I'm thinking I'll probably get F1 2014 but that's much more a simulator type game. I wondered what you guys would recommend that's more "pick up and play", exciting stuff? I quite liked some of the NFS games years ago but I couldn't care less about putting stickers on my car or the whole "car scene". Are there any great PS3 games where I can wallop my car around a circuit, with some level of realism and driver skill but without having to choose my gear ratios and tyres, preferably being able to knock other cars off the track

edit: I can take or leave weapons and powerups.

What is this genre - arcade racing? But not something like WipeOut, that's too darn fast!

Most recently I have played the original GRID and NFS: Hot Pursuit. Both fun but not quite what I want. The latter was a great setup too much about mini-games and challenges. And there are just so many games in the NFS franchise I can't keep up what is available!

Ridge Racer 7 is a (relatively) minimalist arcade racer, and a very good one at that. It is unrealistically drift-heavy, though, but if that does not bother you, I highly recommend it.

The later Ridge Racer Unbounded adds gimmicks such as destructable track obstacles and shortcuts, which - ironically - make the game much worse than its predecessors. To me, the attraction of RR has always been the pure speed, and striving for the perfect racing lines.

I like GTA V online racing. I think it is just the right amount of arcade and realistic driving games.

Ridge Racer Unbounded i play.

The steering goes sort of automatic, but the whole experience is realy good, also difficult i think.

I say its better then Wipeout.

I quite liked Blur. It's somewhat Mario Kart-esque in terms of gameplay, but with realistic graphics instead of Mario toony.

RR-U actually looks quite fun, although I am not keen on the "race through a city at night time" vibe so much - I find there's so much stuff on screen my eyes get tired sometimes. But then I guess by definition, actual track-based games are going to be more serious.

On the plus side, at least there are loads of games to choose from, mostly available cheap; I could get GT5 instead of GT6, an older NFS game, one of the classic Burnout games, etc.

Its not a open world game like they tell, and you can frag the police!