Motorsport or Sim Racing: Which Came First for You?

F-Retro Gen 1 at Nurburgring 1971 in Automobilista 2.png

Motorsport or Sim Racing - Which Was First for You?

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    376
For most, Motorsport and sim racing are inseparably linked: Whenever we are sat in our sim rigs for the latter, we are trying to emulate the real deal - it is in the name, after all. It is safe to say that the majority of sim racers are fans of or at least interested in real racing, and, to a lesser degree, vice versa. But how did it start? We want to know: Which of the two disciplines came first for you?

Being a racing fan can be a slippery slope: Motorsport is one of the few disciplines that Average Joe cannot usually try for themselves, unlike soccer/football, darts, tennis or other sports - the costs are simply too high. So, what does a fan who wants to feel like he is in the driver's seat do? Play racing games, of course. And once the bug bites them, the next step is wanting to get a wheel and pedals - the rest does not require much imagination.

Sparking Fascination Both Ways​

While this is likely the way many of the older sim racers found their way onto the virtual grid, it does work the other way around as well. Gamers might get hooked on a racing game, dive deeper and get properly into sim racing - which then raises their curiosity about the real racing series and cars they are throwing around the virtual circuits.

Personally, I am not quite sure where it all started for me. I have been playing racing games (which later evolved to sims) and watching motorsport events, particularly Formula 1 races early on as I grew up in the peak Schumacher years in Germany, as long as I can remember. Both were so closely linked that they built off of each other, meaning I could get a better understanding for what I was watching on TV by racing virtually myself, and picking up on techniques or small facts from the broadcasts to try and apply on the digital circuits.

What's Your Story?​

How about you? Let us know where your sim racing and motorsport journey started in the poll and share your story in the comments below!
About author
Yannik Haustein
Yannik Haustein
Lifelong motorsport enthusiast and sim racing aficionado, walking racing history encyclopedia.

Sim racing editor, streamer and one half of the SimRacing Buddies podcast (warning, German!).

Heel & Toe Gang 4 life :D

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Comments

THK84
I guess racing 'games' came 1st, then motorsport, then sim racing. I would've never been able to afford sim racing prior to/in high school anyway.
 
G
With the Prenois circuit 10 minutes from home, the hum of the cars every weekend, the fact of crossing a F2 in your street or even hundreds of vehicles, motorbikes, trucks over the year...

After that, with the airfield next door, the Burgundy canal, alcohol etc, it's hard to stay only passionate about cars lol
 
Turk
Growing up Formula 1 was free to air and was always on the TV in our house every Sunday. My father was an F1 fan after he got to see it in person in Australia back in the 1970s.

There were always PCs in the house as well due to my fathers work, so I had access to PC games fairly early on. Consoles and PCs weren't too common in the west of Ireland back in the 1980s and 1990s. I was in my 20s before I really got to try sim racing and bought a cheap wheel.
 
Cote Dazur
"The Kenbak-1, released in early 1971, is considered by the Computer History Museum to be the world's first personal computer. It was designed and invented by John Blankenbaker of Kenbak Corporation in 1970, and was first sold in early 1971"
My interest in Motorsport pre date 1971, so since sim racing only started after that, Motorsport was first for me. I only became interested in SIM racing in the late 90's.
 
MantrackerWRC
Motorsport. My father is also a Motorsport fan and a friend of him used to race in rallyes when I was a little kid. Moreover,my home town is hosting a rally event every October since 1993.
From 1998 to 2001 the Rally was part of the Spanish rally championship (i was a 1-4 year old kid that time) when a plenty of WRC cars used to race at the championship. I grew up watching some WRC( Evo 7 WRC of my Prof Pic) , Group A, N and kit cars in my town(also at the Basque rally Championship 2003-nowadays) .
I started playing racing games when I was a kid too because I liked cars and my father use to playing racing games on Pc with the steering wheel.
Sega Rally 2 and Viper Racing where my first racing games.
Unfortunately Motorsport is a very expensive sport so Sim Racing is the only way to race(thankfully)
 
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stickdeath1980
I used to race Bike's here in New Zealand had a pretty bad crash..still had the racing itch.so Sim racing came into play early 2000s lan partys.
 
Ryno917
Motorsport first. My very, very first memory is from Mosport in 1989 when I was 2. After walking through the paddock with my father we headed back to our viewing spot in turn 8. Before going through the old tunnel under the short chute between 9 and 10 I looked up and saw the red, white and blue Nissan sitting in the mock grid area. It was the absolute coolest thing in the universe to me, and at that moment I was hooked on the sport. Sadly I can't recall exactly which car it was; my memory says GTP ZX-Turbo but looking at events I think it was more likely the 300-ZX GTO car. Either way it was an IMSA series Nissan.


My world was shattered seconds later when my father said they were just coming off the track and we'd missed them while we were in the paddock. :'(

I don't recall the first time I played a racing game, but it was likely one of the games on the Intellivision my father had; probably the game "Auto Racing." After we got our first computer in '94 we quickly acquired "Indianapolis 500" and that became my obsession until we got the Papyrus Indycar Racing sim. Ah, memories...
 
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Sergio Loro
Premium
i lived in a area with a great motorsports tradition, we have our local dirt track, Studebaker Parque that is active since mid 70's, also the area host many Turismo Carretera event back on the 60s, We always have local drivers at national series (until became to expensive) so motor racing is part of my hometown and my life. Sim Racing (GPL mostly) allow me to expand that passion, because i was able to discover all european/american stuff (Nascar, WSC,Indy, Golden era of motor racing) and keep doing it, recently the 20's GP cars, the board tracks, and it will continue for sure :)
 
V
Motorsport, starting as an 13j old mid 70’s, but I guess when there were decent computer games at that time, my vote outcome would be different.

Times were so much easier and cheaper, as nearly every town did have its own near (sometimes illegal), motocross track or rally cross circuit.
 
Elmar3rd
Premium
First Zusi 3 (Train Simulator), then Sim Racing (all I could get except iRacing) to make better use of the graphics card I bougth actually for Zusi 3. Then motorsports (IMSA/WEC endurance).
 
Mekonrider
Motorsport was something we watched on terrestrial TV as a kid but it wasn't until I started driving that my interest in it accelerated and I'd record every bit of it that was put on TV or buy Duke videos. Once I started driving then I could pretend to be a racing driver.....which didn't end well at times.
 
Demichkd
Motorsport. Started with my family being in to motorcycle racing and for me moving to 4 wheels when my dad took me to the Ontario Motorspeedway in 1971 for a USAC Indycar race. And what a field it was. Mario Andretti, Bobby and Al Unser, AJ Foyt, Rutherford, oh man I was hooked.
 
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Pete Conway
Premium
Well it was neither, a Hoop and Stick that got me interested in wheeled competition... until I broke my stick and got stranded.
But I was reliably informed that 'Brrmmm' was my first word.
 
M
Premium
I was looking at motosport since i was a kid in the 70´s, (f1 at Paul Richard, rally monte carlo, ....).
Simracing came in the end of the90´s.
I never considered real motorsport because of cost of it obviously (and the risks)
 
T
i realize i understood the question wrong, i thought by "motorsport" was meant if we were doing some sort of motorsport, like karting etc. But apparently you meant like watching motorsport on TV or something.
i started watching F1 in 1993 when Schumacher basically was on the brink of becoming a superstar driver but i started playing car games a few years before that.
 

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