50 Best Rock Songs About Cars and Driving
Best Rock Songs for Road Trips and Car Rides
There’s a certain way music sticks when you’re behind the wheel. Windows cracked, traffic humming, maybe you’re on a long highway or barely crawling through the city. The right track can make a stoplight feel cinematic or stretch an empty road into something bigger than it is. Rock has always leaned into that feeling of motion, sometimes literal with engines and asphalt, sometimes abstract with escape and momentum. Not every song in this space talks about cars outright, but the energy carries through.
Driving songs never stay in one mood. You get riffs that feel reckless, choruses that lean into freedom, verses that sound like late-night boredom. It’s messy in the same way long drives can be, flipping from adrenaline to monotony without warning. The connection runs across pop, rock, country, and R&B songs too, since the car itself turns into shorthand for moving forward or breaking away. A track can be playful, heavy, even bittersweet, and it still fits the theme when the stereo’s loud and the wheels keep rolling.
These aren’t background songs you forget after the ride. They live in road trips, parking lots, quick escapes, and nights that never feel long enough. Some tracks come on like gasoline, others drift into nostalgia, but all of them sit in that strange zone where travel turns into memory. Here are the best rock songs for cars and driving.
Top 10 Driving Rock Songs
1. 'Born to Be Wild' by Steppenwolf
2. 'Highway to Hell' by AC/DC
3. 'Highway Star' by Deep Purple
4. 'Radar Love' by Golden Earring
5. 'I Can't Drive 55' by Sammy Hagar
6. 'Roadhouse Blues' by The Doors
7. 'Runnin' Down a Dream' by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
8. 'Low Rider' by War
9. 'No Particular Place to Go' by Chuck Berry
10. 'Driving In My Car' by Madness
Top Rock Songs for Road Trips #11 to 20
11. 'Autobahn' by Kraftwerk
12. 'Life Is a Highway' by Tom Cochrane
13. 'The Passenger' by Iggy Pop
14. 'I'm in Love with My Car' by Queen
15. 'Little Red Corvette' by Prince
16. 'Drive My Car' by The Beatles
17. 'Red Barchetta' by Rush
18. 'Panama' by Van Halen
19. 'Under My Wheels' by Alice Cooper
20. 'Sweet Home Alabama' by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Best Rock Songs With Car Themes #21 to 30
21. 'Slow Ride' by Foghat
22. 'Pink Cadillac' by Bruce Springsteen
23. 'Goin' Mobile' by The Who
24. 'Hot Rod Lincoln' by Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
25. 'Mercedes Benz' by Janis Joplin
26. 'Drive' by The Cars
27. 'Road Runner' by Bo Diddley
28. 'On the Road Again' by Canned Heat
29. 'Roll Me Away' by Bob Seger
30. 'Rockin' Down the Highway' by The Doobie Brothers
Top Rock Songs About Car Culture #31 to 40
31. 'Fun, Fun, Fun' by The Beach Boys
32. 'Mustang Sally' by Wilson Pickett
33. 'Thunder Road' by Bruce Springsteen
34. 'Cars' by Gary Numan
35. 'Going Up the Country' by Canned Heat
36. 'Hey Little Cobra' by The Rip Chords
37. 'Route 66' by The Rolling Stones
38. 'Little Deuce Coupe' by The Beach Boys
39. 'Free Ride' by The Edgar Winter Group
40. 'Truckin'' by Grateful Dead
Top Rock Songs for the Open Road #41 to 50
41. 'Long Train Runnin'' by The Doobie Brothers
42. 'Ramblin' Man' by The Allman Brothers Band
43. 'Take It Easy' by Eagles
44. 'Ventura Highway' by America
45. 'Brand New Cadillac' by The Clash
46. 'I Drove All Night' by Roy Orbison
47. 'GTO' by Ronny & the Daytonas
48. 'Mustang' by The Vandals
49. 'Get Out of Denver' by Bob Seger
50. 'I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide' by ZZ Top
© 2025 Carson McQueen
