I can’t lie.

I’d probably veto the idea if we were on a road trip and you suggested we play a road trip trivia game. Why?

Because I’m awful (like, really really bad) at all things trivia! There’d be no point in playing. You’d pummel me with your superior general knowledge every single time.

But that’s just me…

I know lots of people love them and, in all fairness, couldn’t agree more that they’re great ways to kill time on a long car journey.

Are you looking for some quality car ride trivia games to play right now? Well, I’ve got you sorted.

I’ve put together a set of top trivia games for car rides, followed by a long list of fun road trip trivia questions. All told, there should be more than enough trivia here to help anybody stimulate conversation and have far more fun on the journey ahead.

Sound good? Check out this ‘top travel trivia games’ (and questions) guide!

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6 Entertaining Road Trip Trivia Games (+ Apps)

Road trip trivia games are the perfect way to pass the time on a long journey.

With that I mind, here’s a selection of the best car ride trivia games and apps to call upon whenever you’re in need of entertainment on the road.

1. Name the Capitals

One of the simplest trivia games to play in the car is naming the world’s capital cities. One player would act as host and bring up an alphabetical list of capital cities (like this one). Then the other players would take it in turns to name a capital city beginning with a certain letter. You could do it randomly until you got through the entire alphabet or proceed from A to Z (e.g. Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, Cardiff…). The winner would be the person who names the greatest number of cities (or who doesn’t give up first…).

Of course, you could also play a variation of this game with countries rather than capitals. And if geography’s not your strong suit, then there’s nothing stopping you from trying totally different topics. Food, animals, and sports players would all work well too.

Alternatively, you could go on the free website called Sporcle, which has electronic versions of all manner of quizzes. Everyone in the car could join forces in an effort to beat the computer!

2. Guess the Song

Let’s face it, no road trip’s complete without some top tunes playing in the background. That’s why you’re sure to love a fun car trip trivia app called Guess the Song.

Speaking of which, you can probably guess what you have to do…

You got it: the app selects songs at random and it’s your job to guess them! Get it right and you score a point. The app interface even keeps track of each player’s scores.

Don’t worry if you don’t have access to the app, either. You could easily play this game manually instead. Simply plug your phone into the car’s speaker system, open up Spotify (or YouTube, or Apple Music…), and play a song for everybody to listen to/guess.

Take it in turns to pick the music, track peoples’ scores, and see who gets the most points!

3. Popcorn Trivia (Mobile App)

Are you travelling in a car full of film buffs?

If so, then you should thoroughly enjoy this particular car trip trivia game. This popular mobile app allows you to compete with friends by answering questions on every film/genre imaginable (and it’s free, too!).

With every question you get right and every round you win, you collect points that open up new rounds and new genres for you to enjoy.

Even better, because it’s an app and not a board game, it gets continuously updated with new questions about the hottest releases from the cinema, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and so on.

Is all this talk of popcorn making you hungry? Check out this post about the ultimate road trip food for your trip.

4. Trivia Truth or Dare

This road trip trivia game’s a bit harder to play in a moving car than it’d be at home. However, this should make it more interesting as you have to get creative with your dares.

Just don’t crash while you’re at it…please.

Truth or Dare needs no introduction. As you know, it can be played as a funny game in and of itself. But you can also combine it with others.

But not just any other games. Trivia games.

Here’s how:

You can spin a bottle (mobile-based, of course, or just use a randomised selector on your phone) to determine who has to answer a road trip trivia question. Then, if they get it wrong, they have to select ‘truth or dare’ as a kind of forfeit.

It’s then your job to pose the most heinous truth or dare possible to make your road trip a little more interesting!

5. Spelling Bee

One of the simplest travel trivia games for car rides would be a good old-fashioned spelling bee. Now, this might not sound all that exciting.

But if you’re a ‘word nerd’ like me, then road trip games don’t get much better!

You can test your spelling prowess and see how it holds up against your fellow friends and family. Set each turn to a timer (aka who can spell the most words correctly in a set amount of time) and keep track of your scores to see who wins.

Oh, and one person in the car could play ‘host’ too. This guy or gal would set the words for each ‘contestant’ (altering the difficulty level according to age/capabilities) and keep score along the way.

FYI, a spelling bee would be particularly good if you’re travelling with children. It’d improve their spelling and vocabulary while preparing them for actual school spelling tests they’ll have to do in future!

6. Pointless

First off, to play this game you’ll need to download the app on your phone. Assuming that’s not a problem, though, you’re in for a treat.

‘Pointless’ is a gameshow in the UK (maybe it’s in the US, too?) where the objective is to come up with the obscurest answer to the question you receive. Think of an answer that nobody else has come up with and you walk away with more points.

