The Racing Game Thread

[JasonM]

Since @Meacon Keatonand @A Businessman mentioned they are into virtual driving with (or without) the expensive hobby that is having racing wheels and racing pedals. I also revealed myself to be one of those people that dipped into this hobby and is veritably addicted to it.

Something about my virtual racing self:

As of writing this (2021) my main simulator is Assetto Corsa Competizione, and before that I used to run in leagues dedicated to Project Cars 1 and then Project Cars 2 before Competizione caused me to devote all my love for GT-racing to that game. For the past 3 years I have been part of a racing league called PCDC, originally based around Project Cars before committing themselves two-fold into Assetto Corsa Competizione, and a dedicated group of iRacing fanatics that love their oval racing.

My current simrig as of writing:
T300 + T3PA Pedals
GT Omega V1 Wheelstand.
One IKEA Desk chair

On the T3PA pedals I use a conical brake mod, which is basically a stiff rubber block that gives added resistance to braking to help me just a little bit more. Although I have been looking for the past few years to jump to Load Cell pedals, but the price and lack of playing time has held me back from splurging. (And the inevitable requirement to upgrade my rig to something sturdier.)

The last things I have done in terms of simracing is take part in the RCI 24h of Kyalami on February 20/21. Driving for one of four teams that my league PCDC sent to participate in the Invite and the Pro splits. My own team qualified 6th in the pro split (out of 40) and proceeded to finish 19th after an experience that's unforgettable (and honestly something I probably won't do again, because a 24h race is killer mentally even if I only drove 5 hours)

Anyways, for the people that are interested in simracing or are already doing it. Share your experiences, or questions.

EDIT: Actually, decided to make this into a general racing game thread.

[Meacon Keaton]

How are the oval tracks in ACC? I’m American, so that’s what I grew up liking. I made a bogus “practice” account on iRacing and enjoy it but I want something I can do offline/practice/just mess around and do uncompetitively too. rFactor 2 was great physics wise but I haaaaaaate the layout and interface. There’s nothing intuitive about it at all. I could  get over it if their oval scene is better than ACC but I would rather find the best oval scene I can.

[JasonM]

6 minutes ago, Meacon Keaton said:

How are the oval tracks in ACC? I’m American, so that’s what I grew up liking. I made a bogus “practice” account on iRacing and enjoy it but I want something I can do offline/practice/just mess around and do uncompetitively too. rFactor 2 was great physics wise but I haaaaaaate the layout and interface. There’s nothing intuitive about it at all. I could  get over it if their oval scene is better than ACC but I would rather find the best oval scene I can.

Sadly Assetto Corsa Competizione doesn't have Ovals at this point in time. The track roster is based off the 2018/2019 Blancpain series (Barcelona, Spa, Zolder, Brands Hatch, Silverstone, Zandvoort, Misano, Monza, Hungaroring, Nurburgring GP, Paul Ricard. DLC's added the 2020 British GT (Snetterton, Donington, Oulton Park, tracks, and the 2019 GT World Tour tracks. (Bathurst, Laguna Seca, Kyalami, Suzuka), and Imola.

There's also DLC for GT4 cars and in the Imola DLC there's also the 2020 Evo Variants of the Mercedes and Ferrari.

I think for the best oval action, iRacing is probably the best simulation of it hands down. Sadly it's expensive as heck to get into, seeing you need to buy individual tracks/cars you want to race in.

[Schlitzbrille]

Main sim I run at this point is, strangely enough, beamNG.drive. Beam itself is pretty good for the most part, bonus is being able to import cars from Automation so I can properly be terrified of my tendancy to make widowmaker cars.

 

Keep putting off downloading Assetto Corsa until I upgrade my SSD situation (256 GB ATM with ~75 GB free to singular 2 TB).

 

Rig is literally just an ASUS laptop (Ryzen 7 3750H/1660 Ti) and a plebian PDP XBox One controller as I have about a forearm's space in my usual gaming area...

 

...that and I'm quite casual about sims in general. Mainly as an excuse to putz about with stuff I'll never get to IRL.

[Meacon Keaton]

I had no idea you could import that cars you make on Automation. That makes me want to give it a shot and play Automation again.

[JasonM]

3 minutes ago, A Businessman said:

Main sim I run at this point is, strangely enough, beamNG.drive. Beam itself is pretty good for the most part, bonus is being able to import cars from Automation so I can properly be terrified of my tendancy to make widowmaker cars.

