50 Best Country Songs About Escaping
Country Tracks for Getting Away From It All
There’s a certain pull that hits when the map feels bigger than your life and the highway looks like it might have the answers. It’s not pure thrill, not total desperation, but some jumble in the middle. You’re tossing a bag in the backseat, maybe running from something, maybe toward something you can’t name, and the right song kicks in. The kind that hums like an open road before the engine even starts. These are the tracks that bottle that restless pulse and turn it into something loud enough to keep the wheels moving.
Nobody’s peeling away in a cinematic blaze of freedom. It’s gas station coffee, cracked asphalt, a radio signal that fades in and out. Somewhere between the static and the next small town, a melody hits and makes the whole thing feel sharper. It could be Miranda Lambert laying it all bare, or Chris Stapleton tracing the shape of escape in his voice, or Kacey Musgraves dreaming herself past the horizon. There’s grit here, but also that strange lift you get when the air changes and the rearview starts to look smaller. These tracks sit in the run, not the arrival.
Leaving doesn’t always make sense in the moment. Sometimes it’s reckless, sometimes it’s calm, and sometimes it’s both in the same mile. The energy shifts, the road bends, the chorus keeps you company in a way that mixes with the hum of the tires. They link up with the tradition of pop, rock, country, and R&B songs that hold fast to the idea that movement itself can be the point. Here are the best country songs for when you need to get away.
Top 10 Escape Songs
1. 'Wide Open Spaces'—The Chicks
2. 'Free and Easy'—Dierks Bentley
3. 'I'm Movin' On'—Rascal Flatts
4. 'Fast Car'—Tracy Chapman
5. 'On the Road Again'—Willie Nelson
6. 'Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight'—Emmylou Harris
7. 'Take Me Home, Country Roads'—John Denver
8. 'I've Been Everywhere'—Johnny Cash
9. 'Starting Over'—Chris Stapleton
10. 'Someday When I Stop Loving You'—Carrie Underwood
Finding Freedom in Country Music #11—20
11. 'Leaving Tennessee'—Cross Canadian Ragweed
12. 'Highway Vagabond'—Miranda Lambert
13. 'Good As Gone'1ȄLittle Big Town
14. 'Heads Carolina, Tails California'—Jo Dee Messina
15. 'Six Days on the Road'—Dave Dudley
16. 'Drivin' My Life Away'—Eddie Rabbitt
17. 'King of the Road'—Roger Miller
18. 'Running Down a Dream'—Tom Petty
19. 'Leaving a Place'—Zach Bryan
20. 'The Road Goes On Forever'—Joe Ely
The Best Country Road Trip Songs #21—30
21. 'Highway Don't Care'—Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban
22. 'Take a Back Road'—Rodney Atkins
23. 'Life is a Highway'—Rascal Flatts
24. 'Mowin' Down The Roses'—Jamey Johnson
25. 'Wagon Wheel'—Old Crow Medicine Show
26. 'I'm a Ramblin' Man'—Waylon Jennings
27. 'East Bound and Down'—Jerry Reed
28. 'Hillbilly Highway'—Steve Earle
29. 'Lost Highway'—Hank Williams
30. 'The Ride'—Hailey Whitters featuring Jordan Davis
Country Songs About Moving On #31—40
31. 'The House That Built Me'—Miranda Lambert
32. 'Something More than Free'—Jason Isbell
33. 'It Gets Easier'—Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
34. 'Wide Open Road'—Johnny Cash
35. 'Godspeed'—Zach Bryan
36. 'Get Outta Town'—Jamey Johnson
37. 'Rollin''—Luke Combs
38. 'Highway Queen'—Nikki Lane
39. 'Mud on the Tires'—Brad Paisley
40. 'White Line Fever'—Merle Haggard
Exploring New Horizons Country Style #41—50
41. 'Car Wheels on a Gravel Road'—Lucinda Williams
42. 'Highway Boys'—Zach Bryan
43. 'Back to Tennessee'—Josiah and the Bonnevilles
44. 'Willy the Wandering Gypsy and Me'—George Strait
45. 'Highways'—Corey Kent
46. 'Just Me and the Highway'—Joshua
47. 'Highway Hypnosis'—Billy Strings
48. 'Highway Kind'—Townes Van Zandt
49. 'Leaving a Town'—Tyler Childers
50. 'He Stopped Loving Her Today'—George Strait
© 2025 Carson McQueen
