Best customizable car games

PGR4 takes everything that was great about previous entries in the series and improves it. It looks better, has a far better car list, has a better career mode, and just plain has more stuff to do. The gameplay is as sharp as ever as well. Project Gotham Racing 4 is a solid racing game that Xbox 360 owners will be proud to have in their collection. Buy from Amazon »

DiRT 3 takes the series back to its roots. The wild X-Games attitude of DiRT 2 has been greatly toned down and a focus on real traditional rally racing has returned. The gameplay is spectacularly good, as always, and the presentation is absolutely gorgeous. The new gymkhana mode is also very interesting as well (we liked it). Best rally racer on Xbox 360, without a doubt. Buy from Amazon »

Just like it revitalized the Colin McRae Rally series with DIRT, Codemasters has tweaked and tuned the Pro Race Driver series into GRID and turned an enjoyable but niche series into one of the best racers on the market. It straddles the line between simulation and arcade to produce a racer that rewards you for driving correctly, but also doesn’t penalize you if you want to break the wheels loose and throw the car around corners. GRID is just plain fun. GRID 2 and GRID Autosport, on the other hand, really felt like they were missing something. Buy from Amazon »

Burnout Paradise took the franchise open world, but something was lost in the translation. The racing wasn't as good. The crashes weren't as extreme. It just wasn't as fun. Which is why we hold the last "true" Burnout, Burnout Revenge, as the best game in the series. The Xbox 360 version is the best version of the game with awesome visuals, some exclusive cars, and an unparalleled sense of speed. Buy from Amazon »

Split/Second takes the best parts of kart racers, Burnout, and Project Gotham and mashes them into one game with fairly spectacular results. This is a game about blowing stuff up to not only crash your opponents, but dramatically alter the layout of the entire course. It isn't particularly deep, but when everything clicks together it is amazingly satisfying and fun. Buy from Amazon »

Criterion's take on Need for Speed: Most Wanted is easily the best Need for Speed title in years. The graphics are fantastic and the fresh take on open world racing - where cars are scattered around the city and you just have to find them to use them - is fantastic. The gameplay takes some getting used to, but the end result is pretty darn fun overall. It also uses Kinect voice commands surprisingly well, which is a nice bonus. Buy from Amazon »

Not a traditional racing game like the other games on this list, Driver: San Francisco is a sort of cinematic driving action game that lets you live out your movie police chase fantasies. It isn't a shooter or action game, since you only ever drive and don't have to do all of that other open world junk that has plagued the series for more than a decade now. It is a pure driving game with great presentation, awesome handling cars that are just the right balance between realistic and Hollywood, and a ton of content to play through. Driver: San Francisco is awesome. Buy from Amazon »