Best Driving Games With Intense Cop Chases

When playing racing or driving games, few thrills can match the intensity of high-speed police chases, where players must combine their driving skills with strategy to outsmart their pursuers. While many arcade games delivered on this aspect of driving in the past, the modern industry often overlooks this thrilling feature for some reason, with only the Need for Speed series remaining a reliable source of such unique experiences in recent years.

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Today, players looking for a blood-pumping outlaw experience behind the wheel aren’t entirely out of options, yet some of the best driving games with intense police chases now belong to the legacy category — sometimes even unavailable for purchase due to licensing. Below, we’ll take a look at some of the best car games known for their exciting cop chases, allowing players to fully experience the cat-and-mouse thrill with flashing lights on their tail.

1 Need for Speed Unbound

The Trend-Setting Series for Police Chases

Need for Speed games are nearly synonymous with intense cop chases, which have been a major part of the experience for over two decades. Titles like Hot Pursuit, Most Wanted, Carbon, Undercover, Rivals, and Payback all feature dynamic police systems, often allowing players to trigger chases in the open-world at will. Need for Speed Heat introduced significant overhauls to the police system, which, with some improvements and alterations, makes its comeback in Need for Speed Unbound.

The latest entry to date, Unbound not only emphasizes cop chases at night during the campaign mode, but also includes the feature in Lakeshore Online, which has received several major updates since the game’s release, expanding the list of available challenges and game modes. At high wanted levels, the cops in Unbound can be truly relentless, resulting in some of the most intense chases the series has offered to date. Some players may even complain that there are just too many cops on the city streets, which at times can cause frustration — but hey, that’s just the daily life of a street racing outlaw.

2 The Crew Motorfest

Dedicated Police Chase Playlist with Unique Challenges

Unlike the Need for Speed series, The Crew Motorfest doesn’t have a proper police system in its open world, instead presenting its racing world as a kind of festival akin to the Forza Horizon franchise, with racers portrayed as untouchable celebrities who are simply there to enjoy. However, just like in previous entries, Motorfest includes dedicated stages, game modes, and playlists that allow players to drive as cops during dynamic chase events.

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In the Motorfest Chase Squad playlist, players can join the Chase Squad and train to pursue, chase, and take down illegal street racers, using various vehicles — including a police helicopter. Playing as a cop is a lot of fun in The Crew Motorfest, as the rules are entirely different compared to other racing events. First, players need to tail their runners to build tension. After that, alongside the rest of the squad, they must pursue, ram, wreck, or arrest their opponents — the faster, the better. While the number of police events doesn’t quite match the scope of cop chases in NFS Heat or Unbound, players can still drive police vehicles during freeride, roleplay as a cop, and participate in Rivals mode, where they identify and dynamically chase racers across the vast open world.

Over-the-Top, Arcade-Style Police Mayhem

ESRB

E For Everyone // Mild Lyrics, Mild Violence

The latest entry in the iconic mobile series, Asphalt Legends Unite (previously known as Asphalt 9: Legends), has notably expanded its list of platforms, marking the series’ arrival on Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles. Arguably the most arcade-style driving game featuring edge-of-your-seat cop events and challenges available today, Asphalt Legends offers plenty for those who enjoy a less realistic approach to racing with little to no limitations behind the wheel.

Driving a high-speed hypercar can feel almost like a superhero experience in Asphalt Legends Unite, with Flash-like nitrous, sky-high jumps over police helicopters, and dozens of cop cars smashed at once. While there is no open world available for police chases in Asphalt Legends, the game more than makes up for it with its linear, focused, and intense events in the vein of older Need for Speed titles, where the only way forward is full throttle.

4 Midnight Club: Los Angeles

Grounded and Realistic Street Chases

Like any decent open-world street racing game, Midnight Club: Los Angeles aims to satisfy players’ need for high-octane, dynamic cop chases, at times feeling like a proper GTA experience. With its expansive map, rich car roster, and unpredictable AI behavior, going up against the cops is both exciting and rewarding — if players can put their driving skills to good use and outsmart the LAPD.

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Unlike the NFS games, there’s no heat system for police in Midnight Club: Los Angeles, meaning that chases feel grounded at all times, without any over-the-top moments involving overwhelming police forces. Thanks to this, cop chases rarely become a chore or too exhausting for the players. Additionally, one of the best things about Midnight Club: Los Angeles is that, unlike many other driving games of its era, it’s still available to players on Xbox consoles.

5 Driver: San Francisco

Unique Gameplay Feature Allows for Some Truly Creative Chase Stages

ESRB

T For Teen Due To Drug Reference, Language, Sexual Themes, Violence

Driver: San Francisco was released amid the decline of the arcade driving genre and still managed to stand out compared to everything that came before, offering fresh gameplay possibilities still unavailable anywhere else. Players were able to freely change their vehicle to any other in sight, unlocking truly unique and exciting opportunities and a special approach to mission and racing event design in the open world.

Cop chases were a major part of the experience in Driver: San Francisco, elevated by the game’s unique gameplay feature of switching vehicles on the go. Players could both play as escaping felons chased by the police and as cops themselves, leveraging creative solutions on the fly to either drop their followers with a bang or stop drivers trying to escape in the most unconventional ways. It’s a shame that Driver: San Francisco never received a continuation and that its revolutionary idea was lost when the game was delisted.

6 Test Drive Unlimited 2

Putting Newer Entry to Shame

While Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown lacks a dynamic police feature, older entries in the iconic open-world series have plenty to offer in that regard. In Test Drive Unlimited 2, players can freely explore the vast maps of Ibiza and O’ahu, with a properly functioning, realistic police system that can fine players for their behavior on the road or chase them across the map if they don’t comply.

When it comes to speed chases, Test Drive Unlimited 2 largely stays in the Midnight Club: Los Angeles realm, so the game doesn’t overwhelm players with overly oppressive cops or an artificial heat system. Instead, cop chases feel small-scale, grounded, but still intense — especially if the player’s goal is to play with the police for a bit rather than shake off the pursuit instantly. It’s truly a shame that the newer game, Solar Crown, hasn’t been able to at least match its predecessors to deliver believable police chases in bustling Hong Kong.

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