Best PC racing wheels in 2024 (2024)

I've burned rubber with all the best PC racing wheels to see which one earns first place on the podium. All the wheels included in this guide have been put through their paces in a range of racing games, and from that time in-game I've decided on the best to buy across a wide range of budgets—from mighty direct drive bases to affordable wheel and pedal combos.

The absolute best PC racing wheel is the Logitech G Pro Racing Wheel. It's got a gigantic 11Nm of direct drive torque for plenty of detailed steering feedback without clipping, an easy to use interface, well placed buttons and a fantastic pedal set, although you do have to buy them separately.The best budget racing wheel is the Thrustmaster T128, a hybrid drive wheel with superb paddle shifters and a good amount of responsive grunt, along with plenty of wheel-mounted buttons for all your in-game controls.

A racing wheel is one of the best PC gaming buys, and I've tried out tons of racing wheels to get a handle on which ones that are worth your hard-earned cash. The best PC racing wheels come in a wide range of prices. But don't worry; I've chosen several affordable options to go with it, all of which deliver force feedback and an all-around great driving experience.

The quick list

Best racing wheel

The Logitech Pro Racing Wheel and Pro Racing Pedals is our pick for the best racing wheel, as it's a frightfully powerful combination for sim racing. The gear-driven motor system so often found in Logitech's racing wheels is gone. In its stead, the Pro Racing Wheel comes with a direct drive motor that will shake you all the way down to your little racing booties.

The Logitech's Pro Racing Wheel delivers a staggering 11Nm (Newton metres) of torque. That's a huge amount of power to throw behind a racing wheel for a PC, and while the absolute top units can put out 25Nm of torque, 11Nm is more than enough to throw you around in your seat if you let it. The Pro Racing Wheel can give you a truly race-car like experience thanks to its ability to really make you feel like you've got some huge tires under your hands, although many will prefer to turn it down a bit to take some of the strain off your poor little forearms.

Compared to the Fanatec CSL DD, the Logitech's 11Nm is much more powerful next to the Fanatec's baseline 5Nm. However, the Fanatec wheelbase can deliver up to 8Nm torque with a secondary adapter for extra dosh.

Still, you'll need to spend a bit more cash on the Logitech if you want the full experience as well, as the pedals come separately.

That being said, the Pro Racing Pedal set is absolutely brilliant. It's not exactly cheap. But given what you get here, the pedals are actually pretty good value for what you end up receiving. This is a three-pedal set, including two metal plated brake and clutch pedals and a large gas pedal. The inclusion of a clutch pedal as standard is much appreciated, as that provides you with a lot more options. However, the real icing on the cake is the load-cell brake, which mimics the feeling of a real car's braking system and provides a huge dose of immersion. Once you've used a load-cell brake kit, you won't want to use anything else.

Another highlight is the dual clutch paddles beneath the already brilliant shifters. These are for games where a racing-style clutch is required for launching the car at the start, like F1 23, and you can customise them to your hearts content for all sorts of uses. Personally I like to swap in the handbrake for the clutch pedals, freeing up some other wheel buttons for a multitude of other uses.

Then there's the price. There's no getting round it, it's a lot of money to spend on a PC peripheral, and if you're looking to spend less then the Fanatec CSL DD below also gives you direct drive hijinks for less cash. However, the Logitech Pro Racing kit feels as much a high-end offering in power and performance as it should for the price, and it'll come as no surprise that every detail and every material screams premium, long-lasting quality as we've come to expect from Logitech over the years.

It's our overall best racing wheel for a reason, and all that power, convenience, detail and build quality make it our absolute top pick for PC racing wheel bliss.

Read our full Logitech G Pro Racing Wheel and G Pro Pedals review.

Best budget racing wheel

The Thrustmaster T128 is the the best budget racing wheel to buy right now. Our previous pick for the best budget racing wheel was the Thrustmaster TMX Force Feedback, but the T128 is an improvement in every way on that aged design.

The key to the T128's success is that it shares the same Hybrid Drive system as found in theThrustmaster T248. This drive is a combination of both gear and belt-driven force feedback, and while Thrustmaster has toned down the power on the T128 drive versus the T248, it's still noted as being 20% more powerful than the TMX.