Here’s any example:

“Name a U.S President.”

Most people would probably answer Donald Trump, Barrack Obama or George Bush, right? They’re pretty obvious, so you’d score fewer points.

Other people might answer Abraham Lincoln, or J.F. Kennedy. Those are better (aka somewhat less obvious) answers and would score higher as a result.

But an answer like ‘James K. Polk’ (11th US president) or ‘Franklin Pierce’ (the 14th US president) would score highest because they’re really bloody obscure!

Give it a go with the app in the car and you’re sure to have good fun.

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Heads up, you might also like these:

• 26 Brilliant Bus Games to Play
• 110 Epic Geography Trivia Questions
• 20 Road Trip Games for Couples
• 50 Interesting Travel Facts
• 40 Epic Things to Do on a Road Trip
• Comprehensive Road Trip Food List
• 125 Awesome Road Trip Questions to Spark Conversation
• 25 Fun RV Accessories for Entertainment on the Road

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80 Road Trip Trivia Questions

Road trip trivia questions can be another source of fun when you’ve exhausted the road trip trivia games above. In fact, you can usually turn these questions into games anyway! So, with that said, what car ride trivia questions could you ask?

Heads up, click here if you’re looking for more road trip questions (that aren’t trivia related).

20 Funny Road Trip Trivia Questions: ‘Would You Rather?’

This is the ultimate either-or question game. It forces the person answering the question to decide what their least favourable outcome is. It can be revealing, to say the least!

You’ll learn all sorts about each other’s tastes, personality, how they’d react to certain situations, and so on.

Here are a few of my favourite examples:

1. ‘Would you rather have legs for arms or arms for legs?’

2. ‘Would you rather begin every sentence with ‘hey idiot’ or end every sentence with ‘only joking’’?

3. ‘Would you rather lose your sight or your hearing (or taste, touch, smell…)?’

4. ‘Would you rather have smelly breath or smelly armpits?’

5. ‘Would you rather pee or poop your pants in public?’

6. ‘Would you rather live forever or have a super power?’

7. ‘Would you rather be super strong or super fast?’

8. ‘Would you rather make out with [insert sexy celebrity A] or [insert sexy celebrity B]?’

9. ‘Would you rather have no elbows or no knees?’

10. ‘Would you rather eat cat food or dog food?’

11.

“‘Would you rather have an awkwardly loud laugh or a weirdly quiet one?’”

12. ‘Would you rather quit drinking or turn off your WiFi for the next month?’

13. ‘Would you rather be rich or happy?’

14. ‘Would you rather travel to the future or change something in your past?’

15. ‘Would you rather read peoples’ minds or be able to fly?’

16. ‘Would you rather be Superman or Spiderman?’

17. ‘Would you rather look like a fish or smell like a fish?’

18. ‘Would you rather live in space or under the sea?’

19. ‘Would you rather stop eating [insert favourite food A] or [insert favourite food B]?’

20. ‘Would you rather eyes where your ears are or ears where your eyes are?’

40 General Trivia Questions for Road Trips

General car ride trivia questions are fun ways to test your general knowledge and learn something new in the process!

You could make things even more interesting by turning it into a competition.

For instance, everybody in the car could claim how many answers they expect to have for a certain open-ended question (e.g. how many Presidents of the United States can you name?). If you fail to meet your chosen number, then you lose and have to do a forfeit.

Here are some great pub-quiz style questions on different topic areas:

21. What are Queen Elizabeth II’s middle names?

(Answer: Alexandra Mary)

22. What year was Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated?

(Answer: 1968)

23. What year did George Washington become the first U.S President?

(Answer: 1789)

24. What year did the French Revolution begin?

(Answer: 1789)

25. Jimmy Page founded which famous rock band?

(Answer: Led Zeppelin)

26. AC/DC (the rock band) originated in which country?

(Answer: Australia)

27. Where were the 1996 Olympics held?

(Answer: Atlantis)

28. Who was the first person to win a gold medal at the modern Olympics?

(Answer: James B. Connolly)

29. What was Superman’s first name?

(Answer: Kal-EL)

30. What does WHO stand for?

(Answer: World Health Organization)

31. What is the latest version of Apple’s iPhone Operating system?

(Answer: iOS 14 (as of January 2021))

32. How many U.S Presidents have been impeached?

(Answer: 3)

33. What is the oldest recorded age anyone has ever lived too?

(Answer: 122 years old)

34. How many NBA championships did Michael Jordan win with the Chicago Bulls?

(Answer: 6)

35. What year was the Wimbledon Tennis Championship first held?

(Answer: 1877)

36. Where does Aquaman come from?

(Answer: Atlantis)

