WILDLAP / JOURNAL / KART RACERS ON STEAM

Best Kart Racing Games on Steam (2026): Ranked by Player Reviews

By Wildlap, developed by PolySophiaPublished and research checked: October 20, 2026

The best-reviewed kart racing game on Steam in 2026 is Nightmare Kart, a free horror racer with 97% positive reviews from 6,432 players. Among paid games, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Collection and Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds lead, and The Karters 2: Turbo Charged is the highest-rated game in Early Access.

This ranking covers the kart racers in our PC catalog that are sold on Steam, ordered by Steam user reviews. Next to each score are the facts that decide whether a game suits you: players on one PC, online play, the Steam Deck rating, the latest developer post and the price model. It reflects player reviews and documented features, not hands-on testing.

We develop Wildlap, a kart racer that is still in development and not yet on Steam, so it appears separately near the end.

The best kart racing games on Steam, ranked

Fifteen games meet our criteria. Read across each row: a well-rated game can still be the wrong choice for a group of six or a Steam Deck.

Online means the game's own online racing; we did not measure how busy matchmaking is. The latest developer post is the newest item from the developer or publisher in the game's Steam news, be it a patch, an event or a sale.

Full list: every kart racer you can play on PC, including games sold outside Steam.

How we rank kart racing games on Steam

Three rules decide which games appear and in what order, applied to Steam's review data on October 20, 2026.

1. In our catalog and sold on Steam. Every game here is in our PC kart racer catalog and has a Steam store page. SuperTuxKart and the first Beach Buggy Racing are distributed outside Steam, so they are not ranked.
2. At least 100 Steam user reviews, counted in all languages. Below 100, each review is more than one percent of the total, so a few new reviews can move the share noticeably.
3. Ordered by the share of positive reviews. The label, such as Very Positive, is Steam's own summary. When two games round to the same percentage, the exact share decides.

Nothing else changes the order. The other columns come from our catalog records and the games' Steam pages, so you can filter the ranking yourself. A store page may show a lower review count, because Steam can filter reviews by your language. We leave out prices, which vary by region and change with every sale.

The top ten kart racers on Steam

1. Nightmare Kart

Nightmare Kart is the only game in our catalog rated Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam, and it is free, with no in-game purchases. The gothic horror racer has a low-poly look modelled on original PlayStation games, a campaign with boss fights and local split-screen without a published player limit, but no online mode. Its latest developer post, from February 2025, announced a free expansion called The Old Karts.

2. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Collection

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Collection has the most reviews here, 17,889, and 93% are positive. The 2013 racer turns your vehicle into a car, a boat or a plane as the course moves from road to water to air. It offers the World Tour career, four-player split-screen and a Verified rating for Steam Deck. Its Steam news has no posts from the developer or publisher; the newest item, a Valve store announcement, dates from 2018.

3. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, released in September 2025, is the newest game in the top three. Travel Rings can move the second lap onto a different course, and it covers solo cups, four-player split-screen and online lobbies of up to 12 with cross-play. SEGA was still posting news on Steam in October 2026. The Season Pass and content packs cost extra, and the minimum specification asks for 12 GB of RAM.

4. The Karters 2: Turbo Charged

The Karters 2: Turbo Charged is the highest-rated Early Access game here, a fraction behind CrossWorlds. Split-screen takes up to six players, a split-screen group can race online together, and Steam Workshop adds community tracks and characters. Its update of October 17, 2026 is the most recent developer post in this ranking. Story Mode and a track editor are still planned, and the price will rise after Early Access.

5. Beach Buggy Racing 2: Island Adventure

Beach Buggy Racing 2: Island Adventure has the highest published local player count here, up to eight on one PC. You can save your own race rules, and every mode, including the story-driven Adventure, works alone or in split-screen. There is no online racing, only leaderboard tournaments. Buy this paid PC edition, not the free-to-play mobile Beach Buggy Racing 2.

6. Garfield Kart - Furious Racing

Garfield Kart - Furious Racing has the third-highest review count here, 15,131. It is a compact family racer with eight characters, 16 circuits, accessories for racers and karts, and Grand Prix, single races and time trials, but no story mode. Up to four play in split-screen and up to eight online. It also runs on macOS and is Playable on Steam Deck.

7. Super Indie Karts

Super Indie Karts recreates 1990s kart racers with flat 16-bit style and low-poly 64-bit style tracks, and borrows characters from indie games such as Freedom Planet and Teslagrad. The store page lists 48 tracks and more than 30 characters, with split-screen for two to four and no online mode. It has been in Early Access since 2015 and also runs on macOS and Linux.

8. Oh Baby Kart

Oh Baby Kart is free to download and built for online racing, with drifting that charges each character's ultimate ability. Check the payment model first: when it went free-to-play in October 2024, the developer said free players get the online modes but not most solo modes, and since October 2025 stat-changing kart equipment can come from boxes and the item shop.

9. Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix

Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix trails Oh Baby Kart by a fraction of a point. You pick one of 30 racers from shows such as SpongeBob SquarePants and a pit crew from 70 more characters. Steam documents split-screen for four and online races for eight, and Valve rates it Verified for Steam Deck, though Steam lists only partial controller support.

