INTRODUCTION

Project CARS: Formula B at Spa

Ever since racing games became popular, some people wanted more realism than what games like Gran Turismo, and Forza Motorsport were offering. People wanted to really feel like they were driving a racing car, as accurately as possible, people wanted to give their expensive setups something to chew on. Because of this, more realistic racing games were created, these were referred to as racing sims.

A Quick History Lesson: The Advent of the Modern Racing Sim

The earliest racing sims were games like Indycar Racing (1993) and NASCAR Racing (1994) by Papyrus, a development studio formed by David Kaemmer, and the F1GP (1992) (later - "Grand Prix") games created by MicroProse (headed up by Geoff Crammond). These two developers quickly entered competition with each other, releasing many racing sims between them, with David Kaemmer's final game (with Papyrus) being NASCAR Racing 2003, and Geoff Crammond's final game being Grand Prix 4 (2002). One of the most legendary racing sims came out of this era. In 1998, Papyrus released Grand Prix Legends, a racing sim focused on 1960s Formula 1 racing (Specifically, the 1967 season).

In the late 90s, a new developer joined the world of sim racing. Image Space Incorporated (ISI) started developing their own Formula 1 series in 1999, releasing their final F1 game in 2003, which contained all of their previous games (1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002) in one package. They also released rFactor in 2005. This is when modding became an important aspect of sim racing.

In the mid-2000s, a modding group named SimBin licensed the engine that ISI used to create rFactor (ISIMotor2), and released several of their own racing sims based on that engine. For the first time, a proper Grand Touring simulator had been created! GTR (2005) was based on the 2003 FIA GT Series, with the sequel (GTR2) releasing in 2006, based on the 2004 season. They also released GT Legends in 2005, a game based around classic 60s and 70s touring cars, and GT cars. Further down the road, they also created the RACE series, a series dedicated to the World Touring Car Championship.

The modern era of racing sims had begun. Later down the line, more developers emerged. Reiza Studios (another collection of modders using the ISIMotor2 engine) created their Game Stock Car (2011) series, a sim based around the fairly unknown Stock Car Brasil series, and Formula Truck, based around the Brazilian truck racing series.

Another sim appeared in 2009. This time, it was headed up by David Kaemmer! Called iRacing, this racing sim was online only, and featured a complicated and robust license system, which measured the skill and safety of drivers. It was also extremely expensive, a subscription fee and the fact that you have to pay for each car and track (~$7 for a car, and $12-$20 for a track) meant that it didn't have very much support from the masses, but those looking for the most hardcore racing online loved it.

Finally, after many years, ISI released their next game, rFactor 2 (2013). The same year, another racing sim appeared. Assetto Corsa (2013), created by the Italian developer Kunos Simulazoni. Lastly, this year, Slightly Mad Studios released their racing sim, Project CARS.

The World of Sim Racing: Cars, Cars and Automobiles

Assetto Corsa: GT3s at Silverstone

Sim racing is the act of simulating a racing car realistically, more so than most racing games can do. Games such as Forza Motorsport, Gran Turismo, and Codemasters' Race Driver, Grid and Formula 1 series (2010 onwards) appeal to the masses. This means, they cannot afford to be entirely realistic, the majority of people who play them, want to sit on their couch with a controller in one hand, and a Coke in the other. (These games are usually referred to as "simcade" by the community, half sim, half arcade)

On the other hand, the average sim racer wants more, they want to spend hundreds of dollars on sim racing equipment - steering wheels, pedals and shifters. They want to have as much realism as possible, they want much more of a challenge. That is why developers build racing sims.

Sim racing is popular across the world (although the largest concentration of fans exists in the US). Online racing and modding are two large parts of the draw of sim racing. Modding gives the player a huge amount of freedom for what they want to race, throughout all of these more modern sims, you can simulate anything from a 60s F1 car, to a modern Le Mans Prototype, to a World Touring Car Championship racer.

Online racing beats racing against the AI. The races will always be more dynamic, more entertaining, and more challenging. That is, if you can keep up. iRacing is the most famous online racing game of all time, and the most popular.

There are three major disciplines within sim racing, road circuit racing, oval circuit racing and rally racing. For the purposes of simplicity, I will be focusing on road circuits, outside of the section on iRacing. I will also be limiting the articles to a few major sims, since as you no doubt saw in the brief history, there are a lot of them. The sims I have chosen are (in order of release); Grand Prix Legends, rFactor, GT Legends, GTR2, Race 07, iRacing, rFactor 2, Assetto Corsa and Project CARS.

Project CARS: The four classic Lotus's

Disclaimer: All screenshots on this post were taken by me.