Games where your car is your home: 9 vehicles to live in

In these games, the vehicle is more than a way to travel. It is your base, your storage, or the only safe place in a hostile world. The list covers cars, trains, a raft, a submarine, and a spaceship, and each entry explains what the vehicle does for you.

Two kinds of vehicle home

We found two kinds of games with a vehicle home:

• The vehicle is the base. You live in it, upgrade it, and take it with you. The crew or the workshop is inside.
• The vehicle is the lifeline. You leave it to scavenge, and you return to it to escape. If it breaks, you are in danger.

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.

Home type: Lifeline. Route 48 has no base to build. Your car is your way forward and the thing that you must protect. You scavenge for fuel and parts, and you repair damaged parts. You decide when to fight, when to avoid danger, and when to get back on the road.

A broken vehicle can mean the end of your journey, but you can continue on foot. Outside the car, you face zombies and armed hostile survivors. Route 48 is in Early Access now.

The Long Drive

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

Home type: Lifeline, in a calm form. You drive across a randomly generated desert that is almost endless. The car is the only fixed point in that world. Car maintenance and survival are light, and a full tank lasts a long distance.

Small details make the car feel like a home. You can lean out of the car, and you can adjust the mirrors or throw them away. It suits players who want to live in a car with no pressure. See our list of games like The Long Drive for more.

Pacific Drive

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

Home type: Lifeline, with a garage base. The store page calls the station wagon your only lifeline in the Olympic Exclusion Zone. Anomalies, radiation, and storms make every trip dangerous.

Between trips, you return to an abandoned garage. There, you repair and upgrade the car, and you craft new equipment. So Pacific Drive has two homes: the car on the road, and the garage between runs. Read games like Pacific Drive for similar games.

Last Train Home

Developer: Ashborne Games. Released: 2023. Players: Single-player.

Home type: Base. You lead soldiers of the Czechoslovak Legion across Siberia during the Russian Civil War. An armored train is your base for the whole journey.

You manage the crew, resources, and morale on the train. Real-time tactical battles decide your missions. You also upgrade your soldiers and the train. It suits strategy players who want a base on rails in a hard winter.

Metro Exodus

Developer: 4A Games. Released: 2019. Players: Single-player.

Home type: Base. You play as Artyom, who leads a group of Spartan Rangers across post-apocalyptic Russia. Your home is the Aurora, a heavily modified steam locomotive.

Metro Exodus is a first-person shooter with stealth, exploration, and survival. You scavenge and craft to improve your gear in large, open levels. Your choices affect which companions survive. The Aurora carries the group on the long journey east.

Voidtrain

Developer: HypeTrain Digital. Released: 2025. Players: Single-player or online co-op (up to 4).

Home type: Base. You are an engineer in the Void, a strange and dangerous world. You start with a bare cart and build it into a train with many cars and a better engine.

The train grows with you. You craft weapons and gear, fight enemies, and explore islands that float in the Void. It suits players who want to build their vehicle home from nothing, alone or with friends.

Raft

Developer: Redbeet Interactive. Released: 2022. Players: Single-player or online co-op.

Home type: Base. You start stranded at sea with a plastic hook. You catch debris from the water and use it to expand your raft. A shark attacks you, so you must defend yourself.

Over time, the raft becomes a full base, and you sail to islands to find resources. The remains of the old world tell you the story of its former people. It suits players who like survival crafting and a home that floats.

Barotrauma

Developer: FakeFish and Undertow Games. Released: 2023. Players: Single-player (with bots) or online co-op.

Home type: Base. Your home is a submarine on Europa, a moon of Jupiter. Outside the hull, sea monsters wait.

The crew operates the systems: sonar, reactor, weapons, engines, and pumps. The crew also repairs the leaks. Barotrauma is a 2D survival horror game. In single-player, bots fill the empty crew places. It suits players who want a vehicle home where one leak can become a disaster.

FTL: Faster Than Light

Developer: Subset Games. Released: 2012. Players: Single-player.

Home type: Base. Your spaceship and its crew are all that you have on a mission to save the galaxy. You decide how much power each ship system gets, and you pick weapon targets. You can pause a fight to plan.

Each run has different enemies, events, and results. Death is permanent, so a lost ship ends the run. The crew can repair damaged systems, but you repair the hull at stores with scrap. It suits players who want a vehicle home in a hard strategy game.

How we picked these games

We looked for games where the vehicle is the base or the only safe place. A vehicle that is only transport did not qualify. We checked the facts on the store pages and other public sources. Only games that you can play on PC now are on the list.

Which one should you play first?

• For a car as your lifeline, play Pacific Drive or Route 48.
• For a calm life in a car, play The Long Drive.
• For a train base and strategy, play Last Train Home.
• For a story and a shooter, play Metro Exodus.
• For a vehicle that you build from nothing, play Voidtrain or Raft.
• For a crew in a vehicle under pressure, play Barotrauma or FTL: Faster Than Light.

For more games where a car matters, read our list of the best survival games with cars.