Good arcade racing game's

I loved the old NFS games too, still prefer them. The newer ones just take themselves too serious, other games tend to be on the sim side. I vote for the FH series, you can play FH4 with xbox game pass (pc too), which is dirt cheap. You can't go wrong with it.

Any Burnout series game!

Despite being short, I had more fun playing through NFS Heat. While Forza Horizon 4 was fun too, it lacked depth

Horizon Chase Turbo

... I personally preferred need for speed hot pursuit 2 and prostreet with all of its problems, had no problem with the burnout/need for speed hybrids from criterion games, since ghost games managed need for speed they've got 3/4 of the worst rated need for speeds of all time. i've swapped even my graphics card from a 660 to a r9 290 only to play need for speed 2015 ... and refunded it ... since then need for speed should more focus on gameplay than on a "hip and cool" story ... played forza horizon 4 a while and weally ... it was stunning how well forza horizon 4 runs on pc than forza horizon 3 ... my problem with forza is that everyone can put on damage how they like ... lets say you like to drive with realistic damage and got rammed into a wall if he had only cosmetic or no damage he would just drive away and you got your damaged ride ... and soloplay is boring at about 150 to 200h ... i personally prefer other games ... i list some that i played in the recent 15 years
racedriver grid (2008) is one of my favourite racer
finished driver san francisco (not buyable anymore)
flatout 2 is my go to for lan parties ... flatout 3 is utterly trash because they were aquired by another studio
Midnight Club 2 is one of the hardest racer i can imagine (not buyable anymore)... Midnight Club 3 is solid but there you will need pcsx2 because midnight club 3 is console exclusive
Outrun 2 is a "real" arcade racer and got ported to pc ... you can find a link to this game on myabandonware
Blur is also a go to for lan parties (not buyable anymore)
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed if you're a fan of Kart racer
World Racing 1 & 2 ... old classics
Autobahn Raser 3 / A2 Racer 3 ... the best of trash racer :D ... never heard so much scooter in a racing game
Burnout is an alltime classic ... espacially 3 and revenge
Test Drive unlimited 2 ... it was ok, but some races were 1 hour and longer
Dirt 2,3 fine Offroad Arcade Racer
Wreckfest ... planned to buy this one

Nothing compares to those old NFS games for cheesy fun driving.

The closest games I've played to them are the new NFS games. But, they're just not the same XD

I haven't played NFS Het, but that's the one I voted for.
Forza seems too ... simmy? (I've never had an Xbox so I've never played any Forza games).

I recently picked up NFS The Run on Origin for $5 when it was on sale.

Also, take a look at Horizon Chase Turbo on Steam. It is incredibly fun & addictive...and keys can be had for real cheap since it was recently bundled.

Garfield kart

Race Driver: Grid (2008)
DIRT 2 (2009)
Need for Speed ProStreet (feels different than any NFS game)
Need for Speed Porsche (variety of tracks and cars in career, challenging races, you need to drive carefully because you can damage your car and can't progress and you need money to repair it and if you damage it too much, you can't win the next race so you can't get enough money to repair your car).

Sad they are not sold anymore.

Need for Speed Rivals is awesome!