Best Racing Wheels In 2022: Nintendo Switch, Thrustmaster and more...

With the first wave of tracks in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s massive Booster Course Pass arriving in March, it’s about time to jump back into the best Mario Kart game of all time. It’s also the perfect time to pick up a racing wheel for your Switch. While Mario Kart 8 leads the pack in terms of racers on Switch, there are a bunch of great racing games that can benefit from the added immersion of a steering wheel controller. Racing on the Switch is great already with the Joy-Cons and Switch Pro Controller–sometimes even with motion controls–but the experience is undoubtedly better with a steering wheel. Whether you want a wheel specifically designed for Mario Kart or a universal wheel you can use across multiple consoles, we’ve got you covered. Here’s a look at the best racing wheels that you can buy right now.

Best Racing Wheels In 2022

Best Switch Steering Wheel in 2022: Mario Kart Racing Wheel By Hori

Right out of the box, the Mario Kart Racing Wheel looks like it was ripped straight out of a turbo-charged go-kart belonging to Nintendo’s most bankable plumber. Besides the good looks, this desk-mounted racing wheel comes with everything that you’d expect from hardware for racing games where you aren’t lobbing blue tortoise shells of death at rival players. It has flappy pedal shifters on the side of the wheel, traditional pedals for your feet, and a ton of buttons to use, making it more than just the perfect peripheral for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

You can easily plug this moderately-sized beast into the Switch via the USB port on the dock, and the only real drawback is that it has no force feedback to jolt your hands awake when you’ve taken a turn with too much speed behind you. That small flaw aside, this is easily the best-looking steering wheel on the list thanks to the audacious color scheme that hammers home the Mario Kart affiliation and its ability to be used in other games within the go-fast genre.

Best for kids: Mario Kart Racing Wheel Mini By Hori

For the smaller-handed members of the family, the Mario Kart racing wheel in its mini incarnation is a scaled down version of the peripheral above. You’re still getting a solid steering wheel, pedals, flappy paddle gear shifters, and tons of buttons–all compressed to a more compact size. Like its big brother above, this mini version of the Hori-produced racing wheel is also an instant attention-getter with its Mario-themed colors; plus the smaller size also means that you’ll save a few bucks.

Best Universal Racing Wheel: PXN V3II

If you’d prefer a more subdued color scheme on your racing wheel, you can’t go wrong with the all-around appeal of the PXN V3II. Not just compatible with the Switch, you can also plug this peripheral into your Xbox or PlayStation consoles, and it even has a built-in old-fashioned manual gear shifter. Pedals are also included, the wheel has some grippy texturing on it, and its attractive price tag makes it a solid option for a single steering wheel that can be used on multiple devices.

Best Budget Racing Wheel: Joy-Con Racing Wheel Pack

Strapped for cash and looking for a steering wheel option that comes with no wires attached? Orzly’s budget console steering wheels provide an affordable option for replicating the sensation of twisting the wheel when you take a corner, and for a multiplayer game like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, one purchase will get you four brightly colored wheels to slot your Joy-Con controllers into. Thanks to the gyroscopes built into Nintendo’s detachable input devices, these wheels will do a capable job of replicating steering, and for the younger members of the family, Orzly’s offerings are worth looking at before you drop serious cash on more serious hardware.

The Thrustmaster T300

The Thrustmaster T300 RS (PS5) and TX (Xbox) are the ‘default’ enthusiast racing wheels from Thrustmaster, and they’re some of the best around. There’s now an even more expensive T-GT II but, as that costs £699/$799, it’s out of reach for most budgets.

What makes the Thrustmaster T300 RS one of the best racing wheels is the improved force feedback system. It’s not geared, rather using a series of belts that are powered by brushless motors. This gives it that perfect mix of power and smoothness, for a sense of realism and immersion you can’t really beat at the price.

Any force feedback wheel will add a whole new dimension of fun to reasonably realistic racing games like Forza Motorsport 7 and Assetto Corsa, but at this price these Thrustmasters are the obvious choice. There’s a little gnawing rumble as you fight against the wheel, which is the feel of the motor working, but it’s otherwise great.

The belt system does cause a fair bit of heat after a while, necessitating a fan system that kicks in after you’ve been playing for 10 minutes or so. However, it’s not too distracting, and quieter than the Logitech G29 in action.

Thrustmaster TX Ferrari 458 Italia Edition

Much like with the G29 and G920 below, the Thrustmaster TX and T300 wheels are essentially the same but boast the key difference of working with different consoles. The Thrustmaster TX is for Xbox One and the T300 RS is for PlayStation owners.

Again, the TX boasts a force feedback system and is considerably quieter than the Logitech G29 with a rubber-grip wheel, but it does lack a lot of the little touches that make the Logitech wheels great – including a more comfortable wheel – and the pedals have some issues.

Can you use a racing wheel on Nintendo switch?

The steering wheel for the Nintendo Switch will work with Mario Kart, as well as any other racing or driving game on the Nintendo Switch. With over 60 different driving games to choose from, your steering wheel will probably get quite a bit of use.

What is the best Mario Kart wheel?

For intense Mario Kart 8 Deluxe fans, we recommend the Mario Kart Racing Wheel Pro Mini. The steering wheel is larger than many others out there, and it comes with foot pedals for a more immersive racing experience.

Can I use G29 on Switch?

and to have your G29 work on SWITCH, we have to let it treat your G29 as a SWITCH PRO controller, and the throttle and brake are mapped to ZR and ZL, so you can only have digital output to SWITCH.

Is Nintendo Switch screen OLED?

The new system features a vibrant 7-inch OLED screen, a wide adjustable stand, a dock with a wired LAN port, 64 GB of internal storage, and enhanced audio.