Do You Remember... RACE 07

[Paul Jeffrey]

Race 07 had a glorious few years in the sun as one of the best sim racing games on the market, but over a decade later - is it still a good title?

I admit the idea of an officially licenced and realistic racing simulation based on the FIA World Touring Car Championship was the sort of thing that would grab my attention back in 2005/6/7, and certainly Simbin Studios AB very much achieved that sort of reaction, releasing first the 'Race' standalone touring car sim and then later Race 07, Race On and the various DLC packs that would follow.

You have to remember that the years initially covered by Race and Race 07 (2006, 07, 08, 10) where arguably of the time when the World Touring Car Championship was at its very peak - drivers the talent of Yvan Muller, Andy Priaulx, Alex Zanardi, Gabrielle Tarquini, Alain Menu and Nicola Larini gracing some of the finest race tracks of the world for works team from BMW, SEAT, Chevrolet, Volvo, and strong independent outfits running competitive Alfa Romeo's and Honda's all combined to make a simply phenomenal championship, one that is hard to argue against as some of the best racing on offer of that era.

Keen to tap into the growing popularity of the series, along would come SimBin Studios and the 'Race' franchise of games, attempting to recreate the championship in virtual form, and taking sim racing by storm as one of the most popular on and offline racing titles of its time... even running trackside "eSport" series facilitated by your very own RaceDepartment! (remember this was before eSport was even a thing...).

In the first of a series of new videos (video at the top of the article), I thought it might be fun to blow of the dust from my copy of the game (ok that's a lie, I've got it on Steam), and see how it compares now, over a decade after initial release, and also use the opportunity to ramp graphics right the way through the roof and see how it looks in a way my original rig would never have been able to manage back in the day.

Hope you enjoy the video, and keep an eye out on our YouTube page for more from footage of olden but golden racing sims in the coming weeks ahead...

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 Have you fond memories of the now classic Race 07 title? Do you still play the game? What are your favourite moments from the sim racing series? Let us know in the comments section below!​

 

[Case_]

Funnily enough, I have a sort of "retro" day today. I've already installed the 10th anniversary pack for GTR2 and added plenty of cars and some tracks, and I'm also reinstalling GPL for the first time in years.
Guess I should throw in Race07 as well, after hearing so much about it.

And bought and tested. Yeah, I can see how back then, this could've been really good. I think I like it better than GTR2, which I also got to try for myself only fairly recently (but I just wasn't into circuit racing much back then, so these games were kinda off my radar at the time).

It also kinda feels like Raceroom 0.5, so it's interesting in this aspect as well

 

[Boby Kim]

The complete Race07 serie with all dlc should get an complete overhaul by Reiza

 

[Kenny Paton]

The complete Race07 serie with all dlc should get an complete overhaul by Reiza

I suspect that thought will prove controversial, but oddly enticing.

 

[Matthias]

On the HD, played when an IRL event is upcoming and no other title has the venue!
Thousand + laps on the Nordschleife!
If I remember right I ran 35000km on various tracks my second year at RD using it.
4555 hours played!
What would it have been without Yves Larose and Keith Barrick?

Yeah... I think it were more than 3600 hours with Race07 for me. RDTCC, ATCC, the friday night club races.....good times

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

I miss RACE 07

 

[Ole Andreasen]

I miss RACE 07

No need to. It's still right there.

 

[sebduloiret]

race 07, gt legend, Lfs ... I have spent hours and hours on these games ... I miss this time where the games were complete and do not require DLC or sub to be finished or add content. ..: D

 

[FS7]

I still play Race 07 occasionally.
It's a very good game for people getting started with sim racing, it can be bought for very cheap on Steam sale, the full package with all DLC provides a very good amount of content, good variety of cars & tracks, and it can run on highest settings on a mid-range PC.
However, I still find myself playing rF1 & GTR2 more often since both of those games have more mods and are a bit easier to work with for those of us who like to edit files and customize stuff.

 

[Andy_J]

Much like the game i grew up with in the 80's Geoff Crammond Grandprix. Wish i kept the old Comedore Amiga so i can still run it. real simple real easy and none of the behind scenes stuff like stupid videos and stuff. The Graphics has improved but not the game play.

