Games like The Long Drive: 9 endless road trip games on PC

Games like The Long Drive give you a long road, a car that you must maintain, and a world with few people in it. No other game copies the formula exactly, so we check each pick against those three parts. Then you can choose the parts that matter to you.

What The Long Drive does

The Long Drive is a road trip game from Genesz. It has been in Early Access on Steam since 2019. The game generates a desert at random, and the desert is almost endless. It puts the focus on the drive, exploration, and immersion. Car maintenance and survival are light.

The game has no invisible walls and no screen signs that tell you to turn around. A full tank of fuel lasts for a long distance, so the drive is calm. You can go off the road and climb the mountains that you see far away.

For each game below, we look at three things:

• Road: Is the road long, open, or new each time?
• Car: What do you do to keep the vehicle alive?
• World: Is the world empty and calm, or does it attack you?

Route 48 (our game)

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

Developer: HOLY STUDIOS. Released: Early Access since 2026. Players: Single-player.

• Road: A procedurally generated open world. Every new game has different roads, towns, and forests.
• Car: You manage fuel, scavenge for parts, and repair damaged parts.
• World: Abandoned and dangerous, with zombies and armed hostile survivors.

Route 48 shares the empty highways of The Long Drive, but the world fights back. You search abandoned buildings for food, fuel, weapons, and medical supplies. If the car breaks, you can continue on foot. Route 48 is in Early Access now.

Drive Beyond Horizons

Developer: Drive Beyond Horizons. Released: Early Access since 2025. Players: Single-player or online co-op (up to 4).

• Road: A procedurally generated open world that changes each run.
• Car: You maintain and customize your vehicle.
• World: Weather changes, and the game has a day-night cycle.

This is one of the closest matches to the structure of The Long Drive. You search buildings for vehicle parts, and some buildings are empty. Friends can join you in their own cars, or all of you can share one car. The developer plans a long Early Access period, so expect changes.

Jalopy

Developer: Minskworks. Released: 2018. Players: Single-player.

• Road: A procedurally generated road trip through countries of the former Eastern Bloc.
• Car: You repair the tires, the engine, and the carburettor, and you refuel the old Laika 601 Deluxe.
• World: Border patrols, and roads that change their conditions.

Jalopy gives the trip a direction. You also manage the space in the trunk, because every spare part takes room. You earn money when you scavenge, or more money when you smuggle goods past the border. Read our list of games like Jalopy if this one fits you.

Pacific Drive

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

• Road: A network of road junctions in a closed zone. It is not one endless road.
• Car: An old station wagon that you repair, upgrade, and fill with fuel.
• World: Anomalies, radiation, and storms that destroy what stays too long.

Pacific Drive is The Long Drive with a threat and a home base. You drive into the zone, take resources, and return to a garage. There, you repair the car and craft new equipment. Choose it if the calm of The Long Drive is too calm for you.

Keep Driving

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

• Road: A procedurally generated pixel-art world. Your goal is a festival on the other side of the country.
• Car: You repair, upgrade, and customize your car.
• World: Hitchhikers with their own personalities and stories.

Keep Driving is a management RPG, so you plan the trip on a map. Problems on the road use a turn-based "combat" system. It is the opposite of The Long Drive in one way: the people in the car matter more than the empty land outside.

American Truck Simulator

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

• Road: Long freight routes in licensed trucks, with different trailer types.
• Car: You customize your truck, and later you build a fleet.
• World: Calm, but speed fines and weigh stations add rules.

You start as a freelance driver. Then you become an owner-operator, and later you run a company with garages and hired drivers. There is no survival here. It is for players who want the long drive itself, with a job as the reason to drive. SCS Software also makes Euro Truck Simulator 2, with cargo routes across European cities.

My Summer Car

Developer: Amistech Games. Released: 2025, after Early Access from 2016. Players: Single-player.

• Road: Not an endless road. The car build is the journey.
• Car: You build the car and its engine from hundreds of loose parts.
• World: A life sim with food, drink, sleep, jobs, and permadeath.

Play My Summer Car if your favorite part of The Long Drive was the work under the hood. The car must also pass an inspection, or you have problems with the police. See games like My Summer Car for more picks of this type.

BeamNG.drive

Developer: BeamNG. Released: Early Access since 2015. Players: Single-player.

• Road: Free Roam lets you take any vehicle to any place on the map.
• Car: A soft-body physics engine simulates each part of the vehicle in real time.
• World: No survival. Scenarios and time trials give goals if you want them.

BeamNG.drive is a sandbox without survival systems. But maybe you liked how the car in The Long Drive moves and breaks. Then try BeamNG.drive, because it simulates physics and damage in much more detail.

Overland

Developer: Finji. Released: 2019. Players: Single-player.

• Road: A random road map across a post-apocalyptic United States.
• Car: You keep the fuel tank full and decide when to upgrade the vehicle.
• World: Creatures come when you make noise.

Overland is turn-based, so it plays slowly and carefully. You manage a small group of travelers and rescue stranded survivors. Every level, road map, and character is random.

How we picked these games

We split The Long Drive into three parts: the road, the car, and the world. Each game here matches at least one of them, and most match two. We checked the facts on each store page and in other public sources. We did not include games that are not out on PC.

Which one should you play first?

• For the same open, procedural road with co-op, play Drive Beyond Horizons.
• For an old car and a trip with a direction, play Jalopy.
• For a road trip that attacks you, play Pacific Drive or Route 48.
• For people and stories on the road, play Keep Driving.
• For calm long drives with a job, play American Truck Simulator.
• For the work under the hood, play My Summer Car.

For a direct comparison, read Route 48 vs The Long Drive and Pacific Drive.