For almost two decades, Midnight Club fans have been waiting for Rockstar Games to bring back its iconic street-racing series.

Now, after seeing more of GTA 6, some fans are starting to wonder if Rockstar may have already given them the next best thing.

The latest GTA 6 Extended Look showed off much more than Vice City and its story.

Rockstar also gave fans a closer look at the game’s cars, driving, customization, and street-racing culture.

And honestly, it looks like GTA 6 could be scratching the same itch that made Midnight Club so popular.

Midnight Club first arrived in 2000 and eventually received three mainline sequels. The last major entry, Midnight Club: Los Angeles, launched all the way back in 2008.

That’s nearly 18 years without a new game.

Since then, fans have repeatedly hoped Rockstar would revive the series.

But with GTA 6 now putting so much attention on cars and street racing, players may finally have something that feels like a modern Midnight Club experience.

During the nearly 27-minute GTA 6 Extended Look, Rockstar showed several examples of how driving works in Vice City.

The game appears to be taking vehicle handling more seriously than some previous GTA games.

Content creator TGGonYT, who attended an early GTA 6 preview at Rockstar’s headquarters in Edinburgh, described the driving as feeling less arcade-like and more grounded.

According to the creator, the cars have noticeably more weight behind them.

That might sound strange for a Midnight Club comparison because the old games were famous for their fast and arcade-style driving. But there’s an interesting possibility here.

If Rockstar ever brings back Midnight Club, GTA 6 could provide a good base for a modern driving system.

A new Midnight Club game could sit somewhere between arcade racing and realistic driving, similar to what games like Forza Horizon have done.

It could keep the easy-to-learn controls and crazy speed of the original games while adding more realistic vehicle weight and handling.

And then there’s the biggest connection: street racing.

The street-racing scenes shown in GTA 6 have already reminded fans of classic arcade racing games.

Customized cars, flashy paint jobs, neon-lit streets, high-speed races, and nitrous boosts all come together to create an atmosphere that feels very familiar to anyone who grew up playing Midnight Club.

Rockstar appears to be going all-in on car culture, vehicle customization, tuning, and illegal street racing in GTA 6.

Those were some of the biggest parts of what made Midnight Club special.

But the similarities don’t stop with racing.

The GTA 6 Ultimate Edition also includes several exclusive garages, adding another interesting layer to the game’s focus on vehicles.

The expensive edition comes with three special garages: Rideout Customs Mod Shop, One-Eyed Willie’s Mod Shop, and Paradise Garage.

The Paradise Garage is designed specifically for off-road vehicles, while the other garages appear to be aimed more broadly at vehicle customization.

Players who buy the standard edition will still have access to other garages, so these Ultimate Edition locations aren’t necessarily proof that Rockstar is locking the best customization features behind the more expensive version.

Still, their inclusion raises some interesting questions.

Could these garages offer special customization options? Could they contain unique upgrades? Or could they be connected to some of GTA 6’s street-racing activities?

At this point, Rockstar hasn’t explained exactly what these garages will do, so fans will have to wait for more information.

There’s another Ultimate Edition feature that could be especially interesting for car fans.

The edition includes a Classic Car Collection, which lets players find abandoned vehicles and restore them.

That sounds very similar to the barn finds found in Forza Horizon, where players can explore the world to discover forgotten cars and bring them back to life.

If GTA 6 really does allow players to hunt for classic vehicles, restore them, and build a collection, it could give players another reason to explore Vice City long after finishing the main story.

And that’s where the Midnight Club comparison becomes difficult to ignore.

GTA 6 isn’t Midnight Club. Rockstar hasn’t announced a new Midnight Club game, and nothing shown so far confirms that the series is secretly returning.

But after almost 18 years without a new Midnight Club, it’s easy to understand why fans are getting excited about the similarities.

GTA 6 appears to have the cars, customization, street races, tuning, and huge open world needed to create a modern street-racing experience.

So while fans may not be getting Midnight Club 4, GTA 6 could end up being the closest thing they’ve had to a new Midnight Club game in years.

And if Rockstar continues expanding GTA 6’s car culture after launch, fans may not even mind.

Grand Theft Auto VI is scheduled to release on November 19, 2026, for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.