10. PAW Patrol: Grand Prix

PAW Patrol: Grand Prix is made for young children. Its easy control option accelerates automatically and helps keep the kart on course, while a hard mode suits older players. Up to four race in split-screen across 11 tracks, with no online play. With 104 reviews, it only just meets our threshold, and two DLC packs are sold separately.

Also ranked: 11 to 15

• 11. Team Sonic Racing, 73% of 3,523: teammates share items and boosts. Split-screen takes four, or three in the Team Adventure story, and it is Unsupported on Steam Deck.
• 12. Disney Speedstorm, 67% of 8,352: free-to-play Disney and Pixar racers with cross-play and four-player Local Freeplay, its only offline mode, plus in-app purchases that include paid random items.
• 13. Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway, 65% of 285: more than 40 characters and 36 tracks, split-screen and online play, but no published local player limit.
• 14. DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing, 59% of 266: 20 DreamWorks characters on 20 film-based tracks, split-screen, online play and a Verified Steam Deck rating.
• 15. Garfield Kart 2 - All You Can Drift, 47% of 245: split-screen for four and online cross-play for eight, but even single-player needs an internet connection, and it is Unsupported on Steam Deck.

Which kart racer on Steam fits how you play?

For a group on one PC

Beach Buggy Racing 2 takes up to eight players and The Karters 2 up to six; most others stop at four. Our guide to the best split-screen kart racing games for PC covers modes and controller setup.

For online races with console friends

CrossWorlds, Disney Speedstorm and Garfield Kart 2 support cross-play. CrossWorlds has the highest review share of the three, and Speedstorm is free to start.

Without paying

Nightmare Kart is free with no shop. Oh Baby Kart and Disney Speedstorm are free-to-play and sell items in the game. Our guide to free kart racing games for PC adds free games from outside Steam.

On Steam Deck

Six of the top ten are Verified: Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, CrossWorlds, Super Indie Karts, Oh Baby Kart, Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2 and PAW Patrol: Grand Prix; the other four are Playable. Team Sonic Racing and Garfield Kart 2 are Unsupported.

For young children and solo play

PAW Patrol: Grand Prix has an easy mode that accelerates for the player. Solo players can look at the campaign in Nightmare Kart, the World Tour career in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and the Adventure in Beach Buggy Racing 2, or at our guide to the best single-player kart racing games for PC.

Kart racers on Steam with too few reviews to rank

Nine catalog games are on Steam but had fewer than 100 user reviews when we checked: HaberDashers (92), Smurfs Kart (70), Renzo Racer (64), Bears Can't Drift!? (57), Race With Ryan (54), Gigantosaurus: Dino Kart (45), Nitro Battle Racing (45), HardDriverz (29) and Kart Attack (15).

A small review count says nothing about quality; it only means the share can still move a lot. Four of them, Kart Attack, Nitro Battle Racing, HaberDashers and HardDriverz, are free student projects.

Wildlap: a PC kart racer to watch

Wildlap is the PC kart racing game we are developing at PolySophia. It combines drift boosts, items for attack and defence, kart upgrades and varied tracks, including Abyss Circuit, where magnetic lanes take the race onto the ceiling. In the garage, coins earned in races pay for upgrades to speed, acceleration, handling and boost.

Wildlap is not in this ranking. It is still in development, and its Steam page had not opened when we published this guide, so there are no player reviews to compare. Its price and release date have not been announced, and there is no public demo yet. The full game is planned to include single-player racing and local split-screen on PC. You can see the current direction in the gameplay overview and track presentation.

To hear when the Steam page opens, get Wildlap updates.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best kart racing game on Steam?

By player reviews, Nightmare Kart: 97% of its 6,432 Steam reviews are positive, and it is free. The best-reviewed paid games are Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Collection and Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds.

What are the best kart racing games on PC in 2026?

For a recent game that still gets updates, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds and The Karters 2: Turbo Charged both have 92% positive reviews and developer posts from October 2026. Outside Steam, SuperTuxKart is our first pick among free kart racers.

Which kart racing games on Steam have split-screen?

All fifteen in this ranking. Beach Buggy Racing 2 supports up to eight players, The Karters 2 up to six and most others four, while four games do not publish a limit.

Which kart racers on Steam can I play online with friends?

Eleven of the fifteen, and CrossWorlds, Disney Speedstorm and Garfield Kart 2 add cross-play. Of the four local-only games, Nightmare Kart, Beach Buggy Racing 2 and Super Indie Karts list Steam Remote Play Together, which streams a local session to friends.

What does Reddit say are the best kart racing games?

We did not tally Reddit threads, so this guide does not claim to speak for Reddit. We rank by Steam user reviews because they are public, counted the same way for every game and written by players who have the game on Steam. Reddit can still answer what a score cannot, such as how busy online lobbies are at your time of day.

Is Mario Kart on Steam?

No. Nintendo has not released Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or Mario Kart World for Windows. Our guide to games like Mario Kart for PC compares six alternatives.

Is Wildlap on Steam?

Not yet. Wildlap is in development, and its Steam page had not opened when we published this guide. Sign up for release updates to hear when it does.

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