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Free Kart Racing Games for PC (2026): Best Picks Compared

By Wildlap, developed by PolySophiaPublished and research checked: October 16, 2026

If you want a free kart racing game for PC, start with SuperTuxKart. It costs nothing, has no shop, supports up to eight players on one computer and also races online. Nightmare Kart is the free pick for a solo campaign, and Disney Speedstorm is the option for online racing with console cross-play, as long as you accept in-game purchases.

Free does not always mean the same thing. Some games in this guide cost nothing at all. Others are free-to-play: free to download, but they sell characters, passes, upgrades or features inside the game. We compare nine kart racers you can start on Windows without buying the game, using their store pages, official sites and developer announcements. Recommendations reflect documented features; this is not a hands-on performance review.

We develop Wildlap, a kart racer that is still in development. It appears separately near the end and is not one of the free games below.

Which free kart racer should you play on PC?

Start with how you will play. For a group sharing one PC, look at the local players column. For friends in other places, look at online play. If you never want to see a shop, stay with the games marked Free.

The online entries describe supported features. We did not measure how busy matchmaking is.

Full list: every free and free-to-play kart racer in our PC catalog, with local players, split-screen, online play and Steam Deck status for each game.

Free and free-to-play are not the same

A free game costs nothing to download and play and has no shop. In this guide that means SuperTuxKart, Nightmare Kart and four student-made games: Kart Attack, Nitro Battle Racing, HaberDashers and HardDriverz. SuperTuxKart accepts donations, and donors receive some new tracks before a wider release. Nightmare Kart accepts optional donations and lets you name your own price on itch.io.

A free-to-play game is free to download but sells things inside the game. Here that means Disney Speedstorm, Oh Baby Kart and Beach Buggy Racing, and what each one sells matters more than the price tag:

• Disney Speedstorm: the official site discloses in-app purchases, including paid random items. A free download does not mean every racer is available straight away.
• Oh Baby Kart: skins, battle passes, bundles and boxes of random items. Kart equipment that changes stats can come from boxes and the item shop, although it has no effect in Time Trials.
• Beach Buggy Racing: in-app purchases, and four-player split-screen is one of the features you pay to unlock.

Free demos, free weekends and free trials are a different thing again: they end, or they stop partway through a game. None of the nine games below is a demo.

Free kart racing games for PC worth playing

SuperTuxKart: the most complete free kart racer

SuperTuxKart is free, open source and without active ads or microtransactions, and it runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. Its Story Mode strings together races, time trials and Grand Prix challenges that unlock tracks. Up to eight people can play on one computer, and the activities go beyond racing, with battle, soccer, egg hunt and follow-the-leader modes. Online racing needs an STK account, which you create inside the game.

Download the stable release, 1.5 when we checked, from the official download page. SuperTuxKart Evolution, the next major version, had no public test builds at that time.

Choose it if: you want one free game that covers solo play, couch multiplayer and online races.

Nightmare Kart: a free horror racer with a campaign

Nightmare Kart began as the fan project Bloodborne Kart and was rebuilt with original content before its 2024 release. Its campaign casts you as a beast hunter in a strange tournament, with boss fights along the way. Races mix weapons, beasts that raise your top speed when you hit them, and Æther boosts earned through drifts and tricks. When we checked, its Steam user reviews were rated Overwhelmingly Positive.

Multiplayer is local split-screen only, and Steam says a controller is required for local play; the store page does not state a player limit. The game is free on Steam and pay-what-you-want on itch.io, with no in-game purchases.

Choose it if: you play mostly alone and like a gothic, retro look.

Kart Attack: a short free couch game

Kart Attack comes from a class of game development students who graduated during the COVID-19 pandemic and filled it with characters and tracks from the games they had made. Graduates of that class remastered it for its 2026 release. Up to four players race in split-screen, or you race against computer opponents.

The Steam page lists five tracks, nine karts with their own abilities, a tournament mode and time trials with ghosts. There is no online mode, and Steam lists only partial controller support.

Choose it if: you want a light, silly game for an evening with friends.

Nitro Battle Racing: free four-player combat racing

Nitro Battle Racing is a student game from DigiPen Institute of Technology. Before a race you pick one of three drift abilities: a Gatling Gun, a Repair Tool or a Drift Boost. More than nine random power-ups and twelve karts with their own stats add variety, and six stages unlock as you reach goals.

Up to four players can race in split-screen, and solo players get three AI difficulty levels. Steam lists full controller support, and there is no online mode.

Choose it if: you want a free four-player session and like choosing between attack and defence abilities.

HaberDashers: tiny racers in a giant house

HaberDashers comes from graduate students at SMU Guildhall. Tiny people who live in the walls of a house race on a child's toy tracks while the humans are out, with eight racers in each race and three laps of about five minutes. Drifting, surfaces that slow you down by different amounts and one-time pick-ups shape each race.

Up to four players share the screen, and Steam lists full controller support. The store description still calls the game pre-alpha, so treat it as a short student project.

Choose it if: you want a free split-screen game with an unusual setting.

HardDriverz: a free solo racer with kart building

HardDriverz is another SMU Guildhall student game, made in twelve weeks. Steam lists it as single-player only. Its six futuristic, gravity-defying tracks sit in three stadium themes, and you build your kart from wheels, spoilers and engines that change acceleration, handling and weight.

Check the minimum specification before downloading: 16 GB of RAM and a GTX 1050 graphics card, although the developers say Low settings run on older machines.

