I like that racing games, when they're good, have all the action of an action game without the violence, and all the strategy of a strategy game without the triviality. What I mean is that there are countless roads to an end result, yet you are driven by urgency, caught always in a "now" moment. The difference between genius and utter failure is the smallest unit of time.
The ultimate draw is to challenge myself, and to know that the challenge is endless.
I just love cars and motorsport, that's pretty much it
all the additional stuff like VR, MP , SP, extensive career modes and what not are just bonuses.
as I had a chance to experience bit of racing in real life,sims can't really come all that close, just smelling the petrol ( and being bit sick), sweating like crazy in car with no aircon G forces ., and the fact that crashing actually does have huge consequences
but it's a great way to escape ! although flying sims in that regard are for me even better, escapre reality and clear your head
but yeah, ultimately it comes to the passion of cars!
I do flight sims as well as Trains., but cars are still the number one
Racing as close as possible to the real things that i like, because in real life it isn't possible to me to do that. Nothing offered on a silver plate in front of me during the life, so need to be satisfied that at least i can do some sim racing in certain level, and struggling even with that. Good hardware is so expensive.. But trying to keep up, still always lacking something.
Oh boy, there is so much......
Learning the Tracks, finding and then driving a car on its limits.
The feeling of accomplishment when all of the sudden you found another second while hot lapping.
The addiction to drive faster.
And finally, for a couple of hours you can forget all the crap going on in the world around you.
There are, and there was plenty of racing games since decades. But what made become racing games --> simracing ? I think wheels with FFB was the key to improve simracing significantely.
A great blend of computer/gear tech, enhancement of real motorsports, visual beauty, online community, and gaming fun. As Ralph Waldo Emerson would say, its not the end result of being fast, its the overall journey of sim racing.
No longer an owner of any sports cars, I really miss having even a 'somewhat' performance car to drive. I've drooled over many a modern super or hyper car, watched lots of "The Smoking Tire" videos, read wistfully about historical cars like older Ferraris and collector cars like Jaguar XKEs & Cobras, and wanted to experience the challenges of driving on the edge again - no matter which car it might be. It's not likely I'll have many real-life opportunities. Sims allow me to get behind the wheel and experience the joys of speed, well-engineered machines and applying what skills I have. Delicious, not dangerous, not outside the budget! Win-win-win.
By going immersive into simracing (vr) it gives me an opportunity to unwind after a busy working day and enjoy driving/racing in general on great tracks and watching beautiful sunsets.
When I was forced to stop playing football (soccer) I missed the competition and the comradeship. After my son @Enzo Fazzi gave me a year membership of RD as a present and I started racing with guys like @Medilloni , @GEO147 , @Craig Dunkley , @Denis Betty , @Chris Down and many others, I found something that fills the gap of missing football. Although it doesn't replace 'the third half of the game' and it doesn't keep me in shape, I have a lot of fun with practicing, trying to improve my performance and to get satisfying racing results. And as a bonus I became a safer driver (imo) in real life because simracing does comply to my 'need of speed' and therefore I'm more relaxed when driving in my RAV4.
I began with the fantasy of attempting to recreate track driving experiences, which was doomed by the lack of G forces,
and has since largely degenerated to fighting various Windows 10 softwares into cooperating enough for delivering available unrealistic haptics (e.g. steering FFB, ShakeSeat and brake pedal rumble) in hopes of learning to compensate.
So, masochism.