- Primary Subject: The Four Best Open Worlds in Racing Games - Key Update: A comparative breakdown evaluating the premier open-world maps in racing game history following the release of Forza Horizon 6. - Status: Confirmed - Last Verified: August 4, 2026 - Quick Answer: The four best open-world racing maps are Burnout Paradise, Forza Horizon 4, Need for Speed Rivals, and Midnight Club: Los Angeles. Open-world racers get judged on car lists and handling models, but the map is where you actually spend your time. Forza Horizon 6 landed in Japan back in May and reopened an argument this genre has been having for twenty years. So here are the four worlds I keep going back to, plus one honorable mention that arguably cheats. Burnout Paradise: Paradise City Is Still The Benchmark Criterion released Paradise City in January 2008, and nothing since has beaten it. Around 250 miles of road, no menus between events, no loading screens, and no route guidance telling you where to turn. You learned that city because the game gave you no other option. That call irritated plenty of players at launch, and it is exactly why the map stuck with me years later. The map exists to serve one idea: wrecking other cars. Takedowns are the whole point of Burnout, and Paradise City was built to make setting them up easy. Wide arterials give you room to swing a rival into oncoming traffic, multi-lane intersections turn into scrapyards, and overpasses drop you into a pack from above. Most urban racing maps feel like a grid of corridors where contact bounces you off a wall. Paradise City always has somewhere to shove someone. Fences, barricades, parking structures, and rooftops are all fair game on top of that. The 2018 Remastered release runs at 4K60 and