Why are GT3 so popular?

why gt3.jpg
A quick look on Twitch or YouTube and you’ll see most content creators focusing on GT3 cars. Why do they do this? Well, this is what their viewers are demanding, but why are GT3 cars so popular?

We have ACC - where GT3 cars are centre stage, but ACC does have GT4 cars and these handle and drive fantastically well.

Then we have iRacing, which offers a whole host of cars to choose from. Yet GT3 cars seem to be the most popular.

The same can be said for RaceRoom, whilst there aren’t as many players online with RaceRoom compared to ACC and iRacing - in RaceRoom the most popular races involve GT3 cars.

We also have Assetto Corsa, where the choice of cars is practically endless - yet if you jump online there are many servers with GT3 cars.

Is it because GT3 cars are track going versions of cars we’d love to drive on the roads?

Is it because GT3 racing series feature all over the world?

In recent years GT3 cars have seemingly taken over the sim racing world, but this racing category has been over for over 15 years. Some may say they have propelled into the sim racing spotlight by ACC, which released late 2018. But, as most of you will know ACC did not fare well for a long time. Before ACC, I remember driving a lot of GT3 races in Assetto Corsa.

The reason why they are so popular could be because GT3 cars are relatively easy to drive, they have a decent amount of downforce vs power and they have ABS and TC. It could also be down to the choice that drivers have, which may sound strange as drivers are constraining their choice to just one category. There are many manufacturers who have built GT3 cars over the years, so players/drivers can align to their favorite brands. Players/drivers also have the choice of front, mid, or rear engined cars - which then offers different ways to drive these cars.

Why do you believe GT3 cars are so popular and what are your alternative cars to drive?
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About author
Damian Reed
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!

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Vols70slpr
Vadara said:
I am pretty sure GT3's are more popular in simracing than out of it--an even cursory glance of actual irl gt3 races reveals that no one is watching these damn things race; they have pitiful viewership on youtube, for instance, with modern Blancpain races struggling to get over 25K views at best.
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Vadara said:
I am pretty sure GT3's are more popular in simracing than out of it--an even cursory glance of actual irl gt3 races reveals that no one is watching these damn things race; they have pitiful viewership on youtube, for instance, with modern Blancpain races struggling to get over 25K views
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metalnwood said:
hey, if it keeps the riff raff out of the real cars they cant handle then how can i complain.
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The riff raff can't even handle regular road cars like Mazda 3, Hyundai Elantra, Toyota Corolla. I see them driving like crap daily but moving as if they're racing. Defies logic.
 
andrewaugust93
Vols70slpr said:
Turn the TC off, adjust the BB, no need to use it. That's the beauty of settings. I would say the majority of us racing GT3 sim do not use TC, young and older alike.
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But unfortunately race cars are often purpose built, and in sim's case it is not really meant to be driven without the assists and they feel terribly awkward to drive with the assists turned off. TCS off in ACC makes it very apparent that the devs designed the sim to run with TCS on.
 
Kyuubeey
andrewaugust93 said:
But unfortunately race cars are often purpose built, and in sim's case it is not really meant to be driven without the assists and they feel terribly awkward to drive with the assists turned off. TCS off in ACC makes it very apparent that the devs designed the sim to run with TCS on.
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To be fair, that's how the real cars work. They have pretty specific control maps for the TCS and you won't ever turn it off.
 
jongen
Paul Harwood said:
I go around the track and I keep thinking: I paid $11 bucks for this mentally amazing sim? God bless the 21st century! And many thanks to Race Department for turning me on to such a great Halloween deal!
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Many fantastic video game titles (Counter-Strike, Rocket League, LOL, DOTA2) are free to play, but I have to agree with you: the sheer amount of content AC Ultimate Edition affords its buyer is one of the best bargains of the industry.
 
B
Been driving different categories online and to say the true i find them more enjoyable than gt3. Group c, gt1 are great example of alternatives in gt category, even the now death gt-e are more fun.
I have ACC, and I deeply enjoy the sound from the different cars. Still that sim has not click on me.
I prefer to lap in Rfactor2 or ams2.
 
D
Kyuubeey said:
To be fair, that's how the real cars work. They have pretty specific control maps for the TCS and you won't ever turn it off.
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A real driver won't turn it off, unless they want to try specific drifting, countersteering antics. HOWEVER, a true sim-driver has an ego that DEMANDS he turn off all such nonsense as Traction Control and ABS.
 
Metla
Premium
GT3=accessible and awesome.

Its not rocket science. It makes a a good combination for online racing.
 
Ghoults
GT cars and f3 have always been super popular in sims. I think gt3 is popular because the cars are fast, look fast but are relatively easy to drive compared to the amount of power, grip and downforce they have. But I think the biggest reason is that people know the cars. They have seen a race or two in tv, watched a stream or just seen the cars somewhere. Or they know the road going variant and just expect the race car to be better, more fun and faster. So in combination it is all those factors. Also it doesn't hurt when you have a lot of choices and room for individualization with your car choise. You don't need to drive the same car as everybody else, you can choose to drive the fastest car or the snowflake option that nobody else is driving

F3 is much harder to explain. Typically there is just one car to choose. So no individualization at all. But that is also a strength. A level playing field. The F3 cars also might be the most fastest F1 kind of single seater people can manage while still having good racing. After all F1 cars are pretty much dead. But at F3 level racing can still be close.

