Lego 2K Drive lets you build a custom racing car brick by brick

Lego 2K Drive is a new open-world racing game from Visual Concepts, the studio best known for its annual licensed WWE and NBA sports games. As you’d expect from a game set in the Lego universe, there’s a strong emphasis on customizability, with the game offering over a thousand unique Lego pieces to let players build the exact vehicle they want to race in. 

Although Lego 2K Drive is an open-world racing game similar to the Forza Horizon series, it also seems to incorporate some elements of the kart racing genre. Its press release describes it as an “off-the-wall experience” featuring “unique power-up abilities.” The game is set in Bricklandia with multiple themed regions, collectibles to discover, and mini-games to play in addition to races.

As well as being able to build your own car, there are also vehicles from Lego’s City, Creator, and Speed Champions lines. In particular, the recently released McLaren Solus GT and McLaren F1 LM will feature in the game. Single and multiplayer game modes are available, including both co-operative and competitive modes. There’s two-player split-screen and online play for up to six players.

Developed in collaboration between 2K and the Lego Group, Lego 2K Drive is described as being the “first release in a multi-title partnership… to develop AAA Lego games.” It’s unclear whether future titles will also be racing games or whether the two companies plan to collaborate on a variety of genres.

Although 2K’s press release doesn’t mention it directly, Lego 2K Drive strikes me as a spiritual successor to the Lego Racers games from the late ’90s and early ’00s which I poured untold hours into. Like Lego 2K Drive, Lego Racers also let you customize your car — though, inevitably, now that I’m looking back at YouTube videos of the old games, their kart-building options are far more basic than I remember.

Lego 2K Drive will be widely available on May 19th on current and last-gen consoles. The game’s standard edition is priced at $59.99 on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One and $69.99 on PS5 and Xbox Series X and S. There’s also a more expensive “Awesome Edition” ($99.99) and “Awesome Rivals Edition” ($119.99) that include extras like post-release content that will be available earlier, on May 16th.