Touring car racing is one of the most accessible disciplines available in sim racing in 2024, but is it struggling to draw a crowd for real-life events - and why could this be?
The two biggest series that compete under the name of 'Touring cars' are the many international TCR championships and the British Touring Car Championship. There are many other series around the world but for this piece, we will be covering the championships mentioned above only.
2023 NAPA Racing UK Champion, #1 Ash Sutton
Why does this make these touring car series attractive? Relatability. If you turn up in your BMW 330e road car and see your model of car on track, you will almost definitely want that car to win. It works the same way with people looking for a new car. If you see the BMW beating the Ford Focus in the BTCC or the Audi beating the Hyundai in TCR, subconsciously, many will sway more towards favouring the winning brand of car.
Peugeot 308 TCR Touring Car, Castle Combe 2024
This is what touring car racing was founded upon. The old saying that is synonymous with the BTCC especially is, 'Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday'. This comes from the early years of touring car racing and motorsport in general which would typically see the manufacturer that won that specific weekend or championship see a spike in sales, especially with the road-going cars being very close to the race cars.2
Whilst this is still relevant to a certain degree, the manufacturer's involvement in the championship meant that people had more of a connection to the car brand, rather than the driver or team. The best example of this would be in the Supertoruing era of the BTCC. The iconic Nissan Primera or the dark green Renault Laguna. These liveries and names are iconic for a reason, they were household names and therefore, so were the cars.
1999 Renault Laguna Supertourer, Donington Park 2022
So what has changed? The popularity of the series has not completely diminished when compared to that golden era of racing in the 1990s, but the cars and manufacturers are simply not as involved now. This is especially apparent in the NGTC (New Generation Touring Car) class championships. Within the BTCC, there are just two teams that have factory support.,West Surrey Racing with BMW and Toyota Gazoo Racing with their Corollas.
The world of TCR is relatively new in the history of motorsport and has some great car brands with factory entries in their lineups, but even they have started to drop like flies and instead use privateer teams to field the cars for them instead of putting their name to the championship.
Audi RS 3 TCR. Image: KW Studios
Despite this, the racing is still fantastic, and the world of TCR has certainly skyrocketed touring car racing's accessibility to sim racers with the addition of their cars in iRacing and RaceRoom, while the BTCC grid is available as DLC in rFactor 2. Other sims have also benefited from the popularity, with the original Assetto Corsa receiving free versions of the 2024 CUPRA Leon as well as the new Hyundai Elantra. Both are available here on OverTake.gg.
Touring cars have some of the most varied grids, especially across the 1990s and 2010s. Modern-day touring car grids are not still very colourful and interesting, but there have been some standout projects that have called back to the category's golden era.
Volvo 850's at Silverstone, 1994. Image: Volvo Newsroom
James Cole, Subaru Levorg 2017. Image: Cs-wolves on WikiMedia Commons via CC BY-SA 4.0
The car brought Sutton his first driver's championship, and he was the first driver to win the BTCC drivers championship in an estate car. The Levorg was the last of its kind with Subaru pulling out at the end of 2019. But why do these cars hold such an important stance in the championship's history?
The short answer is variety. People who watch the championship year in and year out love to see new cars enter the grid and become competitive. The people who are new to the championship also want to see the variety and interesting spread of machinery and liveries. This is what the BTCC and TCR do so well, but in the last few years that has started to diminish slightly.
TCR UK's grid at Brands Hatch. Image: TCR-UK.co.uk
The 2024 BTCC championship being one of the smallest grids in recent memory and the TCR World Tour having very volatile grid numbers depending on where in the world they are racing means that the numbers are falling away and the fans are in danger of going with them. TCR has started combining the World Tour races with the national TCR series' to bolster grid numbers in certain countries.
Overall, touring car racing has taken a hit in the last few years, but I do not think that the discipline as a whole is necessarily diminishing. There is a future for these road cars turned race cars, but there has to be a big change to get manufacturers interested again. The TCR championships are certainly the future, but the NGTC class of touring cars is vital to a lot of European countries especially.
Do you think Touring Car racing's popularity is diminishing in modern motorsport? Let us know in the poll above or down in the comments below!
The two biggest series that compete under the name of 'Touring cars' are the many international TCR championships and the British Touring Car Championship. There are many other series around the world but for this piece, we will be covering the championships mentioned above only.
2023 NAPA Racing UK Champion, #1 Ash Sutton
What is the attraction?
Touring car racing is a very different beast from the likes of GT racing or one of the many formula series. The vehicles used are based on their road-going counterparts with the basic chassis being the same, as well as a handful of other small parts.Why does this make these touring car series attractive? Relatability. If you turn up in your BMW 330e road car and see your model of car on track, you will almost definitely want that car to win. It works the same way with people looking for a new car. If you see the BMW beating the Ford Focus in the BTCC or the Audi beating the Hyundai in TCR, subconsciously, many will sway more towards favouring the winning brand of car.
Peugeot 308 TCR Touring Car, Castle Combe 2024
This is what touring car racing was founded upon. The old saying that is synonymous with the BTCC especially is, 'Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday'. This comes from the early years of touring car racing and motorsport in general which would typically see the manufacturer that won that specific weekend or championship see a spike in sales, especially with the road-going cars being very close to the race cars.2
Whilst this is still relevant to a certain degree, the manufacturer's involvement in the championship meant that people had more of a connection to the car brand, rather than the driver or team. The best example of this would be in the Supertoruing era of the BTCC. The iconic Nissan Primera or the dark green Renault Laguna. These liveries and names are iconic for a reason, they were household names and therefore, so were the cars.
