And here we are, people of the internet! I collated a tier list of sim racing games I have played. Read on for explanations on why I placed the games the way I did.
You may notice that most of the sims I have listed are rather new. The reason is simple: I started sim racing in 2020, as part of the COVID-19 hype. So most of the game I have played are more up-to-date.
All games within classes are unordered. so just because a game might be listed above another one in Class A, that doesn’t mean I prefer one over the other.
S-Class
I left S-Class empty on purpose. The main reason for this is that I haven’t found the one sim to rule them all in my opinion. I haven’t found the one sim racing game I would play until the end of my days. So far, all sims I tried had pros and cons. And the cons were are always too big for me to let them slide.
A-Class
A-Class are the games that I really enjoy playing, but have some issue that keep me from playing them forever.
RaceRoom Racing Experience
RaceRoom is a class sim. It’s the sim I once spent most of time on. It’s the sole reason why me and Pawel founded tracc.eu back in the day.
I love how the cars handle. You can properly door-bang. Touring cars, especially, are hugely enjoyable. The net code is great. From a driving/racing standpoint, I have no issues with this game.
My Issues come from two sources. I dislike the HUD and how it’s customisability is dependant on one modder who develops a custom HUD. The other point is just the player numbers. I like sim racing online. And most of the active players in RaceRoom were recently said by the studio head to play in singleplayer mode. So ranked racing can be a bit quiet oftentimes, which is a shame. Even the recent update couldn’t inspire many people to return full-time. Also, racing is not feature complete with a lack of safety cars, full course yellows or driver swaps.
Personally, I don’t see the visuals, lack of day/night cycle and lack of rain as a big issue. Supposedly, many others do, though, so I’m just mentioning that to let you know I acknowledge that.
Assetto Corsa
Assetto Corsa is great. Especially the moddability of the game is what makes it shine. It’s rather simple to get a mod going and publish it.
Car handling is very accessible. There is a plethora of content available. It’s so fun to just drive around some obscure circuit in a supercar. Additionally, online racing just works. Mods have really transformed Assetto Corsa in one of the greatest experiences you can have.
Racing might work, but there are parts of it that are just meh. Large grids are basically impossible. Anything larger than 20 people racing and you may already run into trouble on a server. Additionally, the low barrier of entry for modding enables trash to flood the scene. So mods are very much hit or miss (if not outright stolen), if you try them out from a modder you don’t know. In addition to that, racing is just missing many features like safety cars, full-course yellows, driver swaps and more. All the stuff a complete racing experience would need, in my opinion.
Assetto Corsa Competizione
I have to like it, it’s the main sim our racing community races on! Well, it’s not just that, but I genuinely like most aspects of ACC.
The great things of ACC are, in my opinion, the handling of the cars, the graphics and the ease of access for league racing. There are so many tools that make managing a league easy. But also just the racing is intense and enjoyable for me.
One of my issues with ACC is a lack of content. Yes, it’s the GT World Challenge game. So it only has GT World Challenge content. But even then, it by far doesn’t have all there. It’s lacking loads of cars like touring cars that would race against the BMW M2 CS, some GT4s and some GT2s. Above all, though, it’s lacking in circuits. When Suzuka is the only Asian circuit in the game, that’s disappointing to me. The 2024 season of GT World Challenge Asia additionally runs on Fuji, Sepang, Chang, Okayama and Shanghai. What a calendar! And none of these tracks are in the game. What a shame.
I am also doubtful that modders will take up ACC after it receives no more updates.
Also, a few feature of the game are just lacking. Drivers swaps are in the game, but meh. It’s stressful to have to manage that pit stuff while out on the circuit. Also, for a sim that plays host to many endurance events, it’s lacking endurance features like safety cars.
B-Class
B-Class are games that I still like and play from time to time, but struggle with getting me to stay.
Le Mans Ultimate
Le Mans Ultimate could be so great! It’s lacking a bit, though.
What I like about most is the handling of the cars. I just like how the Hypercars, LMP2s and GTEs drive. Especially the LMP2s are really enjoyable. The new co-op mode is a great addition to the game and I enjoyed trying it out with a friend and fellow tracc.eu staff member.
The issues lie mostly in the lack of content and features. It is early access, so not all is finished. But that means it’s lacking stuff like GT3s at the moment. It’s lacking the possibility to host league races. It’s lacking online driver swaps. So many things that are fundamental is getting this game to the heights it can achieve.
There are also uncertainties going around about the future of the game and it’s development company. We’ll have to see where that leads, but I am confident the game will continue development, just like RaceRoom has continued.
iRacing
iRacing is good. Except where it isn’t.
The strong suits of iRacing are definitely the easy of access for online ranked racing and the amount of content it has. I love that you can just go into the iRacing app and select a race and just race in less than 15 minutes. And that’s pretty much around the clock. Also, there are so many different car classes having championships running all the time. There are so many different circuits. There is pretty much something for everything. Apart from that, there are great features all around like safety cars and rather uncomplicated drivers swaps. That allows for great endurance racing, technically.
However, if your tastes are more niche than free cars or GT3s, then you will have a hard time to actually find sessions most of the day. Australian Supercars, Brazilian Stock Cars and SRX are just some of the examples where it’s not even sure a session will happen at all on a normal weekday. In addition, the pricing for content is very steep and on a personal level I just don’t really like the handling of the cars, when compared to rFactor 2 or Assetto Corsa Competizione.
rFactor 2
rFactor 2 is one of the more disappointing of the high-ranking entries for me.
