Owning a MINI is all the community around it, and it’s the only car brand to come with friends included. MINI owners share a universal love of this four-wheel wonder which has changed our lives for the better as many different characters, journeys and memories to share a lifetime in the open world. The world has now changed as we know it due to Coronavirus (COVID-19), but the digital world is still there. We all can remain connected with the one love that we all share our MINIs so here is a rundown of the great car games with MINIs in them to keep those smiles per hours going.
This list will include a mix of PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, Stadia & Mobile so you can play on your favourite gaming platform.
The Crew 2 – PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC & Stadia
The Crew 2 is an open-world game that has land, sea and air cover as you can switch between any time of vehicle anytime you want to give you the vehicle fix while you’re stuck indoors. The open-world is a mix of the US states in a large map which can be covered by a variety of vehicles including cars, motorcycles, boats, and aeroplanes.
The game features a nonlinear story that follows the unnamed player character as they go to become a racing icon in the United States by winning in all racing disciplines available in the game. There are four disciplines: Street Racing, Off-Road, Freestyle and Pro Racing. In Street Racing, the player is assisted by Latrell. In Off-Road, the player is assisted by Tucker “Tuck” Morgan. In Freestyle, the player is assisted by Sofia and her father. In Pro Racing, the player is assisted by Alexis.
MINIs in the game:
2010 – R56 MINI Cooper S
2013 – R60 Mini Cooper S Countryman All4
Both have a rallycross edition to them, and another plus to the Crew 2 is that you modify your car to your liking with visuals to fully race car with engine mods etc.
Need For Speed: Heat – PlayStation 4, Xbox One & PC
NFS: Heat returns to it’s rooted with the latest iteration with racers and police but this interesting take on it all. By day is a certified league of professional racing to climb up the ladder and then switch over to the darkness of the night it’s illegal street racing and avoid the police. The police are on the hunt for street racers, so they won’t let you go easy and they will hunt you down whether your cruising around or in a race and the gloves will be off.
Heat’s key feature is modifying your car to your dreams right down to the colour to the actual exhaust note of the car which can be done in the game or through the mobile NFS Heat Studio app. Your car can also be modified to different disciplines ranging from road racing to drifting so you can have the edge over the competition both online and offline.
The games start with you the player arriving in Palm City for the Speedhunter Showdown, a citywide exhibition which draws in racers to compete in legally sanctioned races throughout the day, and illegal street races throughout the night. Lt. Frank Mercer, leader of the police department’s High-Speed Task Force, announces his intent to ruthlessly pursue and arrest all street racers in the city. Lucas Rivera, a local mechanic and retired street racer, sells the player their first car, helps the player enter their first Showdown race, and becomes their mechanic and mentor for much of the game. Lucas’s younger sister, Ana Rivera (Ana Marte), is a street racer whose crew recently disbanded after a task force raid nearly killed one of her friends.
MINI in the game:
2017 – F60 Mini Cooper S Countryman All4
Gran Turismo Sport – Playstation 4
The lastest run in the longest-running Playstation exclusive real driving simulator from Polyphony Digital on the PS4. This is not your arcade racer but more of sim so your inputs will need to be like how they would be in real life; otherwise, you will crash or spin out. Gran Turismo has always tried to blend the line between real life and the digital world, so there are real tracks, cars and competitions which have FIA approved around the world. The tweaks to your car are all about the suspension, aero, gearing setup etc like you would have in real life in order to gain that extra second on lap time.
Gran Turismo Sport has VR for a feature which is cool to look around cars and there is photo mode to get your clicks to make the best images around the various locations and scenes. Gran Turismo will receive one-off concept cars made by manufactures exclusively to the game which will not be found elsewhere like the Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo.
GT Sport doesn’t have a story mode or anything is just go out there and race on real or original tracks and go compete online to win to be the best and actually become a real racing driver.
MINIs in the game:
MINI Clubman Vision Gran Turismo Concept
1965 – Mini-Cooper ‘S’
2005 – R53 Mini Cooper S
GRID – PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC & Stadia
This is another return to beloved franchise but more of reboot to bringing back white knuckle bumper to bumper racing. GRID was created by the Codemasters who made the TOCA, Colin Mcrae, DIRT & F1 s they know how to make a great car game.
GRID covers the following disciplines Touring, Stock, Tuner & Invitational which ranges the cars from Hot Hatches to F1 to bring out your inner Stig. The game has an arcade feel to as it allows some liberalities as there is a rewind feature which lets you go back to where you ran out of talent then move forward from correcting your mistake. There is a mix of racing from the day, night and different weather effects so there plenty of locations on the drive on through your career.
There is only visual customisation with liveries on the vehicles and setup of suspension etc to make the most of laps times.
MINIs in the game:
2012 – R56 Mini John Cooper Works
1965 – Mini-Cooper ‘S’
Driveclub – PS4 
This one on the list is one of my personal favourite car games of all time. Driveclub gave you all the cars you could dream of and made you feel like you were driving them with the sounds and visuals. There is an arcade feel to the driving, but that was built in to give you some fun straight away so the words easy to learn and hard to master come to mind.
The car list is something to lust about as there is everything from Hot hatches to hypercars, but there are no mods just changing the colour or the liveries.
Driveclub makes up for the lack of changes with the weather effects in the game ranging from sunny days to snow. Along with the best locations in each corner of the world, so one race your racing through the Scotland highlands to Tokyo Turnpikes with a fantastic level of details with lighting, backdrops and the most realistic cars sounds ever with backfires, deeper noise echoing in turns with in-car views outlaying every single stitch in the Ferrari 458 speciale.
Another feature that was added later on was the DLC of having to drive on two wheels if that tickles your fancy with Drive Club Bikes along with the paid-for upgrade to play in VR for more sensory overload.
