While we’ve profiled several free flash racing games — such as 3D Deathrace — on the site before, few of our profiled racers have combined a physics game with a side-scrolling racer. In fact, only Cyclomaniacs did that. But Extreme Trucks I melds physics with racing as well, giving the player a bump- and hill-filled dirt track to play around with. Oh, and a monster truck.

The downside of Extreme Trucks I is the lack of other racers on the field. Rather, the player’s challenge is to keep their truck upright, losing lives every time the truck lands wheels-up after a flip or bump. Ultimately, this is a less interesting gameplay mechanic than you’ll find in Cyclomaniacs, where failed flips will simply put you back at the last checkpoint, costing you valuable time versus your opponents.

Ultimately, Extreme Trucks I provides a compelling combination of speed, balance and decent graphics for a free flash racing game. It’s worth a play, so check it out below.

To play Extreme Trucks I for free now, just click below:

Brick breaking is one of the most successful casual game genres of all time. Of course, that’s in no small part due to Brick Breaker being the Solitaire of the BlackBerry. But there is still a huge amount of diversity in the genre, and here’s we’re looking at Click A Brick, a fast-paced installment of the brick breaking genre.

In Click A Brick, the player must click on multi-brick combinations to eliminate groups of bricks. If the player doesn’t click fast enough, the bricks will build up to the top of the screen, as they’re constantly falling from above (think Tetris, but faster and with far less strategy needed).

For a free online game, Click a Brick is pretty good. The graphics are sufficient, and the mechanism is a good time killer. Ultimately, there isn’t too much meat to the game other than being able to click really, really quickly. This makes the game somewhat less interesting than, say, Tetris.

Play Click a Brick for free below:

In our quest for the simplest free flash racing game, we’ve stumbled upon an early leader here in Oldskool Racer. Unlike Box Racers, there isn’t any way to modify your “skills” or “health”, nor are there even concepts of “skills” or “health.” And more than one track? You’ve gotta be kidding me.

This simple flash racing game is just that: Simple. You have a car that’s slightly faster than all other cars, and you must pass the rest of the field in three laps to win. Reaching and staying at top speed is easy in this free flash game, since the concept of “hitting the wall” is totally absent. Turns and obstacles on the track are little more than decorative elements, as the car “turns” for you whenever you approach a sharp change in track direction. Sound silly? Well, it kind of is.

The real game, then, is about passing other racers. They’ll try to block you, and the only type of collision you can have with other cars is a strange example of simplified positive feedback: the car that is behind (even if it’s mostly a side-to-side collision) gets shoved back, and the car that is in front gets pushed forward. Thus, passing can turn into a really, really frustrating endeavor against an unrealistic physics model.

If you’d like to play Oldskool Racer, just try it out below:

Racing games don’t have to be intense, Tokyo Drift-style ultra-realistic course racers. Free ones, especially, are typically not. Box Racing is a good example of this, and unless you’re looking for a hardcore street-racing feel, it’s worth a play.

Don’t get me wrong, free flash racing games can be very hit-or-miss. Especially simple, lo-fi ones like Box Racing. The controls can be shaky, the AI unbalanced and the graphics uninspired. Box Racing avoids most of these online game pitfalls, even poking fun at its own simple graphics with its name — the racers are, after all, vaguely colorful boxes.

One of the stranger aspects of the game is a series of “skill bars” that allow you to adjust your racer’s relative levels of health, top speed and “skill”. Top speed and health — the ability to stay alive while your racer hits walls, signs and other objects — is pretty straightforward. I could never quite figure out what “skill” was supposed to do — do let me know in the comments if you can figure it out.

The “health” aspect is a bit annoying, especially with respect to Box Racing’s controls. It’s tough to avoid hitting the sides of the track, and the “health” aspect seems to be a bit of a crutch to avoid building in a more complex damage system. It’s understandable, though — after all, the game is free, and has a fairly well-balanced AI.

If you’re looking to play a free online racing game, this is a simple and well-designed option. Check it out below to play.

As most of you know, Play Free Game Now will occasionally take a break from standard programming to post things that may be of interest to those of you who play a lot of games.

We’ve gotten many questions about where to find others who like to play online games or free games. It’s a tough question, especially for people who don’t work or go to school with others who like to play online games. Free flash games, especially, aren’t something that there is a large real-world community around playing.

I suggest that you try finding gaming-related meetups, such as the New York Gaming Meetup for people in New York who are interested in meeting other game fans.

Outside of that, it can be tricky for people who are living in rural areas or other places without a real community around games, specifically free online flash games. I’d welcome suggestions in the comments.