Some cracks actually do require Steam to be running, or they use an emulator to simulate Steam running locally.

Cracking and playing pirated games is illegal in most jurisdictions and violates Steam's terms of service. If you own the game legitimately, verifying game files via Steam should fix the issue. If not, consider purchasing the game to support the developers and avoid these technical problems.

Here is an article explaining why this happens and how to resolve it.

: Ensure you are also running the game executable as an administrator to match permissions. 3. Use a Steam Emulator (Like Goldberg)