MINIs in the game:
2013 – R56 Mini GP2
Forza Motorsport 7 – Xbox One & PC
A Microsoft exclusive that runs with the leader of the pack Gran Turismo with giving you real racing to hoon your skills in the digital with fastest cars on the street to every series of racing on the track.
Forza Motorsport 7 features over 700 cars—including new Forza Edition cars, most of which have been brought over from Forza Horizon 3—and more than 200 different configurations to race on across 32 locations at launch, including all from Forza Motorsport 6; a fictional street circuit in Dubai is one of the new circuits and several tracks returning from Forza Motorsport 4 including Maple Valley Raceway, Mugello Circuit and Suzuka Circuit. Two features that are new to the Motorsport title include dynamic weather which changes over the course of the race and customisable drivers.
Don’t be brushed off by this sim racer as it can be tailored around skill level as you can a lot of driving aids on like it show the racing line as a minimum to auto braking for corners to help you learn cars and tracks the easy way.
Most of these games do have an online feature but Xbox wins hands down on the community given the number of laughs I have had in lobbies and racing on the track.
MINIs in the game:
1965 – Mini Cooper S
1965 – Mini Cooper S Forza Edition
2012 – R56 Mini John Cooper Works
2013 – R56 Mini John Cooper Works GP
2013 – R56 Mini John Cooper Works GP Forza Edition
2014 – R60 Mini Monster Energy All4 Racing X-Raid
Forza Horizon 4 – Xbox One & PC
Another open-world car game with an arcade feel, but this includes real cars with added FUN to the world as you go about racing for money, prizes and doing ridiculous with cars like racing a train or Vulcan bomber to a finish point. The aim here is to buy and drive your favourite car in open-world which changes through the seasons yes you hear me right seasons, so it changes throughout your time from summer to snow-filled winter. Every type of racing is here from circuit racing to drag racing on a frozen lake and that’s just the start with the DLC adding more depth and madness to the mix like LEGO world where you can drive lego versions of the Bugatti Chiron.
Whatever car you can imagine it’s in the game ranging from James Bond’s DB5 to V10 howl of the Lexus LFA. If any of those cars don’t tickle your fancy you can modify to your heart’s content by taking a Land Rover Defender and shove in big V8 race motor and change it to rear-wheel drive then modify the bodywork or paint to any colour want.
The game is continuously updated for free and with paid DLC of new cars or races so the fun will always continue until the next iteration comes out.
MINIs in the game:
1965 – MINI Cooper S Traveller
1965 – MINI Cooper S Traveller
1965 – LEGO Version MINI Cooper S
2009 – R56 MINI John Cooper Works
2012 – R56 MINI John Cooper Works GP
2014 – R60 MINI X-Raid All4 Racing Countryman
2018 – F57 MINI John Cooper Works Convertible
2018 – F60 MINI John Cooper Works Countryman ALL4
2018 – MINI X-raid John Cooper Works Buggy
Dirt Rally 2.0 – PS4, Xbox One & PC
Codemasters worked their magic as they always do with car games as they made the legendary Colin Mcrae rally games.
Dirt Rally 2.0 is focused on rallying and rallycross across timed stage events on tarmac and off-road terrain in varying weather conditions. The locations for races are in Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Spain and the United States, Finland, Germany, Greece, Monte Carlo, Sweden and Wales. There are remastered versions of the stages included in the original Dirt Rally.
The car roster covers 50 cars: World Rallycross Supercars, historic rally cars from the 1960s through the 1980s, Groups A, B and R rally cars, and modern rally cars from the 1990s to the late 2010s.
There is a new weather modelling system changes the level of grip, visibility and the surface of the stages degrades as more cars pass over a stage. The level of detail with damages not only be visual but also mechanical effect so have to fix a race without a wheel or broken gearbox.
MINIs in the game:
1965 – MINI Cooper S
2018 – XITE Racing F56 Mini Cooper SX1
Gear.Club Unlimited 2 – Nintendo Switch
The game is an arcade-style racer which uses the switch controllers to its advantage with the face buttons are used for braking and accelerating. The game has local split-screen with online multiplayer covering more than 250 different races across the four main environments and over 50 licensed cars.
The game includes a story mode as well as a Club feature they can be shared with friends and challenge rival clubs across the world. There is a garage feature so players can upgrade and customise any model of car from the paint and bodywork, or change the performance with engine tuning.
MINIs in the game:
2015 – F56 MINI John Cooper Works
CSR Racing 2 – Mobile (Andriod/iOS)
Custom street racing 2 is a free to play drag racing game on mobile devices. The game is split into five tiers, with each tier introducing progressively faster opposition and vehicles. To move on to a new tier, the player must race and beat the crew boss for the level. After beating the boss of each level, the player will be challenged to a high stakes rematch to which if you win again you win the boss’s car. However, if the player loses, they must give back the gold won from the previous boss race.
The car list ranges from hot hatches to hypercars for straight-line drag races as the racing is limited to 1/4 mile or 1/2 mile races. The game focuses on timing gear changes and use of the nitrous upgrade by tapping the screen, which allows a low barrier of entry to the game so anyone can play.
MINIs in the game:
2015 – F56 MINI Cooper S
That’s my list of car games to get you through the lockdown and I hope to meet some of you online and keep the MINI community going online. If there is any that you know, please chime in the comments or reach out to me on social media.
Gamer Tag Playstation: AM_AUTOS
Gamer Tag Xbox: AMAUTOS
If anyone needs me during this difficult time, please do not hesitate to reach over social media and over the time of the lockdown, I will be reaching out to the community to keep all of us moving forward.
Hope to see you at the next corner for the next MINI Adventure…
Ali
Founder of JCW Adventures
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