Car Games for Car Journeys

“Are we there yet?” – Not yet honey.

*Ten minutes later* “Are we there yet?” – Nope, not just yet.

*Five seconds later* “Are we there now?” – …No!

I know I’m giving you flashbacks right now. Anyone who has endured a car journey, young and old, have asked the same four words at least once – “are we there yet”.

We try to fill up our time with electronics, but sometimes mobiles and tablets can run out of charge or we lose interest quickly (especially when we lose signal and mobile data is non-existent *sigh*).

No car can magically fly to its destination (unless you can afford a flying car, then kudos to you – I’m not jealous, I’m REALLY not…okay just a little) and we definitely haven’t developed the technology to teleport us.

There is no worse feeling than being stuck in a car with bored and restless people, so how do we keep them entertained?

Luckily for you, I have a solution!

Car games have been around for many years, and each family probably has their own version of their favourites. That is why I’m going to give you a few ideas to get you started, so every minute that passes by doesn’t feel like an hour and those “are we there yet” questions are reduced by the thought of some friendly competitions!

Top 10 Car Games:

The Alphabet Game:

This is my family’s favourite car game and a solid time killer for any car journey.

The Alphabet Game involves one person picking a category of literally anything (for example, car models or manufacturers, vegetables, fruit, clothing brands – the list is limitless) and everyone in the car takes it in turns to identify something within the category with the proceeding letter of the alphabet.

If one of the players isn’t able to come up with a response, they simply lose a turn and that letter will move onto the next player. However, on the occasion that no one can come up with an example for a certain letter – simply skip!

Then once you reach the last letter (Z), another player can pick a new category.

Needing an example? Let me start you off!

The category: Car Manufacturers.

A – Abarth

B – BMW

C – Citroen

Wanting to make it harder? Add some pressure with a 10 second time limit to each letter and if the player cannot think of something within that time, they have to miss a go.

If you want to make it more fun, whenever a player has to miss a turn, they must do a forfeit (but a safe forfeit, such as a verbal agreement to pursue once the car has stopped).

Pub Cricket:

Perfect for those driving through the countryside’s and urban areas, Pub Cricket can really get your eye’s peeling and mentally pub-crawling!

The aim of this game is to spot pubs along your journey that contains animals or humans within the names of said pubs, and the number of ‘runs’ is worked out using the value of how many legs that animal/human has.

It sounds pretty confusing, let me break it down for you – and I recommend taking some paper and pens with you to note down your scores so no one cheats!

We have a player who is the ‘batter’. On this batter’s turn, they will seek out a pub with a name – such as The Black Swan – and will count up the ‘runs’ from the pub’s name, i.e the number of legs a swan has = 2.

The current batter can choose to continue counting their runs after the first pub or can allow the next player to become a batter.

As long as the pub names include humans and animals with legs, meanwhile, they can continue counting runs – but they run the risk of losing a life if the next pub doesn’t contain any form of legs.

If the current batter has opted to continue running, when there’s a pub with a name with many legs, i.e similar to the Flying Horseman, you can break the horse and man into two:

Horse = 4

Man = 2

Add these together = 6.

Then add the previous run from The Black Swan run, 2, which equals altogether 8.

(A lot of maths, I know – this is why I said bring paper and pens because mental maths is not for me)

However, if the current batter opted to continue their turn and the next pub is named The Cross Keys or The Mayflower – NO PHYSICAL LEGS! That means no runs, so they lose a life and move on to the next ‘batter’.

The winner is announced when you either arrive at your destination and has the most amount of runs or is the last player standing by not losing lives.

There are a lot of versions to this game, but we think this is an easier way to play and keeps your mind at bay!

I-Spy:

An absolute classic. One for everyone, no age limit meaning 0-120 years old can play – I-Spy is THE easiest car game ever to play.

The rules are simple: one player will silently pick an object or person that is in view and announce the first letter of its name. The other players will then take it in turns to guess what the nominated player is currently viewing.

The winner is the one who guesses correctly!

BUT, and a big but to remember: The object/person must be in the view of all the players during the whole time of their turn or this will be cheating!

I see you smiling cheaters, I know you’re reading this going “hehe, I know how to crack this system and win” – I’m calling you out now.

Would You Rather?

Would You Rather is a great game to get those creative juices flowing.

