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

[Nitro McClean]

The things I like most about sim racing:

The special feeling.
While driving in a sim is not the same as driving the real thing, it comes close, and driving a racecar on a track as fast as possible just gives me a very special feeling. With the very big number of cars and tracks available for rFactor, if you see a special item on YouTube or TV about a certain car or track, big change you can drive in (or on) it in rFactor.

Practice.
While driving in a sim is not the same as driving the real thing, it comes close enough for practicing for the real thing. I like to make the difference between the sim and the real thing as small as possible by editing the physics in the sim and using input from drivers who drive the real thing and the sim. And I like to build karttracks for the sim as close as possible to the real track, again with using the input from drivers.

 

[Terje Helle]

I love the feeling of being in different cars, on different tracks, with other cars around. (Especially in VR.)
To drive old cars on old tracks, or even fantasy tracks.
I love the racing, the excitement of racing others.
I love the community around our hobby.

 

[The Iron Wolf]

Being able to replicate a real life event in all its dynamics.
Unfortunately sim racing isn't going in that direction, in fact it has been moving away from it in recent popular titles.

+1.

I just tried RBR for the first time and it surprised me how good it is yet made me a bit sad about the current state of things. Old, old game has better damage simulation than most of the current titles, and has the whole driving school. The most silly aspect - community added VR support is better than in some current titles (no clipping issues at right edge of a screen). Well, at least those old games still run.

 

[Boby Kim]

I like playing games and race games is one genre i like to play

 

[flykas]

I love racing and this is a very good way to experience it. I guess it cannot replace real racing, but it comes pretty close. I been thinking about it and at this stage even less realistic titles have many thing in common with real racing, like learning to use the apex of turns and the road in general, learning to manipulate the balance of the car, understanding the grip, feeling the competition, learning to hold concentration for a whole rally stage, learning to get in the right state of mind for racing and many other thing...

edit: oh yeah, and I love the meditative state that you get when racing and only thinking about the track in front of you

 

[jacobc62]

I have a simple answer: "To live a dream that I never had the opportunity for in real life"

 

[bgil66]

For me it's a nice stress reliever.

 

[Isaac Chavira]

I like the fact that I can just fire up a car and go and do something I would otherwise never get to do. I also like the trans-like state I get into after doing lap after lap and just becoming one with the car and watching my lap times go down.

 

[spudweasel]

The thing I like most about sim racing is that it can teach the user about the sport. Since I bought David Kaemmer's Indianapolis 500 game at the Egghead store years ago, I've had a much better appreciation for what happens during a televised race. That appreciation isn't there from just watching cars go around the track. Plus, there is a big difference between watching an in-car camera on TV and trying to drive LeMans, for example, in a proper PC simulator, especially when there is traffic. And a sim gives the user information about and a feel for the track that just cannot be conveyed via a broadcast.

 

[Vintagedriver01]

I have a simple answer: "To live a dream that I never had the opportunity for in real life"

Yep I do like driving old cars, cars like the leMans Ford GT40 or the 1937 Alfa 12c I can not afford and if I could, I would never race with it.

 

[Adrian Herrera]

“Sim Racing is life. Anything before or after is just loading.”

-Sim Steve McQueen.