Among racing games with weather, Mars Rally Championship, a free browser rally game listed first because it is ours, has one Martian dust storm that pushes the rover. The most weather is in Forza Horizon 5, whose seasons bring towering dust storms and tropical storms, and in the sims iRacing, Le Mans Ultimate and Gran Turismo 7, where rain can change the grip or the tire call. This list sorts every pick three ways: what weather it has, whether it changes during a race, and whether it reaches the driving.
In-game screenshot: Stage 4, Down the Mountain, in the storm: the rover banks through the gate 9 to 11 triple while the HUD's WIND chip shows the push.
What weather actually changes in a racing game
Most weather lists stop at the picture. A game can paint rain and leave the tires as they were. Three questions separate the two.
The first is what you see: rain, fog, dust, snow. This is the part trailers show, and the least informative part. Two games with identical rain can drive nothing alike.
The second is whether the weather moves during a session. Static weather is picked before the start and stays. Dynamic weather changes, through a forecast chance of rain, a season that turns over or a radar that shows a shower coming, and that is what makes strategy possible.
The third is whether it reaches the tires: grip, puddles, wind push and visibility. When a game's own page does not say, this post says "not confirmed" rather than guessing. Later numbers are in m/s², so a push can be read against the grip it fights.
Diagram: the storm's push, 0.7 m/s² steady and 2.0 in gusts, against about 3.1 m/s² of tire grip; real Martian wind would push about 0.003.
Method: each game's store page or developer page, checked 7 November 2026, with "not confirmed" wherever they do not say. Last checked: November 2026.
Racing games with weather, compared
Mars Rally Championship is first because it is ours; the rest are ordered by how much their weather changes the drive, as far as their own pages confirm it.
| Game | Weather | Changes mid-race | Reaches the driving | Platforms | Price (7 Nov 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mars Rally Championship Play | Martian dust storm on the storm boards | No: full strength from the start to the finish | Yes: wind push, grip ×0.88, battery drain +50% | Browser: desktop, Chromebook, phone in landscape | Free |
| Forza Horizon 5 | Seasons; towering dust storms, tropical storms | Seasons change every week | Not confirmed | Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS5 | $59.99 on Steam |
| iRacing | Rain, fog, wind, cloud, temperature | Yes, with forecasted or timeline weather | Yes: water on track and tires, grip off-line | Windows PC | Subscription, $14.75 a month regular price |
| Le Mans Ultimate | Dynamic weather, rainfall, puddles; day and night | Yes, dynamic weather | Puddles form on track; grip not confirmed | Windows | $39.99 on Steam |
| Gran Turismo 7 | Rain, with a weather radar | On some tracks | Tire choice (per the manual) | PS5, PS4 | $69.99 standard digital |
| EA Sports WRC | Several weather conditions per stage; snow, gravel, asphalt | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Windows (Steam) | $49.99 on Steam |
| Assetto Corsa Competizione | Weather conditions, night races | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Windows (Steam) | $39.99 on Steam |
| Slow Roads | You pick it: sun, cloud, snow, time of day | No | Not confirmed | Browser (web); Windows, Linux (Steam) | Free on the web; $7.99 on Steam |
Only iRacing and Mars Rally Championship say yes to "reaches the driving" outright, and they are opposites: iRacing's weather moves and shifts the grip across the track, while ours is fixed and the same for everyone. For snow, EA Sports WRC and Slow Roads list it. For rain, the sims are where it is confirmed.
Mars Rally Championship: a dust storm that pushes back
Our game, listed first for that reason. This is Mars Rally Championship's own site; everything below it is ranked on how much its weather changes the drive. Mars Rally Championship is a free 3D rally game that runs in the browser with no download, no install and no account, on a desktop, a Chromebook or a phone in landscape, with one rover and four drivable stages: The Eight, The Long Run, The Opener and Down the Mountain.
Its weather is one thing: a dust storm. Every stage has a storm board, and a reversed storm board as well. You start one from the menu (a stage, then STORM), from a link such as Stage 3 in storm mode, from the daily challenge, which rolls one of a stage's four boards and so is sometimes a storm, or from an online room whose host picks it.
The storm is at full strength from the start to the finish. It does not change during a run, which is why the table says "No" in the mid-race column. What it does is steady: since 6 November 2026 it is a moving dust haze, with 95% of the view gone by about 100 m. That is a heavy brown haze, not a whiteout, and the gate you are driving to still shines through. Billows stream past on the wind, sand drifts low, fine grains streak across the lens, the sun dims to a glow, and at night the headlights cut beams through the dust.
It also reaches the driving. Since 1 November 2026 the storm pushes the rover with a steady 0.7 m/s² that gusts to 2.0 m/s², its direction wandering about 20 degrees either way. The tires' total grip on regolith is about 3.1 m/s², so the push runs from roughly a quarter to two-thirds of it. Dust also slicks the grip to 0.88 of clean air, and battery drain rises 50%. A WIND arrow on the HUD shows which way it is shoving, and the camera buffets.
That push is deliberately exaggerated. Honest Martian air at these speeds would move this rover by about 0.003 m/s², which nobody would feel; real Mars dust storms are a visibility and power problem, not a shove.
