It doesn’t matter if you are a pro or amateur driver, there is always room for improvement.
Whether it’s in the form of improving your driving skills, learning to race on different tracks, or just trying out new cars and upgrades.
One way to do this is by getting involved in sim racing games that give you the opportunity to hone your skills without risking life and limb!
Games like Assetto Corsa Competizione, iRacing, rFactor 2 and F1 2021.
I’ve compiled 10 tips that will help improve your performance in sim racing, so read on!
Here’s the top 10 Sim Racing Tips:
- Picking the right game
- Keep on Practicing
- Getting your sim setup sorted
- Using time trials
- Compete against AI
- Hire a sim racing coach
- Turn of the assists
- Entering live online races
- Watching other sim racers and comparing yourself with them
- Join a sim racing league
Picking the Right Game
Choosing a suitable game is the first step that you’ll have to follow.
It all depends on your personal preference, though most of the people tend to choose those 4 of the most popular games.
Check out the best sim racing games listed below:
- Assetto Corsa Competizione
- iRacing
- rFactor 2
- Formula 1 2021
Assetto Corsa and iRacing tend to be the most popular ones since they provide an awesome racing experience as well as plenty of realistic tracks and cars to drive.
They also have a wide network of sim racing drivers to race against online anytime you want.
iRacing also has good a really cool “iRating” feature that quick tells the level of a racer.
iRacing tends to be the most expensive of the four though, with a premium monthly subscribtion, but it’s definetely worth the price for the ones serious about sim racing.
Keep on Practicing
Practice makes perfect.
And that’s the same for sim racing. You want to practice as much as possible if you want to become extremely fast and win races.
Though you need to find the right balance with every other things sorrounding your life, including work, family, friends and fitness.
You definetely don’t want to be racing all day long. It won’t be good for your health.
Though practice you will allow yourself to learn all the braking and turning points, the right gears for each corners and you’ll also manage to get more consistent and do less and less mistakes.
That’s the most important tip you’ll need to read from this list.
Getting your Sim Setup sorted
You won’t be playing with a joistick, won’t you?
No seriously, you don’t want to be doing that.
I mean, if your goal is to just have some fun, fine. But if you want to become one of the top sim racers in the world you will want to get a real sim setup.
That will include:
- proper pedals (I prefer the Hydraulic ones)
- steering wheel with force feedback
- A Pro Racing cockpit
- Triple screen monitor
- Noise cancelling headphones
- A motion platform (As an add on)
These accessories will help your driving style and lap times in a big way if only you set them up correctly.
For instance the steering wheel needs to be properly set up in order to be as realistic as possible and you can do that by reading the instructions or watching tutorials on yotube.
Practicing time trials
Okay, you’ve finally got your professional sim racing setup sorted, does it mean you’ll be able to go straight to the major online races and win? Not really.
You’ll want to first practice a lot with time trials so that you can all the tracks and cars you’ll then need to race on.
That’s the same process Formula 1 drivers do to prepare for an upcoming race weekend.
They do plenty of sim racing time trials in order to test the fastest setups and to learn new tracks.
So you should do the same too by clocking in thousands of miles with time trials and you will see your lap times improving drastically.
Compete against AI
After you’ve practiced extensively with time trials, I advise you to compete against AI for a while.
That’s because Artificial Intelligence races are usually less hard and therefore provide an easier playing field compared to online multiplayer racing.
You want to make sure that you practice a lot with overtaking, race starts, pit stops and tire management so that you can be ready to compete at the highest levels once its needed.
After a good couple of weeks of competing against AI you will be ready to race online against sim racers around the world.
Hire a Sim racing coach
If after a few months of driving you feel like you’ve hit a plateau you then will want to hire a a Sim racing coach.
As anything in life, coaches allow you to improve yourself by working on your weaknesses and doubling down on your strengths.
A sim coach will train you to get better with your braking by teaching you proven braking techniques, be smarter with overtaking and ultimately be faster.
You should give it a try since you would definetely reap the rewards.
Turn of the assists
Turning off the assists can help you a lot to let you know what to do to become a pro racer.
Plus, this step is highly beneficial for the beginners of this game.
Anything from automating gear shifting, traction control and ABS will need to be taken off your settings if you want to turn pro a win that final tenth of a second.
Assists could be good as a beginner since they can guide you to see where you are going wrong and how to drive well.
But if you want to become an expert, start driving without car assists.
Entering live online races
The next thing you want to do is to enter live online races.
Okay, competing agaist AI is good for a beginner, but if you want to turn pro and have some extra fun you’ll have to race online.
Who knows then, you might even end up racing against drivers like MAx Verstappen or Lando Norris who tend to be very active racing online during the winter time!
Watching other sim racers and comparing yourself with them
No matter how experienced you are, if you never compare yourself with other drivers, consider that you are a beginner.
That’s so because without comparing, you do not know how good other drivers play and how much experience they have in this field.
So watch other drivers and compare yourself with them to know your faults and flaws as well.
Make a list of the drivers whom you feel are better than yourself. Then start getting the tactics they use and learn from them.
Join a Sim Racing League
The final tip I have for you is to join a sim racing league.
That’s because it will allow you to learn more and more about the best driving techniques to be fast on track.
That includes gtting access to premium setups as well as data and video analysis which are crucial for ultimate driver’s performance.
Conclusion:
Now that you’ve learned all these sim racing tips, it’s time to put them into practice. Make sure you apply these 10 tips today!
You can use this post as a reference guide or print out the top ten list of sim racing tips for quick access on your desk at work.
It doesn’t matter what game you’re playing; Assetto Corsa and iRacing are both great options for improving your skill set.
If anything is unclear or if there’s any way we can help answer questions about how to improve in sim racing games, feel free to contact us here!
We’ll do our best to be helpful with whatever question might come up. Good luck driving faster than everyone else and taking home
Make sure you also check out our Top 5 Tips For Building The Perfect DIY Racing Simulator and the Top 3 Gaming Cockpits in 2021 for more guides to get you started in Sim Racing.
