Definitely worth the money. There's an upside to lower mod count, the rubbish won't get converted to Race so often... What's keeping me off from rFactor is the overload of mods and tracks, for a newcomer it's just impossible to get in online servers... But Race too has it's own quirks and probably suffers for the same flaws, there's a host of mods that are used a lot.. Also the lack of open wheelers is a big downside, we got basically just one F1 mod (MMG 2007) and no junior formulas and the classic era is missing too.. Also i haven't found equally helpful community in rF, i've tried asking the noob questions but haven't got any answers. Here it's the opposite, you get almost too much info
Without RD Race would be half the game it currently is. The downside is that RD is very strict about the legality of mods and tracks so we are missing some content but as a modder i appreciate that. (There is a lot of content that could be converted but modders are notorius of disappearing with out a trace so some mods are lost forever
...)
As a game, you can't compare rF2 and Race, they are different generations of sims. We have to wait until GTR3 to arrive before making comparisons. But Race does feel more 'solid' for me too. There is probably more grip but there is also more clues in the FFB and sound to hold that grip, it doesn't do so much unexplained skids than rF.
I would advise to skip the demo and jump right in, the base game is ridiculously cheap and the amount of content in the package and in mods is just overwhelming for that price. As a racesimulator it is a must have... Also what Race has offered is the commercial content in forms of expansion packs or DLC, rF looses in that department hands down.. The ingame content of rF is just sad.... But it is the mother of Race, as a developer of gMotor2 ISI has packed some features in to rF that are missing from SimBin products.. There's no night racing, that's a big disappointment to those who like it. Another negative is the default locked stuff (tracks have fewer materials, that means lower variety in road surfaces, you won't get dirt racing etc...) but at least they then work. That's main difference in technical approach, rF has everything open and no matter if it really works or not, Race is somewhat stricted but at least they then work..
I've been happy with my original decision of choosing Race over rF back in the days when i started. I wouldn't even have rF installed without the developement tools that ISI offers that i desperately need.
