From the days of dodging giant pizzas on Lego Island, to Forza Horizon 4's full-on Lego-themed expansion, racing has long felt a part of the Lego video game brand. And why not? Some of the simplest Lego sets feature cars and truck parts as core components. Lego itself, famously, holds the world record for being the biggest toy tyre manufacturer on the planet. It's almost surprising there hasn't been a proper full-on Lego racing game for so long.
But that's one of the interesting things about Lego 2K Drive, a seemingly polished and suitably colourful racing game which has been smartly constructed using building instructions borrowed from other top titles in its genre. This isn't just the first Lego racing game in decades, but also the first Lego game from publisher 2K ever, and the beginning of a big new partnership. Its imminent arrival - set for 19th May on PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S - follows years of Lego games largely limited to those based on big franchises, as Lego now looks to broaden its scope and work with a wider pool of developers.
Lego 2K Drive is being developed by Visual Concepts, the team behind 2K's NBA and WWE titles, but in a presentation to press attended by Eurogamer, the studio mentioned this title as only the first in a series of Lego collaborations being published by 2K. There are some partially outdated rumours as to what some of these other games might be - but for now, 2K itself is officially staying schtum.