Are we nearly there? 23 classic car games

Fine for all children who know their alphabet.

This is a game of speed and observation. Everyone looks around them and has to find the letters of the alphabet from A to Z in order. Only one person can have any one letter (if there is a P on a signpost only one person can have it), so there is a lot of shouting to stake the claim!

Letters can be found on number plates, billboards, road signs, place names and so on, although the letter Q is very tricky (bus stops often have QUEUE THIS SIDE for those with eagle eyes!).

The winner is the first to Z.

The first person starts with the letter A and says ‘A is for…’ (choosing a word beginning with A).

Player 2 then repeats ‘A is for…’ with the same word and adds ‘B is for…’ with a word beginning with B.

This continues down the alphabet until, at Z, the player needs to remember all the letters and the things attached to them from A to Z. The winner is the last person to do it correctly.

This is very good for your memory, and you can make it more fun by using silly words, like ‘T is for Mummy’s temper’.

Someone thinks of an object that falls under the category of animal, vegetable or mineral and then tells the other players which group it is in. The players then take turns asking questions that can be answered with a YES or NO.

For example, if the object is a marble, it’s made from glass so it’s mineral, and the questions might go:

‘Is it alive?’ … ‘No.’
‘Can I use it?’ … ‘Yes.’
‘Is it useful?’ … ‘No.’
‘Is it small?’ … ‘Yes.’
‘Can I play with it?’ … ‘Yes.’
‘Is it a marble?’ … ‘Yes!’

After 20 questions everyone has one last go, and then it’s the next person’s turn to choose something.

Make phrases with the car registration numbers, e.g. WWW 435D could be Weird Woolly Wombats.

On modern UK plates, use the last three letters: KDB might be Kangaroos Doing Ballet.

You will need paper and a pencil to keep track of the score. It’s probably best if one person scores and everyone else plays (to avoid arguments).

Starting with the player behind the driver, the game starts after the first silver car. The player has to pot balls in order until the next silver car, which ends his or her go. The order of colours is red (1 point) followed by any of the colours below, and you do this 15 times. Then pot the colours in order, finishing with black.

The winner is the person with the most points after the black has been potted at the end of the whole sequence.

Hold on, I haven’t finished yet! If you see two red cars one behind the other while you are doing the first bit (red followed by a colour), you lose 4 points and your go!

Decide on a category. Starting with the person behind the driver, each player has to name something in that category. When a player can’t think of something new, they drop out of the game. The winner is the last person left.

Categories can include trees, flowers, animals, colours, football teams… whatever suits the car.

The first person starts off with a single word (this game is easiest if you write it down). The next person has to change one letter and make a different word, and so on until no more words can be made.

For example: James, Games, Gates, Mates, Mites, Mines, Minus.

Each person chooses a colour and this is then written on a piece of paper next to their name. Mark 1 point next to your name each time you spot a lorry of your chosen colour (cars will do if lorries are thin on the ground). The winner is the first to reach 25.

Coloured Lorries helps small children with their colours and attention levels.

One person starts off with a single word, e.g. dog. The next person has to say the first word they think of related to dog, e.g. animal, the next person the first word they think of connected to animal, e.g. donkey, and so on until you get completely stuck.

You can also play this game by remembering the words that have gone before: if anyone repeats one, they are out.

This is very good for lateral thinking.

Count a specific animal on your side of the car: cows or sheep if you’re in the country, people, cats or dogs if you’re in town. If you pass a graveyard on your side of the car you go back to zero, but only if the opposing team calls out ‘Your cows are buried!’.

This game gets interesting when distraction tactics are used, either to make your opponents miss the things they are counting on their side of the road, or to make them miss a graveyard on your side.

A white horse counts as 10 bonus points, and a postbox can cancel out a graveyard like a get-out-of-jail-free card. For this it’s a good idea for the adults to hand out a piece of paper when a postbox has been seen, to be surrendered when it’s used. The team with the most points wins.

Someone starts by choosing a country, e.g. France. The next person must name a country whose name begins with the last letter of the previously named country.

