50 Best Rock Songs About Highways

Classic Rock Tracks for Long Highway Drives

There’s a strange pulse that kicks in when the road stretches out past the last gas station and you’re left with the hum of the engine and static from the radio. It’s not freedom exactly, not escape either, but something in between. The highway holds that half-awake energy where the sky looks too wide and the next town feels both close and far at once. The right song can catch that in-between mood, the kind that fills the space between the white lines and your own drifting thoughts.

Highway songs aren’t always literal. Some talk about running, some about staying, and a few don’t mention pavement at all but still feel like asphalt and headlights. Rock tracks especially have a way of catching that restless swing of motion, but you’ll hear it bleed into pop, rock, country, and R&B songs that chase the same idea. A riff that rolls like tires on wet roads, a chorus that feels like hitting a stretch with no exits for miles. The kind of songs that hit harder when there’s nothing ahead but distance.

There’s noise, grit, the smell of something burning in the backseat, and a playlist trying to keep pace with the hours. These songs fit that space where time feels stretched thin and real life hangs somewhere behind you. Not all of them name the highway, but they live in its rhythm. Here are the best rock songs for highway drives.

1. 'Highway to Hell' by AC/DC

2. 'Born to Be Wild' by Steppenwolf

3. 'Radar Love' by Golden Earring

4. 'Highway Star' by Deep Purple

5. 'Running on Empty' by Jackson Browne

6. 'Born to Run' by Bruce Springsteen

7. 'Take It Easy' by Eagles

8. 'Life in the Fast Lane' by Eagles

9. 'Runnin' Down a Dream' by Tom Petty

10. 'Roadhouse Blues' by The Doors

11. 'Ramblin' Man' by The Allman Brothers Band

12. 'Truckin'' by Grateful Dead

13. 'Rockin' Down the Highway' by The Doobie Brothers

14. 'Slow Ride' by Foghat

15. 'Heading Out to the Highway' by Judas Priest

16. 'Roll Me Away' by Bob Seger

17. 'Roll On Down the Highway' by Bachman-Turner Overdrive

18. 'The Passenger' by Iggy Pop

19. 'I Can't Drive 55' by Sammy Hagar

20. 'Ventura Highway' by America

21. 'L.A. Woman' by The Doors

22. 'Go Your Own Way' by Fleetwood Mac

23. 'Under My Wheels' by Alice Cooper

24. 'Going Mobile' by The Who

25. 'Highway Song' by Blackfoot

26. 'Sweet Home Alabama' by Lynyrd Skynyrd

27. 'Road to Nowhere' by Talking Heads

28. 'Drive My Car' by The Beatles

29. 'Roll Another Number (For the Road)' by Neil Young

30. 'I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide' by ZZ Top

31. 'Paradise City' by Guns N' Roses

32. 'Blue Highway' by Billy Idol

33. 'Crosstown Traffic' by The Jimi Hendrix Experience

34. 'Kings Highway' by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

35. 'Roadrunner' by The Modern Lovers

36. 'Driving Song' by Widespread Panic

37. 'Tunnel of Love' by Dire Straits

38. 'On the Road Again' by Canned Heat

39. 'Free Bird' by Lynyrd Skynyrd

40. 'Detroit Rock City' by KISS

41. 'Fast As You' by Dwight Yoakam

42. 'The Distance' by Cake

43. 'Going Up Around The Bend' by Creedence Clearwater Revival

44. 'Radar Love' by White Lion

45. 'Turn the Page' by Bob Seger

46. 'Blue Sky' by The Allman Brothers Band

47. 'Roll With The Changes' by REO Speedwagon

48. 'Gypsy Road' by Cinderella

49. 'Autobahn' by Kraftwerk

50. 'Panama' by Van Halen