There are several really, really good sim racing simulator games available with each one having good points and bad points. A racing simulator for us must put realism and good racing above flashy graphics and gimmick features.
It's therefore only a handful of racing simulators become worthy of consideration. This is our brief overview of what we consider the best racing simulators available that can give you the best racing experience overall.
Assetto Corsa Competizione
This game has amazing graphics, full-featured weather effects, laser scanned tracks, detailed cars and an officially licenced GT series to make it the best GT simulator available.
However, Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC) does not have a proper competition system where there are official servers that have a penalty and licence system to make sure bad drivers get weeded out. Nevertheless, there's a third-party service called Low Fuel Motorsport (LFM) that fills this gap quite nicely. What's even better, it's free and is run by the community for the community.
ACC was built as a GT simulator and it does this very, very well. Combining this with LFM and ACC is what we consider the overall best GT racing simulator available.
rFactor 2
rFactor 2 isn't graphically impressive but has arguably the best driving physics and the largest amount of content available as both official and community created. The game features just about every type of car imaginable and every track you can think of.
Full weather effects with track evolution including 24 hour day and night transitions ensure that rFactor 2 covers just about everything a sim racer could ask for. The recently introduced rFactor 2 Competition System takes care of online multiplayer with properly scheduled races catering for all the popular motorsport categories.
rFactor 2 may be getting on in the years but the developer, Studio 397 have ensured that the game is regularly updated with new features and new content.
iRacing
We consider iRacing to be more of a sim racing service that a game. Meaning that you have to pay a monthly or annual subscription just to access the member site and forums and to get on track. This cost is only for base content and any additional tracks or cars must be purchased separately.
The costly pricing model of iRacing isn't affordable for everyone. However, those that can afford it will find the highest quality cars and tracks with arguably the best multiplayer experience in any racing simulator.
Drivers will have to complete a licence progression system to gain access to certain categories of racing and poor driving gets automatically penalised. Races are therefore much more rewarding, especially in the higher licence classes where clean driving is far more commonplace than most other racing simulators.
We consider iRacing as the best overall racing simulator despite the high cost. The quality of cars, tracks and continuos improvements are similar to ACC and rFactor but the licence progression system with the iRacing safety rating combine with their amazing multiplayer races take this simulator to a different level to the competition.
F1 2021
You're probably wondering what F1 2021 is doing in this list but hear us out.
f1 2021 and the upcoming F1 22 are not racing simulators but have overall decent features and physics. It's nowhere as good as driving the Mercedes W12 F1 car in iRacing but what makes this game worthy of mention is its huge community support when it comes to racing leagues.
Playing F1 2021 online is generally a wreck fest and more of a frustration than anything else. However, join a decent league and things quickly change for the better.
League racing in F1 2021 normally features stewarding, protests, replay reviews and a raft of community-driven systems to help with ensuring that races are as clean as possible with bad drivers being quickly identified and either guided to improve or asked to race elsewhere.
What's even better is that the best drivers can progress to elite leagues where they can eventually make their way to the F1 Esports championship. This is a professional series and features some of the world's best sim racers. Even though F1 2021 isn't a hyper-realist racing simulator, it can still provide top-notch racing.
This was a brief rundown of our favourite racing simulators and one honourable mention (F1 2021). It isn't a fully representative list but is in our opinion the best sim racing titles available today.
