How realistic is Sim Racing?

[Threadfin]

Your mom and sister?


For many years I've been in to racing sims, as mentioned above. I have a good wheel and pedals set. Works great. But it's bulky, and in the way when I'm not actually racing. The pedals must displace my Crosswinds. Logistically, it's inconvenient (what a struggle eh?) So in a sense it's a bit of a pain in the rear to keep setting it up and putting it away when I'm done racing.

When I bought F1 2020 a year ago I thought I'd just see if I could get on with a controller. I didn't expect I'd like it. I watched a comparison video of a split screen between a driver using a wheel and one using a controller, and I could not tell which was which. I expected the wheel driver to be smooth, and the controller to reveal itself with hesitating movement as the driver makes constant adjustments with digital instead of analog input.

It took some time and number of laps to tweak the settings to find the right ones for me. And that was that. I've raced F1 2020/21 with a controller since. I know from experience it does not translate so seamlessly in all racing sims, but in this one it works marvelously well. I'm using a USB X Box controller that cost like $20. So, depending on the sim, you might find you don't need an expensive wheel/pedal setup to get started. YMMV.

It's really a comfortable way to go for me, not only avoiding the peripheral dance, but I also don't need to maintain any particular seating attitude, I never would have guessed I'd be racing a sim this way, but I do.