Sim racing and real racing are closer than ever - but does our favourite hobby help with getting your driver's license?
I know. It sounds a bit absurd. I have lost count of the times I got asked, "Wait, so you're a huge racing fan, work in sim racing, and you don't have a driver's license?". But indeed, until very recently, I did not have a license, which wasn't really an issue, but more of a point on the list of things I should still do sometime.
Well, sometime is now, I finally figured, and just over a week before turning 34 recently, I passed my exam and am now officially allowed to drive. Despite Germany's reputation for quite difficult (and expensive, but that's a different story) driver's education, it was a fun time that I'll remember fondly.
But even before I really started taking lessons, I had been wondering: Would my sim racing experience be helpful in my driving endeavours, or could it make things more difficult in some instances? It's certainly not a simple yes or no answer. Here's what I found.
Sim Racing & Driving - A Few Basic Observations
Let's start with one very obvious thing: Just like racing and normal driving are completely different disciplines, so are sim racing and normal driving. This had become apparent whenever friends or family members with no racing experience or interest wanted to try my sim racing rig.
All their habits from driving road cars, which they did pretty much every day, were also present in the rig - it's just that they don't transfer well. Slightly pushing the brake pedal with a corner approaching at well over 200 kph simply will not suffice, and cranking the steering wheel like you would when turning into the grocery store parking lot certainly does not aid precise car placement in tight corners, either.
That is what I kept in mind when I started taking lessons. Both are completely different animals, so instead of approaching learning to drive with a mindset of "this should be a breeze, I probably know more than most who start here", it was a curious approach. I was simply wondering which skills would transfer, and which would not - or even get in the way.
Where Sim Racing Helped
Shifting Gears
As a long-time member of the Heel & Toe Gang (see the about author field), there was never really a question about whether I'd learn to drive in a manual car or in an automatic one. Hours upon hours of racing retro cars in the rig meant I was rather looking forward to this, actually. And it turned out that shifting was the element that sim racing helped me with the most.
There are a few differences, of course, mainly the clutch feel. As has often been discussed in many a comment section here on OverTake, few (if any) sim racing pedals can replicate the proper bite point feel of a real clutch pedal. Despite this, I found it fairly easy to get used to this, even when switching cars occasionally.
Driving manual cars like this BMW M1 in sim racing for years certainly helped me with driving manual cars in real life, too.
The other main difference is, of course, that you don't actually use heel and toe in normal, everyday driving. Downshifts are much simpler as a result, something I was aware of before even starting to take lessons. The general movements and feel of where each of the gears are located in the gate were the same as in the rig, so shifting was not a problem at all.
Being a bit nervous at a traffic light and stalling the engine in a few of the earlier lessons is a different story, though.
Spatial Awareness
Ah, my favorite issue with many open lobby drivers: not knowing what's going on around you and where you placed your car. Plenty of avoidable accidents have occurred in probably every single sim that has had a multiplayer mode. Luckily, many titles now include a radar by default.
Anyway, knowing where to look, how close the car is to kerbs, or if this cul-de-sac would have enough space for me to do a three-point turn in it despite other cars having been parked there... adventurously, to put it mildly, all felt rather natural. And I think I can give sim racing some credit for that.
Image: Kunos Simulazioni
If you are racing on a single monitor, particularly the non-super-ultrawide kind, there is a lot of guessing involved when it comes to the size of your car. A properly set FOV should help with this, of course, but you do learn to gauge the dimensions of the car you are racing. In VR, it's a bit better as you can look around and have the added depth perception.
In a real car, this translated well for me. Keeping an eye on the mirrors was also helped by my sim racing exploits, I'd say.
Anticipation, Part 1
Closely linked to the previous point, anticipating what others are going to do and adjusting your driving accordingly is something that you, ideally, pick up quickly in sim racing. Following a car closely into a braking zone, most will quickly figure out that if you use your usual braking marker, the car ahead might end up with less trunk space than what came with their ride initially. So, next time this happens, adapt by lifting off the throttle for a little while before hitting the brakes.
This is a bit different in normal traffic, of course, but being on the look-out for the actions of others constantly helps immensely in that as well. Once you get to driving a bit faster, so once you leave a town or village or even on the Autobahn, identifying what others are doing quickly and as early as possible is crucial. Not only is it important to avoid accidents, but it also makes for a much more relaxed drive if you don't have to brake heavily all of a sudden.
Also, even at 417 kph, you technically have to use the right lane on the Autobahn if there are no other cars around you. Just sayin'.
That said, let's delve into the one area where sim racing did not really help.
Where Sim Racing Didn't Help
Anticipation, Part 2
This was a bit of a mixed bag. More than a couple of times, I saw other cars coming that could be in my way or vice versa if the timing wasn't right and thought "I can still make this".
And while I may well have made it, it turns out that during the actual exam, these attempts were frowned upon a bit. Especially in the case of a Rechts-vor-Links-Kreuzung (a junction where the cars from the right have the right of way unless signage says otherwise).
Once I managed to really internalise the thought of just taking it easy no matter what, things went much more smoothly. If you wait an extra few seconds or even a minute, that is simply time not spent driving during the exam, so bonus time where you cannot make any mistakes while driving, after all.
Spot a car going down the lane you want to turn into? Chill, let them pass. Got a car coming from the right, but with a bit of distance? Slow down, let them turn out of that street, then continue. Don't have to be first, no matter what, on public roads.
Image: Kunos Simulazioni
Sim Racing & Your Driver's License - Can It Be Helpful?
To answer the question in the title: Yes, sim racing can help with getting your driver's license - the key word being 'can'. This will be different for everyone, I feel, but there were a few key elements where my sim racing experience was actually beneficial and applicable to real-world public road scenarios.
Would I recommend sim racing specifically as a preparation tool for learning how to drive in real life? Not necessarily - both are vastly different disciplines, and you may pick up a few bad habits in sim racing that will not work on actual roads.
But if you are having fun in sim racing and keep logging lap after lap, eventually you might find that a few things can translate to the cockpit of a road car - don't expect to do everything right on the first try and pass the exams with flying colours just because of it.
Now bring on Assetto Corsa EVO's free roam mode!
Have you noticed sim racing having a positive impact on your driving? Has it maybe even saved you in a critical situation? Let us know your stories in the comments below!