My first impression of the hybrid drive on the T128 was just how smooth it is as you throw it around. It avoids the pitfalls of a purely geared system, which often feels clunkier, and feels much better for it.While absolutely miles behind the best racing wheels in power, I really am impressed by how much grunt it has for its diminutive size. If you hit a curb, you'll notice.

The resistance here feels great throughout the wheel as you turn it, which makes it plenty accurate for driving, and for developing your skills around a particular track. Small adjustments to cornering feel precise, especially if you're used to something gear driven. The hybrid system is a huge improvement over gear systems, no doubt.

However, and this'll likely come as no surprise given the price, the T128 feels a little cheap. There's no grip around the circumference of the wheel, which is unfortunately non-removable, and the buttons are made of a very cheap feeling plastic. I still reckon it'll last, it'll likely show signs of wear with time quicker than some more premium options. That lack of grip isn't wonderful for sweaty palms, either.

Beyond that, the T128 has some poorly thought-out pedals. The twin-pedal T2PM set may well be included, but it doesn't feel all that great under your feet. It's too lightweight, feels disappointingly plasticky, and has a tendency to move around a lot while you're racing.

The much improved T3PM pedals are $100, which is half the price of the entire T128 kit, so in all honesty I can see why Thrustmaster hasn't gone for something better. But those of you looking to upgrade in future will want to start with the pedals first, as they're the most obvious way to improve your immersion, and very likely your lap times too.

Otherwise, the T128 is a genuinely brilliant entry-level racing wheel. It's decently powerful, smooth, and a wonderful way to break into sim racing without spending a whole heap of cash. It may have flaws, but given the pricing here and the experience you end up receiving, it's the best budget pick by miles.

Read our full Thrustmaster T128 racing wheel review.

Best mid-range racing wheel

The Thrustmaster T248 is a far more budget-friendly option than even the cheapest direct drive wheel, and our pick for the best mid-range racing wheel right now. The force feedback it delivers is a lot more impressive than you might expect, and it's exceptionally accurate. Inside the T248, you'll find a hybrid force feedback system that utilizes a gear alongside a belt. That covers the downsides of the geared system, which has been known to feel clunky at times but still has all the benefits of a belt system. Plus, that keeps it cheap.

However, the T248's hybrid system has appeared to come at the expense of some of the finer touches. The build looks and feels cheap. Similarly, it's awfully loud, especially the shifter paddles. These are, however, incredibly responsive, like nothing I've used before. A worthy trade-off? So long as you don't need to keep the noise down too much.

What Thrustmaster is delivering with the T248 is the Thrustmaster Hybrid Drive. It's not precisely gear- or belt-driven, but there is a belt to maximize the internal motor's potential in-game. The Hybrid Drive feels like a smart move on Thrustmaster's behalf once you get this wheel setup, too; as compared to a purely gear-driven motor, there's a lot of power and response delivered through the wheel while racing.

The T248 gets a lot technically correct, and when it comes down to it, I'd take technical precision over aesthetics any day. This is the best wheel to buy on a tighter budget if you want to develop your racing ability and learn to corner consistently.

Read our full Thrustmaster T248 review.

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Most upgradeable racing wheel

The Fanatec GT DD Pro is our top pick for the most upgradeable racing wheel. It sets a high standard for all racing wheels, and makes a great starting point for any racing game enthusiast looking to make the leap into something more serious. A direct-drive motor can throw the wheel around with so much force you're holding on for dear life.

Trust me; you want that. You feel every bump or loss of traction with the GT DD. I noticed my lap times started improving once I could hone in on where I was losing grip and speed during a lap. Granted, I had a few meetings with the barriers along the way, but I felt like I was able to develop my race as a result.

The GT DD's construction is pretty much immaculate. The wheelbase is this solid metal, passively-cooled monster, and into that slots a sturdy and straightforward clamp. The wheel itself is one of my favorite of all those I've tested, delivering a glutton of buttons that are easy to get familiar with.

