If you hang around a NASA paddock, or scroll through any Sim forum, you’ll find two overly confident groups:
- Sim racers who are sure they’d become the next Max Verstappen if someone would just grant them the seat.
- “Real” drivers in $150,000 cars who dismiss simulators as glorified video games
Sim racers think real drivers are wasting money, and real drivers think Sim racers are playing games. Both are wrong because they might not understand the physical differences of the side they decry.
Sim Racers
- Enjoy climate-controlled rooms, wearing comfy clothes, maybe “pausing” mid-practice to grab a fresh beverage.
- Don’t experience sustained G-forces on their bodies, necks or heads, even with motion-equipped sims.
- Don’t risk injury.
- Can crash over and over and hit “reset.”
Real Drivers
- Contort themselves into a 120-150-degree sweatbox wearing multi-layered fire suits, fire-retardant underwear, heavy helmets, neck-restraint devices, then strap themselves to their seats with tight, six-point harnesses.
- Get clobbered with 1.5-2 g forces under braking and cornering — more for downforce cars. Bodies are thrown around like a shoe in a washing machine, and every muscle is engaged just to stabilize.
- Wear what amounts to a 5-pound bowling ball strapped to their head, limiting head movement and peripheral vision.
- Hope they never need the ambulance parked at Turn 3.
- Crash and try to figure out if they can afford to keep doing this sport, or if they need a second mortgage to repair the damage.
The Hidden Gap of Sim
Here’s something most SIM racers, and frankly many real drivers, don’t fully appreciate: Our brains have a built-in gyroscope. It lives in our inner ear and connects to the vestibular system. It’s our system of balance and proprioception, constantly sensing:
- Yaw (spinning rotation).
- Pitch (forward/backward tilt).
- Roll (side-to-side load).
- Accelerations and decelerations.
In a real car, our senses are bombarded with all these forces at once. But in a sim, we rely almost entirely on:
- Visual cues.
- Auditory cues.
- Steering feedback.
- Vibrations or motions from actuators on high-end sim rigs.
In a sim, our gyros are basically offline. Even high-end motion rigs only hint at “real” forces in short bursts, with limited travel, and without sustained loads. Your brain knows the difference.
Ironically, sensory deprivation in a sim creates a benefit. Because sim drivers can’t rely on vestibular feedback, they often develop exceptional visual and auditory discipline, strong pattern recognition, and precise steering. When they transition to “real” cars and add that inner-ear input, things just “click” very quickly.
Reality Check
Sim racing has limitations that can’t be ignored:
- No real G-forces.
- Very little physical fatigue.
- No financial risk.
- No true fear or risk of life and limb.
And those aren’t small things, because they are essential barriers in real cars. A fast sim driver still has to answer:
- Would I really be willing to enter that corner at 140 MPH in a real car?
- Could I handle 15 laps punishing my body with 2 g loads?
- Could I stay focused with my heart rate at 140 BPM with sweat in my eyes in a 130-degree cockpit?
- Would I really attempt that dive-bomb pass knowing there’s a 50/50 chance of smashing my pride and joy and ruining my reputation?
Real drivers – you’re missing something, too. If you’re a real driver who dismisses Sim racing as a game, you’re leaving performance on the table.
SIMs offer:
- Unlimited seat time in any car on hundreds of tracks.
- Unfettered experimentation with no consequence.
- Zero cost per lap — and free tires!
- Ovals, road racing, Rallycross, whatever you want vs. anyone around the world.
- Learn to drive a nanny-free car to master car control. I recommend the Ray 1600!
You can:
- Learn new tracks quickly and safely.
- Practice race starts and first-lap chaos.
- Work on threshold braking in cars without ABS.
- Explore car control on a skid pad, in the rain, or on a dirt track in any car.
- Use “Active Reset” to practice custom segments over and over again, without having to drive around the whole track.
Where The Magic Happens: Combine Both
The best drivers today don’t choose between sim and “real” driving. They do both.
Even elite drivers, including Max Verstappen, extol the virtues of sim training. Why? Because sim racing builds skill in a safe, low-cost environment. Doing it in a real car teaches consequences.
Great article. While I have never done full-on sim racing beyond a clamp-on Thrustmaster wheel and pedals, during the 2020 C19 shutdown, several of the NASA-SE Spec Miata drivers would get together and try to make the best of it by holding weekly private server races on iRacing until we could get back to doing the real thing. It kept us in contact with our dear friends and somewhat scratched the itch, so it was a blessing and a lot of fun. Well, that is, until someone who was good buddies with one of the Acura Team Penske IMSA drivers who lived next door invited him to race with us one week and not telling everyone who it was. After he beat the mess out of the whole field, one eagle-eyed SM driver noticed the username of the offending pro driver and casually asked, “say… that guy who just beat us like Lionel Messi playing against a high school soccer team doesn’t happen to be (name of IMSA driver), is he?” He nailed it! (Looking at you, Mr. Miller, if you’re reading this)
Otherwise, I have had great success using sim racing as a supplemental tool to learn new tracks at which I would be racing. Setting a goal of turning 500 practice laps before the real racing event, by the time I arrived at those tracks, I could already close my eyes and mentally drive a lap, which made the real thing safer for myself and everyone else, but also allowed me to have more fun due to the confidence that comes from memorizing every turn of a new circuit. It didn’t make me a better driver, but I was able to be better prepared.
As someone who karted for 10 years, when I moved to cars I really struggled with weight transfer and using all the suspension in my first year. Over that winter I got a sim and went from mid pack to winning in spec miata, and I would confidently say the sim is a better training tool than karting is.
Great article. I agree with just about everything, except bodies thrown around like a shoe in a washing machine. With stock seats and a 3 point belt, yes. If you have a well bolstered, supportive seat, especially with harnesses, that’s not the case. Your body still feels the Gs though.
I only learned in real cars and I was fortunate not to have any bad consequences. A couple of spins. One was in a Skip Barber formula car during a 3 day school, who’s anti roll bar was set stiffer than the others, rolling power out of a turn on cold tires. Backed it into a gravel trap and tire a nose cone off. Came in, got a new cone and went back out and finished the session on a good note.
But I don’t dismiss simulators. Then and now…….if they were available then and if I had the spot now, I would have one, no question. At a minimum, it’s a great way to learn a new track and its nuances. You can get a feel for some cars you may be driving and how they feel/behave and play with setup. It’s a cost effective way to be better prepared for one or both.
To Brendan……..I believe you meant Milner, as in Tommy Milner, who drives for Corvette Racing. The cars are built by Pratt & Miller for GM.
To Lincoln…….karting is good for building car control. You’re correct……for GT cars especially, a sim is better preparation than a kart.