Have you ever wanted to get more fun out of your Racing or Driving Games at Home?

Have you ever wanted to get more fun out of your racing or driving games at home?

Have you ever thought about buying your own home racing simulator set up to use whenever you want?

Not sure where to buy a home racing simulator or how to assemble one?

We recently published a complete guide on where to buy and how to assemble a racing rig or simulator setup in your own home. Read the guide here.

In this article we will cover:

1. What you’ll need to get started

2. How to set up a racing game with a racing rig

3. Tips for using your new racing games setup

4. The best racing games for sim racing

5. Racing game recommendations based on what kind of car or race cars you like

This blog post will teach you how to set up and use racing games with a home racing cockpit so you can get the full racing experience.

Read on for everything from the best games to get, how to install them on your computer, and what accessories are needed to start sim racing.

1. What you’ll need to get started

A home racing rig

A racing seat

Racing pedals

A racing steering wheel

A gaming PC

UHD monitors or screens

Monitor stand

Immersion accessories

Sim racing or driving games

Racing rig

A racing rig is similar to the chassis of a car in that it is the foundation for your new home sim.

Usually constructed from metal or aluminium, this piece of home racing equipment is an important investment as it’ll be the backbone and lifeblood for your home setup and the starting point for your sim journey.

There are two types, a cockpit-style motion cockpit rig that recreates exactly what you see behind the wheel in car games or driving simulations such as Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport or Assetto Corsa; and then there’s a static non-moving version and those rely much heavier on immersion accessories instead of movements. Both these types use force feedback so that you can feel everything.

The best part about home racing rigs? No piles of empty boxes cluttering up your living room!

Static or moving rig

Now you will need to decide whether you want a static/non-moving setup or a full-motion home racing simulator.

A static cockpit is all about using immersion accessories to fully immerse you in the game, more on that later but let’s start with motion setups.

Motion rigs

Usually, there are two types and they are ones that use three degrees of freedom and sim rigs that use six degrees of freedom.

Three degrees of freedom 3DoF

Three degrees of freedom is where it moves in three different directions pitch, yaw and roll.

Six degrees of freedom is where the motion sim moves in six different directions; pitch, yaw and roll along with surge, heave and sway. See diagram below.

Six degrees of freedom 6DoF

6 Degrees Of Motion Detailed

A motion SIM that used six degrees is very immersive and they feel just like a real car hurtling around a racing track. Our racing drivers have compared the two and commented that they feel exactly the same as the real thing.

Racing seats

There are many options with seats but the most important thing is to make sure it’s comfortable and offers you a great driving position.

Also, you may want to consider investing in a seat that’s adjustable for that you will need a seat slider. It’s all about achieving a good seating position.

Then there’s the wheel and pedals it’s important to choose those wisely too.

Racing pedals

Again you are spoilt for choice with both racing wheel and pedals and the main thing to focus on is the quality of the pedal.

Look for details like pedals that offer a bit of feedback and those that offer some feel through your foot.

Like we said it’s important to consider the right wheels and pedals

Other tips when choosing your pedals are to make sure they have good grip, some offer pins and straps to keep your foot in place.

The pedals should be easy enough for you to press down with a reasonable amount of force without having too much effort, but not so loose that they will spin around when released.

If the racing game is realistic then you would want as close an experience to the real thing as possible which means these are important features of any home rig set-up.

As one of Thrustmaster’s newest resellers we have a great range of Thrustmaster pedals sets all very competitively priced.

Racing steering wheels

Things to consider when choosing your steering wheel or arcing wheels are size and weight.

The steering wheel should be in a comfortable position for you to use, make sure it has enough grip so that your hands will not slip off during game play.

There are lots of racing wheels available.

It is also important to consider how realistic the racing games are on home racing setups as well as whether or not they have pedals too because this adds even more realism to driving an actual car.

Again Thrustmaster have an excellent range of Racing Wheels, everything from officially licensed Gran Turismo to Ferrari.

Steering and pedal sets

Thrustmaster also offer various racing wheel and pedal bundles, so now you can get everything you need to get started.   

Gaming PC

This is one of the most important components because to get the most from your home setup you are going to need a powerful gaming PC.

A word of warning: some home racing setups do not include a gaming PC.

Having a high-spec gaming PC is essential especially when using a full-motion sim because you will need to use Sim Racing Studio or similar software to configure the motion and to sync the movements with your racing or driving game.

For our motion cockpits, we use VFE who specialise in Gaming PCs for sims.

Our top of the range motion setup uses the Typhoon it’s built on the amazing power of NVIDIA’s RTX3080 graphics card or graphics processor it is the most powerful performer in our range. 

Bringing unbelievable performance across all major sim platforms including iRacing, Assetto Corsa, Automobilista 1&2 and F1 2013 to 2020.

Our Typhoon uses powerhouse technology to deliver an incredibly smooth race simulation experience. Intel’s Core-i9 10920X CPU and NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3080 GPU combine to ensure that the system is unmatched in its ability to deliver outstanding frame rates from its graphics processor.

32GB of ultra-fast memory is joined by 2 lightning-fast SSD drives, 500GB M.2 SSD which loads your racing simulation software of choice at a stunning 3.5Gb/s and a 2TB SSD for your scenery.

