What's The Best Racing Sim For Beginners?

Since ACC Build 6 has been delayed I thought I'd answer a question that keeps popping up in the comments - what's the best racing sim for beginners?

Putting together this video was an interesting exercise that forced me to think about the racing sims that I play on a daily basis from a different perspective. And I was surprised to find that the racing sims that I enjoy the most are probably the hardest to recommend to beginners and for a wide variety of different reasons. As I said at the beginning of the video, this is all just my opinion and it shouldn't be taken as gospel. In fact, I'd encourage anyone that disagrees with the conclusions I've come to to leave a comment telling me (and everyone else) why I'm wrong.

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[SimRacing]

I did this same video, but I recommended Mario Kart. I like yours better.

[mustafau]

3:20 I love how he talks about rating the safety of the driver and 5sec later you see a car on his roof

[SRRecords]

It's got to be Project Cars 2. No question. And here's why... If you're a newbie and you keep spinning out mid corner, or you keep spinning out at the end of the corner, or you under-steer, or you can't reach your top speed etc... The race engineer facility in Project Cars 2 can help! Just tell him what's happening, and he'll tell you how to fix it! You can then take that information to other sims! So even if you then play Assetto Corsa, if you're spinning out mid corner, you'll remember what the race engineer suggested in PC2 - Soften the real anti roll bar, most likely. I wish all sims had PC2's Race Engineer!

[kristupasantanavicius]

Racing sim for beginners? Euro truck simulator

[ChrisHaye]

Sorry about the quality options guys. YouTube seems to be taking a long time to make the higher resolution versions available tonight.

[bartonez]

I've done this journey twice (with a break from simracing in between). When I first started out all those years ago it was GTR2 - Race07 - rfactor - iRacing. The second more recent time I went F1 2017 - Assetto Corsa - iRacing (again). Though I've dabbled in all of these titles.


I think if you're dipping your toes in, and want to mostly stick to singleplayer hotlapping/one off races, Assetto Corsa is the way to go due to it's content. The mods are just the icing on the cake, you really can do anything you want to in this game.


If you are still on a gamepad, or really want a career mode type experience, PC2 might be more up your alley. It's far from perfect, but if you're coming from something like Forza it'll be most familiar to you, whilst giving you simulation level physics.


If you only really want those multiplayer thrills, and want the freedom to race multiplayer at any time, iRacing is going to be the only option that will bring consistent satisfaction (if you can afford it). It's so far ahead in multiplayer that it totally stands alone in this regard. (Organized leagues will trump it, but they don't provide flexibility to play when you want how you want).


The games are not that different in terms of physics, they really only differ in target audience. It's up to you to choose where you fall. No single sim is perfect.


Personally, I'd always pick two or three. I currently bounce between iRacing, Assetto Corsa, Forza Horizon 3 (on a pad) and Dirt Rally. Other titles to consider is anything by Reiza Studios (Automobilista, Stock car extreme - probably close to the best AI I've faced), and the F1 games (which are closer and closer to sims each iteration).


It's hard to go wrong really.

[ryanedward]

I just got my first FFB wheel, and this exactly the kind of video I've been looking for looking for.

[BurningCole]

I just started getting into racing sims and I’m really enjoying project cars 2 because it has VR support and it was on sale. I really like that the career modes allow you to work your way up to faster cars and allow easy tuning for people who have no clue what they’re doing. Hitting another car is pretty weird though considering it acts like it weighs around 5 pounds and absolutely flies. Otherwise it’s a pretty fun starting point, just make sure you tune the cars and you’ll have a good experience.

[Popkorn]

As a rookie in simracing I love Assetto Corsa. Yes, you have to mod stuff, but your videos gave me good pointers and I just get a certain statisfaction from installing a new mod. You also said AC is the most flexible of all sims. Which is the reason why I love it so much. I have no idea yet what cars, classes or format I would like the most and AC gives me the chance to try everything. Only have to see how I can get into online racing

[diffypoo]

I've been playing AC for around 2 years now with a Logitech g27/g920 and I must say it never seems to get boring for me, endless content with the vast modding community and all the different options when it comes to how you play the game (Grip, drift, drag, cruise, etc) keeps me always hooked and exited to play. Will definitely be looking into some of the other sims you've recommended. Thanks for the video mate!

