A Beginner Guide to Sim Racing: What It Is and Where to Start
Sim racing is driving simulation taken to the point where it stops being a game: vehicle physics, tyre behaviour, track conditions. You do not need a garage — you need a wheel, a simulator and a little patience. This guide covers what it is, what to buy to get going, and what to leave for later.
Contents
- What sim racing is
- Why it is worth starting
- What you need to begin
- The simulators: which one to choose
- The disciplines, and the right sim for each
- Wheels, from your first to your last
- The accessories that really change things
- Frequently asked questions
- In short
What sim racing is
What separates a simulator from a racing game is not the graphics: a simulator tries to respect physics rather than make it fun. The car slides when it should slide, the tyres degrade, the track changes as the laps go by. It is the same reason real drivers train on them: getting it wrong in a sim costs you a restart, not a car.
Why it is worth starting
There are four reasons that come up again and again, and none of them is graphics:
- It costs a fraction of track time. A real lap costs fuel, tyres and risk. In a sim it costs thirty seconds.
- You genuinely learn. Racing lines, braking points and dealing with understeer transfer to real driving more than you would expect.
- You race for real. Online championships with qualifying, penalties and actual drivers, at any hour.
- You build up in stages. Start with a £200 wheel and add one piece at a time, without throwing anything away.
What you need to begin
The bare minimum is a wheel with pedals and somewhere to clamp it. You do not need a dedicated rig to start: a desk clamp is enough to find out whether this grabs you. Everything else — handbrake, shifter, dashboard — gets added when you feel the lack of it, not before.
The simulators: which one to choose
Five titles that cover nearly everything you might want. None of them is best in absolute terms: it depends on what you want to drive.
1. iRacing
- Pros: Extreme realism, a huge community, championships organised like the real thing.
- Cons: Monthly subscription, paid content and a steep learning curve.
2. Assetto Corsa
- Pros: Excellent physics, a huge amount of cars and tracks, the best modding scene around.
- Cons: Dated graphics and AI: without mods it shows its age.
3. RaceRoom Racing Experience
- Pros: Free to try, and the sound is the best in its class.
- Cons: Content is bought piece by piece and the car list is smaller.
4. Automobilista 2
- Pros: Changing weather and track conditions done very well, seriously immersive.
- Cons: Car-to-car contact is not very realistic, and the online community is smaller.
5. rFactor 2
- Pros: Physics at the highest level, especially tyre degradation.
- Cons: An awkward interface, and it wants a healthy computer.
The disciplines, and the right sim for each
Each discipline asks different things of the driver and of the simulator. Here is where each one is at its best.
GT3
Race cars derived from road-going supercars: fast but manageable, the most natural way into circuit racing.
Recommended: Assetto Corsa Competizione — The absolute reference for GT3, with the official championship built in.
GT4
Less power than GT3 and closer racing: the class where you learn to fight without breaking anything.
Recommended: Project CARS 2 — It still has the widest choice of cars in this class, even though it is a few years old now.
Formula 1
The technical peak: extreme aerodynamics, impossible braking and no margin for error.
Recommended: F1 (EA SPORTS) — The official series, updated every year with the current season drivers and circuits.
Rally
A surface that changes under the wheels, pace notes, and nobody else on the stage: just you and the clock.
Recommended: EA SPORTS WRC / Dirt Rally 2.0 — This is the discipline where a handbrake and a sequential shifter are not a luxury but a working tool.
Drift
Controlled slides held as long as possible: what counts is the gesture, not the lap time.
Recommended: Assetto Corsa — With the right mods it is effectively a dedicated drift simulator, and the handbrake becomes your main control.
Wheels, from your first to your last
From your first wheel to the one you will not replace. The real jumps are from gears to belt, and then from belt to direct drive.
1. Logitech G29 / G920
- Pros: The best first wheel: cheap, available everywhere, works on PC and console.
- Cons: Gear-driven force feedback, so noisier and less subtle than a belt.
2. Thrustmaster T300 RS
- Pros: A belt instead of gears: quiet and far more precise. You feel the jump immediately.
- Cons: It needs a proper mount: on a light desk it will move around.
3. Fanatec CSL DD
- Pros: Direct drive at a still-human price: the point where the wheel stops being the limiting factor.
- Cons: It wants a rigid rig, and a budget that grows with the accessories.
4. Thrustmaster TS-PC Racer
- Pros: Very high force feedback detail, built for heavy use.
- Cons: PC only, and the pedals are not included.
5. Fanatec Podium DD1
- Pros: The end of the road: enormous torque and detail that leaves nothing behind.
- Cons: Professional-equipment pricing, and a dedicated rig is mandatory.
The accessories that really change things
When the wheel alone is no longer enough, these are the parts that change the experience. We build them ourselves.
Handbrake and sequential shifter
Essential for rally, drift and hillclimb: they add the control a wheel alone cannot give you. We build them as a single metal unit, configurable for your platform.
Dashboards and indicators
Rev counters, gear indicators and flag displays: the information in front of your eyes instead of in a corner of the screen.
Adapters and spare parts
Hubs to fit real wheels onto Logitech and Thrustmaster bases, extension leads, mounting plates and knobs.
Where to learn
The two resources we used to recommend here no longer exist. In their place, what actually works: watch onboard laps from fast drivers at your favourite circuit and compare your braking points with theirs. It is free, and it is the quickest way to find seconds.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need a powerful computer for sim racing?
Less than people think. The most demanding simulators run well on a mid-range graphics card; what matters more than visual quality is a stable frame rate, because that is how your brain reads when the car is starting to slide. Alternatively, PlayStation and Xbox run very good titles with nothing to worry about.
Should you start with a wheel, or is a pad fine?
With a pad you play; with a wheel you drive. The biggest single jump in the whole hobby is the first one, from a pad to any force feedback wheel, even the cheapest. Every purchase after that matters less than this one.
Do you need a handbrake straight away?
No, unless you want to do rally or drift, where you need it from day one. On a closed circuit you will barely touch it. It is the right accessory once you know which discipline you enjoy.
How much does a decent setup cost?
For around 250-350 € you can put together a force feedback wheel and a way to mount it, and that is already proper sim racing. From there you go up in stages: handbrake and sequential shifter around 150 €, a dashboard under 60 €. There is no need to buy it all at once — quite the opposite.
In short
Sim racing can be started cheaply and never really ends. Buy a decent wheel, pick a simulator and drive for a month before buying anything else: by then you will know what you are missing. And when you do, we are here.
