30 Road Trip Trivia Games for Long Car Rides
07.18.20
Whether you’re heading to an amusement park with the family, spending the weekend at the lake with your friends, or traveling with coworkers on a much-dreaded work trip, you’re going to have a few lengthy car rides in front of you. Long car rides can either be a serious drag, or an opportunity for lots of fun.
How can you turn a long car ride into a fun and exciting time for everyone? By playing games! While it’s fun to come up with your own games on the fly, it’s always helpful to have a list of games you can pull from to always switch it up and keep things exciting.
Today, we’re going to cover 30 of the most fun road trip trivia games for long car rides and show you how you and your friends or family can play them on your next trip. From classics like 21 Questions and I Spy to new games that are sure to become instant favorites, you’ll find something for everyone on this road trip trivia list.
Best Road Trip Trivia Apps
It’s safe to assume there’s at least one smartphone among the people in the car, and that phone is a huge asset when it comes to road trip trivia. Here are some of the best trivia apps to check out on your next getaway.
Jeopardy! World Tour
World Tour is the latest mobile app from one of the greatest trivia games of all time. This is our favorite road trip trivia app because there’s an offline mode that you can enjoy even if your phone loses service along the way.
This app features a multiple-choice question format and various difficulty levels, making it a great road trip trivia for families option and easy to adapt to play with the other people in the car.
Plus, you can also play by yourself if the rest of the car isn’t up for another trivia round. If you’re armed with an encyclopedia of fun facts for car rides, you’ll want to try your luck at this fun and addicting trivia game.
Trivia 360
This app is perfect for the car because it has an uncluttered interface with text that’s large enough for everyone to read. There are tons of categories and questions in the app, which can provide you with hours of road trip trivia fun.
Psych!
Psych is a play on classic party games like Balderdash! Where you must come up with the craziest answers to your friend’s questions to score points. If everyone in the car has a smartphone, you can all connect and play this hilarious game that will keep you entertained for hours.
Unfortunately, since everyone needs to use a smartphone to play the game, the driver can’t get in on the fun. That may be a good thing, since they’ll be able to focus on the road instead.
Guess The Song
This app is similar to SongPop 2, which is one of the most popular “name that tune” apps for Android and iOS, but where SongPop2 is more about online multiplayer competition, Guess The Song has a single-player mode which is easy to adapt so everyone in the car can play.
You can play together, or take turns to see who can name songs the fastest. There are plenty of playlists to choose from, with music ranging from the 60s to today.
Popcorn Trivia
If you’re in a car full of movie buffs, Popcorn Trivia is the perfect road trip trivia questions game for you. The game is free to play, and it features a vast library of different movie trivia questions from several different genres. You can compete against each other or together, and you can unlock new trivia packs from popular movies and TV shows with the points you earn in the game.
Road Trip Trivia Games
The trivia apps above are lots of fun, but you may not always have access to a smartphone with a strong signal during your road trip. Thankfully, road trip trivia has been around a lot longer than smartphones, so there are some great games you can play without the help of your phone.
We’ve assembled a list of some of the best and most fun classic road trip games for you and your squad to play as you’re making your way across the country.
Two Truths and a Lie
This fun-for-everyone game is always entertaining, and it’s a great way to get to know your fellow road trippers better. Two Truths and a Lie is perfect for playing with co-workers, friends, and family. All you need to do to win is separate fact from fiction.
Here’s How to Play
- Pick which passenger will start the game
- That passenger tells the car three statements. Two are true, and one is a lie
- The rest of the car tries to determine which statement is false
- Once the round is over, it’s the next passengers turn to tell Two Truths and a Lie
Would You Rather
Hands down one of the most fun games for the entire group is Would You Rather. This game is fun for the whole family, but it can be a real blast when the adults are playing. This game is one of our favorite road trip quizzes for couples since it’s a great way to get to know your partner while also passing the time while driving.
Here’s How to Play
- Each question much follow the Would You Rather format
- Make sure that each question you ask presents a serious dilemma
Here are some Would You Rather road trip questions to get started with:
- Would you rather eat chicken every day for a year, or not be able to eat chicken at all?
- Would you rather be 10 minutes late everywhere you go, or 20 minutes early?
- Would you rather absolute freedom or absolute safety?
- When you die, if you could be reborn, would you rather exist in the future or the past?
- Would you rather spend a year in prison or a year in a hospital?
- Would you rather be the most gullible person in the world or lose the ability to tell a lie?
- Would you rather go to the past to meet your ancestors, or to the future to meet your future relatives?
Would You Rather can also be a silly and fun game if you’re traveling with children. If there are kids in the car, here’s some Would You Rather questions that are perfect for them:
21 Questions
From young kids to grandparents, 21 Questions is a classic game everyone can enjoy. This game of deduction requires passengers to guess the person, place, or thing that the player is thinking of, using a maximum of 21 questions to figure it out.
