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I have a starting point of Dunn Loring, VA and and ending point of Denver, Co.
With Mapquest, it has me taking I80 through Chicago.
With Google, it has me taking I70 through Kansas City, KS.
Which will be the more entertaining route.
As far as Distance and time, I70 is the better route.
Why are they picking different routes?
It makes almost no difference! What this is telling you is that the two routes are so close together in mileage and/or time that the fine details of the programs' databases or algorithms are defining which route gets picked. If you'll note when you use Google Maps, the recent upgrade will actually give you the I-80 routing as an alternative, but lists both the I-70 and I-80 routings as taking 1 day, 1 hour (0 minutes), so presumably it chose the I-70 routing because it's 10 miles shorter. MapQuest's algorithms may have computed the I-80 route as taking a minute or two shorter, you should check that by forcing it to take I-70 by adding a stop in St. Louis. In any event, in the real world, the two drives are essentially equivalent for all the things the mapping routines check for (just mileage and time, most likely), and I would choose I-70 as the more pleasant drive in the east, while perhaps giving some thought to taking I-81/I-64 through Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky to St. Louis if you have not taken those roads before.
AZBuck
I would take I-70 to avoid tolls and Chicago traffic.
My mapping software (Microsoft Streets & Trips) prefers I-80.
Specifically, I'd take the Beltway to I-270 to Frederick, then I-70 to I-68 to I-79 to I-64 to STL, then I-70 to Denver. 1720 miles, 25.5 hours straight driving with no stops. Recommend overnights in Lexington KY and KC.
AZBuck and glc,
These are both great routes. I will consider both these routes.
Thank You