You must have lived in some kind time vortex then. Microprose Grand Prix was released in 1992. Perhaps you played the original REVS in the 80's like me?
Ahh the good old days.

As for Race 07, yes I still have it installed and occasionally have a blast on it. And it was always a favourite of mine after GTR2. I really miss the RD Race 07 club.

In fact the talk of retro race games always interests me because I still have every single boxed racing sim ever made prior to Steam and many are still on my retro segregated hard drive. I even have a PC I built for my retro sims (all sims) with a pentium CPU and a Voodoo 3dfx card. I also have a new boxed Amiga A500 in the loft and a Commodore C64 for keepsake. All those wonderful race sims really grabbed me in the early days. Always in a big box and a delight to open and read the instructions. Yes the good old days.

 

[Thierry Marchand]

Very nice races on RD with RACE07

 

[Hal Burns]

You must have lived in some kind time vortex then. Microprose Grand Prix was released in 1992. Perhaps you played the original REVS in the 80's like me?
Ahh the good old days.

As for Race 07, yes I still have it installed and occasionally have a blast on it. And it was always a favourite of mine after GTR2. I really miss the RD Race 07 club.

In fact the talk of retro race games always interests me because I still have every single boxed racing sim ever made prior to Steam and many are still on my retro segregated hard drive. I even have a PC I built for my retro sims (all sims) with a pentium CPU and a Voodoo 3dfx card. I also have a new boxed Amiga A500 in the loft and a Commodore C64 for keepsake. All those wonderful race sims really grabbed me in the early days. Always in a big box and a delight to open and read the instructions. Yes the good old days.

I am about to upgrade to a newer PC and may do the same, running an offline XP PC, so I can play the old racing games ( GPL, GrandPrix, Nascar 2003 etc) and use my old Act-Labs wheel, which, alas has no force feedback in the newer OS. Retro man cave fun.

 

[Patrik Marek]

Of course I remember, my first ever race game I made cars for, unless test drive unlimited was before that,. It probably was now that I think about it

 

[alice3d]

Loved it and expansions too. I remember a lot of WTCC cars, and online playing (although netcode wasn't good).

STCC expansiones are amazing, i really like a lot scandinavian tracks. It's a shame there's not a Jyllandsringen in any modern sim.

GTr-Evolution was my first contact with Nordschleife and that was amazing.

I loved initial content like de Formula BMW, F-3000, Radicals and Caterham...so so much fun.

Sucha a great sim, then i discover GTR2 and thinked was slightly better, but Race07 still got a big place in my heart.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

remember when they did a track based on the layout of the town simbin was based in? don't remember what it was called, but it was a great street circuit, had many great races there, you went past the shops on main street, epic.

 

[alice3d]

Vara Raceway.

I liked a lot, at that time I thought that it was a real track.

 

[FeltHat]

https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/fanatical-anthology-racing-bundle

 

[Shovas]

https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/fanatical-anthology-racing-bundle

Decent bundle. Not quite the SimBin Mega Bundle level of value when on sale but for that price (CAD $3.95 for me) - can't really complain.

 

[mogh16]

i love this game , i have made a lots of mods on it

 

[ToddMcDanger]

Finally took the dive and built my own Sim PC in Feb 2020. Got the SimBin bundle on steam. I really enjoy the no nonsense of these classic titles. The FFB and physics, of Race 07 and GTR2 especially, really suit my individual preferences. Seems weird to me that so many modern games, don't spend enough resources on getting these basic fundamentals correct.

 

[GAIAjohan]

Playing around with this game again. Installed some mods, been editing some mods for local use. Added the GTL mod, and added the Amazon and P1800 to this mod. Will add the 2002 later and maybe replace the Mini.
But.. something is missing..
Where are the beautiful menu skins?

I mean for STCC look, GTR evo look etc...

I have been able to get the main look back, but font colours are wrong in that case.

Why did Simbin delete these files anyway?
Back before when I started GTR evo, i got the GTR Evo skin, same for race On etc.
Now it's always the Race07 skin, except when I overwrite the textures folder..