I really don't want to upset anyone or trample on their childhood memories but I've been so surprised to read about the love for "The Cruisin' series" of games. I've seen it mentioned on so many different videos and web pages now and have always noticed that it's always posts or videos by people that live in the USA. I'd never even heard of the series until a few years ago since emulation became a thing and I was always in and out of the arcades in my youth here in the UK and never once spotted a single Cruisin' arcade machine in any of the many arcades I frequented back in the day. I've tried all the games in the series now and can't for the life of me understand why it's held in such great esteem and can only put it down to the nostalgia held for it if you played it when it was new on the scene as it where . We're the Cruisin' games only ever released in the USA or was it just that that was their biggest rollout area? My vote would without doubt go for Outrun, Sega Rally, Daytona, Virtua Racing and finally Ridge Racer. I'd say without hesitation that these are the best top 5 arcade racing games AND also the most influential too. Your Grand Turismo's, Test Drive's, Need For Speed's and Forza's only exist (in the home console and PC market) because somebody played one of those 5 arcade games and made their game for the home market. I can't imagine any developer ever saying that there new IP racing game was inspired by "F1GP", "Test Drive", or "Gran Turismo" as the influence behind their game can you guys? Night Driver and Pole position may have very well been among the first ever 3rd person driving games out there but I don't think their style of game play influenced the huge amount of racing games that those early Sega racing games did.