--- title: "Anyone With an Apple TV or iPhone Can Play the Greatest Racing Games Ever, Right Now" description: "Look, it's very simple: If a device I own has the capability to run old [racing games](), I'm using it for that purpose. A few weeks ago, Apple opened the floodgates to emulating old video game consoles on iPhone, iPad,…" date: "2024-05-17" modified: "2024-05-17" authors: - name: "Adam Ismail" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/adam-ismail" url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/anyone-with-an-apple-tv-or-iphone-can-play-the-greatest-racing-games-ever-right-now" categories: - "Culture" - "News" - "Video Games" --- # Anyone With an Apple TV or iPhone Can Play the Greatest Racing Games Ever, Right Now ![]() *\Adam Ismail\* Look, it's very simple: If a device I own has the capability to run old [racing games](), I'm using it for that purpose. A few weeks ago, Apple opened the floodgates to emulating old video game consoles on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV, and just this week, RetroArch—perhaps the most popular emulation software there is—landed on the company's App Store. Last night, our editor-in-chief Kyle told us he'd gotten *San Francisco Rush* running on his Apple TV. I don't own one of those, but I do have an iPhone 14 Pro; lo and behold, I've now got *Rage Racer* in my pocket. So this is a very exciting development for retro gamers in the Apple ecosystem—especially those of us who love our classic racers in particular, because the '90s and early 2000s had the finest of the lot. Through RetroArch, which is considered a "front end" as it compiles a multitude of different "cores" that actually handle the heavy lifting of running the games, you can sample everything from the days of Atari to the Nintendo 64 and [PlayStation Portable](). That seems to be about where the timeline stops; I'm not seeing a core for Sega Dreamcast in the app as downloaded, and once you get to the PS2 and GameCube (don't even mention the original Xbox), emulation gets considerably more power-intensive and complex. ![]() ![]() The original PlayStation is a snap, though. I recall playing *Gran Turismo 2* on my first-get Motorola Droid in senior year study hall, and that was more than a decade ago, so it's little sweat for today's Apple Silicon. Really, the only barriers to enjoying a classic like *Rage Racer* on your iPhone right now are 1) your access to an actual controller, and 2) setting up the dang app. RetroArch can be a bit of a bear even on desktop, so you can imagine that on the screen of a mobile device, with the limited file system freedom that iOS allows, you run into some annoyances fairly quickly. For example, if you're AirDropping your game backups from your Mac to your iPhone or iPad, you're going to want to make sure they're unzipped before they land on your device, because the iOS Files app can't do that on its own. (There are third-party apps that can, but I sampled three of them before finding one that actually worked.) Without getting too deep into the weeds here, certain RetroArch cores may run games while they are zipped, but if you're playing a PS1 title in .bin/.cue format, like *Rage Racer*, with Red Book audio as many early PlayStation racing games had, you won't have music during gameplay if you load the title without unzipping it first. And, frankly, a *[Ridge Racer]()* game without [the jams]() isn't really *Ridge Racer*, nor anything I'm interested in playing. ![]() **Sega Rally* may be the greatest handling racing game of all time, but believe me: it still needs a controller. Adam Ismail* Once you've settled that, though, it's all pretty straightforward. To my surprise, even *Sega Rally Championship* on the [Sega Saturn]()—a platform that's comparatively rougher to emulate than the PS1—was faultless thanks to the Beetle Saturn core. Me running out of time before the second checkpoint on the Forest stage was totally down to the touchscreen controls, rather than the quality of the emulation itself. As such, I can't stress it enough to my fellow retro racers: if you haven't tried emulation on Apple's devices yet, give it a whirl. Yes, I've got these games on my MacBook Air and gaming PC, and if I owned a Steam Deck, I'd certainly have them there, too. But there's something really special about knowing whatever I'm doing, wherever I am, I could pull *Sega Rally* out my goddamn pocket. Who says there's no such thing as a cure for boredom? *Wanna talk racing games? Hit me up at adam.ismail@thedrive.com* ## Author Adam is a Senior Editor at The Drive, concentrating on curating and developing the site's slate of daily journalism, from initial pitch to final copy edit. When he's not at his desk researching leads and working with writers, he's testing vehicles or reviewing racing games, new and old. He joined The Drive in 2023, following seven years of covering consumer technology and cars. A car lover and gamer since his earliest memories, Adam came to know the automotive world through video games. First it was Daytona USA, Sega Rally, and Ridge Racer; then came Need For Speed, which inspired an encyclopedic knowledge of '90s supercars, and, of course, Gran Turismo. If not for them, he'd assuredly be doing something else right now. Adam is based in the suburbs outside Philly, where there are ample roads for his hot hatch to stretch its legs. In his car, he's probably listening to indie rock, drum and bass, or Yankees baseball. ### Author social links [Bluesky]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()