Best road trip games on PC: calm, story, and survival picks

The best road trip games on PC have one of three moods: calm drives, story trips, or survival runs. Pick the mood first, and then pick the game. This list has calm picks such as American Truck Simulator, story picks such as Kentucky Route Zero, and survival picks such as Pacific Drive.

How to use this list

A road trip game is about the journey, not a race to a finish line. But the feel of the journey changes a lot from game to game. So each entry has a mood tag:

• Calm: long drives, low danger, and time to look at the view.
• Story: the road is a stage for characters and choices.
• Survival: the road is dangerous, and your supplies or your car can fail.

Route 48 (our game)

Full disclosure: we made Route 48, so we put it first.

Mood: survival.

Route 48 is a first-person driving survival game with the tagline "The world is gone, but the road goes on." You drive into a procedurally generated open world, scavenge for fuel and parts, and repair your car to stay on the road. On the way, you search abandoned buildings and fight zombies and armed survivors. It is single-player and in Early Access on Steam.

American Truck Simulator

Developer: SCS Software. Released: 2016. Players: Single-player or online multiplayer.

Mood: calm.

You drive licensed American trucks and deliver cargo between cities. The base game covers California, Nevada, and Arizona. You start as a driver for hire, and later you can build your own transport company.

This is the calmest trip on the list. There are no enemies, only traffic and long highways. It suits players who want to relax with a long drive after work.

The Long Drive

Developer: Genesz. Released: 2019 (Early Access). Players: Single-player.

Mood: calm, with some survival.

The Long Drive puts you in an almost endless, randomly generated desert. The focus is freedom and exploration. The car needs only light maintenance, and the survival parts are simple. With a full tank, the developer says you can go about 500 kilometers.

It suits players who want to drive with no goal and find out what is over the next hill. It is still in Early Access. Our games like The Long Drive list has more games in this style.

Jalopy

Developer: Minskworks. Released: 2018 (Early Access from 2016). Players: Single-player.

Mood: calm, with car trouble.

You and your uncle drive a small old car, the Laika 601, from East Berlin to Istanbul. The route goes through Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria. The car breaks down often. You repair or replace parts such as the engine, the carburetor, and the tyres. You also watch the fuel, oil, and water.

You earn money when you carry goods between countries, but each border has its own list of contraband. It suits players who like to look after an old car on a long trip.

Keep Driving

Developer: YCJY Games. Released: 2025. Players: Single-player.

Mood: calm, with light management.

It is the early 2000s, and you have your first car and a whole summer. You drive across a procedurally generated pixel art country to a festival. You give rides to hitchhikers, work odd jobs, and repair and customize your car.

Problems on the road use turn-based encounters with your skills and the items in the car. The game has several endings, and each trip takes about one to four hours. It suits players who want a slow trip with small decisions.

Kentucky Route Zero

Developer: Cardboard Computer. Released: 2013 to 2020, in five acts. Players: Single-player.

Mood: story.

Conway is a delivery driver for an antique shop. To make a last delivery, he looks for Route Zero, a secret highway in caves under Kentucky. You move his truck across a road map and choose what he and other characters say.

This is a point-and-click adventure with magical realism. It suits players who want a slow, strange story about people on the road.

Wheels of Aurelia

Developer: Santa Ragione. Released: 2016. Players: Single-player.

Mood: story.

It is the 1970s in Italy. Lella drives along the Via Aurelia on the west coast. The game mixes an isometric driving view with conversation choices. Your choices and stops can lead to car chases, street races, or tense talks with strangers.

One trip lasts about fifteen minutes, and there are sixteen endings. It suits players who want a short story that they can replay many times.

Road 96

Developer: DigixArt. Released: 2021. Players: Single-player.

Mood: story, with light survival.

You play teenagers who try to reach the border of Petria, an authoritarian country. You travel on foot, as a hitchhiker, or by bus, car, and taxi. Each trip is built from procedurally generated segments, and you manage your energy and your money.

The people you meet come back in later trips, and your choices change their stories. It suits players who want a road trip about choices and characters.

Death Road to Canada

Developer: Rocketcat Games and Madgarden. Released: 2016. Players: Single-player or local co-op for up to 4 players.

Mood: survival, with comedy.

A group of survivors drives from Florida to Canada through a zombie outbreak. At each stop, they search buildings for food, gas, medicine, and weapons. Text events ask you to make choices, and the game randomizes locations, events, and characters.

It suits players who want a short, funny, and dangerous trip with friends on one screen. Read our list of games like Death Road to Canada for more games of this kind.

Pacific Drive

Developer: Ironwood Studios. Released: 2024. Players: Single-player.

Mood: survival.

You drive a station wagon into the Olympic Exclusion Zone, a strange area full of anomalies. You collect resources, repair the car, and escape before a storm arrives. Back in your garage, you upgrade the car for the next trip.

The Zone shifts with each trip, so the road is never the same. It suits players who want the car to be a tool, a shelter, and a project.

How we picked these games

We chose games where the journey is the main activity, not a race or a single location. We put at least two games in each mood, so you can compare them. We checked each fact on the Steam page or another public source. Prices and review scores change, so we left them out.

Which road trip should you take first?

• For a calm evening, start with American Truck Simulator or The Long Drive.
• For an old car that needs care, try Jalopy.
• For a story, try Kentucky Route Zero if you have time, or Wheels of Aurelia if you do not.
• For danger on the road, try Death Road to Canada, Pacific Drive, or Route 48.

Not sure what a survival road trip feels like? Read our guide to what a driving survival game is.