The Fastest Cars, Ranked by Top Speed

Pick for top speed on circuits with long full throttle sections, where you spend real time at maximum velocity. On tight, technical tracks a lighter, better handling car will usually beat a faster one, because it spends almost no time near its top speed.

Match the car to the circuit, not just the spec sheet. Every circuit page shows the layout, so check how much of the lap is straight before you choose.

Top speed is one of the three ratings behind a car's Performance Index. It counts for 35 percent, the same as acceleration, with handling making up the other 30 percent. That is why the fastest cars usually sit high on PI too, but not always at the very top: a car with a huge top speed and average handling can rank below a better balanced rival.

The top speeds on this list are base values. The power upgrade raises both a car's top speed and its top speed rating, so a tuned car can overtake one ranked above it here. The upgrade guide explains what each axis changes.

One circuit stands apart: Rising Sun Speedway has a par average of 327 km/h, far above anything else in the game. It is the one place where the cars at the top of this list are close to unbeatable.

A second group sits around 185 km/h: Yokohama Bayside Sprint, Shibuya Night Loop and Odaiba Grand Prix. Top speed helps there, but the corners still decide the lap. At the other end, Akuma no Tōge, Midori Jigoku and the Concept Car Circuit average around 105 km/h, and a fast car spends almost no time near its top speed.

Each of the first five power upgrades adds 9 km/h to a car's top speed, 45 km/h in all. The five prestige levels above them add 4 km/h each, so a fully upgraded car gains 65 km/h over the base figure in this table.

That is enough to reorder the list. A car sitting 40 km/h behind a rival on paper can pass it once its power is maxed, which is why the best top speed car for you is often one you already own and have tuned, not the next one up the ranking.

Running at 93 percent of your car's top speed or more counts as flat out, which scores skill points every second and adds a Flat Out skill to your chain for each full second you hold it. Like a drift, each one raises the chain multiplier and refills part of your nitro tank.

The threshold is relative to your own car, so any car can score it, but long straights are where you can hold it longest. On a fast circuit that makes a high top speed pay twice: once in lap time and again in the Apexons the race pays out.