The sim racing gameplay style has been applied in several video games. These include iRacing, Assetto Corsa and Assetto Corsa Competizione, Gran Turismo, and Forza Motorsport. Le Mans Ultimate, an officially licensed simulation of the FIA World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series, was released on July 22, 2025. It was built on an improved version of the isiMotor 2 physics engine from rFactor 2.
The earliest attempts at driving simulation experiences were arcade racing video games, dating back to Pole Position, a 1982 arcade game developed by Namco. Pole Position II was released in 1983. TX-1, developed by Tatsumi in 1983, was licensed to Namco and then to Atari in America. In 1986, Konami released WEC Le Mans, an early car driving simulator based on the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The first racing game with simulation pretensions on a home system is believed to have been Chequered Flag, released by Psion on the 8-bit ZX Spectrum in 1983. REVS followed in 1986.
Sim racing is generally acknowledged to have really taken off in 1989 with the introduction of Papyrus Design Group's Indianapolis 500: The Simulation. This game is often regarded as the personal computer's first true auto racing simulation. In 1991, Namco released the arcade game Mitsubishi Driving Simulator, co-developed with Mitsubishi. The next major milestone was the 1992 release of Formula One Grand Prix by MicroProse, also developed by Geoff Crammond. Papyrus followed up Indy 500 with IndyCar Racing in 1993. The first variant of Papyrus' NASCAR Racing series was launched in 1994. In 1993, Network Q RAC Rally was released as an authentic sim racer based specifically on rallying. Sega Rally Championship was released in 1995. Rally sim racers became highly popular after the 1998 release of Colin McRae Rally.
1995 saw the release of IndyCar Racing II. A year later, MicroProse released Grand Prix 2, the successor to F1GP. In 1996, NASCAR Racing 2 was released. In 1997, Gran Turismo was released for the PlayStation.
F1 Racing Simulation by Ubisoft was among the first to utilize new graphics accelerator technology in 1997. MicroProse released Grand Prix 3. Another milestone in sim racing came in 1998 with the release of Papyrus’ Grand Prix Legends. In 1997, TORCS was released. Sega AM2's 1999 arcade game F355 Challenge, later ported to the Dreamcast in 2000, was considered the most accurate simulation of the Ferrari F355 possible up until that time. American independent developer Image Space Incorporated produced their own sim Sports Car GT in 1999, and later the officially-licensed F1 series starting in 2000.
One of the earliest examples of more complex vehicle physics implementations was Live for Speed, created by ex-Lionhead Studios developers Eric Bailey, Scawen Roberts, and Victor van Vlaardingen in 2003. Credited as the first true rallying simulation, Richard Burns Rally by Warthog Games was released in 2004. rFactor was originally released in 2005 by Image Space Incorporated. rFactor's 2012 sequel, rFactor 2, became the official simulator of the Formula E series in 2022. David Kaemmer, co-founder of the now-defunct Papyrus Design Group, released iRacing in 2008. Kunos Simulazioni began development on Assetto Corsa in 2010. Slightly Mad Studios, developers of the Shift and Shift 2 installments of Need for Speed games, launched Project CARS in 2015. Slightly Mad Studios' Project CARS 2 sequel was released in 2017.
Assetto Corsa Competizione previously featured official tournaments hosted by governing body SRO Motorsports Group. Formula One has annually hosted F1 Sim Racing since 2017. iRacing currently hosts numerous esports championships on its platform, including official series such as the Porsche TAG Heuer Esports Supercup, World of Outlaws Pro Series, IMSA Esports Global Championship, and the FIA F4 Global Esports Championship. eNASCAR is also hosted on iRacing, including its premier championship, the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.