37. Sean Combs is better known as _____?

(Answer: P. Diddy)

38. Which boxer was nicknamed ‘The Peoples’ Champion’

(Answer: Muhammad Ali)

39. Who founded eBay in 1995?

(Answer: Pierre Omidyar)

40. What’s the name given to a female donkey?

(Answer: a ‘Jenny’)

41. Which part of the atom has no electric charge?

(Answer: Neutron)

42. What’s the title of the 4th book in the Harry Potter series?

(Answer: The Goblet of Fire)

43. What is meteorology?

(Answer: The study of the weather)

44. Which country invented tea?

(Answer: China)

45. Which part of the body contains the femur?

(Answer: Legs)

46. Who wrote the Hunger Games

(Answer: Suzanne Collins)

47. What’s the Latin name for a wolf?

(Answer: Canis Lupus)

48. What’s another name for a brain cell?

(Answer: Neuron)

49. What was Usain Bolt’s world record-breaking 100m sprint time?

(Answer: 9.58 seconds)

50. What’s the name of the only Avenger who can calm down the Incredible Hulk?

(Answer: Black Widow)

51. Which American president was involved in the Watergate Scandal?

(Answer: Nixon)

52. Which infinity stone was located on Vormir?

(Answer: Soul Stone)

53. Who played the lead role in the 2006 film, The Da Vinci Code?

(Answer: Tom Hanks)

54. In the comic book world, what does DC stand for?

(Answer: Detective Comics)

55. What’s the biggest American state in terms of landmass?

(Answer: Alaska)

56. Who was the only surviving Navy Seal in the story of Lone Survivor?

(Answer: Marcus Luttrell)

57. Which cartoon character lives under the sea inside a pineapple?

(Answer: Spongebob Squarepants)

58. What’s the smallest country in the world

(Answer: Vatican City)

59. Which of the Seven Wonders of the world is located in Egypt?

(Answer: Pyramids of Giza)

60. What’s the Dia de Los Muertos?

(Answer: Day of the Dead in Mexico)

10 Head-Scratching Road Trip Riddles

I’ll hold my hands up and profess to being awful at riddles. They make my head hurt. But they’re also effective ways to kill some time on long journeys in the car!

Here are a few top riddles to use in your hunt for replacement road trip trivia games:

61. What has four legs but only one foot?

(Answer: Bed)

62. What has to be broken before you can use it?

(Answer: Eggs)

63. What’s full of holes but still holds water?

(Answer: Sponge)

64. What can’t talk but replies when spoken to?

(Answer: Echo)

65. What goes up and down by never moves?

(Answer: Staircase)

66. What can travel around the world without leaving its corner?

(Answer: Stamp)

67. What has a bottom at the top?

(Answer: Legs)

68. What’s an odd number that becomes even when you take away a letter?

(Answer: Seven)

69. Two fathers and two sons are travelling in a car, but there are only three people inside. How?

(Answer: Grandfather, father, and son)

70. What 5-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters?

(Answer: Short)

10 Fun Personal Questions

The questions so far have been fun and entertaining, but they’re also a little…well, superficial. What if you want a slower-paced road trip game that goes a bit deeper?

You could try some fun, personal questions instead.

They’d be effective ways to cut through the small talk and get onto ‘real’ topics that help you get to know each other better. Some examples could include:

71. ‘If you had all the money in the world, what would you spend it on?’

72. ‘If you could take one person with you to a desert island, who would you pick and why?’

73. ‘What’s your number one fear and why?’

74. ‘If a zombie apocalypse took place tomorrow, which 5 people would you choose to help you survive it?’

75.

“Which person in this car would you choose as a phone-a-friend on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? And why?”

76. ‘What’s your favourite childhood memory?’

77. ‘What’s your earliest childhood memory?’

78. ‘What’s a secret you’ve told anybody before?’

79. ‘Of the people on this road trip, who would you marry, who would you avoid, and who would you trust with your life savings? And why?’

80. ‘What are you most grateful for in your life and why?’

Some people might have answers to these kinds of questions at the top of their heads; others might have to think carefully before they answer them. In either case, though, they should serve as awesome conversation starters.

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Enjoy These Road Trip Trivia Questions and Games

Road trips are always fun-filled affairs.

However, when the initial excitement subsides and you’ve been sat in the car for hours already, there often comes a point when you could use something to alleviate the boredom and help pass the time.

Know what I’m talking about? Well, I hope the road trip trivia questions and games in this post will help in this regard! Trust me, there are far more to find and enjoy on the internet, but, with any luck, the car ride trivia above should get you started.

Give these travel trivia games a try and you should remain entertained for hours on the journey ahead.

Looking for more things to do on a road trip? Click here for 40 epic ideas.

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