Crash Game: Physics Machines

Summary

Crash Game: Physics Machines throws you into a variety of open-world, free-roam destruction playgrounds where everything is designed to obliterate your car in the most satisfying and amusing ways possible.

Expect to see giant rolling-pin crushers that squeeze your vehicle until it resembles a pancake, to massive swinging arms that launch you across the arena, loop-the-loops, and, of course, a variety of gigantic ramps.

On top of that, the BeamNG-style damage physics make your panels crumple, the windows shatter, wing mirrors hang off, and eventually your wheels will likely decide they’ve had enough of all the carnage.

You get to enjoy all of this with a selection of vehicles ranging from a drifty BMW E30 to a full-sized passenger bus, along with AI cars roaming around that are perfect for chasing down for brutal head-on collisions.

The sideways physics are good enough to kick the rear out and hold big angles, and when you explore all the tracks, you’ll find an awesome hidden gem for drifting fans.

Crash Game: Physics Machines features

• Release date – February 2023
• Difficulty – Beginner
• Levels/environments – 3
• Number of vehicles – 5
• Vehicle customization/upgrades – No
• Multiplayer – No
• Mobile – No

Physics

As you probably guessed, the damage model is the most exciting part of the game. When you smash into things, your panels crumple realistically on impact, and if you push things far enough, you’ll be left grinding along on your bare suspension, with no option but to swap out your ride.

Behind the wheel of every vehicle is a crash test dummy, and in the smaller cars (the E30 in particular), its head amusingly starts poking through the roof once the bodywork gets too mangled. A bug, sure, but an entertaining one.

Of course, this isn’t going to rival the soft-body physics in BeamNG or the damage in CarX Drift Racing Online 3. But for a free browser game you can play at school or work (during your break, of course!) it’s great fun for a quick session when you’re not at your sim rig.

It’s worth checking out every vehicle, as they all have pros and cons and are fun in their own right. The bus absorbs punishment like a tank, the pickup and the E30 love getting sideways, while the Golf tends to crumple if you look at it wrong.

If you’re after an alternative browser crash game with even more vehicles and a built-in map editor to design your own courses, Beam Drive Car Crash Test Simulator gives you 19 vehicles (including drift cars) and eight premade tracks with everything unlocked from the start.

We’ve got an ever-growing stunt and crash games lineup at Drifted, which is well worth a browse if you want to try out some of the other options after this one.

Graphics

Overall, the graphics are good and functional. They won’t blow you away, but this keeps things running smoothly even when the physics engine is working overtime to calculate every dent on the massive bus after it’s been through the crushers.

You get six graphics settings, ranging from ‘Very Low’ to ‘Ultra’. It’s worth trying on Ultra before dropping down if your device struggles to ensure you’re getting the best experience.

Crash Game: Physics Machines controls

PC/laptop/Chromebook

• W/Up arrow – Accelerate
• S/Down arrow – Brake/reverse
• A/Left arrow – Steer left
• D/Right arrow – Steer right
• Space – Handbrake
• C – Change camera
• Tab – Switch cars
• Enter – Reset car (when stuck, keeps damage)
• R – Reset level (full repair/restart)
• T – Toggle slow motion mode
• Y – Main menu
• Mouse – Move camera (certain views only)

Mobile/tablet (iOS/Android)

Unfortunately, this isn’t playable on mobile devices. If you’re on your phone or tablet, we recommend browsing our mobile-friendly games for alternatives you can play on the go.

How to play Crash Game: Physics Machines

Initial setup

When you load the game, you’ll see the main menu with leaderboards on the left, with your total collected points to the right. The points come from driving through scattered flame pickups (along with a small explosion) across each level, but in all honesty, they’re more of a gimmick than a real progression system.

At the top center, you’ll find the option to choose from six graphics quality levels, from ‘Very Low’ to ‘Ultra’. Given how demanding the damage physics can be, lower-spec machines might need to drop a setting or two. Click the one you feel best suits your device specs to jump straight in. You can always come back and change this if need be.

Getting started

When you’re ready, click one of the three levels (we explain what each offers below). There’s no need to choose a car yet.

When you enter a level, there’s no tutorial besides the on-screen controls. You’ll find yourself behind the wheel of a red pickup, with a row of AI cars (some of which drive off and do their own thing in the arena). There are no online options in this one, but our multiplayer games lineup has loads of other crash-friendly options if you’re wanting real opponents or to play with your friends.

Before you get started, press ‘Tab’ to cycle through the five vehicles on offer (they’re all free).

Try pressing ‘C’ to go through the camera angles. Some views let you move the camera freely with the mouse, while others lock it in place. You’ll often need to start driving to see how the true angle, as it looks like they’re all near-identical before that.

When you’re ready, you can also press ‘T’ to toggle slow motion for a closer, more detailed look at the destruction, which is super satisfying when you’re going through some of the more savage crushers.

For a similar game, but with JDM legends like the Toyota AE86 and Nissan Skyline R34 alongside tuning and customization options, Car Crash Test: Abandoned City is also well worth checking out. Alternatively, for similar levels of destruction, but with the chance to play with real players, Car Crash Multiplayer offers online lobbies, huge maps, and some of the newest cars of any browser game (including the Nissan 400Z).

Levels

There are no “real” game modes, you just need to have fun and enjoy the smashing chaos. The three levels each offer their own unique fun. Press ‘Y’ at any point to return to the main menu and switch between them.

Level 1 – Stunt arena (sandbox)

This is the most varied level. A massive open arena packed with loop-the-loops, concrete crushers (imagine giant rolling pins that squeeze your car tighter the further you go through), swinging arms, huge ramps, and an off-road area for testing out your ride on different terrain.

