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No, it's not. It's got "simulated" right in the title.
But, it's fun and if you don't know a track it's useful to help make Practice 1 of your race weekend a little more about getting up to speed rather than "which way does the road go?".
So, not REAL racing by definition but educational to a point and an entertaining way to kill a bunch of cold winter evenings. Plus, you can get take the green flag with a beer in your cupholder.
Huckleberry wrote: So, not REAL racing by definition but educational to a point and an entertaining way to kill a bunch of cold winter evenings. Plus, you can get take the green flag with a beer in your cupholder.
While not wearing pants.
In reply to ProDarwin:
Lighter = faster. Right?
Great way to learn tracks 
Maybe. But are race drivers athletes? ...ducks his head...
I think once head tracking VR takes off it'll be much closer to actually driving.
Does it really matter?
Is racing two slot cars racing? RC cars? RC planes?
To the operator, they are equally as real operation as sim driving- the physical interaction with the motion isn't there.
But, to me, since the goal of racing is to go faster than the other person- sure, it's racing.
It isn't driving, tough. I'd personally rather drive to race.
Maybe with the head tracking VR they can simulate getting in and out of the car with your helmet and neck restraint on. You know...a nice jolt of some sort as you "gracefully" crawl through the window or roll bar. That would really bring in the full experience.
As we were preparing this issue for print I was thinking about the differences between sim racing and "real" racing. The biggest difference I could find was courage. It takes no courage to run fast in a sim. The penalty for crashing is putting down the Cheetos and reaching over to press the reset button.
It takes real courage to be fast on a race track. Getting hurt, or even dying is a real possibility in the physical world, not so much on a computer. It takes cajones to be fast in real life---- not needed in the virtual world.
Going fast on a computer takes skill-- no doubt-- but it's more of a game, and less a test of bravery. Sims are awesome learning tools, and a sim race is a race--much as alfadriver said-- like a slot car race, or an RC race. It's not really comparable to risking your life in the pursuit of speed though.
just my .02
It's different from the driver/participant's perspective. It seems pretty much the same from a spectator's perspective though.
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