Parking Garage Rally Circuit: European Tour

When I first reviewed Parking Garage Rally Circuit back in 2024, I couldn’t get enough of the cleverly-designed tracks, the smooth handling and, of course, that infectious ska soundtrack. I called it “the surprise racing game of the year.” Now, two years later, the developer is gearing up for an upcoming console launch that will come bundled with eight brand-new stages. If you’re one of the many people who fell in love with the original PC version, don’t worry, you’re not being left out. Available later this month is European Tour, a five-dollar expansion pack that takes you across the pond to race through countries like Germany, France and Italy. It’s a fun romp, but is it enough to get you to revisit 2024’s most surprising racing game? That’s what we’re about to find out when I review Parking Garage Rally Circuit DX: European Tour.

Just in case you don’t remember Parking Garage Rally Circuit from a couple of years ago, it’s basically exactly what you think it is: A speedy arcade-style racing game in the style of the low-polygon, low-resolution racers we saw in the mid-1990s. Think Sega Rally, only instead of driving narrow dirt roads and through snow-covered mountains, we’re zipping around corners in a series of parking garages. Sometimes it’s a mall parking lot, while other times it’s a big airport garage. If you can park your car there, then you can race for first place.

This time around, we’re heading to Europe. This brand-new expansion pack takes us on a tour of France, Germany, Switzerland and more, adding eight new tracks and mixing things up with a few more catchy ska songs for the already great soundtrack. While not a full sequel, these extra stages effectively double the amount of content found in Parking Garage Rally Circuit, giving fans a whole new reason to jump back into the game.

If you played the trip through America, then this European tour is going to feel awfully familiar. There are three different difficulty classes, each with their own car. The goal of the game is to speed through the course and get at least third place. If you can do that, you’ll unlock the next lag of the tour. Once you’ve earned at least third place in all these stages, a new difficulty will open up, giving you an extra challenge as you memorize these levels inside and out.

It helps that the level designs are a lot of fun. This isn’t just a retread of the American tour, as each of the different European destinations have their own unique personalities. A good example of this is the Montpellier parking garage, which is a four-lap race where a giant semi-truck blocks the road and forces you to take two different paths to the finish line. The York level is also memorable, but for a completely different reason. The course starts out a bit foggy, only to be completely engulfed in the second lap. It gets so bad that it’s nearly impossible to see where you’re going, so I hope you were paying attention in the first lap.

The change in scenery also adds some much-needed variety to the level designs. Sure, there are several indoor stages that feels similar to what we played in 2024, but there are some new outdoor courses that are designed to force the player into making driving decisions they otherwise wouldn’t in a normally narrow track. There’s a fun underground track in Naples that has us speeding through caves and even dodging falling stalactites.

That said, if you’re hoping to see the sights at some of these famous European cities, then prepare to be disappointed. This isn’t the kind of racing game where you’re going to gawk at the Eifel Tower in Paris, because this game is more interested in you ripping through some multi-level parking garage. There are big differences between the cities and countries, but a lot of it has to do with the architecture and atmosphere. You’re playing Parking Garage Rally Circuit for the exciting racing, not to see the sights.

And once again, that’s the thing this game gets right. All this works is because the racing action is so damn fun. The drifting mechanics are simple, but they allow for enough depth to make you want to master every level. From shortcuts to taking that last corner just a little tighter, you’ll constantly find ways to shave a few seconds off of the time. And that first-place medal that initially seems out of reach will become a lot more obtainable.

More than anything else, what I appreciate is that this European Tour gave me a real good reason to revisit Parking Garage Rally Circuit. This is not one of those games that I completely forgot about two months after I reviewed it. In an era when racing games are in short supply, I’ve spent the last two years wishing that there were more games just like this. While I still wish there were more companies making this type of arcade-style racer, there’s no question that Parking Garage Rally Circuit scratches that itch.

What this European Tour does is make an already great package that much better. For those of us who remember the original release from 2024, this five-dollar expansion will suck you back in by doubling the content. Best of all, the eight new stages fit into the package seamlessly, so new players likely won’t even realize that the European Tour was added years later. That makes sense, what with the upcoming console release. A whole new audience is about to discover the greatness of Parking Garage Rally Circuit, and those people are going to be getting a game packed with great content.

No matter if you’re new to this throwback racer or, like me, a seasoned vet from the initial release, Parking Garage Rally Circuit DX is worth getting. Fans of classic Sega racers from the mid-1990s are going to fall in love, and there’s more than enough content to justify either the price of the bundle or the standalone DLC. We need more games like Parking Garage Rally Circuit.