What racing games, arcade & console, would you say were the great games prior to Gran Turismo? Pole Position and Bump N' Jump are pretty legendary.

Bump N' Jump Firebird

excitebike, rad racer, road rash, MARIO KART!

MARIO KART!

This.

Virtua Racing

This game is still a gas to play.

The infamous 1976 arcade game Death Race, based on the 1975 Roger Corman directed 1975 movie Death Race 2000 starring David Carradine & Sylvester Stallone. You race around, knock over/kill pedestrians and pick up points. Parents had the game banned! But we can enjoy it now. 1976, the future has arrived! BTW there's a good modified C3 Corvette in this film.

Death Race

Pole Position I remember. That was good.

I also remember another racing game for the C64, it was racing through traffic that was going both ways with a cliff on one side and a rock face on the other. Anybody know what I'm talking about?

Oh! I found it! TEST DRIVE.

Watch the gameplay in the second half of the video. Pretty good for a Commodore!