The two aspect I really favour here are the car handling/physics and the moddability. It’s the second most modded of the more modern sim racing game, after Assetto Corsa. So much of that content is just class and lovely to race. Especially circuits like Knockhill or Chang immediately come to mind. I’ve had many great races. And the handling and driving physics are the best.
The downside used to be pretty much everything that doesn’t happen on the track. I don’t think that is the case anymore, however over the years people just drifted away from rFactor 2 to the point that the ranked online is not too active. Most of the online racing happens within their respective communities, from what I can tell. So what’s missing for me is just the anchor to get into it. ACC, RaceRoom and AC just deliver more in their own regards. It doesn’t feel like something accessible, when I’ve already got everything set up.
At this moment in time, it’s just not the sim for me.
C-Class
These are games that I used to play and like but haven’t kept me around, mostly.
Richard Burns Rally
Now, you may ask, what is a rally sim from 2004 doing here on the list?
Well, I used to race RBR a while back when we had a weekly online championship on the rallysimfans.hu adaptation of the game, which updates it with loads of stuff to the point where it may as well be a new game, entirely.
The driving physics still stack up to this day. It feels good. It’s got a great variety of content, too. So, it’s fun!
The graphics are nothing to write home about though.
I haven’t played it in a while because I’ve had no reason too. Sim racing is something community-based for me but there hasn’t been the biggest interest in rally surrounding our community. There’s always a bit of interest, but that gets lost quickly. It’s more of a short hype-spurt every time we try. Maybe some day.
DiRT Rally 2.0
DR2.0 is pretty much the opposite of RBR.
Good graphics, less content.
And the reason is pretty much the same as with RBR. There is just nothing that keeps me coming back to this game at the moment.
Automobilista 2
Getting back to road racing, AMS2 is a great sim with loads of content and even great obscure racetracks, which is a personal preference of mine. So why is it so low in this ranking?
I just have no reason to play it. Everything AMS2 does that I want, some other sim I currently play just does it in a way I like more. Assetto Corsa is there for my obscure race tracks. ACC for the league racing. RaceRoom for the grand variety in content. As I said, it’s a great sim. It feels well, not great but good enough. It just doesn’t catch me.
D-Class
Next up are games that just couldn’t really get me to dig deep, even though they are not bad per se.
Automobilista
To be honest, I mostly tried the stadium super trucks in Automobilista because it’s unique. It’s something I wanted to try. Now, it’s something I don’t want to try anymore. They were just hard to drive.
Apart from the stadium super trucks, there is nothing that would really get me to play Automobilista. It’s perks are moddability, which AC does better, obscure South American content, which AMS2 does better and that’s about it.
I just have little reason to dig deep into it.
Project CARS 2
Now this is an entry where I had to think about it’s placement for a while.
This is the sim, believe it or not, that got me into sim racing. I had bought it years before I started sim racing but didn’t enjoy it with a controller. So when, in 2020, I bought a wheel I tried this again as one of only two modern sims I had at the time. And I enjoyed it.
Then, when looking for a community to do league races in, I stumbled upon Assetto Corsa Competizione. It was only a year later or so, when I tried Project CARS 2 again, that I realised that it’s just not very good compared to hardcore sims like ACC, rF2 or RaceRoom.
And now you can’t even buy it anymore since licenses expired. Which is sad. It had my favourite circuit in the world, Brno. Ah well.
WRC Generations
I tried it out, found it okay but not as good as DiRT Rally 2.0 and that was that.
I wish there was more I could say here but it’s just that.
E-Class
Now we’re getting into the sims that I dislike. Yes, these are the ones I could absolutely go without.
RENNSPORT
Let’s, for a minute, ignore the lack of features and content. Because that is, believe it or not, my biggest gripe.
The force feedback is the worst I’ve ever felt. And that includes the other E-Class entries here. RENNSPORT’s force feedback feels like something that can only be enjoyed in a manner that is not PG13. And that means everything else doesn’t matter. If I don’t enjoy how it handles, nothing else matters.
Copa Petrobras de Marcas
This game is by Reiza. Makers of Automobilista and Automobilista 2.
You can tell this was not made for modern hardware. I’ve had trouble running it, but once I managed to get it to work on my Fanatec CSL DD, it felt underwhelming. The force feedback is just a static force, so it’s bad but at least not revolting per se. The game only has a few select cars and 6 circuits, so nothing to write home about too.
You could maybe enjoy it if you like and/or have a history with Brazilian stock cars. But that’s not me.
At least it’s free on Steam, unlike…
PISTA Motorsport
This game is suprisingly similar to Copa Petrobras de Marcas, with the only differences being it’s Argentine and not Brazilian, it’s 10 years newer and it’s paid.
It works somewhat well on my hardware without many issues. It just doesn’t feel well and currently only has two game modes. Practice session and leaderboard challenge.
I have no reason to retry it until a major update comes.
And that’s the lot…
I know there are a lot of sim racing games I haven’t yet played, some of them I even own already. I have Race07, Grand Prix Legends, GT Legends, GTR, GTR2, STCC, NASCAR Racing 2003 and many more that can be put on this list. I haven’t yet been able to try them out, though. And that’s why they are not on this list.
Also, I left out some games where I am not sure how much they qualify as sim racing. The difference in definition between sim racing, arcade and sim racing is washy anyways. But notably, Total Immersion Racing, the first road racing game I ever played (as opposed to street racing like Need for Speed) is missing here. The reason in that case is that I haven’t tried it out with a wheel, yet. I do want to, however. Some day, maybe I will. A while back I wrote a column on my history with Total Immersion Racing and how it got me into racing games as a whole.
What do you think of this tier list? Any things you would change? Let me know in the tracc.eu Discord server.