What’s your preferred way to race offline?

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In today's article we are interested to hear from our community what your preferred way to race offline is.

As a sim racer myself, I probably spend around 90% of my time racing online in either ranked or open lobbies, for me there’s no AI in the world that can replicate the unpredictable nature of a fellow sim racer. If I’m racing for position, any position, I’ll get a rush of adrenaline - this is something that I don’t get racing against AI.

The time I do spend offline, this is normally spent within time trial modes or practice sessions; where I am either getting to grips with a new car or learning an unfamiliar track. Now I know they’ll be some of you who decide to do this in open lobbies, we all know this as we’ve seen you.

What are the benefits of racing offline?​

Racing against AI is less stressful, once you get used to the way AI races in certain sims, it is not very often they’ll take you out. Because they tend to be more predictable, you’re able to race closer to AI than you would dare to online against real drivers. If you are ever taken out by the AI, there’s no one to get angry at either. Or if you accidentally miss your braking spot and take out another driver, the AI isn’t going to hurl a load of abuse at you!

You can be king! I’ve done it and I’m sure many others have too. I've deliberately started from the pack of the grid, knowing that I have the AI turned down a little and knowing that I have a good chance of getting into the points and maybe even winning. It’s great fun diving into corners, out braking your opponents, making moves stick around the outside of corners - feeling like you’re the best driver in the world.

You also have the option to really test your ability by seeing how you compare to the AI when it’s turned all the way up. Depending on your skill, racing can be really tight and you can easily forget that you are racing against AI.

There’s also time-trials, where you see how you stack up to the rest of the world. I’ve spent many hours seeing if I can break into the top 500, 250, 100, or 10. By doing this, I have found extra pace at tracks and it has made me a faster sim racer.

Racing offline doesn’t need to be competitive. Blasting around your favorite tracks in various cars can be extremely fun. Or hoping into a historic racing car at a track from the past can feel very nostalgic. Even just getting into a virtual car and just driving, can help take the stresses of the real world away.

Do you race offline and if so which way do you prefer?

Image credit - Redvaliant
About author
Damian Reed
PC geek, gamer, content creator, and passionate sim racer.
I live life a 1/4 mile at a time, it takes me ages to get anywhere!

Comments

Staff
Premium
It's mostly free practice mode for me, either alone or with AI if I feel like being immersed a little more. I really want to do a full historic F1 season in AMS2 at some point, i.e. when the custom championship tool in the sim works well. Would be great with real skins, real AI driver names and real weather for the races - 2000, 1991 and 1983 are strong candidates for this.

I suppose rally is the perfect offline discipline, though. No need to share the track, or rather stage, with anyone else, no need for AI - that's usually a lot of fun if you are into it.
 
Premium
Most of my time actually driving in the sim is probably testing own creations, but I also love driving other people's creations and to challenge myself with new cars and tracks. I don't care much about the "career path" in a race sims.. for a sorta story progression there's other games. Like I really enjoyed the Wreckfest Career mode.
 
My #1 online experience was in AC in servers like ALOOG-1 or Streetfight servers. Good or very good drivers, bunch of regulars, clean competitive racing, always interesting cars and tracks, nice discussions in the forum. Races about 5-10 laps, multiple races per evening.

#2nd favorite was systems like SRS for AC, or JustRace for rF2. Neat simple platforms that offered everything that was necessary for nice semi-casual competitive racing, climbing up the ranks and looking after your reputation as a driver/racer on other dimension, unlike in iR where you don't care about reputation if you go for rating.
 
In Raceroom I've found the AI to be more of a race-long pressure than real racers sometimes.

I like to run a lot of 5-10 lap stuff offline and start at the back. Gives me a chance to practice actual overtaking and learn what is and isn't really possible in a race situation without people getting upset. Sometimes doing imperfect lines may come in handy in a race and hot-lapping and working on perfection isn't what's needed.
 
In Raceroom I've found the AI to be more of a race-long pressure than real racers sometimes.

I like to run a lot of 5-10 lap stuff offline and start at the back. Gives me a chance to practice actual overtaking and learn what is and isn't really possible in a race situation without people getting upset. Sometimes doing imperfect lines may come in handy in a race and hot-lapping and working on perfection isn't what's needed.
Glad I'm not the only one to do this.
 
Easily the funnest way to play offline is a sort of career mode that starts you off with slower cars and tracks and works up to faster cars and tracks. The best PC simracing example of this from my experience is GT Legends however rFactor 1 and I believe Assetto Corsa and Project Cars 1 (and maybe 2?) have something similar.

You get to discover, experience, and appreciate so many cars, tracks, and car/track combos. The excitement of going to a new track (or track configuration) or car is so pleasing.
 

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Author
Damian Reed
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Online or Offline racing?

  • 100% online racing

    Votes: 84 7.3%
  • 75% online 25% offline

    Votes: 122 10.7%
  • 50% online 50% offline

    Votes: 166 14.5%
  • 25% online 75% offline

    Votes: 319 27.9%
  • 100% offline racing

    Votes: 448 39.2%
  • Something else, explain in comment

    Votes: 4 0.3%
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