The only normal genre-based game award here and it is as it says
Racing games are a big part of Gamer Matters, mostly because a majority of our writers are into cars and racing games. As such, this is the only genre-specific category being offered as an award on the GM GOTY Awards.
This year sees a bigger grid compared to last year’s two nominees.
Past Winners: Hot Wheels Unleashed, Hotshot Racing, Need For Speed Heat, Forza Horizon 4
Best Racing Game Nominees
- Gran Turismo 7
- Grid Legends
- Need For Speed Unbound
How The Winner Is Decided (Deliberations Summary)
Link to the full podcast episode featuring the deliberations will be added soon
As interesting as having a three-way title fight is, it only amounts to the occasional challenge. While Grid Legends’ hyperbolic story mode is certainly a welcome injection of excitement, it still creams too much of Grid (2019) again to make it a proper contender for the win.
Gran Turismo 7 has a strong advantage. The return to form of this long-running series was definitely the favourite. But here comes a new challenger right at the cut-off date. Need For Speed Unbound is also a return to form, and one would argue pushed more boundaries than GT7’s climb back to its status quo.
And that argument was made, which leaves us with a clear race winner.

Best Racing Game Winner
Congratulations to Need For Speed Unbound for winning Best Racing Game! Its bold aesthetic change, a great hook to set up the single-player campaign and enjoyable handling physics gets it the W.
Check out the GM GOTY Awards 2022 hub for the rest of the categories and winners. The page will be updated as we announce the winners every day until December 31.