iRacing opened its doors in 2008 and through most of its life has been regarded by many as probably the most realistic racing simulator out there.

One of the reasons for its popularity is its competitive online racing with a good ranking system that see racers compete against similarly skilled people from around the world.

Other titles, like the Project Cars series, have enjoyed some success but have eventually not stood the test of time. Although, Assetto Corsa, has been very popular as a simulator game and has a wide fanbase who enjoy the game and its modding ability.

There are games such as Grand Turismo, Forza Motorsport and the official F1 series, which, although very popular and fun to play, could not be considered as out and out race simulators.

A term that is often used to describe these games is ‘simcaid’, more of a cross between a racing simulator and an arcade game. Don’t get me wrong, these are great games to play and can be a lot of fun, but I don’t think they set out to be ‘simulators’ of the real world.

Perhaps, simulators such as iRacing, still have a way to go yet to be so-called ‘real world’, but I think they make a pretty good job of it. As technology gets even better, who knows where this will lead.

iRacing has had it pretty much its own way for much of its life, but competition is good, and there is at last some other titles being developed that might just add a bit of competition to the market. It puts pressure on developers to stay ahead of rivals and things seem to be shaping up very nicely for sim racers in 2025.

In the last two or three years or so, other racing simulator titles have come to market, albeit so far, only in what they call, ‘early access’ form.

This is where a game is far from being complete but allows early adopters the chance to use the simulator while it is being developed and gradually added to.

Some people like this idea of getting to try a new game as early as possible, while others don’t think a gaming company should be making money by selling to the public an incomplete, and often buggy, unfinished product. You make your own mind up.

There was a lot of excitement when Rennsport was released in this way some three years ago but for various reasons seems to have lost its way somewhat in that time and is still in early access.

Although it had a sticky start, lots of bugs and other issues, Le Mans Ultimate seems now to be really making some noise in the sim racing community.

It seems quite focused in its ambitions and as its name suggests, is more focused on the endurance side of racing, offering, at least for the moment, one or two features that other sims do not.

Le Mans Ultimate is also due to come out of early access shortly, offering LMU 1.0 as early as July 2025.

There has always been Assetto Corsa, not only popular because of its driveability but also the extensive modding community that has built up around it.

Then there was Assetto Corsa Competitione, which has never gained the following that the original Assetto Corsa enjoyed. And now comes Assetto Corsa Evo.

When Assetto Corsa Evo was first announced there was a lot of hope and expectation that this would indeed be a serious simulator.

Despite looking good and driving pretty well when it was released in ‘early access’, there wasn’t a lot of content and not much to do but hotlap a few cars and tracks. It was greeted with a little disappointment.

Despite a few updates and the company apologising for getting things wrong at first, delays in some of the promised features, especially the much-hyped free-roaming aspect, has irritated some people.

But, nevertheless, if all that is promised comes to fruition in not too long a timescale, Assetto Corsa Evo still promises to be a very good looking and well performing title.

How good, we’ll have to wait and see. But there is still a lot of expectation for this title.

And last, but not least, is Project Motor Racing. Scheduled to come out, not in early access, but in a full release this autumn.

From some of the people behind the no-longer available Project Cars 2, and involving Ian Bell, a man that is incredibly good at talking the talk, Project Motor Racing could be the holy grail of racing simulators? Ian Bell has, at least, been brave enough to state that Project Motor Racing is using iRacing as its benchmark.                      

It promises so much, and if all that promise is delivered, it could be the best sim title yet. We’ll again have to wait and see if the developers can truly deliver the best racing simulator out there.

All this competition is great for us sim racers, it should certainly keep the likes of iRacing on their toes.

They promote themselves as the best, so the harder the developers have to work to justify that accolade the better it is for us.

2025 could end up being a very good year for sim racing!