Once you’ve totaled your vehicle, you can hit ‘Tab’ to get behind the wheel of the next one. Your previous wrecks stay exactly where you left them, so you can come back and smash into your own pile of abandoned carnage!

Level 2 – City

You get the same car lineup as the Stunt arena above, but a different playground. You start in a smaller stunt area that’s filled with ramps and bumps, but the real fun is out in the city streets, where there are plenty of obstacles to smash into.

This level is great for drifting. The grippy roads let you carry much more speed than Level 3, so you can practice high-speed entries and big angle drifts while your panels fly off when you make mistakes. There are buildings, lamp posts, street signs, and your previously abandoned vehicles waiting to cushion the impact.

Make sure you hunt down the AI cars on this one, too. Creating multi-car pile-ups in the streets is the hilarious, and you can then get behind the wheel of the bus at full speed to finish everything off!

If you’re after even more locations (think city, stadium, airport, and rooftop locations) along with tanks, Car Crash Simulator Royale offers exactly that.

Level 3 – Off-road drift track

This one caught us off guard. You’re limited to the pickup here, but the entire level is a dedicated off-road drift circuit with the track marked out on the ground and dirt mounds acting as clipping points.

At slow speeds, the physics feel a bit rigid, but once you build momentum and get the rear wheels spinning consistently, the drifting starts to make sense. When you’re confident, you can start throwing down backward entries, too, so play around with the handbrake and experiment. For any drifting game fans, this level is a must-try.

Learn the basics here on the slower surface and tighter corners, then head back to Level 2’s city streets where the added grip lets you push bigger angles at speed.

Car list

All five vehicles are unlocked from the start on Levels 1 and 2 (Level 3 restricts you to the pickup). Press ‘Tab’ at any time to cycle through them.

Pickup Truck – A Chevrolet C/K lookalike and the most versatile vehicle in the game. Handles off-road well, takes a decent beating, and is way better at drifting than you’d expect. The long wheelbase gives you loads of time to catch a slide, and once the rear steps out, it holds angle with real confidence. (It’d give the E30 a run for its money in a drift battle!)

Sports Coupe – A sleek two-door with Chrysler Crossfire-style styling. Quick and nimble, but fragile. A couple of solid impacts and it’s already smoking.

BMW E30 – The best-looking car in the game and a natural choice for drifting fans. Takes a little speed and encouragement to properly break the rear loose, but once it’s sideways, it feels great and predictable.

Volkswagen Golf Mk4 – Twitchy and quick to change direction, but less predictable than the pickup or E30 when trying to hold a drift. The game gives it enough rear-end slip to get sideways despite being a front-driver in real life.

Passenger Bus – This is the unexpected star of the show when you’re scrolling through the vehicles on offer. It’s rare to get a bus in a crash game, and the sheer size of it makes smashing it to bits hilarious.

The long wheelbase catches on everything, it barely fits through the crushers (you’ll need a proper run-up), and it takes a serious beating before it gives up. You won’t get it properly sideways due to the lack of power, but watching it fold through obstacles is worth every second. If you’ve enjoyed getting behind the wheel of this, our bus games collection has plenty of alternatives to explore, but few deliver destruction like this.

Your wheels do eventually fall off after enough abuse, much like Deadly Descent. But, instead of being a pure sandbox game, that offers a much more high-intensity downhill racing thrillride.

Once your car is completely totaled, switch to the next with Tab. When all five are done, press R to reset or head back to the main menu to try a fresh location.

Tuning, upgrades & customization

Every car comes as-is with zero options to tweak anything. You can’t even change the body color.

There’s plenty of browser-based alternatives out there if that’s what you’re after, though. Force Drift Racing: Aussie Burnout is a perfect example, featuring the deepest tuning system in any browser game, from Ackermann angle adjustments, center of mass controls, and individual damper settings across 23 vehicles.

Drift Hunters MAX is another incredible choice, and the most popular game at Drifted, where you can tune just about every aspect of your car you can think of. On top of that, you also get a scored Drift Attack mode that uses clipping points inspired by real-world drift judging, along with 39 cars and 13 tracks.

Advanced tips & tricks

Don’t sleep on the drifting aspect

Level 3’s off-road circuit is awesome for learning in the pickup, and Level 2’s city streets are where you can then take those skills up a notch with higher grip and bigger angles. The E30 and are the pickup are standout choices, and the handbrake (Space) is great for pulling off big initiations.

Total every car before resetting the level

Once your vehicle is beyond repair, press ‘Tab’ and move on to the next one. Your wrecked cars stay where you left them, and you can come back to smash into your own pile of abandoned vehicles. If you want to share a similar level of stunt mayhem with your friends online, Madalin Stunt Cars 3 drops you into massive stunt arenas with more than 60 cars on offer, all unlocked from the start. There’s no damage, but it’s still well worth a try.

Be sure to check out what all the obstacles have to offer

The set of concrete roller-pin-style crushers will flatten your car one-by-one. It’s great fun, even if the bus struggles a little to fit in the gap. I got stuck and had to mash Enter frantically to escape (although it was already a bit bent at the time.) But, don’t say I didn’t warn ya!

Use slow motion for the best crash replays

Press ‘T’ before driving into something at full speed, or if it’s an obstacle that’s likely to cause maximum destruction. Watching the panels buckle and glass shatter frame by frame is the a super satisfying way to experience the damage physics.

Crash Game: Physics Machines FAQ