What is sim racing?

I think that AMS2 really shines in VR and with a motion platform. I might be going against the general feeling, but only in AMS2 do I feel this connection to the car, this presence within the model. AC is a different kind of monster. As much as I like it, it feels slower and contact with a curb is generally deadly, which is troublesome for me and I feel disconnected, more thinking than driving. As for what a simulation is, maybe we have to define what is simulated and how people are looking to be deceived. For I racing, people are probably looking for the competition, preparation, and seriousness aspect of a race, which is very well simulated. That's a territory. For me, I just want to feel immersed, my brain engaged, and as long as it keeps my heart rate high and makes me sharper, I believe it's a good sim, that's another territory. I'm not in multiplayer yet, so, nothing does it for me like AMS2. I come from the flight sim community and only started sim racing a few months ago. It's the same battle as Xplane vs Fs2020 over the flight models. And most of the time, people arguing about it never set foot in a real aircraft, and it doesn't matter. We tend to compare the sims to reality, but it is somewhat doomed as they are created through the subjective filter and choices of their devellopers, as objective as they would like it to be. Sims are something else.

 

That's one reason why I started this thread. I've also seen lots of discussions about sim racing, physics, realism, grip etc.etc. and I always had the impression that people were not on the same page. It is possible to shape a basic definition, at least basic for now, to get a better understanding what sim racing is and where the lines are between what people call arcade, simcade and simulation.

There's a few more questions, people often use terms like full sim and hardcore sim, but what does that actually mean? This thread will probably also fail to find answers but as I said, I hope it inspires people to think about it a little bit, it'd help tremendously in future discussions imo.

 

To be honest, I've had plenty of moments like that in ACC e.g. I think before they introduced their 5 point tyre model, and even after that. 7 out of 10 times I'd lose the back end of the Audi R8 LMS through Eau Rouge for no reason. IRL the speeds through that corner is almost 250 kph. I remember Kelvin van der Linde was very upset about the Audi being undriveable at Spa during the GT World Challenge virtual round on ACC, so it's clear that the real Audi drives much better than its virtual counterpart.

I remember Conor Daly and Newsgarden being very vocal about the handling of IndyCars in iRacing. Pretty sure there are people complaining about AC and rF2 as well. Even if you know what you did wrong when you lose your car in ACC, one important question is: is it realistic?