1999 Renault Laguna Supertourer, Donington Park 2022
So what has changed? The popularity of the series has not completely diminished when compared to that golden era of racing in the 1990s, but the cars and manufacturers are simply not as involved now. This is especially apparent in the NGTC (New Generation Touring Car) class championships. Within the BTCC, there are just two teams that have factory support.,West Surrey Racing with BMW and Toyota Gazoo Racing with their Corollas.
The world of TCR is relatively new in the history of motorsport and has some great car brands with factory entries in their lineups, but even they have started to drop like flies and instead use privateer teams to field the cars for them instead of putting their name to the championship.
Audi RS 3 TCR. Image: KW Studios
Despite this, the racing is still fantastic, and the world of TCR has certainly skyrocketed touring car racing's accessibility to sim racers with the addition of their cars in iRacing and RaceRoom, while the BTCC grid is available as DLC in rFactor 2. Other sims have also benefited from the popularity, with the original Assetto Corsa receiving free versions of the 2024 CUPRA Leon as well as the new Hyundai Elantra. Both are available here on OverTake.gg.
Vehicular Variety
The beauty of touring cars is that any standard road-going saloon or hatchback can be turned into a touring car under the NGTC ruleset. Listed below is the variety of machinery that has competed worldwide under this ruleset.| Make | Model | Racing Team | Competitive Years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alfa Romeo | Giulietta | HMS Racing | 2018 |
| Audi | A4 | Rob Austin Racing | 2011 -2015 |
| Audi | S3 Saloon | Rotek Racing | 2014 - 2020 |
| BMW | 125i M Sport | West Surrey Racing | 2013 - 2020 |
| BMW | 330i M Sport | West Surrey Racing | 2019 - 2021 |
| BMW | 330e M Sport | West Surrey Racing | 2022 - Present |
| Chevrolet | Cruze 5dr | RML Group | 2014 |
| Chevrolet | Cruze 4dr | IP Tech Race Engineering | 2013 - 2017 |
| Cupra | León Competición | Team HARD | 2021 - 2023 |
| Cupra | León Competición | Un-Limited Motorsport | 2024 - Present |
| Ford | ST | Motorbase Performance | 2012 - 2017 |
| Ford | RS | Motorbase Performance | 2018 - 2019 |
| Ford | ST 20 | Motorbase Performance | 2020 - Present |
| Honda | Civic | Team Dynamics | 2012 - 2015 |
| Honda | Civic Tourer | Team Dynamics | 2014 |
| Honda | Civic Type-R (FK2) | Team Dynamics | 2015 - 2020 |
| Honda | Civic Type-R (FK8) | Team Dynamics & BTC Racing | 2018 - 2023 |
| Hyundai | i30 Fastback N Performance | Excelr8 Motorsport | 2020 - Present |
| Infiniti | Q50 | Pro Motorsport | 2015 - 2019 |
| Infiniti | Q50 GT | Laser Tools Racing | 2020 - 2022 |
| Mercedes-Benz | A-Class | Ciceley Racing | 2014 - 2020 |
| MG | 6 GT | Triple Eight Racing | 2012 - 2019 |
| Proton | Gen 2 | Welch Motorsport | 2011 |
| Proton | Persona | Welch Motorsport | 2012 - 2016 |
| Subaru | Levorg GT | Team BMR | 2016 - 2019 |
| Toyota | Avensis | GPRM | 2011 - 2018 |
| Toyota | Corolla GT | Speedworks Motorsport & Toyota Gazoo Racing | 2019 - Present |
| Vauxhall | Insignia | Thorney Motorsport | 2011 -2014 |
| Vauxhall | Astra | Power Maxed Racing | 2017 - Present |
| Volkswagon | CC | Team HARD | 2013 - 2020 |
Touring cars have some of the most varied grids, especially across the 1990s and 2010s. Modern-day touring car grids are not still very colourful and interesting, but there have been some standout projects that have called back to the category's golden era.
Estate Cars Capture Hearts
Throughout the 1994 BTCC season, Volvo ran with the Tom Walkinshaw Racing team to produce the 850 Estate supertourer. Perhaps one of the most famous cars in the history of touring car racing, it was always going to be a difficult car to match. However, in 2017 a young Ash Sutton would go one better than the TWR team managed by winning the driver's title with another Estate car, the Subaru Levorg.Volvo 850's at Silverstone, 1994. Image: Volvo Newsroom
James Cole, Subaru Levorg 2017. Image: Cs-wolves on WikiMedia Commons via CC BY-SA 4.0
The car brought Sutton his first driver's championship, and he was the first driver to win the BTCC drivers championship in an estate car. The Levorg was the last of its kind with Subaru pulling out at the end of 2019. But why do these cars hold such an important stance in the championship's history?
The short answer is variety. People who watch the championship year in and year out love to see new cars enter the grid and become competitive. The people who are new to the championship also want to see the variety and interesting spread of machinery and liveries. This is what the BTCC and TCR do so well, but in the last few years that has started to diminish slightly.
TCR UK's grid at Brands Hatch. Image: TCR-UK.co.uk
The 2024 BTCC championship being one of the smallest grids in recent memory and the TCR World Tour having very volatile grid numbers depending on where in the world they are racing means that the numbers are falling away and the fans are in danger of going with them. TCR has started combining the World Tour races with the national TCR series' to bolster grid numbers in certain countries.
Editor's Takes
Overall, touring car racing has taken a hit in the last few years, but I do not think that the discipline as a whole is necessarily diminishing. There is a future for these road cars turned race cars, but there has to be a big change to get manufacturers interested again. The TCR championships are certainly the future, but the NGTC class of touring cars is vital to a lot of European countries especially.
Do you think Touring Car racing's popularity is diminishing in modern motorsport? Let us know in the poll above or down in the comments below!
