Looking for a racing Sim

I have been looking into GTR2, but didn't know if something else was out there. I know of the NFS Shift games, but I am not sure how arcadey that is.

NFS Shift 2 is excellent racing sim (one of the best I've played)

forza 4 is great. gt5. but those are on consoles.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/244210/

Just found this today on the home page. Kind of crazy just talking about something like this.... Seems like its still in early phases, but may be worth a shot.

I haven't got a chance to play Assetto yet, but I've heard very good things.

Other than that, check out rFactor and Game Stock Car 2013. rFactor is pretty old, but has a large modding community so there is plenty of things to try out. Game Stock Car was just released and is one of the best sims out there, though most people that aren't actively following racing sims probably haven't heard of it.

Also check out SimBim's games. Thesetwo bundles include GT Legends, the original GTR and Race Injection, which is Race 07 with a bunch of expansions.

iRacing is also worth mentioning. Though it is multiplayer only and can be expensive.

IRacing by far is the best sim and is worth 12$ for 3 months

I actually asked my boss at work last week about this (he's a racing enthusiast). And this is what I remember him telling me:

The 2 main ones on PC are rFactor and iRacing. Older ones include Race07 series, GT Legends & GTR which can be picked up from Steam.

rFactor has some great mod support provided that you're a little computer savvy to install them. But with rFactor 2 on the horizon, you could be a little patient and just wait it out.

While iRacing is the definitive racing sim on PC, It's very expensive to maintain (don't let anyone try to convince you otherwise). You can frequently find free 3 month trials to test it out, however, the content is very limited. With cars and tracks needed to be purchased on top, it will add up in a hurry. And don't forget about the subscription fees. Once you let your subscription expire, all that content you purchased (which can add up to hundreds of dollars) can no longer be accessed. You can catch occasional sales to reduce some of the cost, but it still adds up.

Then there is Project Cars. It looks really amazing, though the FTP model I think is going to make it expensive like iRacing. I believe there are packages on offer as many people have been playing progressive builds.

RaceRoom Experience--Simbins next game--is following a similar model to Project Cars, but I havent seen or looked much into the game or its progress.

Alsetto Corsa looks to have potential as well. It's available for Early Access on Steam at the moment. These guys were some of the top mod developers for rF1, so it should be interesting.

Project CARS will not be free to play. The builds people have been playing are from funding the game early. You can't currently buy the game, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did another sort of early access once it hits beta.

I've seen this, but keep it mind that it's not out yet, so you may be disappointed.

I'd stick to Shift 2 if I were you, but you can also wait for this to come out; or take a risk and get into the alpha/beta

Yeah I am thinking of jumping on to this... It seems to look the most polished out of everything out there....

shift 2 handles like shit.

stick with rfactor, iracing, assetto etc.

Assetto has some of the best handling physics available. Project Cars is right up there as well.

Shift 1 and 2 is made by the same people who made GTR1 and GTR2, under Simbin Studios, they split and formed Blimey, then changed to SMS. Same group of guys, so expect the same quality in all 4 of those games. Shift 1 there was some confusion because they had to cater to EA and the arcade audience as well, but they fixed that in Shift 2 and made it more sim so EA dumped them. So now they are working on Project Cars.

GTR2 is the one I have the most experience with and what I can tell you is that it is a great racing sim once you get used to the physics. Its pure race car racing though, no street cars(unless you count mods). So all tires are slicks and they wont grip like street tires. This game can handle tons of mods and that was a big part of the fun for me. Modifying cars, performance, skins, tracks, careers, custom classes, modded cameras, etc.

My favorite thing was being able to setup any race that I wanted on whatever track I wanted and whatever length I wanted, up to 24 hours. Including qualifying rounds, choosing time of day, weather, mechanical failures, car damage, tire wear, and fuel consumption. So it was not rare for me to play 90 minute races where it would rain then you have to go to the pits to change your tires. Then add the tuning that you can do in the garage and you have a game that gives you all the options you could want from a racing game. The only downside is the car shaders/graphics are outdated.

This is one of the many custom careers that I made, had 2 classes racing at the same time, left out the 3rd class cause they are too slow. But I havent played a game since GTR2 that gave me this kind of freedom in creating these kinds of races.

I went ahead bought the early access of Assetto Corsa and havent spent too much time with it but it feels really really good. It drifts really nice too. As of right now it is a demo, not a full game but it looks very promising. It will be interesting to see how the AI reacts in a race once they get that part going.The track graphics are not far off from GTR2's tracks with HD texture updates, but the cars look waay better. The same goes for Shift 2, nice cars but the tracks still look outdated in some parts. GRID and GRID 2 have the best looking tracks but that game is far from a sim, especially GRID2. I prefer to race from hood cam so the way the track looks is very important to me. Also I cant wait to get my hands on the modding tools for Assetto, I already know that part of the game will keep me entertained for months.

Well Shift 2 is on sale for 10 bucks. I think I am going to jump on that. Thanks everyone for the replies.

Ok , can you post your framerate performance once you get it installed and play it for a while? I fired it up again after not playing for a long time and I was reminded of why I stopped playing it, I get pretty bad fps drops in a lot of the tracks and I get the same performance on low graphics as I do on high graphics. If it wasn,t for the performance issues though, it would definitely be my favorite racer. Also GTR2 and GT Legends are on sale for $2 on Steam atm.

@leftclick007: I am installing it now, so I will let you know. I ended up getting it off of Origin for 7 bucks and BF4 for 20. These sales are hell on one persons wallet....

Really? Almost all of the racing community agree that Shift 2's handling model completely ruins the game. Its a pity too, Shift 2 had one of the best track list to ever a grace a racing game, and the production quality, and the graphics are pretty good.

To OP, Assetto Corsa, from what I hear is great. rFactor is always a good choice if you know your way around mods. If you want to race online with a good community, iRacing is the best online racing sim by far, although it is more of a hobby than a game by the amount of money you will spend on it. Idk if you can still get access to the Project Cars builds, but if you can pCars is definitely the best looking sim. If you don't mind console sims, think about getting GT6, it has a ton of content for your money, by that I mean 1200+ cars, and ~30 tracks. I would stay away from Forza 5 though, Forza over the years (and I used to be a huge Forza fan until 4) has become less and less about sim racing.

Thanks for the post, I will more than likely pick up GT6 as I have always been a huge fan of the series. I did purchase Shift 2 and I am really enjoying, but I can tell something is not right with the steering. It is not enough to make me not like the game, but strange none the less. Assetto Corsa looks really good, but seems like the game itself is not there yet, so I will give it some time.

The 1st game that I've actually felt the G force while driving in racing sim, yeah It's wiered to explain but when you drive in high speed in a track where you go from up>down>and up again, I actually felt the weight of the car, I haven't felt this experience in any racing game yet and I've played many.

Yeah I have to agree the sense of speed is awesome in the game. I noticed that when I turned off the Steer assist it helped a ton with the weirdness in the steering. The game starts to get a tad harder once you get into the faster cars Lambos etc.

Race Driver GRID (GRID 1), and Codemasters Formula 1 games. Thats all I got.

GSC 2013

Rfactor 2(To get the most out of it you need alot of Mods)

(Project Cars would be great for you but beta currently is closed)

Iracing (fairly expensive )

as far as pc' racing sims, its either live for speed or rfactor

need for speed, or any of those titles are games, and do not come close , no matter how much fun they are