City Car Driving: The Realistic Driving Simulator Explained

By Nham Vu · Updated July 2026

City Car Driving is a driving simulator built around one idea: teaching people to actually drive, not just race. The PC version comes from Forward and has lived on Steam since 2016, while a separate mobile edition from developer Baris Kaplan runs on Android and iOS under the same name. That split confuses a lot of newcomers, and it's the first thing worth sorting out before you install anything.

I've spent time with both versions over the years, and what strikes me every time is how unglamorous the whole thing is by design. There's no arcade boost, no rubber-banding AI, no cartoon damage effects. It's traffic lights, mirror checks, and parallel parking, which sounds boring until you realize that's exactly what makes it useful.

What Is City Car Driving and Who Made It?

City Car Driving is a driving simulation game built to replicate the experience of learning to drive in real traffic conditions. The PC edition was developed and published by Forward and launched on Steam on November 3, 2016, after years of earlier standalone releases going back to the late 2000s.

The mobile app carrying the same name is a separate product from developer Baris Kaplan, with the version I checked sitting at 1.038 and a file size around 20.61 Mb. In practice, treat them as cousins rather than twins: same concept, different engines, different scope.

Is City Car Driving Realistic?

Yes, realism is the entire point of the PC simulator, and it shows in the small details rather than flashy graphics. The physics model accounts for weight transfer, tire grip loss on wet or icy roads, and how a car behaves differently in a manual versus automatic setup.

What trips up new players is the traffic AI. Other cars actually obey lane discipline, yield at intersections, and react to your signals, so sloppy habits that would slide in an arcade racer get punished here. The best players I've seen treat every session like a real lesson: checking mirrors before every lane change, easing off the throttle in school zones, and never assuming the car ahead will do the polite thing.

What Platforms Is City Car Driving Available On?

City Car Driving runs on Windows PC through Steam as its primary and most feature-complete version, supporting keyboard, gamepad, and force-feedback steering wheels. The mobile spin-off is available on Android through Google Play and on iOS through the App Store.

There's no official City Car Driving on PS4, PS5, or Xbox. That question comes up constantly, and the honest answer is console players are better served by looking at dedicated console sims if they want a comparable experience, since this franchise has stayed PC and mobile focused.

• Windows PC (Steam)
• Android (Google Play)
• iOS (App Store)

How Do You Play City Car Driving Simulator?

You play City Car Driving by picking a scenario, a vehicle, and a set of traffic and weather conditions, then driving a route while following real road rules. The PC version ships with a driving school mode that walks through specific maneuvers like parallel parking, three-point turns, and highway merging before turning you loose in free-roam city and rural maps.

New players should start with driving school exercises rather than jumping straight into free roam. It sounds like hand-holding, but the scoring system there flags exactly what you're doing wrong, mirror usage, speed control, signal timing, in a way that free driving won't.

• Choose a scenario or driving school exercise
• Pick your vehicle and transmission type
• Set traffic density and weather
• Drive the route while following posted rules
• Review your maneuver score afterward

How Do You Play City Car Driving Online or on Mobile?

The mobile version of City Car Driving is downloaded through Google Play or the App Store and runs as a standalone app rather than a browser game, so there's no true City Car Driving online mode in the multiplayer sense. Some fan-made browser clones and unrelated games use similar names, which is where a lot of the confusion around City Car Driving online comes from.

On mobile, expect a lighter feature set than the PC version. Fewer maps, simpler physics, and touch or tilt steering instead of a wheel or precise keyboard input. It's a fine way to kill time on a commute, but it's not a substitute for the PC simulator if your goal is skill-building.

Is There a City Car Driving 2?

There is no officially confirmed City Car Driving 2 from the original PC developer as a numbered sequel product at the time of writing. What you'll often find under that search term are fan projects, unrelated indie titles borrowing the name, or updated builds of the original game being mistaken for a sequel.

Forward has kept the original Steam title alive through regular updates and DLC-style additions (extra cars, maps, and weather packs) rather than releasing a separate sequel, which is a common approach for simulation titles with an established user base.