Discover Online Racing Games That Feel Close to Real Driving

A few years ago a friend who races real cars at club level sat down at my rig for the first time. He did three laps of Brands Hatch in a GT3 car, spun at Paddock Hill Bend on the fourth, climbed out and said, "The car feels wrong, but the track feels exactly right." That one sentence sums up most of what I have learned in nine years of online racing. No game feels exactly like real driving. Some come close in surprising ways, and the ways they fall short are worth understanding before you spend money or time.

This is my honest guide to the online racing games that feel closest to real driving, what each one does well, and what none of them can do.

What "realistic" actually means in a racing game

People use "realistic" loosely, so it helps to break it into parts. A racing game can be realistic in some of these and not others.

• Tyre model. How grip builds, peaks and drops as tyres slide, heat up and wear. This is the heart of any simulation.
• Physics and weight transfer. How the car pitches under braking, rolls in corners and reacts to kerbs and bumps.
• Track accuracy. Many modern sims laser scan real circuits to within millimetres, including bumps and camber.
• Force feedback. What the steering wheel tells your hands about grip and weight.
• Racing rules and behaviour. Flags, penalties, pit stops and how other drivers, human or AI, behave around you.

A game can have superb track scans and a mediocre tyre model, or a brilliant tyre model and thin content. Knowing what you care about most narrows the choice quickly.

The online racing games closest to real driving

iRacing

iRacing is the reference point for online competition. It is subscription based, and cars and tracks cost extra, which adds up. In return you get laser scanned tracks, a strict safety rating system and official races at almost any hour against drivers of similar skill. Its tyre model has been criticised and reworked several times over the years, but its online racing structure has no real rival. Many real drivers use it to learn circuits.

Assetto Corsa Competizione

ACC focuses on GT3 and GT4 racing and does it extremely well. The cars feel heavy and planted, the tyre model rewards smooth driving, and the weather and night racing are excellent. It is narrow, since you only drive GT cars, but within that range it is one of the most convincing sims available. Online play is good through community leagues and public lobbies, though quality varies.

Assetto Corsa (the original)

Released in 2014 and still widely played because of its huge modding community. Thousands of cars and tracks exist, of very mixed quality. With the right mods it can be remarkably realistic. Without them it shows its age. It is cheap, and for many people it is the best way into sim racing.

rFactor 2 and Automobilista 2

Both are respected for physics and tyre feel. rFactor 2 has long been praised for its tyre model and is used in some professional esports. Automobilista 2 offers a wide range of cars and many Brazilian circuits, with strong force feedback. Both have smaller online communities than iRacing.

Gran Turismo 7

The best option on PlayStation. GT7 is not a hardcore sim, but its physics are more convincing than its reputation suggests, and its online Sport mode with driver and sportsmanship ratings is well run. For players without a PC, it is the realistic choice.

A quick comparison

What no racing game can do

My friend's comment, "the car feels wrong", is the important part. Every sim racer should understand why.

No g-forces

In a real car, you feel the car begin to slide through your body before your eyes see anything. Your inner ear and seat tell you about grip. A game has to show it through sound, vision and the wheel. That is why many people find sims harder than real driving at first: they have lost their most important sense.

No fear

A crash in a game costs a reset. A crash at a real track costs money and possibly injury. Real drivers naturally leave more margin. Sim racers often brake later and attack kerbs harder than they would in a real car.

Limited peripheral vision

A single monitor shows a narrow slice of the world. Triple screens, ultrawide monitors or VR headsets help a lot, but even they cannot match real eyes turning into a corner.

Where sims beat real driving for learning

Here is where I disagree with people who dismiss sims as toys. For certain things, a good sim is a better teacher than limited real track time.

• Learning a track. You can do 200 laps of a circuit for the price of a coffee. Real track time costs hundreds per day.
• Racing lines and braking points. Repetition builds reference points that transfer well. Our racecraft writer explains this in how sim racing games teach real racing lines.
• Racing close to others. Online leagues give you hours of wheel-to-wheel racing that most amateur drivers will never get in real life.
• Experimenting safely. Trying a later braking point in a sim costs nothing. In real life it can cost a car.

How to choose your first realistic racing game

If you are on a console, start with Gran Turismo 7 or, on Xbox, Forza Motorsport. If you are on PC and on a budget, the original Assetto Corsa with a few well-regarded mods is hard to beat. If you love GT racing, Assetto Corsa Competizione. If you want regular, structured online races and are prepared to pay, iRacing.

Whatever you choose, a basic wheel and pedals change the experience more than any game choice. You can start cheaply, as our gear writer explains in budget gaming wheels for players new to sim racing. More on the games themselves is in our Games section.