Sim Racing and Esports News for March 3, 2022

This week on Sim Racing and Esports News I look at the impact that sim racers have on real world Indycar racing, updates on SCCA sim racing and the MotoGP Esport Championship as well as some reviews of Gran Turismo 7, Grid Legends and Assetto Corsa Competizione.

Impact of Sim Racing and Esports on Motorsport

If you are wondering whether sim racing and esports have any connection to traditional, real world motorsport, check out the results of the recent Indycar global fan survey conducted by IndyCar and Motorsport Network. “Based on survey respondents, Esports are increasingly relevant to INDYCAR fans, with nearly half partaking in gaming weekly. This number rises to 85% among 16-24-year-olds and 70% among 25-34-year-olds, suggesting a robust audience for the upcoming release of an INDYCAR-centric video game title.” That is a huge audience of potential race drivers.

Sim Racing News

• The next season of the Ray eSports Unofficial SCCA Racing League kicked off March 1 at virtual Road Atlanta featuring three SCCA road racing classes on the iRacing platform. Sim racers can compete in the RE2 formula class presented by Alliance Autosport, the Spec Racer Ford class presented by Spec Racer Sports, or (our personal favorite) the MX-5 Cup class presented by Grassroots Motorsports. Two classes will run each week on Tuesday evenings, so each class gets a couple of weeks off during the season. All races will be broadcast live on Apex Racing TV with the voice of the SCCA Super Tours, Gregg Ginsberg, leading the commentary team. More information can be found at the Grassroots Motorsports page here.

• Entering its sixth season, the MotoGP™ eSport Championship is back for another year of expansion with the biggest series and prizes to date. This year, the Pro Draft selection phase will take place from March 3rd to April 10th and comprises four Online Challenges in time-attack mode. The fastest gamers will make it through to the Draft Selection, where the 12 MotoGP™ teams will select one official MotoGP™ eSport rider and one reserve rider for the Global Series. The Global Series will move the competition from online to on-site in May, with gamers competing for both the Championship crown and some incredible prizes provided by the series partners

• If you are wondering what happened with the Sim Grid‘s Daily Racing platform, they have shut down and are now collaborating with Low Fuel Motorsport (LFM). The good news is that going forward, the Sim Grid are going to collaborate deeply with LFM. This will include integrating with their Safety and ELO Ratings, allowing you to link your LFM account to SimGrid. As a result of this, they will develop features that help LFM players easily determine which split they should be in for SimGrid events.

Sim Racing Game Reviews

• Ars Technica reviews Gran Turismo 7 and from the title of their review it sounds like they are impressed. Check out Better sound, better graphics, better physics—the Gran Turismo 7 review.

• Both MotorTrend and RaceFans review Codemasters’ Grid Legends with its Drive to Survive “twist.” They both seem impressed with a game that is suitably fun and not as serious as others, especially with the “story-mode.”

• Finally, The Checkered Flag reviews Assetto Corsa Competizione for next gen consoles. “Visuals have also been vastly improved. The game now boasts 4K and 60FPS and it makes a massive difference. The 60FPS, in particular, is so important for racing sims on console and it is actually very smooth. I don’t have an fps counter but I haven’t seen a frame-rate dip in my playtime, this is including at night and in the rain. The 4K visuals also make surging around tracks like Misano at night a spectacular thing to behold as well as a sunny day around Silverstone.” Read the full review here.