The 7 best sim racing games

Assetto Corsa Competizione

We’ll start with an IP that has grown in stature since its initial rather limited release on PC way back in 2014. Developer Kunos Simulazioni has always prided itself on the realism of Assetto Corsa’s physics and tyre simulations, and it laid the foundation for Assetto Corsa Competizione, which is among other things by far and away the most detailed representation of GT racing currently available in the sim racing space.

Jump into a GT2, GT3 or GT4 car from the likes of Audi, Maserati, Mercedes-AMG, Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari and McLaren, each accurately rendered with authentic sound design and representative handling characteristics, and head out onto one of Assetto Corsa’s 11 laser scanned racetracks.

Every car boasts its own nuances when it comes to extracting the best performance around the likes of Brands Hatch, Monza, the Nürburgring, Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps.

That list of tracks can be expanded to 25 with the inclusion of DLC additions, the result being a pretty comprehensive representation of modern-day motorsport. It’ll be a good while until you start to run out of new car and track combinations.

It’s an accessible game thanks to several sliding options that allow you to tailor the physics and driver aids to your liking, which is particularly useful if you’re playing with a controller. If you’re after high-intensity realism, however, then that is available to you.

It’s a difficult thing to quantify, but Assetto Corsa Competizione might be the best sim racing game currently on sale. The fact it has been the official platform for all SRO Esports events including the GT World Challenge for several years is hardly surprising.

iRacing

Away from the malleable experience of Assetto Corsa, iRacing takes your want for a simulation experience and whacks you over the head with it. There are no niceties or video game-esque concessions here, unless you want to be treated like a real racing driver, with all the pain and pressure that comes with that, iRacing is probably not for you.

It’s a subscription-based online sim racing game that was first launched back in 2008, with regular updates that have kept the graphics, physics and list of available cars fresh year after year.

The goal with iRacing is to create an environment that mimics the actual experience of being a racing driver, often restricting players to the cockpit-only view, rather than allowing for an exterior follow cam or even the tradition roll hoop onboard angle. It uses LIDAR scanning for cars and circuits to deliver an authentic experience, with every small undulation and imperfection in the surface recreated as if you were driving in your own car.

The online races are all serious business, too. The game has been developed with the preferences of the players in mind, and the developers have maintained a strict regulation on driving standards to ensure the authenticity is not hindered or spoiled by trolls.

Each player has a licence that reflects their experience level, and any poor behaviour on track will be penalised with ‘incident points’ which affect their ‘safety rating’. It’s a well thought out system that helps to fit players into a suitable race with players of similar standard.

A base subscription will give you a choice of 24 cars covering NASCAR, sportscars, prototypes, single-seaters, rallycross and oval racers. You can of course opt to expand the list of cars, with the option to purchase up 150 different machines incorporating the latest field of IMSA GTP cars, the Mercedes W13 F1 car and three generations of IndyCar and more.

rFactor 2

If only the ultimate in-vehicle dynamics and physics simulation will do, then rFactor 2 is the sim racing game that comes the closest to delivering a match for the real thing. Since it was first launched in 2013, it has enjoyed immense popularity thanks in no small part to its association with rFactor pro, which was used by several Formula 1 teams over the years for their own simulator systems.

The rFactor 2 engine is highly advanced, with detailed systems that can simulate things like chassis flex and suspension geometry characteristics to deliver a much more accurate representation of a vehicle’s behaviour. The developers also incorporated an intricate tyre physics model that can simulate realistic heat transfer between the carcass and the surface, with accurate wear according to interactions with a similarly detailed track surface as rubber is transferred from the tyres to the road in real time. Basically, the engine behind rFactor 2 leaves absolutely no stone unturned in delivering the ultimate driving experience.

And that’s just all the nerdy stuff. It’s quite easy to forget that it is still a game, and there are plenty of cars on offer for you to play around with. The BTCC, sports prototypes, GTE and GT3, Formula E, Formula 1 and NASCAR are all accounted for, while the list of available tracks is long and illustrious. You can get racing on up 48 tracks including Road Atalanta, Monza, Brands Hatch, Spa-Francorchamps, Zandvoort, Laguna Seca, the Circuit de la Sarthe, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and several Formula E venues.

