Few activities in life get your adrenaline and blood pumping like motor racing. Unfortunately, becoming a professional racing driver and seeing your name on the best betting sites online remains a pipedream for most drivers. Not only is motor racing expensive, but the driving skill required to reach the top is immense, making a racing career unlikely for most. Thanks to an incredible selection of racing sims on PC and consoles, you can become a virtual racing driver without risking your life savings!
Racing games are among the most popular video game genres, particularly racing sim games. These include iRacing, Project Cars, Assetto Corsa Competizione, Gran Turismo 7, and Forza Motorsport. Realistic car physics set these games apart from arcade-like racers. Indeed, some titles are so lifelike that professional racing drivers use them to learn tracks and hone their skills. Becoming a top-tier racing sim driver takes time, dedication, and practice. The following tips will help you shave seconds off your lap times, so buckle up and let’s hit the road!
Upgrade Your Experience with a Wheel Setup
While a controller can start your racing game career, investing in a racing wheel and pedal setup elevates your experience to a new level. The tactile feedback of a wheel and being able to control the pedals as you would in a car translate to smoother inputs compared to pressing buttons on a controller. Furthermore, a wheel and pedals give you a deeper connection to the car you’re driving, which can be the difference between finishing on the podium and lagging behind the opposition.
Know Your Lines
Every track has an optimal racing line, the shortest path that balances speed and safety. You have little chance of winning a race if you do not learn the racing line for the track you are competing on. Such lines ensure you are in the perfect track position to enter a corner, clip the apex, and accelerate out of it. Use time trials and ghost lap features to study the ideal lines.
Brake Like a Pro
You may get away with keeping your foot on the gas in arcade racing games but not in racing sims where cars handle like their real-life counterparts. Braking isn’t as simple as slamming your foot on the pedal and hoping you slow down, although that works to some degree.
Learn trail braking, a technique where you lightly apply brake pressure before turning, then gradually increase it while steering. Get trail braking right, and you’ll be faster around the track.
Throttle Control is the Key
Similar to how you shouldn’t stamp on the brakes, you shouldn’t mash the gas pedal either. Learning to feather the throttle, gradually and smoothly applying power, helps you maintain traction when accelerating out of corners. Too much power at the wrong time can result in your car spinning off the track.
Embrace the Assists
While most ranked online races require you to race without driving assists, nothing stops you from using them when learning the ropes. Driver assists like traction control, braking assist, and even markers on the track to show the perfect racing lines and speed can help you build confidence in your ability.
Gradually wean yourself off them as you progress instead of simply switching them all off. Some games allow you to change the strength of the assists, like turning down traction control to 50%. Once you are confident in your ability, it is time to turn off the assists.
Patience is a Virtue
Even elite Formula 1 drivers make mistakes on the track, so you will make more than your fair share. Try to keep a positive mindset, and don’t get discouraged by any early setback you face. Look at mistakes as opportunities to learn; you won’t hit every apex perfectly, even when you have been racing for years.
Focus on consistency and clean racing when you start, and gradually improve your lap times. You’ll soon be shaving time off your laps.
Learn from the Best
A wealth of resources exist online, so use them to your advantage. Watch tutorials, study replays of top drivers, and join online communities to learn from more experienced players. As the cars in racing sims react like real-life vehicles, you don’t have to only study fellow virtual racers because anything you learn from NASCAR, IndyCar, or even rally driving videos and books translates to your game.
Experiment with Cars
Jumping behind the wheel of a high-powered Aston Martin, Lamborghini, or Ferrari is tempting but should be avoided while honing your racing skills. By all means, try these powerhouses when you are blowing off steam, but focus on “normal” cars until your skills develop.
The supercars’ sheer power means you will reach faster speeds on the straights, making finding the optimal racing line more challenging, especially for corners where your braking points are vastly different from a standard car. In addition, all that extra power can result in your spinning off the track if you accelerate too hard. Faster speeds do not always result in quicker lap times!
Tune Your Ride
Fine-tuning your car’s suspension, weight balance, gear ratios, and other settings can shave seconds off your lap times. Don’t just jump into the settings and mess around with them if you don’t know what they do because you will almost certainly end up with a car that handles like a bag of spanners! However, once you have your other skills razor sharp, find information and tutorials online relating to car tuning and set up your car based on your driving style and the track you are racing at.
Find Your Community
Last but not least, joining online communities and leagues helps you race against other players with abilities similar to yours. The camaraderie and competition between community members can help push you to new heights and make your journey to becoming a racing superstar more enjoyable.
Conclusion
There you have it: ten tips to help you become the king or queen of the road in racing sims. Becoming a racing master can seem daunting when you first swap arcade racers for racing sims, but with dedication, practice, and these racing hints, you’ll leave opponents in your dust faster than a Porsche 911 down the home straight!
Remember that even the best racing drivers started somewhere, so focus on the enjoyment of driving and continuous learning. Every lap you complete gets you closer to a podium finish. Good luck.
