Car and Travel Games

Contemporary car and travel games are played by people of all ages, primarily as a way to occupy themselves and avert boredom while traveling long distances via automobile, bus, train, or airplane. Often games are suggested by parents to restless children while on long trips, but these games are not exclusively for children.

Some of the games that people play while traveling are niche games that have originated in the specific context of the highway. Some are adaptations of games that are found in other contexts, such as I Spy, or Car Bingo. Other games, such as Car Cricket, are loosely based on the rules of other games and applied to the context of travel.

What is common to all games that people play while they travel is that they can be played within a confined space over long periods of time. There are differences between games that can be played in cars and buses and those that can be played in other forms of long-distance transportation, such as trains or airplanes. Games that have originated in the context of cars or buses are of particular interest from a sociocultural perspective because they demonstrate the influence of environment on play and can be used to illustrate how culture contributes to and is influenced by niche games.