But aside from all the original content, rFactor 2’s main attraction is its modding community, which has made the scope of the game almost endless for you to race any car from any era on any circuit.

Le Mans Ultimate

From the developers of rFactor comes Le Mans Ultimate, the official game of the FIA World Endurance Championship and the Le Mans 24 Hours designed to bring the exciting new era of sportscar racing into our living rooms. It’s available to PC players on Steam and is being continually developed by Studio 397 with fresh additions of new cars and tracks year on year to keep up to date with the current WEC season.

That means you can take control of all the Hypercars past and present, including the three-time Le Mans-winning Ferrari 499P and the screaming V12 Aston Martin Valkyrie. Including DLC you can choose from 13 Hypercars in all, alongside the current crop of LMGT3 machinery and some legacy cars from LMP2, LMP3 and GTE.

Similarly, Le Mans Ultimate’s track listing boasts the complete eight-race 2025 WEC calendar, plus Silverstone, Sebring, Portimao and Monza from previous campaigns.

Its close ties to rFactor mean that many of those class-leading simulation features make an appearance here, too, including the Real Road 2.0 system that accurately represents the evolution of the track surface over time – a massive element of endurance racing. Dynamic weather effects are also being developed, as are the cars themselves, that will deteriorate authentically as dirt and debris builds up.

If you’re looking for the ultimate Le Mans experience then this is it, the designers have got the name right. They’ve included some pretty neat features, too, such as asynchronous online play that allows you and friends to complete a full 24-hour race at your own convenience. When you pull into the pits at the end of your stint, your team-mate can jump in whenever they’re available to continue the race.

Automobilista 2

Next up we have Automobilista 2, which is built on the same Madness engine originally developed for Project Cars. It was plagued with issues immediately after launch, but over time the developers have rectified issues with the physics and general usability to deliver a game that has become acclaimed among sim racers generally.

With updated versions of the tyre physics and track surface simulation found in Project Cars, Automobilista 2 delivers a somewhat recognisable experience to that game, albeit with a slightly more nuanced feel that has been spread across a much wider variety of cars.

Although many aren’t officially licenced, there are recognisable replicas of F1 machinery from the 1960s right through until the mid-2000s. Automobilista does however have licences with McLaren, Lotus and Brabham, so you can climb into the cockpit of some of history’s most memorable racing cars.

There’s also a good selection of prototypes including current GTP cars from BMW and Porsche, GT machinery from Mercedes and the McLaren F1 GTR. There’s an M1 Procar, 1974 Porsche 911 RSR and even a handful of road cars to choose from.

Then there’s the list of circuits, which is massive. Think of a racetrack, it’s probably there, but you can also choose from which era you’d like to race it. Spielberg circa 1974? Spa-Francorchamps 1970? Imola in its current form? There are a lot of very cool options here, and this alone makes Automobilista 2 one of the more intriguing games on this list. It’s also being regularly updated, so you can be sure it’ll continue to improve in the coming years.

Gran Turismo 7

And finally, of course we have to include the sim racer that made sim racing popular. Gran Turismo has long been the poster child of mainstream racing games, particularly on console where it has ruled the roost on PlayStation since 1997. Now in its seventh full iteration, GT is still holding firm as a major player on the market.

It’s been on sale for several years at this point, and following a troubled initial launch it has been gradually perfected over a protracted development cycle that has seen several tweaks to the physics engine and a huge inflation in the number of available cars and circuits. The handling has been fettled and measured with accurate simulations of the car’s real characteristics, but it’s definitely a more relaxed approach than the uptight perfection-or-bust attitude of more focused sims.

It may not have the complex simulation systems of an iRacing or rFactor, but where those titles major on detail and accuracy, Gran Turismo 7 leans more towards accessibility and cool factor. It’s a story-driven game first and foremost, where players need to embark on a journey to unlock the cars they want to drive.

You have to learn how to drive effectively, but you won’t be scared away by overwhelming complexity. The focus is on enjoying the cars themselves, rather than worrying too much about how they feel. Revelling in the sights and sounds rather than getting bogged down in tyre temperatures. It’s a different approach to sim racing, but a popular one nonetheless, and perhaps the first step on a journey towards other titles on this list.