Here’s how to Play
- The first player thinks of a person, place, or thing
- The rest of the players can ask up to 21 questions to figure out what the first player is thinking of
- The first player responds with yes or no answers to each question they’re asked
- If the rest of the car can’t figure out the answer in 21 questions, player one wins
- If someone correctly guesses the answer within 21 questions, that person becomes the next to choose a person, place, or thing
Name That Tune
If you’re traveling with a bunch of music enthusiasts, Name That Tune can be one of the most fun games to play. All you’ll need is an app like Spotify or Apple Music (or someone in the car with an extensive music library.)
Here’s How To Play
- Appoint one person in the car as the host for that round
- That person finds a popular playlist and plays a song
- The other passengers try and guess the song as quickly as possible
- If a passenger says “pass,” the host moves on to the next song
- Whoever guesses correctly first gets the point
The Bad Movie Plot Game
This hilarious game is perfect for a car full of movie buffs, and it’s a great way to pass the time during long car rides. The premise is simple: you must guess the name of the movie based on an incredibly poor plot description from the host.
Here’s How to Play
- The host of the game thinks of a movie
- The host describes the plot of the movie correctly, but in the worst way possible
- The rest of the car tries to guess the correct movie
- Whoever guesses correctly becomes the host of the next round
Here are a few examples:
- Talking gremlin convinces a son to murder his father (Star Wars Episode V)
- Family abandons their troublemaker son on Christmas vacation in hopes robbers will abduct him (Home Alone)
The Movie Game
This game is another one that’s tons of fun for movie buffs. In The Movie Game, participants take turns naming movies and actors until one of the participants is stumped.
Here’s How to Play
- The first player starts the game by naming a popular movie, such as Titanic
- The next player names an actor from the movie, like Leonardo DiCaprio
- The next player must name another movie that the actor was in, for example, Wolf of Wall Street
- The game continues until someone is stumped. If you can’t think of a movie or actor, you’re eliminated!
- The last remaining player is the winner of the round
Questions, Questions, Questions
Is there a lull in conversation? This game is a great way to get the juices flowing and get some more energy in the car. Playing Questions, Questions, Questions is as simple as asking fun and intriguing questions to the other people in the car. This game is a great way to get to know your crew even better than you do now.
Here are a few great examples to get the conversation going again:
- What is the most interesting thing you saw online this week?
- If you were a gifted scientist with unlimited resources, what would you study and why?
- What person, alive or dead, would you like to have dinner with and why?
Smurfing
Smurfing is a great way to get everybody laughing while passing the time on a long car ride. In this game, the player will need to guess the action that the rest of the car has come up with as quickly as possible by asking a series of questions.
Here’s How to Play
- The player must cover their ears while the rest of the car comes up with an action
- Once the car has come up with an action, the player must try to guess that action by asking questions. In the questions, “smurf” is the stand-in for the action.
- Ex. When is the best time to smurf? Does smurfing make you sweat? Do you smurf inside or outside?
- The player must guess the action in as few questions as possible
Fortunately, Unfortunately
This fun game requires a bit of imagination, so it’s perfect for playing with the kids. It’s an easy game to keep going for hours, and the more crazy and imaginative you are, the more fun it is to play.
Here’s How to Play
- The first player begins with a statement that starts with “Fortunately…”
- The next player follows up that statement with a statement beginning with “Unfortunately…”
- Each additional player adds a statement following the fortunately/unfortunately format
Here’s an example:
- ortunately, I brought delicious cookies for everybody
- Unfortunately, every fifth cookie in the box will give you gas
- Fortunately, you won’t be able to hear it
- Unfortunately, everyone else within a five-mile radius will
Who Am I?
This game is a fun variation on 21 Questions, and it’s fun to play with friends, family, or the kids. With a little bit of logic and some deductive questioning, contestants must identify the famous person the rest of the car is thinking of.
Here’s How to Play
- The contestant must cover their ears or listen to music while the rest of the car decides on a famous person
- The contestant then asks yes or no questions to figure out who the famous person is
Truth or Dare
One of the most classic games to cure boredom on long car rides, Truth or Dare, is especially fun to play with your friends. This classic game is about as simple as it gets.
Here’s How to Play
- The first contestant is asked to choose either truth or dare
- If the contestant selects truth, they’ll be forced to answer any question truthfully
- If the contestant selects dare, they must complete a dare posed by one of the other contestants
- The game continues on to the next contestant
The Counting Game
This silly game is perfect for families, and it’s a great way to pass the time during long road trips. The purpose of the game is to get to the highest number possible without any two players saying the same number at once.
Here’s How to Play
- The game begins when a player says the number one
- The remaining players have five seconds to say number two
- If more than one person says the next number at the same time, the game ends, and you restart from one
The Song Lyric Game
This fun game is a great way for music buffs to stay entertained on a road trip. Face off with your fellow road trippers in a lyric battle for the right to control the stereo.