[MatFoxYT]

"....a wide variety of GT racing at Spa" I can't breathe!

[h-bomb]

As a beginner Id love the video, especially the pros and cons because it is super helpful

[truefoxxx]

First of all, thank you Chris for this breath of fresh air, that is your sim racing youtube channel. So different from anyone else out there and yet it feels like it is exactly what was missing on youtube regarding simracing content. Great quality at all levels...the soothing voice and music choice, the variety in content, video quality, video editing, very knowledgeable in simracing, honest reviewer, etc, etc. Thank you...it is very much appreciated. : ) Just my small opinion on this video...i do believe that Assetto Corsa on it's original state, strait out the box (no Content manager), is in my opinion still very usable and user friendly, plus you can get some very decent content for the price at the moment, which in my opinion makes it a great contender for a beginners sim. And i think installing simple mods like cars and tracks is very easy. Oh well, maybe i'm just too much of AC fan boy, lol. Keep up with the good work. Cheers.

[EthanDean]

Also, I almost spat my naan at the GT3s-at-Spa comment 😂

[karlsamson]

I was a sim racing fan for a couple of years before taking the plunge a year ago. The one I found easiest to use and had the most fun with to start was automobilista. Heaps of cars and a great assortment of tracks, with a lot I’d not seen or heard of before from Brazil. Once you get comfortable, assetto Corsa and the mods are great and if you get competitive then iracing feeds that need nicely. Appreciate you’re a very busy man Chris but think you’d enjoy automobilista if you give it a shot. The cart factor mod is probably the best mod across any title!

[TheDive]

One of the biggest factors for beginners on choosing a sim, is how much online help is available. I've heard Iracing has an amazing forum with message boards ect. For me Assetto corsa has hands down has the most online instructional videos and help. Race Department and the guys on the SRS boards, Youtube of course. I'm about 5 months into my "sim racing career" and having tried every sim out there except Iracing. I think I spent more time in the first 3-4 months "under the hood" installing the sims, hardware settings and upgrades, messing with vr and graphic settings, tweaking my system and realizing that I had to upgrade my GPU and CPU, get more ram ect.. downloading updates, mods, tracks and cars than actual racing. There's such a learning curve and it can be quite overwhelming for newbies. I've pretty much settled on Assetto Corsa (with SRS for online races and Content Manager). Great vid as always Chris.

[STF_YVR]

Hi Chris, thanks for the video. Personally Project Cars 2 would be my number 1 recommendation to a beginner. The cost is lower than that of Raceroom overall. The multiplayer lobbies are far more active meaning there is wide selection of races available at pretty much any hours of the day/night and the AI is also more tolerant than the aggressive one of Raceroom. So my advice would be install the demo and try it out, it's also free ...

[AlistairMcKinley]

I would go with Assetto Corsa because you can drive slower street cars. It was very rewarding to me driving my first simracing meters in the Abarth 500. I still remember how much I was flashed/suprised by the feeling of the car (back in 2015).
RaceRoom is a good choice, though, taking into account that you only need one livery/car per series to enjoy races. On top, it feels great and offers a very capable AI which does a good job handling multiclass races or training sessions (paired with the best AI selector I've ever seen).
Thanks for the video, Chris.
Greetings from Germany

[youmed]

my wet dream is the combination of content (tracks, cars, wheather, livetrack 3.0), ui and graphic from PC2, the physics of rf2 and online match making like gt sport. And all that on every possible platform with cross playing. PLEASE!

[VitorMach]

I'm a complete Assetto Corsa fanboy, but I completely agree with your points and ranking. Good video, Chris.