Jerry Was A Race Car Driver

This is just for show

This was something I read off Kotaku.  Ever heard of this iRacing game?  It's an online racing simulator that's arguably one of the most realistic.  You can drive stock cars, Formula 1, and other miscellaneous road cars.  You have to pay for online subscriptions though, just like World of Warcraft.  Except this is a thousand times better than WoW if you know what I mean.  I don't know if I would get on-board with this because my computer sucks, I don't have a steering wheel or money, and I don't think I'm in the mood for a hard-ass racing sim right now.

http://www.iracing.com/

Now, what about it?  Well, I've always wanted to be a real race car driver.  However, that's not easy, especially to be a Formula 1/Le Mans driver for the undesirable factors behind professional racing: tons of practice and car tuning, motion sickness, extreme G-forces, grueling body conditioning, possibility of a wreck/injury/death, the pressure of competition, and so forth.  I talked WAY back about the dangers of racing.  And on top of this, it takes a lot of skill and a bit of luck to even reach a level of racing where you can do it for a living.  Then again, Cole Trickle jumped off the motorcycle and became a stock car racer just like that, but that's the movies we're talking about.  Okay, so what?

Well, make way for Greger Huttu who is arguably #1 at iRacing.  Just some normal gaming joe schmoe from Finland.  Since he won, he got the chance to drive a real Formula 1 car around Road Atlanta (a track I've played enough of in Forza to hate it).  Click for the article/slideshow to see what happens:

http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/geek-rebooted-2010-11-26?imageNo=0

He does fifteen laps.  His best lap time is 3 seconds off the benchmark time, which is pretty damn good for someone who's never driven professionally before.  However, he throws up halfway through his run and has to change his helmet and down some medication.  Then after that, he does a few more laps until he is physically worn out and has to stop.

Dammit, and I thought I could pull a John Daly and cruise right into professional racing without having to undergo a professional workout regimen, but that's not the case.  Of course, this is Formula 1 we're talking about--maybe try something slower like go-karts instead?

Huttu is only 30 years old and it's already "too late" for him to condition his body for racing.  Now this isn't entirely true because if Brett Favre can still play in the NFL then anything goes, I guess.  Well, that just sucks because it's another instance of "you can't do this when you're old."  Football, basketball, tennis, Starcraft, you name it (the only exception to this is golf and shuffleboard).  Life isn't fair.  I'm only 22 and even if I wanted to drive SOMETHING, I better start getting prepared now, but with college and computer science calling, there's very little room to maneuver.  And when it comes to "racing," my options past getting an old muscle car and taking it out to the drag strip is nonexistent.

That leaves two options:

1. Skip Barber Racing School!  Yes, this looks like fun.  It's like college in that you can take lessons in  a wide variety of areas.  However, the price usually goes for $1000+ a day which means I could save up for a Daytona USA 2 cabinet instead.  The closest courses from where I live would be Sebring (Florida) and Road Atlanta (Georgia).

http://www.skipbarber.com/sessions/

 2. 24 Hours of Lemons.  You take a car that's $500 or less and race it around for a few hours or something.  This one's really stupid...only if I'm extremely desperate.

http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/

Well, when you compare real life racing to...say, Daytona USA or OutRun or whatever, they're two different things.  You can be a good real-life race car driver but you may suck at Daytona USA.  That's what makes these games fun, because they're games, not simulations.  I'd like my Sega racers to have a lick of realism in them (and they do to a certain extent...gotta hit the braking lines, control the sensitive pedals and wheel, and so forth) but I like them how they are.  Real-life driving and Sega racer driving are two different worlds.

Now, would I rather be a paid race car driver or work for Sega and make a new Daytona game?  Which would I pick?  I would like both, but give me Daytona USA--make all the people happy, deliver justice, and SAVE VIDEO GAMES AS WE KNOW IT...  Sega first, then race-car driving later.  Besides, you can press the restart button in a video while in the race, you just crash and die.