What Is Sim Racing? A Beginner's Guide

“Sim racing” gets thrown around loosely, so let's pin it down. A sim — short for simulator — recreates the physics of driving a real car as faithfully as the hardware allows: grip, weight transfer, tyre wear, force feedback through the wheel. The racing game on your phone asks you to tap a screen. A sim asks you to manage a car that behaves like a car.

The wheel does the talking

Force feedback is what first-timers notice first. A proper sim wheel pushes back against your hands: you feel the front tyres begin to slide, the rumble of a kerb, the moment the rear steps out. On a direct-drive wheel — the motor is the wheel, no belts or gears in between — that detail gets sharp enough that you start driving by feel instead of by eye.

What a sim rig is made of

• The wheel base: the motor that drives force feedback. Gear-driven bases are the entry point, belt-driven ones are smoother, and direct-drive bases put the wheel straight on the motor shaft for the most detail and strength.
• Pedals: a sim's brake pedal is often a load cell, which measures how hard you press rather than how far, so braking works on pressure the way a real car's does.
• Shifters: paddles behind the wheel for race cars, and a separate H-pattern gearstick with a clutch pedal for road cars and trucks.
• The cockpit: a seat and frame rigid enough that nothing flexes when the wheel pulls. A wobbling desk is where most home setups lose their feel.
• Screens: one large screen to start, three wrapped around you to see the mirrors and the corner you are turning into, or a VR headset.

The games people race

The official F1 game is where most people start, because it has the real teams and circuits and its assists make an F1 car drivable on day one. Assetto Corsa and Assetto Corsa Competizione are the GT and road-car favourites, iRacing is the online championship most serious sim racers end up in, rFactor 2 and Automobilista 2 sit alongside it, and the WRC game and Dirt Rally cover rallying. Truck and city-driving sims sit at the gentler end of the same hardware.

Is it real racing?

Closer than most people expect. Formula 1 teams build their cars' setups on simulators before a race weekend, and racing drivers such as Max Verstappen race online in their spare time. The physics are not perfect, and you do not feel the g-force in your body, but the skills transfer: braking points, smooth inputs, reading the grip through the wheel. Plenty of sim racers have gone on to race real cars.

You do not need any experience

This is the bit people get wrong. Modern sims have driving assists you can dial all the way up: traction control, ABS, braking help, a racing line painted on the track. With those on, a complete beginner laps cleanly within minutes. Turn them down as you get comfortable and the car starts asking harder questions. Easy to start, very hard to master.

What a first session looks like

• Pick a forgiving car and track to begin with: a GT car or an arcade racer, not an F1 car.
• A few warm-up laps with assists on, learning where to brake.
• Once you're comfortable, chase a lap time. That's where it gets addictive.
• Your best lap posts to the leaderboard. That's why everyone comes back.

That's the loop.

Try it before you buy a rig

A home setup that feels right, with a wheel base, pedals, a rigid cockpit and a screen, is a real outlay before you know whether you will stick with it. A session at a sim lounge is the cheap way to find out, and to feel the difference between a gear-driven and a direct-drive wheel before choosing one. Here is what it costs to drive at ours in Guindy, Chennai:

Our two rigs are built for exactly this: a gear-driven ROOKIE station to learn on, with a clutch and gearstick, and a direct-drive PODIUM station across three screens to get serious on. Walk in Tuesday to Sunday, noon to 8 PM. Have a look at the game library to see what you can drive, or the location page for how to get here.