Widescreen Gaming Forum

I'm not so sure which Sim I should start with, I want one that has realistic driving physics but doesn't require I know everything about cars to get into it and race.

Obviously it must support TH2G.

Anyways, any awesome Racing Sims you guys know of I'd like to know of as well, so let's hear'em.

Oh, also, free games are preferred but I'm willing to pay if I must.

Hey Mistic, if you really serious about racing and you want something hardcore that really feels like you're driving a car then i suggest you check out http://www.iracing.com this is by far the greatest sim ever released so far and is miles ahead of the competition. It also matches you up against people that are similarly skilled so you always have a chance to win.

The community is great too, the tracks and cars are all laser scanned to 1mm accuracy. It is pay to play but if your serious about racing there is no doubt that you will love this sim. Also, there are safety rating for drivers so in order to advance up the ladder and race faster cars you need to be a safe driver. This really makes the racing super clean and also miles ahead of the competition. You're going to need to find a good league to run if you get a game like gtr2 or race 07 but with i-racing every race is really good. another good perk is that real world drivers race this sim a lot too. I have personally raced with Dale Earnhardt Jr. 3 times and AJ Allmendinger 2 times, both drivers from nascar.

Here is a really good show about i-racing. In the latest episode it has Dale Earnhardt Jr. as a guest and he talks about how realistic it is and compares it to real life. http://radio.psrtv.com/

Check this Sim out man, it is really an awesome sim and an awesome service with a great community. You will learn more from this sim then all the other sims combined. You can really feel the weight of the cars in iracing and really teaches you finesse, being smooth and weight transfer

Wow! I'm at the site now and it all looks amazing!
Thanks for showing me this, I'm definitely going to try it out.

Hey,

I strongly suggest you try rFactor. rFactor is a great racing simulation (the engine gMotor2, that was developped by the same team, is used in many racing sims : GTR2, GT Legends, Race 07, GTR-Evolution, ...).

As is, rFactor is rather poor in content, but there's an incredible number of Mods that you can find on rFactorCentral and that will let you drive just about any car you can think of, on thousands of tracks : rally, GT, F1, Trucks, ... and even RC-models !

Surround gaming works out of the box with rFactor.

I also want to give iRacing a shot, since I like the concept of keeping track of every single mistake you made (crashes, cut-tracks, ...), but it turns out to be very expensive ! Let me know what you think if you try it out !

hey djib, i have rfactor to and honestly man they're not even in the same league. don't get me wrong, rfactor was a great sim before i tried out i-racing but since then i don't even touch it. the ffb is absolutely amazing, a lot better then real feel, and the tracks are alive man. you can actually feel the bumps in the road and the off camber turns through the wheel. djib, just try it out for a month, its 20 bucks and it won't break your bank account. words can't really express how good it is, you just have to see for yourself.

Richard Burns Rally
Grand Prix Legends
rFactor with many mods
iRacing (online sim)

And everyone forgot mentioning Live For Speed
http://www.liveforspeed.net
avid driver since 2003 ;)

Alright, I picked up a G25, it came with a copy of rFactor, I also purchased GRID just for some non-sim racing and I've also gotten Race 07, GTR2, aaaaaaand.. I think that's it for now, I'm going to be trying out iRacing pretty soon here.

So far, it's all pretty amazing, however.. GRID is supposed to support surround natively yet it doesn't seem to adjust the FOV and whatnot automatically.. So I'm working on that.

hey djib, i have rfactor to and honestly man they're not even in the same league. [...] words can't really express how good it is, you just have to see for yourself.

Thanks for the feedback. I guess I'll have to try it out at some point. I did read a lot of good reviews about i-Racing... but the business model scares me : I don't want to become like some friends of mine who spend their life and money on WoW. I know it could be worse : they could ask you to pay when you want to repair a car :D
Just a quick question: can you actually get more content without having to pay extra dollars (apart from the subscription of course). A couple of cars is not much to start with :(

PS: I agree with you that the FFB is not excellent in rFactor. I don't use RFFB because I can't "feel" the car well with it. I just stick to the default FFB, that is much better in Race 07 btw !

Richard Burns Rally

RBR is awesome, and some mods even allow you to compete online (RSRBR08)

And everyone forgot mentioning Live For Speed
http://www.liveforspeed.net
avid driver since 2003 ;)

I'm not a big fan of LFS... but I've only tried the demo.

You could mention Netkar Pro as well... I think the feeling is better than in NFS... but I'm still not a big fan.

Alright, I picked up a G25, it came with a copy of rFactor, I also purchased GRID

rFactor bundled with the G25 is only a demo :(
Is GRID any good with the G25 ? I kinda want a cool arcade game as well :D

gotta agree, if you're into rally racing get richard burns rally, by far the best rally sim out there.

as for the content in i-racing, depending on which subscription you get you get a certain amount of i-racing dollars to buy more stuff. also, if you win in your division you get i-racing dollars to buy stuff. i think you can only win 15 at a shot but there is tt, racing, and different divisions so you could technically get a few bucks to pay for things if you're good enough.