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[Ed. note: More and more people are staying home as a result of quarantines and social distancing. Car customization was the high-tech platform for many years. Then came computers where nerds had a different target for things to tweak and optimize. Car racing has perhaps even more followers today than ever before. Given the technical background and underpinnings, and realizing people may be looking for something to do this weekend, I thought to give this story a try. Are there any Soylentils who have any racing experience? --martyb]
Shortly after the US entry into World War 2, President Roosevelt requested that professional baseball continue to be played during the war because of its importance to maintain the morale of the nation. NBA commissioner Adam Silver expressed similar sentiment after the almost complete shutdown of professional sports due to the coronavirus outbreak. Formula 1 and NASCAR are already taking steps to resume, though with virtual races instead of cars physically on track.
Last weekend, iRacing and Podium organized the Replacements 100, which was streamed on multiple platforms including YouTube. The drivers included William Byron, whose success in iRacing helped him find the opportunity to drive real race cars, retired fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr., and current cup series drivers Bubba Wallace and Alex Bowman. The race was 100 laps at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which was set to host all three of NASCAR's national series last weekend before being postponed.
This weekend, NASCAR's national series were scheduled to race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but these races have also been postponed. Instead, NASCAR has started the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series, a series of virtual races using iRacing that will include current drivers from all three of the national series. This weekend, the race will be at Homestead and will be televised by FOX Sports 1. The race will include 35 drivers including current Cup Series champion Kyle Busch and many other drivers from NASCAR's top series. The race commentators will be Mike Joy, Jeff Gordon, and Larry McReynolds, all of whom are commentators for Fox's regular NASCAR Cup Series broadcasts.
Formula 1 will also be live streaming a virtual Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend with two drivers representing each of F1's ten teams. This race will be run using the F1 2019 game and the level of difficulty for each driver will be adjusted based on their skill in virtual racing in order to produce a competitive race. This is in lieu of the postponed Bahrain Grand Prix, originally scheduled for this weekend. Although many of the regular F1 drivers will not be competing in this race, Nicholas Latifi will drive for Williams and Nico Hulkenberg will be returning to F1.
None of these races are points races in their respective series. And professional esports races are not new at all. However, it is novel that they are being used as stand-in events in the absence of being able to have teams physically present at the tracks. However, the use of commentators from the regular broadcasts, the number of drivers from NASCAR's top series, and the expectation that each of F1's teams will select two drivers will certainly draw the interest of fans who might not otherwise want to watch esports. In particular, Dale Jr. has a large following among NASCAR fans and his participation will likely increase fan interest in these virtual races.
As a fan, if NASCAR races continue to be postponed for an extended period of time, I'd like to see North Wilkesboro Speedway return in virtual races. The North Carolina short track last hosted a Cup Series race in 1996 and is now in deteriorating condition, much to the chagrin of many of NASCAR's older fans. It was one of NASCAR's oldest tracks and a part of the schedule for many decades, with the unique feature of the track being on a small incline. With the backing of Dale Jr., the track was cleaned and scanned for its addition to iRacing. Hopefully this historic track will return to NASCAR's schedule, even if only virtually.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 22 2020, @03:19PM (2 children)
Gran Turismo has realistic physics for both the tracks and the cars. A Porsche handles like a real Porsche in corners when you step on the gas and the rear end squats down and digs in to the road. A Tesla handles like an overpowered 1968 Ford station wagon, going straight into a barrier instead of turning. A Fiat Abarth handles like a clown car, doing reverse wheelies when you step on the brakes too hard or going onto 2 wheels when you drift a corner. About 20 years ago GT players were banned from real racing in England because they had faster (real) lap times than the pro racers.
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Sunday March 22 2020, @03:33PM (1 child)
I read a magazine article years ago (probably Car and Driver) where they had a pro driver face off against a pro gamer in GT. I was expecting the gamer to come out ahead but the driver actually won overall, suggesting that his skills behind the wheel transferred to skills behind the screen.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 22 2020, @04:54PM
> skills behind the wheel transferred to skills behind the screen.
GP here again. I've seen this too. It seems to depend a lot on the person. For example, as the sim gets more immersive (larger screen, etc), some people are fine and others get motion sickness. I did a lot of test driving for an early game with a reasonable physics model, and was always fine (with a small screen). My driving skills transferred to the game fairly well (even in very early stage development) as did another tester who did a lot of autocross driving irl.
A number of pro drivers have turned to sims to keep current during the off season, or to learn a new track. And a few sim racers have tested (and gotten rides) in real cars.
The full-on racing simulators in F1 (and more recently NASCAR) are at least an order of magnitude more detailed than any game in terms of the description of the car and physics details. Maybe two orders of magnitude. Usually there are several engineers full time involved in the care and feeding of the simulator, and often a "simulator coach" as well. The coach's job is to help the race driver separate things that are "common to sim and real car", from things that are "artifacts of the sim". The idea is to ignore the latter...not always so easy to do.