It Seems to me alot of Sports Titles are never talked about? Most of them were multiplayer. That's the one area that is not talked about much .
It looks like alot of the best Sports titles came out past 1986 which is kind of strange. The NES was already released and the writing was on the wall. Who was buying Atari Game Cartidges retail new in 1986? Funny thing is they were still selling new titles until 1990! Can you imagine someone walking into Toy's R Us and asking for an Atari game Cartridge in 1990? I would of been on the floor rolling around laughing

. Actually there are still making homebrew games, but ostly for nostagia sakes nowadays.
So lets just say that anything after 1986 was not really part of the original library option for the 2600. Although if you do include them the Date of their release should be noted next to the title.
I don't think I bought a game past 1982, "Pitfall" September of 1982, was probably my last Retail purchase of an Atari Cartridge.
So Lets get to it
SPORTS
My personal early favorite was Bowling, had Home Run and Football, Home Run would get old really fast, football had a little more staying power but could get old pretty quick. Basketball had a shelf life of about 20 plays

and is laughable when looked back upon. Boxing by Activision was a pretty good game. It had a unique top down perspective, but what could you do with a controller with 1 button?