Choose it if: you race alone and like tuning a kart between races.

Disney Speedstorm: free-to-play with Disney and Pixar characters

Disney Speedstorm is a free-to-play combat racer from Gameloft with racers from Disney and Pixar films and series, each with their own skills. The PC version supports online play with cross-play, and Local Freeplay is a split-screen mode for up to four players on one PC. According to Gameloft's support FAQ, Local Freeplay is also the only mode that works offline.

Progression comes from upgrading racers over time, and the official site discloses in-app purchases, including paid random items. Valve rates it Verified for Steam Deck.

Choose it if: you want familiar characters and online races with friends on other platforms, and you are comfortable with a shop.

Oh Baby Kart: free-to-play online racing on Windows and macOS

Oh Baby Kart is built around drifting, which charges each character's ultimate ability. Its modes include Race Royale, played over several rounds, and Grand Prix for solo racers or pairs, with eight racers per race since its 2.0 update. Steam lists cross-platform multiplayer and full controller support, and Valve rates it Verified for Steam Deck.

Read its payment model carefully. When the game went free-to-play in October 2024, the developer said free players would get every online mode but not most solo modes, and that any shop purchase unlocks the full version. Since October 2025, kart equipment that changes stats such as speed and handling can come from boxes and the item shop; it does not apply in Time Trials and can be switched off in custom games.

Choose it if: you mainly want online races and do not mind that some equipment affecting races is for sale.

Beach Buggy Racing: free on the Microsoft Store

Beach Buggy Racing, the first game in Vector Unit's series, is a free download from the Microsoft Store with in-app purchases. It has six game modes, more than 25 power-ups and a garage of cars from dune buggies to monster trucks, and the store asks only for Windows 10 or later, 1 GB of memory and DirectX 10.

Split-screen for up to four players requires an in-app purchase, according to the store listing, and no online racing is listed. It is a different game from the paid Beach Buggy Racing 2: Island Adventure on Steam.

Choose it if: you have an older or low-power Windows laptop and want something simple for the family.

How to choose a free kart racer for your setup

For friends on one PC

SuperTuxKart supports the most local players here, up to eight. Kart Attack, Nitro Battle Racing and HaberDashers handle four, and so does Disney Speedstorm's Local Freeplay. Beach Buggy Racing supports four only after an in-app purchase. Nightmare Kart and Oh Baby Kart offer split-screen without a published player limit, so test your group size before a race night. Most games expect a controller for every extra player.

For friends in other places

SuperTuxKart, Disney Speedstorm and Oh Baby Kart have native online racing, and Speedstorm adds cross-play with consoles. Nightmare Kart, Kart Attack, Nitro Battle Racing and HaberDashers list Steam Remote Play Together instead, which streams one PC's local session to friends. Valve describes that feature separately from a game's own online systems in its Remote Play guide.

For older laptops and Steam Deck

Nightmare Kart needs only 300 MB of storage, and Beach Buggy Racing asks for 1 GB of memory and DirectX 10. HardDriverz asks for much more, with 16 GB of RAM in its minimum specification. On Steam Deck, Valve rates Disney Speedstorm and Oh Baby Kart Verified and Nightmare Kart Playable. The four student-made games had no rating when we checked, and SuperTuxKart and Beach Buggy Racing are not sold on Steam.

If you want to avoid in-game purchases

Choose SuperTuxKart, Nightmare Kart or one of the student-made games. With Disney Speedstorm, Oh Baby Kart and Beach Buggy Racing, read what the shop sells before you invest time in the game, especially if children will be playing.

Where to download free kart racers safely

Every game in this guide is distributed through Steam, itch.io, the Microsoft Store or its developer's own website, and each page in our list of free kart racers links to those sources. Be wary of sites that offer paid games, or Mario Kart, as a free PC download. Nintendo has not released Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or Mario Kart World for Windows; our guide to games like Mario Kart for PC covers the alternatives.

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 still in development, and it is not one of the free games in this guide. 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.

If that combination interests you, get Wildlap updates.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free kart racing game for PC?

SuperTuxKart is our first pick. It is free and open source, has no microtransactions, and offers Story Mode, up to eight players on one computer and online racing. For a solo campaign, try Nightmare Kart.

Are there free kart racers without microtransactions?

Yes. SuperTuxKart, Nightmare Kart, Kart Attack, Nitro Battle Racing, HaberDashers and HardDriverz are free without a shop. SuperTuxKart and Nightmare Kart accept optional donations.

Which free kart racers have split-screen?

SuperTuxKart supports up to eight players. Kart Attack, Nitro Battle Racing, HaberDashers and Disney Speedstorm's Local Freeplay support four. Nightmare Kart and Oh Baby Kart have split-screen without a published limit, and in Beach Buggy Racing four-player split-screen requires an in-app purchase. HardDriverz is single-player only.

Which free kart racers can I play online?

SuperTuxKart, Disney Speedstorm and Oh Baby Kart. Speedstorm also supports cross-play with consoles, and SuperTuxKart needs an STK account, created inside the game, for online races.

Is there a free game like Mario Kart on PC?

Mario Kart itself is not available for Windows. For a similar mix of items, drifting and character racing at no cost, start with SuperTuxKart, or try Disney Speedstorm if you want famous characters and accept in-game purchases.

Can I download Wildlap now?

Not yet. Wildlap is in development and has no public demo. You can explore its gameplay and tracks on this website and sign up for release updates.

Explore Wildlap   /   Get release updates