False reality

There’s no doubt sim racing has its place, but it also has its pitfalls that should not be ignored

- DANNY NOWLAN

Unless you have been living under a rock during the coronavirus lockdown, it has been impossible not to notice many formulae scrambling to sim racing as a stop-gap while motor racing is in hiatus. Some of this has been quite entertaining. For example, I did have a wry grin seeing a V8 Supercar race at Monza. It was also quite refreshing seeing drivers from different categories race each other. This used to be the norm, but it is something motor racing has lost in recent years, so it was great to see its return. It also raises some great ‘what ifs?’.

However, some very dangerous fallacies have also emerged about sim racing, and the Covid-19 pandemic has very much accentuated these. These are what this article will focus on.

Before I go any further, this is not a name and shame piece. Firstly, I don’t have the time to fight off lawsuits. Secondly, I’m much more interested in exploring the why of this, rather than writing some glorified university student council self-promotion article. Thirdly, not to blow my own trumpet but… given we at ChassisSim have developed both LTS and DIL software that is useable and gets results, we’re in a pretty good position to comment on this matter.

Firstly, though, it might be wise to consider what sim racing is good at, and how we got here. If we look back at the mid to-late ’90s, games such as