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...

Like what you see here at RaceDepartment? Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow us on social media!

 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!​

 

[VirtuaIceMan]

On my Steam install, each of the other titles (STCC, GTR Evo) are listed as separate games and launch the game with a different look. Not sure if they still work like that, as not tried them on a long time...

 

[Patrik Marek]

but they are also all available through race07 ?
yeah it's been a while

 

[mopro]

I remember Race07 as the game that "forced" me to buy dfgt then I found GTL, GTR2 and finally rFactor.. and yes in that order. It also makes me remember my mod hunting days.. the waiting to the release of wips.. nogripracing (rip).. all good memories

 

[Bjarne Hansen]

On my Steam install, each of the other titles (STCC, GTR Evo) are listed as separate games and launch the game with a different look. Not sure if they still work like that, as not tried them on a long time...

On my steam install they all launch as Race 07. Regardless which series I try to launch.
Since I use my off-line Race On install most the time it isn't a big issue but yes a shame they could not maintain that feature.

Hand Race 07 had real time and day and night transitions it would still have been my favorite game and it is still very high on that list.

 

[Kimmo Kokkonen]

Race07 / GTR Evolution is my all time favorite. Sector3 should take and upgrade this sim to this day. Graphics is outdated, otherwise it is perfect for good and easy racing, much better than RaceRoom.

They should add better support for F1 car also. This sim was very good platform for mods, so easy to edit almost anything you wanted.

The "biggest" problem was online cheating, guys used some "secret" tricks to make car faster, if I remember correctly so you were able to share your own dedicated server settings with online race settings if you moved from one server to another during the same game session, that sucks.

 

[Shovas]

Remasters would be so brilliant with these titles

 

[GAIAjohan]

On my Steam install, each of the other titles (STCC, GTR Evo) are listed as separate games and launch the game with a different look. Not sure if they still work like that, as not tried them on a long time...

Indeed, they used to do that. But somehow they all start the race07 skin now ;(

 

[VirtuaIceMan]

Yeah I see what you mean...

 

[VirtuaIceMan]

I found the answer in the discussion forum of GTR Evolution, you can change the skin manually:

gtr evo is launching race 07 :: GTR Evolution General Discussions

i know gtr evo is an addon for race 07, but i used to have it's own red theme menu and intro, now i cant launch gtr evo when i try to launch it it only stars race 07 with old intro and red themed menu, also i canot find gtr evo servers

steamcommunity.com

For some reason on my PC there are 2x RACE 07 folders under SimBin, one called "RACE 07" and the other called "RACE 07 Install 2", I think because I moved my Steam install from one drive to another. Anyway, if I change the line mentioned in that link I can run it with GTR Evo intro/menu (though it affects all games that use RACE 07). You can find a list of menuskins in this Steam sub-folder:

\Steam\SteamApps\common\race 07\UIData\MenuSkins