Here’s How to Play
- Players must sing the lyrics to the current song on the stereo for one minute
- The first player to successfully nail every lyric in the song for a minute straight can control the stereo
- Once another player is able to sing a minute’s worth of lyrics to whatever song is on, they gain control of the stereo
DJ Battle
Do you have the best taste in music in the car? Put your style to the test against your friends or family in this fun battle game. In order to play, you’ll need at least three people, so this game is perfect for families and groups of friends.
Here’s How to Play
- First, appoint someone in the car as the judge
- The judge picks a music category i.e., pop, hip hop, rock, etc.
- The remaining people in the car take turns playing the “best” song from that category
- The judge awards a point to whichever person plays the best song
Did You Know?
A favorite road trip trivia game for couples and friends, this one is a great way to get to know the people you’re with even better than you do now.
To play the game, each person in the car takes turns sharing an interesting (and unknown) fact about themselves. Each player must begin by saying, “Did you know that I…” and then adding a fun factoid the others in the car don’t know about them
The Rhyming Game
Are you a wordsmith? The Rhyming Game is your time to shine! All you’ll need to do is start with a word, and then everyone must come up with a rhyming word before time expires.
Here’s How to Play
- The first player begins by choosing any word they like
- The next player must say a word that rhymes with the first word
- Each additional player must do the same
- Players have fifteen seconds to come up with a rhyming word, or they’re eliminated
The Spelling Bee
Are you the best speller in the car? Test your knowledge against your friends and family with a spelling bee game. Use Google to find a list of difficult to spell words, and host a spelling bee in the car!
Here’s How to Play
- One person in the car must be appointed The Word Master
- The Word Master selects a word for the first player to spell
- If the player spells their word correctly, the Word Master selects a word for the next player
- The game continues until there is only one super speller left
Backward Sentences Game
It may seem easy, but this game is harder than you may think! Can you say a sentence backward?
Here’s How to Play
- The first player says a sentence
- The next player must repeat the sentence backward
- Each player gets the point for every correct backward sentence
- The player with the most points after five minutes wins the game
Story Time
If you’re surrounded by people with great imaginations, this game is bound to be loads of fun. Each person in the car adds a new sentence to the story, and before you know it, you and your crew will have weaved a crazy tale that’s sure to get everyone laughing and having fun.
Here’s How to Play
- The first player begins by telling the first sentence of a story
- Each subsequent player adds a sentence to the story
- See how long you can keep the story going
Truth or a Lie?
Are you a good liar? If so, you’ll love playing this game, which will put your detective skills to the test as you root out which of your friends is telling the truth and who is spinning an elaborate lie.
Here’s How to Play
- The first player tells an elaborate story about their past
- The story can be true or false
- The remaining players must decide if the story is real or fake
- The first player to guess correctly receives a point
- The next player tells a story and the game repeats
Sorry I’m Late
This fun game adds a spin to the bad movie plot game we mentioned earlier. Can you guess which movie they’re thinking of from a single sentence?
Here’s How to Play
- The first player explains why they were late by describing the plot of a movie in a single sentence
- Ex. “Sorry I’m late, I was saving the world from an alien invasion on the Fourth of July” (Independence Day)
- The remaining players take turns guessing which movie the first player was talking about
- Whoever answers correctly becomes the next contestant in the game
The Going on Vacation Game
How good is your memory? This game is a great way to see which member of your party is the best at remembering fine details, and it’s lots of fun to play. Each player adds a new item to the list when it’s their turn, and it’s up to the next player to remember everything on the list, in order.
Here’s How to Play
Here’s How to Play
- The first player starts by saying “I’m going on vacation and I’m bringing…” and adds an item
- I.E., I’m going on vacation, and I’m bringing a T-shirt
- The next player must repeat the sentence, the first item, and then add an additional item
- The game continues until a player can’t remember all of the other items on the list
I Spy
This classic game is fun for the whole family, and it’s one that practically everyone already knows how to play.
Here’s How to Play
- The first player selects an object from the car or countryside
- The player then says “I spy with my eye something beginning with the letter [first letter of object]
- The other players take turns guessing what the item is
- Each correct guess earns a point
- The player with the most points at the end of the game wins
Be Quiet!
Silence is golden, and that’s especially true for parents who are trying to find some peace from their kids during a road trip. This game couldn’t be any easier to play. The object is to remain quiet for as long as possible. Whoever goes the longest without making a sound wins!
What Are You Waiting For?
We just provided you with 30 of the most fun road trip trivia and other games around, which should give you and your fellow passengers hours of entertainment on your trip. Keep this list of games handy, so you and your crew will always have something to keep you occupied during your road trip.
What are some of your favorite road trip trivia games? How do you like to pass the time on a long ride? Let us know in the comments!