The aim of the game is simple – would you rather choose option one or are you going to choose option two?

Need some examples to start you off?

• Would you rather eat toenails on your breakfast, or would you rather lick a pavement?
• Would you rather drive the 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 from Back to the Future, or would you rather drive the Batmobile from Batman: The Dark Knight?
• Would you rather camp on a mountain ledge with a tent but no sleeping bags, or would you rather camp in a deep forest with no tent but sleeping bags?

The combinations are limitless and can help pass so much time thinking about weird and wonderful suggestions – perfect for those motorway trips!

21:

Each player must take it in turns by saying up to 3 consecutive numbers at a time. The player who says 21 is out! Easy!

Let me show you:

Player One: 1, 2

Player Two: 3, 4, 5

Player Three: 6

Player Four: 7, 8, 9

Player One: 10, 11, 12

Player Two: 13

Player Three: 14, 15, 16

Player Four: 17, 18, 19

Player One: 20

Player Two: 21 🙁

Player Two is out and we start again until there’s only one player left!

20 Questions:

Some may know this game as ‘who/what am I’, but the principles are all the same!

One person must think of an animal, person, place, or my personal favourite category: a car – and the other players have 20 questions between themselves to work out who or what it is!

Meanwhile, the player who is being asked the questions can only respond with Yes or No answers!

Player’s can only make their guesses once the 20 questions are up.

The Quiet Game:

Imagine this: the car is filled with tension, tiredness and frustration. The kids are bickering, the dog needs a wee and the SAT-NAV is taking you down a dodgy back-road.

No this isn’t the start of a horror movie. This is your currently inside of your car and is an opportunity to play one of the best car games known to man.

I present to you – The Quiet Game.

Not many rules for this game, simply announce everyone is playing The Quiet Game – the winner is the one who stays the quietest the longest!

I would always suggest offering a prize to increase the longevity of this game – each player could make a choice of their own prize and BOOM!

Absolute blissful silence…until someone cracks up and everyone else can’t resist and follows.

At least it was nice for 4 minutes!

Count the Lorries:

I like this game because everyone can do whatever they want whilst at the same time keeping count of the passing lorries.

Pick a common lorry brand or colour: Eddie Stobart, Supermarket Lorries, Yellow, Green, etc. and everyone in the car must count how many of the lorries they see on the journey!

It’s simple, keeps minds occupied and it’s easy to announce a winner – the one who counted the most.

Better keep those eyes peeled!

Word Association Game:

Another family favourite of mine! The starting player will choose a word to start off with (I’d recommend starting with an object, person, place to get things going), and then each player will take it in turns to come up with a word that is associated with that previous word.

Need an example?

Player One: My word is ‘car’.

Player Two: Ford

Player Three: Mondeo

Player Four: Grey

Player One: Elephant

Player Two: Africa

Player Three: Southern Hemisphere

Player Four: Kangaroo

On the occasion a player can’t find an associated word, they’re out!

You don’t need to keep the theme of the original word, just as long as your next word can be associated with the one before!

Personally, I like to step this game up a little bit by adding in the ‘hesitation’ rule. This means when playing the game, if a player begins to hesitate on their turn– they’re stopped and have to have to leave the game for taking too long!

I love this game because it’s really funny to see what random connotation others can come up with off the top of their head.

Talk until the cows come home:

If your family is like mine, no way will the car ever be silent (unless someone is asleep…yep that is me, I am the one asleep) – so why not use that to your advantage and play Talk Until the Cows Come Home? This is a fun game for those cars that are always filled with some type of conversation.

What’s the aim? Well, you talk until the cows come home!

A topic will be chosen for the one who is set to play: Fiat, Coldplay, Jeremy Clarkson.

The nominated player will have 30 seconds to talk all about that topic without stopping, but if they do – YOU MOO THEM!!!!!

Yes, you interrupt them like the joke of the Who’s There? manifested you to do. (Don’t know the joke? Knock knock? Who’s there? Interrupting Cow… Interrupting cow wh…MOOOOOOOOO – I love a good dad joke).

Meanwhile, if the player talking begins to talk about subjects that don’t fit within the selected topic, or they start to hesitate – moo them and move on to the next!

It’s a little silly, but great fun to pass some time in the car.

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There we have it. 10 games to definitely keep those in your car entertained – young and old!