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Sim Racing – Get Involved!
10-20-08
by Austin White
One of my favorite hobbies to kill time, and for personal enjoyment, is sim racing. I’m not talking about Gran Turismo/Forza , but something a little more involved. Console racing games just really can’t compare once you get the feel for a racing simulator. Sure, those other games have eye candy features, cool music soundtracks and the ability to modify your car, but they lack in terms of realistic emulation. This is where racing sims come in, there is no kickass sound track, there is no “drift, grip, time attack” features, there is no story line or underglow neons and stickers to put on your car, instead, you get physics. Physics is the key, team that up with a good steering wheel/pedal combo, and it takes a lot of skill to actually race *and not spin out like a noob* compared to playing with a gamepad and late breaking corner entry and no understeer whatsoever as in many console racing games.
Sim Racing is growing and starting to get recognized as a way for real life training. Formula 1 teams have their own simulation setups to test out tracks and get drivers familiar with them. The simulations they use, don’t appear to be much more advanced then what is available. Majority of sim racing games have sessions. Breaking them down into practice sessions, qualifying, warm up, then race. So you can do a few laps, go back and make some tweaks to the chassis and try them out, then reduce the fuel onboard to reduce weight, run sticky tires and try for the fastest qualifying lap, then add fuel back and change to a longer lifespan tire so you wont have to come in for a pit anytime soon in the race, then get ready to race. Games like Grid, do not have such features.
Getting into sim racing can be a little confusing for newcomers. I recommend picking up a refurbished or used steering wheel, preferably from Logitech. Check out Ebay for used wheels. Wheels designed for the PS2/PS3 work well since they are USB, and a trip to Logitech’s website for the correct drivers/ program to configure it is all that is needed. I happen to score a Logitech Driving Force Pro PS2 wheel from a friend for $50 which was a steal, well worth the investment.
As long as your PC is fairly decent, it should have no problem running the software. I do recommend a broadband connection. Racing online is a blast! It really takes a lot of patience/skill to be fairly competitive, and chances are, you may be racing against people in other countries, and people of many different ages play, from young to old. It is really fun, and can satisfy enough that you won’t feel the need to do any illegal activities on the street in your real car if you know what I mean.
I recommend Rfactor as my choice for sim racing. It has been out for a few years now but still remains one of the best since it offers a wide variety of racing styles. It also has a huge fan community, and allows people to create their own tracks and cars *provided they know how to create 3d models and programming etc*, that means this game will never really run out of add on content. If you’re a F1 fan, theres plenty of F1 content for this game.
     
Notible Links to check out.
Rfactor.net
Rfactorcentral.com
Nogripracing.com
Virtualr.net
Race Sim Central
Discuss!
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