Community Question | What Do You Like The Most About Sim Racing?

[Michel Bélisle]

Experiencing out of reach cars on tracks that would be otherwise inaccessible to me.

 

[Kev Russ]

I race motorcycles and sim racing helps me to miss real racing less. The buzz on the start line and sometimes the last lap, can be similar to 'real' racing.

 

[Mike Smith]

I'm only in it for the money, fame and women

 

[PickledAvenger]

Working towards a race weekend, lapping, finding the tenths. Before then loosing it all in T1 on race day

 

[schlitty]

My favorite thing about sim racing is that even though there are competitors (AI in my case) it is still more comparable to playing a golf game. It is you vs the 'course' and yourself first and foremost. I like that challenge. I love playing sports video games and sims are the cream on the top of PC's shallow pool of sports games. Simply put, it scratches that itch and itches that scratch.

 

[carlsenth]

Sort-of getting to live a dream that won't be possible for me to reach, the racing and the immersion

Some sims really just pull you inn, making it seem very real. I remember one time where i was going to back out of a parking spot, turning my head around to see out the back window, only to find myself staring at the wall in my apartment. Sure, a mix of both great immersion and beers that was.

 

[Dave Thayer]

The SIM racing allows me to online race against friends and we meet new people as we join a racing league.
Although SIM racing games are not even close to the real cars or tracks, SIM racing is the closest most of us
are going to get to driving something similar to a car and track that we see on TV.

I did do real competitive gokart racing long ago, so I had a small taste of what is like to race against real drivers and the
cost to do real racing.

Now, I just enjoy sitting down for an hour or so with the various racing games which takes my mind off of other things going on and
make believe I am doing SIM racing. Also when VR came out, i really enjoy the immersion of being in the race car and viewing the tracks
in a better way compared to looking at a flat screen.

 

[Ryan Soucy]

Being able to chase that perfect lap. Getting that endorphin rush of floating a car through a corner at 10.5/10ths and hammering the throttle down the following straight...

 

[mopro]

Being able to have a teeny bit of a taste of cars and tracks that I most likely will never have a chance to drive on in real life.

edit: I love cars and driving more than racing, so being able to watch a good replay after a good runs at a track is one of a very important aspect in a sim for me.
So far, I think AC (with custom shaders patch), ACC and R3E have the best replay system, with convincing graphics, cars movements, good sounds and flexible controls.

I also love the g-motor sims' "i" key to activate the AI to drive a car and I hope every sims has it, so I can just pressed it and enjoy watching the cars from the track view cams.

 

[jomaho]

I like the immersion I can get with VR, DD wheel and motion.

 

[Shovas]

If you're a driver, you know. At it's most fundamental, it's about the driving. The physical, visceralness of it all.

There's nothing like force feedback wheels or motion rigs in any other simulation category that translates so well from real life to simulation.

Racing, driving cars or tracks you'd never get to drive in real life, and all the other bells and whistles that come with sims are all bonus on the simple, basic pleasure of driving.

 

[OurManInTangier]

The only thing better than racing a car you can’t afford like a hooligan around a track you’ll never get to drive on is racing a car you can’t afford like you’ve owned it for years around a track you know like the back of your hand.

In all honesty, as a newcomer to sim racing as opposed to just racing games, I‘m a long way from that. Although the little victories like just staying on the track for the whole lap, improving your times, and completing an online race without embarrassing yourself are all satisfying milestones along the way.

I got a wheel and pedals in the vague hope it may also improve me as a driver IRL, I think that’s already true to an extent and the racing aspects like awareness are certainly rubbing off.

I‘m a total convert, I just wish for two things; more hours in the day for racing and some small, tiny even, understanding of set ups

 

[FinFan]

Probably driving all kinds of cars I could not even dream of owing in real life. Sure it's not the same doing it virtual but it gives me a certain satisfaction nonetheless.

In any case it is much cheaper if you crash.

 

[Cote Dazur]

Very interesting question.

To me what I like the most, so not the only thing I like, but what I find most interesting, is the ability to "teleport" my self into "almost" any car and any track in existence past and present.

I have started "SIM" racing before cockpit view, back then you really needed imagination to convince yourself you are actually driving anything anywhere, then a wheel, then cockpit view and finally VR and Tactile in a full fledged rig, is closing the gap.
Some time to a level that can be very convincing.

So, for me, any 2020 SIM with sub par VR, low cockpit details, no driver animation, average graphic, feels backward and does not "teleport" me anywhere.

That is why, for me, the new GT4 DLC from ACC is so exiting.
Outstanding graphic details and VR, Outstanding and ultra accurate cockpit, best of class driver animation, outstanding laser scanned accurate tracks, will give me the "I am there" feeling that I particularly enjoy, in 2020, when sitting in my rig and wearing my goggles.

Good bye "real" world and welcome to the Holodeck. Beam me up Scotty, their is no sign of intelligent life around here!

 

[passenger]

Racing cars you can not afford for real.

After hours of deliberation, and with the help of a few NASA scientists, I
came to this conclusion for such a difficult question.

 

[JoeSchmoe]

Smashing expensive racing cars for free.

Like this line of thinking. Motorcycle racing was expensive enough(do it when your single). Also, it is nice not being financially responsible for some of these cars. Can you imagine smashing up a 917LH, or something of that caliber? You would be working free the rest of your life....

 

[GeForce06]

driving real race cars "for free"

 

[Richard Dastardly]

It costs *vasts* amount less than real racing, I can have endless track time, and for someone with some disabilities it's far more accessable.

I don't like the lack of immersion, but without a stupidly expensive motion platform ( and I don't mean home ones ) that's not going to change.

 

[UMC 22]

Sim-racing is realistically the only way I'm ever going to get to take high-end sports cars onto a racing circuit and drive them however I want. It's also the only way I'll ever get to race those cars against other people. So, that's why I do it.

 

[Eric Rowland]

I get to be Ayrton Senna...
I get to be Jacky Ickx...
I get to be Stirling Moss...
I get to be Tom Kristensen....
I get to be Jim Clark...