Driving Bros

People who search for Driving Bros usually want one thing: a driving game you can play with a friend, right now, without installing anything. The name is used loosely — for a co-op Steam game called Drive Bros, for console party racers and for all kinds of “bros” browser games — so this page covers what is out there and gives you a game you can actually start in a few seconds.

That game is Turbo Buddies, igame9’s own top-down party racer. Two players share one keyboard — player 1 on WASD, player 2 on the arrow keys — and race two CPU drivers over three or five laps. If you are on your own, take on three CPU racers instead. Four tracks add boost pads, oil slicks, ice and cones, and every car can shove every other car off its line. It runs in any modern browser on a laptop or Chromebook; on phones, the one-player mode has touch buttons.

How to play Driving Bros

1. In the menu, choose 1 Player (you vs 3 CPU racers) or 2 Players (two humans plus 2 CPU racers on one keyboard), then a track, the number of laps (3 or 5) and the CPU level (Easy, Normal or Hard).
2. Press Start race. Three red lights come on one by one; when they go out — “GO!” — floor it.
3. Player 1 drives with W (accelerate), A/D (steer) and S (brake, then reverse). Player 2 uses ↑, ←/→ and ↓. In 1-player mode either set of keys works, and you can also hold the mouse button to drive toward the pointer.
4. Drive over the yellow boost pads for a burst of speed. Avoid the black oil slicks (they spin you), the pale-blue ice on Frosty Peak (almost no grip) and the verge beside the road, which slows you down. Orange cones can be knocked flying.
5. Cars bump each other: hit a rival’s rear corner to make it twist, or lean on it in a corner to push it wide. The camera zooms out to keep both players on screen in 2-player mode.
6. The first driver to complete the final lap wins. The results table shows every finishing position, total time and best lap, and the fastest lap on each track is saved as the record.

Driving Bros controls

Driving Bros tips & strategy

• Brake before the hairpins, not in them. A short tap of S or ↓ before Neon Docks’ U-turn and Dune Dash’s V-turn is faster than sliding into the wall.
• Pick a lane for the hazards. Boost pads and oil slicks are always in the same place. Learn which side of the road they sit on and set up a lap earlier.
• On ice, steer less. Line the car up before an ice patch and keep the wheel straight while you cross it; turning on ice only adds sideways slide.
• Bump with purpose. A side swipe on a rival’s back half spins them; a head-on shove slows you both. In 2-player mode, the trailing player can turn a straight into a pushing match.
• Don’t cut across the verge. The grass, sand or snow beside the asphalt costs a lot of top speed — the long way round on the road is usually quicker.
• Keyboard sharing: sit side by side with player 1 on the left half of the keyboard. If a key stops responding when both players press at once, your keyboard has hit its key-rollover limit — try a different keyboard.
• CPU racers catch up. They speed up a little when they fall behind, so a big early lead is not safe — keep pushing on the final lap.

Is there an official “Driving Bros” game?

Not one single game. The phrase gets attached to several different titles that share the idea of driving with friends. These are the best-known ones with a similar name:

If you were looking for the Steam game, note that it is a separate PC download built around online co-op; Turbo Buddies is the quick, local alternative when both of you are at the same computer.

How to play with two players on one keyboard

Select 2 Players in the menu. Player 1 (red car, number 1) uses W A S D; player 2 (blue car, number 2) uses the arrow keys. A coloured “P1” or “P2” tag floats above each car all race long, and each player gets their own panel with lap, position and lap times — player 1 on the left, player 2 on the right.

Both humans start on the back row behind two CPU cars, so the opening corner is always busy. Instead of splitting the screen, the camera frames both players at once: when you are close together it zooms in, and when one of you pulls away it zooms out until the whole track is visible, so nobody is ever left off-screen. Press P or Esc to pause for both players.

Track guide

Racing tactics: lines, bumps and boosts

Turbo Buddies is an arcade racer, so the physics are forgiving, but the basics of real racing still win races. Approach a corner from the outside, turn in towards the inside edge, and let the car drift back to the outside on exit; this “wide-tight-wide” line lets you carry more speed than hugging one side. The striped curbs mark the corners where this matters most.

Overtakes usually come from a boost pad your rival missed, a rival who braked too late and ran onto the verge, or a well-timed bump: a nudge on the rear quarter as you pull alongside is often enough to get past. The same works against you, so leave a little room on the inside when someone is right behind.