Overview

Speed Dreams is a free and open-source motorsport simulator — a 3D racing game built for realism and accurate physics rather than arcade thrills. Started in 2008 as a fork of TORCS, it has grown into one of the most complete open-source racing sims, with a detailed driving model, a large roster of cars and tracks, and several competing AI driver implementations. It targets both gamers and anyone using physics or AI as a research and teaching subject, thanks to its modular C/C++ codebase.

Key Features

• Realistic physics — multiple selectable physics engines and a driving model aimed at maximum possible realism.
• 82 finely tuned cars in 16 balanced sets, 21 high-quality tracks — from 36GP and 67GP classics to Supercars and the Long Day Series, plus community-made content.
• Four first-class AI opponents — distinct robot implementations to race against.
• Career mode — multiple seasons across car classes, on randomly selected tracks against balanced random opponents, earning championship points.
• Flexible race configuration — real-time weather conditions, multi-class races, championships and endurance events; race modes are plain-text config files, so custom ones can be written freely.
• Headless and text-only modes — run races with no graphics or a results-only display, limited only by CPU power. Useful for AI and robot development.
• Wide input-device support — keyboard, mouse, joypad, joystick, and racing wheels with pedals.
• Master server — compare your best lap times against other players.

Why Use It

Speed Dreams occupies a niche few free games attempt: a racing simulator, not a kart game. Where most open-source racers chase arcade fun, Speed Dreams models tyre behaviour, weather and race strategy, and it is explicitly designed to be opened up for physics and AI experimentation. It is also genuinely playable as a game, with a career mode and enough cars and tracks to keep it interesting — and it costs nothing, has no ads or telemetry, and runs fully offline.

Use Cases

• Sim racing on Linux, Windows or macOS without buying a commercial title.
• Physics, AI and robotics research or teaching, using the headless/text-only race modes and the modular codebase.
• Building and racing your own robots, cars and tracks from plain-text configuration.
• Local multiplayer and lap-time chasing against friends via the master server.

Platforms

Linux, Windows and macOS. Community ports also target AmigaOS 4, AROS, MorphOS and Haiku.

Licence

Free and open source — the code is GPL-2.0-or-later, and the game assets are released under the Free Art License.

Website

speed-dreams.net · downloads · source code (Libre en Communs forge)

Similar Games

For a lighter, arcade-style take on racing, try SuperTuxKart. Browse the full Games directory for more free games.