Well, for me, I only really use my gamepad with driving games and for space sims (though mostly I play first-person shooters using keyboard and mouse). I've also used my gamepad with emulators. So it has some use, but not lots. Then again, I didn't pay much for my gamepad as I went with the standard Xbox 360 pad.

There are a number of games on Steam that are gamepad friendly too, particularly those that support Steam's Big Screen mode.

emm....

All of them?

I was going to say something along the lines of what keeveek posted. But in light of the fact that you don't seem to even have a controller, I'd have to recommend Carmageddon above all else. Oh and forget using a mouse. Borderlands is the only game I've played that makes decent use of the mouse.

I've been playing NFS the run (and as a player who never plays racers having a lot of fun with it) and i can quote this for truth ;)

I just tested GRID using keyboard control. It worked okay, but I'm better with a gamepad. As it happened, I actually played a Pro Tuner race on Normal for the test and I came 1st, though that was more due to luck near the end when the first two cars collided. Otherwise I'd have come in 3rd. So it worked, but I'll stick to my gamepad.

Necrodome, both a FPS and a driving game. Not so much the racing.
Right now Indy Royale has Gas Guzzlers. It looks like a shooter and a racer, so you could give that a look.
http://www.indieroyale.com/

^^^ Absolutely this!

Oh, now I understand the answer. It was an answer to the topic title. When I read your reply yesterday:
I thought it was a reply to my question 2 posts above yours "I wonder if a game-pad is worth the buy if it's only for 1 game, what other kind of games get enhanced by using a game-pad?"

and it got me wondering.

Re-did the first race of the Dirt 2 demo, and I managed to reach the finish line intact., though last of all the racers. Had trouble again on the next circuit, when my car seemed faster than on the first track and I hit the sides a lot, but I will practice.

Just driving without hitting things is the most fun for me, so no Carmageddon or FPS-racing for me. If I want combat, I want to do an RPG or run around as a soldier with a gun.

Carmageddon is actually kind of disturbing: hitting pedestrians is morally very questionably, at least the enemies in an FPS or RPG have a chance to defend themselves.

No, it was a reply to your post. Like 95% of the racing games were absolutely not "designed with a steering wheel in mind".

nevermind, ninjaed by two days.

That's the problem with all racing games and keyboard controls. The keys only know the two conditions, not pressed or pressed. So you can't steer the driving wheel more or less in one direction or give more or less gas ingame. This can only be done with a driving wheel controler or a gamepad with analogue sticks and triggers.

I recall I didn't have issues with the keyboard controls with GTA3, GTA VC or Far Cry 2 driving models. I think they have some kind of incremental steering with keyboard, ie. the longer you push the button, the more it turns (or speeds up). So it is not an instant on/off.

It depends if this is taken into account in the game design, I think in above games it is (ie. they are not expecting PC gamers to switch from mouse/keyboard to a gamepad whenever they need to drive). After all, old gaming machines like Amiga had lots of racing games, even though they also had only digital joysticks.

I recall Halo 1-2 PC versions had quite interesting driving model too, where you point with the mouse where you want to head, and then the vehicle tries to head to that direction the best it can. So kind of indirect steering system. It worked quite well at least for that game, but I'm unsure if it is sufficient for actual racing games. Well, at the end of Halo, you had to race through a complicated "track".

Trackmania!

There are moments in Battlefield 1942 you wish the game was a racing game when you're riding a jeep. It's marvellous, flawless, delicious driving.