In this case the last letter of France is E, so the next person must name a country beginning with E, e.g. England, then Denmark, and so on until someone gives up.

This game could work with any subject from animals to pop stars!

Dish out some jelly sweets (or sweets that don’t melt) between the players. If you see a horse you must yell ‘sheep’. The last one to yell it gives one of their sweets to the person on their left. If they yell ‘horse’ by mistake, they give a sweet to the player on their right too.

To make it more fun for older children (and adults!): if you see a sheep you must yell ‘horse’, a caravan ‘bird’, a bird ‘caravan’, a police car ‘dog’ and a dog ‘police car’.

The first player thinks of something they can see and says ‘I spy with my little eye something beginning with…’. The winner is the first to guess correctly, and then it’s their turn.

For smaller children it can be ‘I spy a cat’ and the child looks for the cat, or ‘I spy something red’ and the child can find a red car.

In a moving car, pick something inside the car or far away on the horizon. The cow you spied will be long gone by the third guess.

All ages, because you work as a team.

Take turns naming things you think you might see in the next 20 miles (or longer if you are on a motorway). Everyone makes the same list. For example, you might put these on the list: a baby in a car, a bird of prey, a dragon on a pub sign, some cows.

The adult in the car decides if they are too difficult or too easy. The car then works together as a team and crosses things off as you find them. Sometimes it’s easier for an adult to cross off the list, especially with the under 5s.

The driver doesn’t help, because he has to give each of the players a little treat for everything found on the list within the agreed number of miles.

Someone starts with a sentence about absolutely anything, for example:

Player 1: Charlie was walking along the street when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something that made his blood freeze.
Player 2: He saw an ice cream van and ran to order a 99.

The next person has to follow on with their own sentence, which may or may not be what player one had intended. We have had huge fun with this game where one child has been determined to make the story a horror while another has wanted to make it a comedy or a romance… let the battle commence!

Choose a subject, such as girls’ names, and everyone has to give the name of a girl in alphabetical order: Alyson, Betty, Carol and so on. When you get to Z, go back to A again.

Players drop out as they can’t think of anything, and the winner is the last one in.

This works best when driving through towns and villages. You have to look out for pubs and look at what they are called. Then you score ‘runs’ by the number of legs in the name, so the Green Dragon would score 2 runs and the Black Horse would score 4.

Your innings is over when a pub name has no legs, for example ‘The Why Not’. The winner is whoever scores the most during their innings.

You must only answer ‘rhubarb’ to any question you are asked. ‘What do you like taking to bed with you?’ ‘Rhubarb.’ If you laugh, your turn is over. Time each go: the one who stays in the longest is the winner.

This can be played using the word of your choice. My children like playing it with the word ‘poo’, giving hours of hilarity, but I’m sure your kids are far more sensible!

Players count to three, then make their hands into the shape of a rock (clenched fist), paper (flat hand) or scissors (fist with the index and middle fingers stretched out like scissors).

Rock blunts scissors but is wrapped by paper. Paper wraps rock but is cut by scissors. Scissors cut paper but are blunted by rock. The winner is the best of three.

Take turns calling out five letters in any order, such as ‘E, H, A, S and W’. All players write them down. Then everyone gets a few minutes (or a few miles) to figure out a silly message about an animal, using the letters to start the words.

For example, with the letters above you could write ‘Emus have a silly walk’.

After you’ve taken turns reading your messages, another person calls out a new set of letters.

See who can stay quiet for the longest. The winner (the last person to make a noise) gets a treat.

A brilliant game for when things are getting fraught. If you’re lucky, they might even fall asleep!

Each player has an innings. During your innings you have to spot vehicles and count the wheels on them, adding up as you go along. For example, if a car passes you get 4 points, and if a bike passes you get 2 points.

If a vehicle with 6 or more wheels passes, your innings is over and the next player gets a go. The person with the most points at the end of the innings wins.

A cousin of Rhubarb. One player fires questions at another, who has to answer without saying yes, no, black or white. Nodding and shaking your head don’t count either. Time each go and swap over.