10 Best Car Games for Kids

It's a must to play the license plate game at least once while on a road trip. This wooden two-player license plate game makes it a snap to keep the game going throughout the road trip thanks to "flippable" license plates. Once a license plate is spotted, the eagle-eyed player simply flips that state over to their color (red or blue) on the sturdy game board. It's a fun way for kids to brush up on the location of states on the map, too.

This colorful road trip bingo set is an absolute must for any road trip. As a bonus, it gets kids looking out the windows, not at their tablets every minute of the drive. This set includes four brightly colored game boards, each with windows that slide open when kids spot things like motorcycles, yield signs, cows and toll booths. It's like a super-fun scavenger hunt that can be done from the comfort of the backseat.

The uber-popular TableTopics conversation-starter game has a Road Trip edition with 40 family-friendly question cards in a plastic to-go case. It's a snap to get kids off tablets and into miles of chatty fun with questions like "What was your all-time favorite vacation?" and "Do you believe in UFOs?" These cards are a playful way for kids to engage their minds, not just their electronics. Thankfully, the one question not in this deck is, "Are we there yet?"

Bring along a few pencils as kids go old-school with this paper gamepad filled with classic games that never go out of style, like tic-tac-toe, hangman, and dots and boxes. This gamepad includes five different games across 60 tear-out sheets. It's a fantastic gamepad to bring on a plane or into restaurants to keep kids busy and entertained. Sometimes, it's the simplest games that offer up the most fun for the whole family.

This skills-building game is so fun that kids won't realize it's actually a learning game, helping them brush up on mental math, vocabulary, equations and out-of-the-box thinking. This screen-free activity set includes 12 repeatable brain teaser-style games on kid-sized wipe-clean mats. Kids can play numbers games, like Sudoku, or games that require them to problem-solve their way out of a maze by looking for patterns. It's a fun (and educational) break from electronic devices.

No paper or pencil are required to play hangman thanks to this magnetic travel-size version of the classic play-anywhere game. The game is compact, so it's easy to pop into a travel bag or backpack. Inside, magnetic letters and scoring markers are large, so they won't get lost in between seats. This portable game is a fan favorite for road trips, plane flights and train trips, even a day at the beach when it's time to get out of the sun and relax in the shade.

Bring along this mini travel game set that includes three popular games, tic-tac-toe, an interactive fishing game and "Tricky Triangle," the triangle-shaped peg board game found on every table at Cracker Barrel. (You know the one.) Sturdy wooden pegs stay in place, ensuring pieces don't go flying after hitting a bump in the road. The games are easy to play for nearly all ages and keep kids busy and entertained, at least until the next rest stop.

Allow budding backseat artists to let their creative juices flow with this magnetic drawing board. Thanks to four color zones (red, blue, yellow and green), children aren't limited to black and white masterpieces. It's a cinch to bring their works to life with vivid colors. Kids can draw with a doodle pen or use three stamps (heart, circle, flower) to express themselves. An easy-slide eraser knob lets kids begin anew on a fresh work of road trip-inspired art.

Games on the Go includes 50 easy-to-play games in each deck. No pieces are required. Every game is fueled by the imagination, story-telling and eagle eyes of family members in the car. Games range from "Got Your Number," which requires passengers to spot numbers outside the car to "Giggle Recall," in which each passenger takes turns telling a story that made them laugh really hard. The game deck is held together with a giant carabiner, making it easy to attach to a backpack or travel tote.

Kids may find themselves in a fit of giggles on the road when the family starts up a game of Mad Libs. This silly word game can involve everyone in the car as each person is asked to call out nouns, adjectives and verbs, ultimately creating a wacky road trip-themed story that no one was expecting. This edition includes at least 20 different zany stories just waiting to be created on the next road trip.