Real Racing 3 is a contender for the best mobile racing game ever. With realistic physics, a great selection of cars, and a fairly generous freemium model that lets you keep playing longer than more modern games, it's a must-download for any racing fan.

Released in 2013, Real Racing 3 was one of the first mobile games to challenge the graphical supremacy of consoles and PCs. Through a combination of clever tricks, modern shaders, and improving phone performance, the game manages to deliver real-time reflections and incredibly detailed car models. You've got working rearview mirrors, side mirrors, and more. The backgrounds and tracks are a bit flat, but the textures still hold up when compared to a number of today's mobile offerings. Overall, this is a game that looks good, which is saying something when you consider its age.

Beyond the looks, however, this is a game that takes cars and car handling seriously. The cars are impressively realistic and do what you'd expect cars on a racetrack to do. You'll need to carefully manage your speed and think about racing lines as you zoom around the game's real-life-inspired racetracks. A number of control options and assist levels ensure that you never feel lost at the wheel. In other words, it's a great blend of something like Gran Turismo and something like Need For Speed. With all of the assists off, you'll be able to eke out a bit more speed in exchange for increased danger of crashing and spinning out, while the assist modes will enable you to complete the game's toughest races with your thumbs without too much practice.

Speaking of crashing, the game's freemium model has an interesting interaction with your driving skill. Running your car into things will damage it, which takes time to repair. Real-time, that is. If you suffer a particularly gnarly crash you might not be able to use a car for hours. Not to worry, though - as you progress through the game you'll be able to unlock lots of officially licensed cars, giving you many more to choose from while your primary ride is in the shop.

Real Racing 3 was the first game in the Real Racing franchise to utilize microtransactions and a freemium model, so it received a lot of flak when it was launched for the way the game handled payments. In 2022, however, it's very tame and fair. You can totally enjoy Real Racing 3 without spending a dime, especially if you're patient while you get your first few cars unlocked so you can take advantage of multiple cars to dodge wait times. This is a great game to play on a budget.

Real Racing 3 introduced a revolutionary new AI system that downloads other players' performance data and uses that to fuel AI cars. This means that rather than facing rubberbanding cars that alternate between driving terribly (when they're ahead of you) and perfectly (when they're behind you), your opponents start out mimicking the times of real online players. This produces a totally novel difficulty curve where you're exposed to stiff but fair competition at all times. The game will notably lower the difficulty if it thinks you're having trouble with a race, but you'll likely enjoy the level playing field even without any handicaps. If an AI driver does something, you can do it too, and beating the AI means you're also beating other players.

Overall, Real Racing 3 might still be the best racing game for mobile devices. Despite its age, its great graphics, stellar physics, amazing gameplay, and generous freemium model help make it one of the most fun games you can get, period.