With the league I'm in we occassionally run sunday fun drives and BeamNG is pretty much always the guaranteed choice. Using BeamMP you can set up a dedicated server and run Beam in multiplayer with assorted mods, it's an absolute blast, and with the last round of updates Beam had the handling physics of the cars have become top notch.

Maybe not on the level of iRacing or any other sim, but the combination of BeamNG's physics engine to the driving makes it unlike anything out there. Doing car chases then getting taken out not because you hit a wall or get punted, but because you take the curb too hard and your rear-left axle disintegrates is amazing.

6 minutes ago, A Businessman said:

and a plebian PDP XBox One controller as I have about a forearm's space in my usual gaming area...

Nothing wrong with that, to be honest. In our league we've had a handful of super high level guys who have been highly competitive without the luxury of a racing rig. Even have a guy this season in 11th place (out of 47!) on the standings who is driving with Mouse and Keyboard and even got a podium finish! Which is just insane.

Our league at least will take anyone as long they're able to drive clean first and foremost.

[Meacon Keaton]

I’ve got carpal tunnel just thinking about racing on mouse and keyboard.

[Mick]

Racing games, eh? 

 

 

[Meacon Keaton]

Ordered my G29. It’ll be here Friday for some Friday night racin’. Depending on how often I use it and stick with it, I’ll look into upgrading to load cell pedals.

[Schlitzbrille]

1 hour ago, Meacon Keaton said:

Ordered my G29. It’ll be here Friday for some Friday night racin’. Depending on how often I use it and stick with it, I’ll look into upgrading to load cell pedals.

Goodbye bank account.

[Meacon Keaton]

20 minutes ago, A Businessman said:

Goodbye bank account.

Actually my work gave me a $500 gift card back at Christmas and I’d been just sitting on it for a while, so I’m using it as my intro.

Now if I’m not terrible and stick with it, that’s when things may get dicey.  

[METALMAN]

19 hours ago, Meacon Keaton said:

Ordered my G29. It’ll be here Friday for some Friday night racin’. Depending on how often I use it and stick with it, I’ll look into upgrading to load cell pedals.

I have a G29!

I’ve only ever used it for Euro Truck Simulator 😐

[Meacon Keaton]

1 hour ago, metalman said:

I have a G29!

I’ve only ever used it for Euro Truck Simulator 😐

How fast you driving the truck?  

[METALMAN]

European trucks have a limiter restricting them to 90kmph/56mph. So that. Takes quite a while to get up to speed though...

[Meacon Keaton]

5 minutes ago, metalman said:

European trucks have a limiter restricting them to 90kmph/56mph. So that. Takes quite a while to get up to speed though...

How are you ever expected to bonus for early arrival if you can’t go faster than 56mph?!

[METALMAN]

By not sleeping.

[Draevyn]

1 hour ago, metalman said:

By not sleeping.

Spicing up the log books I see

[Meacon Keaton]

My wheel came!

But my stand is still in Jersey.  

[Meacon Keaton]

I’ve been playing mainly rFactor 2 over the last few weeks. My laptop runs fine in practice with a dozen or so other cars on the track but as soon as I go over 16 opponents, the cars glitch whenever I get close. So when computer prices go down a bit, I’m going to upgrade.

I grabbed regular Assetto Corsa via humble bundle but haven’t fired it up yet. I’ll be doing that this week and then I’ll upgrade to Compeitzone. And once I get the new desktop, I’ll start racing online in iRacing and one of RF2/AC/or ACC. 
 

Some days I’m feeling it and hitting the apex and so in the zone that almost feels effortless. But then there’s days like yesterday where I just can’t do a damn thing right. I friggin’ stalled out leaving the garage at one point and then got bumped and spun out on the first lap of one practice session and that was my cue to exit.

[JasonM]

1 hour ago, Meacon Keaton said:

Some days I’m feeling it and hitting the apex and so in the zone that almost feels effortless. But then there’s days like yesterday where I just can’t do a damn thing right. I friggin’ stalled out leaving the garage at one point and then got bumped and spun out on the first lap of one practice session and that was my cue to exit.

Honestly for me the consistency took the longest to learn, especially when I was driving in a race where I could still do something.

Often I'd make a mistake that would ruin my race, and the final part of the race I'd drive faster than I had driven at any point.

Taking part in a league helped temper my consistency and I'm making less and less mistakes.

I think it's all about finding a car that fits your style and getting good competition to race against. I personally avoid public servers like the plague because they're too much of a mess.

AC1 is a great game too, so much to do and so many mods to pick from.