguably makes it a more prestigious award – think of it as the video game equivalent of the Academy Awards.

Ahead of February’s award show, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has announced the nominees for the 2024 DICE Awards. This includes four titles in the running for the Racing Game of the Year award – and there are some surprising omissions.

2024 DICE Racing Game of the Year Award nominations revealed

Unlike The Game Awards, which clumsily shoehorns racing and sports games together into one category, racing games have a standalone category in the DICE Awards. Four titles released last year are nominated for DICE’s coveted Racing Game of the Year award:

• Forza Motorsport
• Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 – Turbocharged
• Lego 2K Drive 
• F-Zero 99

In addition, What the Car?, a family-friendly driving game where you play as a car with legs, makes the list of Mobile Game of the Year nominations.

Despite its ongoing issues, as one of 2023’s biggest racing game releases, Forza Motorsport is likely a frontrunner for the award. It’s also great to see Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 – Turbocharged and Lego 2K Drive, two of 2023’s most overlooked racers, be recognised.

F-Zero 99 is a surprising but inspired choice. Released on Switch last year, F-Zero 99 puts a battle royale twist on the futuristic racing series, with up to 99 players racing on the same track at once. 

But more surprising is the titles that didn’t make the nominations list.

The Crew Mortorfest and F1 23 snubbed

While it’s great to see the racing genre represented, we’re surprised that two of 2023’s best racing games get snubbed. One noticeable omission is The Crew Motorfest. A standout in 2023, Ubisoft’s open-world racer gave Forza Horizon some much-needed competition.

Many fans felt it deserved to win the Best Sports/Racing category at the The Game Awards 2023 over Forza Motorsport. This could have been a chance for The Crew Motorfest to take the spotlight away from Forza Motorsport.

Considering the sport's popularity, we’re also surprised to see F1 23 not make the list of nominations. F1 22 was a Racing Game of the Year finalist in the 2023 DICE awards, yet F1 23 is widely regarded as an improvement thanks to its superior handling, the return of Braking Point, and the new F1 World mode breathing new life to the series.

While it was a late-year entry, it's a shame that EA Sports WRC wasn't nominated either. Codemasters' rally racer was buggy at launch, but that didn't stop Forza Motorsport from being nominated.

What makes these omissions even more surprising is that other categories have up to five nominees, so there was room for at least one more racing game to make the list.

We’ll find out which racing game finishes in pole position when the winners are announced on 15 February at the 2024 DICE Summit livestreamed by IGN. Gran Turismo 7 won the Racing Game of the Year award last year, beating F1 22 and Need for Speed Unbound.

Which racing game do you hope will take the crown at the 2024 DICE Awards? Let us know in the comments below.

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