I haven't played burnout or midnight club, so I cannot really get the comparison, but I consider Carma pretty open world already. I easily forget about the track, and drive in every direction, exploring, hunting for bonuses, pedestrians, other cars, and weird spots. Only the atrocious TDR2000 discourages you to do that,

My first thought, also.

Nice...easy...relaxing.

Aaarrrgh, please colour the blood green or I am going to lose my shit and go on a killing spree...


Good grief the German version was even worse!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pwAOnXQgtNI

Jalopy. I have it but have not played it but I do not think it is on timers.

<nevermind. I need to ctrl+f more but it is available here on GoG>

Aquadelic GT, although mostly a boatracinggame you can pretty much ignore those and do sidemissions like collecting coins and do disaster relief missions.

I would put the GTA games here as well as most GTA clones like Mafia and Saints Row.

Bohemian interactive has a helicopter game I enjoy called Take On Helicopters

It had challenges, which I've never done, and free flying around the greater Seattle area. That's the part I enjoy. You can also get out of the helicopter and run around.

Trailmakers - https://www.playtrailmakers.com/https://www.playtrailmakers.com/

It is a vehicular exploration game, can use cars, boats and flying machines. you need to explore the world to collect all the blocks to build different machines. there are races, if you want to do them, but it is optional.

I'm not sure I want to play it but I'm certain I want to listen to it.

I'm not into racing games, but I quite liked it. it almost more like an open world platformer than anything else.

- Burnout: Paradise
- Forza Horizon
- The Crew

- Take on Helicopters
https://www.geo-fs.com/ (free online flight sim)

Sorry, none of these are available on GOG.

Mafia actually has a free to roam option.

So do the Madness games but of course those aren't sold here.

Do any of the Driver games?

San Fran does, kinda.
It also has a neat Quantum Leap system where you can hop into cars.

Yeah, I like engines creations games, but I think I'm good with KSP and Besiege for the time being. Will keep an eye on that one, but each time I hop onto another construction game it feels like abandonning the previous one (with all I've done in it) and it kinda makes the futility of these virtual constructions a bit too transparent. So... Yeah, I don't multiply games of that genre.