The included CSL Pedals don't come with a clutch or a load-cell brake, however, you can upgrade to a load-cell kit sold by Fanatec, which replaces the brake and leaves the spare brake to become a clutch pedal. The wheelbase's feedback ensures you're painfully aware when you take a little too much curb and helps inform you of your traction throughout a corner. A fast rotation back to the center also means you can throw the wheel around and never feel like you're losing control over your steering in tight chicanes.

When you set it up just right, the GT DD Pro sings. The finely-tuned vibration and rotation through the wheel transmit so much information from the game's engine into your hands—with the right racing game, one that has simulation-grade feedback, it's an absolute joy to throw the GT DD around the track. While technically built for Gran Turismo 7, it's no worse off on the PC across a range of sim racing and sim-light games, such as Assetto Corsa and F1 23.

What I enjoy about this kit is its versatility. I jumped into Forza Horizon and felt no less comfortable throwing this wheel around than in F1 2021 with tighter force feedback settings. That's not something I've necessarily felt with cheaper models. While that's partially down to the direct-drive technology at the heart of the GT DD Pro, it's also how simple this wheel is to set up for each game, even those it doesn't necessarily play nicely with.

With or without extras, this is truly one of the best ways to get into sim racing today and one of the best racing wheels I've tested.

Read our full Fanatec GT DD Pro review.

Best affordable belt drive racing wheel

The Thrustmaster T300 RS sat as our #1 pick for the best racing wheel for a few years, but even today it still makes this list as our top pick for the best belt drive wheel. It's a little older now, having originally been released in 2014, but it's still plenty deserving of consideration in 2023.

The T300 RS has aged pretty well over the years, with mods and support aplenty. Though with the arrival of the Thrustmaster T248, we felt it hit a cheaper price point that would appeal to a wider audience than the standard T300 RS, with a bit more of a modern design. The T248 also comes with a a far superior pedal set in the T3PM.

That's why we've updated our recommendation to the T300 RS GT Edition, which has all the best bits of the T300 RS plus a much-improved pedal set. You will have to drop a little more cash on this particular edition, but we felt the T3PA pedals make that leap more worthwhile. They're still not quite up to the T3PM set on the T248, but they're a much improved set than on the T300 RS as standard, which also lacks a clutch pedal.

You'd also be buying a dual belt-driven design for highly responsive force feedback on the T300 RS that remains impressive to this day. It delivers smooth response from the track with the benefits of the extra power that only a belt-drive system can deliver in lieu of a bigger motor. The wheel on the T300RS can also be removed and replaced, which isn't something you can do on the T248.

It's a pretty close call between this and the newer Thrustmaster T248. There's a good case to be made either way, but we recommend you splash out for the T300RS GT Edition if you want something akin to the best of both.

Easiest racing wheel for beginners

Our pick for the easiest racing wheel for beginners has to be the Logitech G923 Trueforce racing wheel, as we found it offers a desirable mixture of control, feedback, and response. For that reason, it is decently suited to most racing games out there—it's the racing wheel we'd recommend to rookie drivers and those looking for thrills and find themselves often hopping between different and varied sims.

We've spent most of our time using the G923 with F1 2021 and F1 2019, and it works excellently with only a few tweaks to steering saturation and throttle linearity (72, 20—if you're wondering). Similarly, it's as simple as booting Assetto Corsa Competizione to switch to GT Series racing. Or any other driving game for that matter, even SnowRunner.

The accelerator delivers a decent linear press with a quick return to keep it glued to your foot, while the clutch brings a similarly swift response with increasing tension as you depress the pedal—enough to create a faux bite point. The brake pedal, however, is the highlight of the three.

Slightly tweaked from the G920 and G29 design, a progressive spring design requires serious stomp power. So much so that the unit's carpet grip system is something of a necessity for serious racing, and you'll want to consider a chair with lockable castors to keep you firmly in place and gunning for position in-game.

The G923 enjoys wide support and high-quality construction, and it certainly trumps the Thrustmaster kit for how premium it feels. The G920 is a similar wheel and available for a lot less money nowadays, so that's also worth checking out if it's available for less in your area.

Read our full Logitech G923 Trueforce review.

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