Every racer on a board gets the identical storm, seeded per board, and the server re-simulates every run before it posts, storm runs included. Storm runs have their own boards and personal bests, and replays and rendered replay videos show the storm. Times are on the Stage 3 leaderboard.
What it does badly: it is one kind of weather that never changes during a run. There is no rain, no wet track and no tire choice. Storm runs earn no medals and get no co-driver calls, and there are four stages, not a calendar of tracks. Judged on variety, every other game here beats it.
Play free — no downloadForza Horizon 5: weekly seasons, dust storms and tropical storms
Forza Horizon 5 has the most dramatic weather on this list. Its Steam page promises "awe-inspiring weather events such as towering dust storms and intense tropical storms" as Mexico's seasons "change the world every week". Playground Games maps the seasons to Mexican ones: autumn is Storm Season, winter is Dry Season, spring is Hot Season and summer is Wet Season. Playground says the tropical coast completely changes in storm season.
So it is dynamic on a weekly clock, and the picture is the strength. Whether the weather changes grip or handling is not confirmed: the store text describes the world. It runs on Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and, since 28 April 2025, PS5, and costs $59.99 on Steam.
A line on its successor: Forza Horizon 6, set in Japan, reached Steam on 18 May 2026 for $69.99 on Windows, and Xbox says seasonal changes return.
iRacing: rain that changes the racing line
iRacing is the clearest case of weather that changes the driving. Its weather system, new from 2024 Season 2, offers dynamic options including rain and fog, and the developer's own wording is that water interacts with both the track and your tires, "challenging you to find grip on alternate racing lines".
It has three modes: static weather fixed for the session (a wet track is possible without falling rain), forecasted weather built on a chance of rain, and timeline weather set by keyframes. A spotter radio, radar and forecast come with it.
The limits are real. Rain needs an asphalt road course and a rain-enabled car, and iRacing keeps a list of rain-enabled content. It is Windows only and a subscription, with a regular price of $14.75 for one month. The iRacing weather page has the detail.
Le Mans Ultimate: rain, puddles and the night at Le Mans
Le Mans Ultimate pairs dynamic weather with a day and night cycle. Its Steam page describes laser-scanned circuits, rainfall and debris on windscreens, a more realistic flow of water and the formation of puddles on the circuit, and races that run into dusk, through the night and into dawn down the Mulsanne.
Whether those puddles change grip is not confirmed on the store page. It left Early Access on 22 July 2025 (Early Access began 20 February 2024), is from Studio 397, runs on Windows and costs $39.99 on Steam. For more night racing, see night driving games.
Gran Turismo 7: a weather radar for tire calls
Gran Turismo 7 turns weather into a decision. The online manual describes a Weather Radar that displays the rainfall status around the track, and says being able to predict changing weather conditions will help with strategic decisions such as which tyres to equip.
It is not on every track: Update 2.00 let players set time and weather changes on some tracks. Multiplayer rooms offer preset or custom weather. It is on PS5 and PS4, released 4 March 2022, at $69.99 for the standard digital edition.
EA Sports WRC: rally stages in any season, on snow and gravel
For snow, EA Sports WRC is the straightforward answer. EA describes "any season, any weather, any terrain" across more than 600 km of roads over asphalt, gravel and snow in more than 200 stages, and the WRC 24 Rally Latvia expansion lists 12 stages with multiple weather conditions each.
Whether the weather changes during a stage, and how it changes handling, is not confirmed in the sources checked. It is on Steam for Windows at $49.99, from Codemasters and Electronic Arts. In 2025 EA said it was pausing plans for future rally titles. For more than weather, see games like DiRT Rally.
Assetto Corsa Competizione: GT3 racing with weather and night
Assetto Corsa Competizione's Steam page lists "photorealistic weather conditions and graphics, night races" on Unreal Engine 4, and says its leaderboards compare single-lap times with the same car, circuit and weather conditions.
Whether weather changes during a race or alters handling is not confirmed. It is from Kunos Simulazioni and 505 Games, released 29 May 2019, on Windows at $39.99 on Steam.
Slow Roads: weather you pick, no race at all
Slow Roads is the calm option and not a racing game. The free web version at slowroads.io has no ads and lets you set the weather to suit your mood. The Steam edition, released 23 September 2026 for Windows and Linux at $7.99, lists options for sun, cloud, snow and time of day.
Weather there is a choice, not an event, and whether it changes the driving is not confirmed. Rain and dynamic weather are only goals for upcoming updates. If a relaxed drive is what you want, see games like Slow Roads.
Which racing game has the best weather?
It depends on what you want weather to do.
For the most dramatic, Forza Horizon 5, with its dust storms and tropical storms. For the most consequential, iRacing and Le Mans Ultimate, where rain moves and the track changes under you. For the best strategy, Gran Turismo 7, whose radar exists to inform a tire call. For snow, EA Sports WRC. For the calm option, Slow Roads.
For a free storm in a tab, Mars Rally Championship: it has one weather and no variety, but a push you can measure and a board where everyone races the same storm.
Screenshot: the Stage 3 storm board on this site, with tabs for the four stages and for the forward, reversed, storm and reversed storm boards.
The sims have the richest rain but need a PC or a PlayStation and a purchase or subscription. Forza has the best spectacle with no confirmed effect on handling. Ours is the narrowest, and the only racing game here that runs free in a browser tab.