Also what is good for both cars, gt3 and F3 is that both work really well on most tracks. They work in realtively tight circuits but also on really fast circuits.
 
O
Best compromise between performance and variety .... when it comes to modern cars only.

but ust like Shannon Flynn said : "I'd much rather struggle to drive a vintage car on the edge than have a bunch of computer nonsense and downforce drive the car for me." And when it comes to variety of choices, nothing compares to 60/70s GT golden years
 
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Whalenap
I was born in the early 80's and I fell in love with racing and race cars in the middle 90's.
In the early 2000's I was dreaming of driving a GT2 car at Lemans. The reference cars were Dodge Viper GTSR, Corvette C5R, Marcos Mantara, Lister Storm, and Porsche 911 - of course.
At the same time, across the seas you could find R34, Supras and NSX GT500 cars.
Off the tracks, there were supercars from great manufacturers.

The GT3 has gathered all those GT cars in the same class with balanced efficiency. I am not a driver, just a gamer who wants to feel like a race driver... This is a kind of queen-class to me, and the fact those cars are not so hard to handle make them attractive: you can drive them on short sessions, or longest races, even without exceptional skills as a sim racer.
 
S
GT3 is the pizza of simracing. It may not be your favourite meal, but you still order one when you want to eat with other people, because everybody likes it just enough.
 
IceColdBeard_24
I have always raced fast cars, so I am way more comfortable driving tricky light cars than tanks :laugh:
These cars are incredible to drive, but the lack of speed and downforce is horrendous to me.
I do not agree with the close racing action.....the sim racing community is the same in every category. You end up with aliens and less talented guys all the times. You may fight with a bunch of guys, but never a whole pack of 32 cars.
 
Terry Rock
GT3 cars are popular because most sims seem to get them right.
I'm not sure if it is due to an abundance of real-world data or better access to that data...but the cars feel very natural....most of the time.
There seems to be some un-spoken beliefs in simracing that seem to affect every title....
(1) Older cars have to feel like 'boats' and wallow all over the place.
(2) Most F1 mods have to feel really sharp and overly pointed.
GT3 seems to be the exception.
 
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Kyuubeey
Quite amusing the perception is that most sims have accurate GT3 cars because they "feel natural". Nevermind if the ride frequencies are off by a full Hz or two at either end or the aeromaps are made up.
 
M
Because it's a lot easier for tired simdads to hop into a GT3 after the end of a long workday and bang out laps at Paul Ricard than it is to strap on an F1 and try to survive Monaco. The pilot workload in an F1 (both real and simulated) is vastly higher and more demanding - I'm destroyed after a session in the Formula Reiza in AMS2. Not so in a GT.
 
Marcel B.
2112 said:
1. Look at racing throughout history and you will find it populated with as many gentlemen drivers as pro or factory drivers:

Aside from the top F1 teams many of the grid fillers paid for their seat. How do you think Mazepin got his drive? Not because he had the skillz.

Gp. 5, GTP (IMSA), GTO-GTU (IMSA/SCCA), Prototype (Gp. 6) even F1 "back in the day" grids were chalk-full of gentlemen drivers. We just did not know about them because perhaps we were too young, or we did not pay attention.

2. But it does retain the silhouette of the actual road car, as did the Gp. 5/GTO-GTU cars back in the day. They are instantly recognizable.

3. Yes, they do use assists, because they are safer, especially since a good number of them are driven by gentlemen/woman drivers. Ask any of them if they would turn off those assists in their road cars if they tracked them. I bet the answer would be: "No."

4. Gp. 5, Gp. 6, Gp. C and Gp. A cars were not known for their nimbleness. As a matter of fact, compared to todays cars they were tanks that did not stop nearly as well as even GTLM cars (no ABS and no TC until 2012), nor were they as safe. GT3 cars of today are just as powerful and more nimble than Gp. 5 cars of the '70's and can turn a lap on any track faster than those older cars.

I would argue that GT3's do not look or sound better than a Gp. 5/GTO-GTU car. Back then we had the chirps of compressor stall that many of us did not know where it came from but it sure sounded cool. Back then we saw these exotic cars with big sponsons over the wheel arches, flames shooting what seemed to be for miles out of the exhaust and the snap, crackle and pop of an engine decelerating through unrestricted exhausts. We did not hear about noise abatement at tracks, nor did we really car about the burning dinosaurs. We we just enthralled.

We all have our preferences. I would prefer my league drive the older cars, but many in the league find them too difficult to drive, thus to stay with the guys I raced with for years I had to adjust.

I don't regret it at all.

YMMV.
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I agree, in the end, it is about personal preferences... it is just not my cup of tea ;-).
 
passenger
Obviously because GT3 cars are very easy to drive and very atractive
modern cars - expensive luxurious cars most people fancy to have.

Boring cars in sim racing after a couple of laps.
 
Mike Kadlcak
No idea, but I’d rather powerslide a vintage racecar in VR on any track than drive those crapwagons with tc/abs. :D
 

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