All our PC’s come with a 5 Year Warranty (1-year parts & labour, 4-year labour) and Lifetime Technical Support direct from VFE.

Ultra HD screens or monitors

It goes without saying that next to your gaming PC the screen or monitor is one of the most important things to consider.

Again our top of the range motion simulator comes complete with three Samsung G7 31.5″ Odyssey 4k Curved gaming monitors, capable of the highest frames per second should you wish to give the VR a rest.

A screen or gaming monitor with a high refresh rate is perfect for using with 4K racing or driving games because it should help you avoid any latency issues when playing sim racing games.

Monitor stands

All of our home racing cockpits come complete with a custom-designed monitor stand, which can hold up to three monitors in position.

Things to consider are can you adjust the height of the monitor stand and little to accommodate the height of your home racing seat?

As well as this, can you rotate the screens into portrait mode without any problems.

If not, then we recommend getting a monitor stand that allows for rotation and a little bit more flexibility with positioning (e.g., Ergotron LX Desk Mount LCD Arm).

This will allow you much greater comfort when using the home racing cockpit in VR or non-VR modes.

Immersion accessories

There are so many options for everything from fans to surround sound speakers.

The fans simulate the wind speed of the car, as you speed up so do the fans.

Surround sound speakers you can opt for speakers like the SRS ShakeKit they recreate the vibrations of a racing car – engine sounds, gear changes and rumble of the track to complete the immersion.

See more here

Let’s say that you want to recreate an open-top cockpit racing, well they can help you with that too.

There’s the SIM Racing Studio “Double-the-fan” it comes complete with straighteners so that you direct the airflow, so sim racers have lots of options.

Racing sim and driving games

There are many available so read on to find out more, including our pick of the best racing games that you can play on your home setup.

2.How to set up a racing

game with a sim rig

We have partnered with Sim Racing Studio, so the following is all about how to configure their software with supported sim or driving games.

In fact, they have recently announced a new feature and that is:

As of version 44, SRS app can REMEMBER VEHICLE CONFIG for any vehicle in the following games:

• iRacing
• Assetto Corsa
• Assetto Corsa Competizione
• RFactor 1 and all games based on RF1 engine
• RFactor 2
• F12018
• F1 2019
• Project cars
• Project Cars 2
• RRE
• American Truck Sim
• European Truck Simulator
• GP Bikes
• WRS
• MX Bikes
• Kart Racing Pro

Note many of these games are available on Xbox one and the PS5, so now console owners can involved with sim racing; they also feature challenges so that you can stay sharp.

It’s all about dropping you straight into the action so that you can experience that up close.

Once you’ve selected a game and vehicle in the Steam interface, SRS will display the current game title and vehicle type at the bottom of the screen.

When you enter a supported car, the name of the vehicle will appear on your screen in the lower right-hand corner.

You can now adjust the wind and shaking intensity for particular vehicles.

If you have not created a custom vehicle profile for your stationery cockpit, the game’s default profile will be in italics.

Once you finish tuning Wind, Shake, Motion and many other parameters for that specific vehicle, just click on SAVE near the right bottom of SRS app. You can save the current configuration to any vehicle in a specific GAME or for just this VEHICLE.

SRS remembers the game and vehicle you’ve previously played, and sets all the parameters automatically for you!

Also, saving this configuration will not override any vehicle settings you have set up in this system; it only includes vehicles that are not specifically defined in the game’s default profile, such as those configured by manufacturer name or other non-default features.

3. Tips for using your new setup

Since most sim racers start with a static sim we are going to focus our tips on those.

What you buy depends on what game you want to play and how much money you have. For most sim racers, the following is a good sim racing setup: for PC or console.

This is the best wheel for beginners and sim racers. It can be used on a PS4 or Xbox One. The pedal set that comes with it is of high quality and has metal pedals. There are also two motors in the wheel, which allow you to feel everything that’s going on while you race on your pc.

4. Our pick of the top racing games for home racing sims

Forza Horizon 4, GT dreams: Assetto Corsa Competitizione, if you are looking for something ultra-realistic there’s iRacing, or perhaps something a little more beginner-friendly like Project Cars 3 or maybe something free to play like Raceroom.

Or if you are after some full-throttle fun then there’s Forza Motorsport 7.

So sim racers are really spoilt for choice, particularly on PCs.

5. Racing game recommendations based on what kind of car you like

Asseto Corsa

Assetto Corsa is a highly regarded racing game with a realistic force feedback feel. It’s available for Xbox, PS4 and PC, but is most often played on PC – where an absolutely massive amount of fan-made downloadable content is also available. The small Italian developer that made the game offers official DLC packs including one themed after Ferrari F1 cars, and a trio of downloads featuring Porsche cars.

In conclusion, the game offers a realistic driving experience with good graphics and VR support, making it an ideal simulator for racer enthusiasts.

Project Cars 2

Project Cars 2 is the second game in a hugely popular racing simulation series and improves on graphics, content, feel of force feedback racing wheel, and racetracks from the first.

Project car is the game for you. The game features a wide assortment of cars which include real-world GT3 cars, IndyCars, rally cars and even karts. It also includes just about every popular track in the world including Spa, Nurburgring, Monza and Le Mans.

It’s hard to go wrong with this racer, which is available for PS4, Xbox, and PC.

F1 2020

If you’re a Formula 1 fan, don’t miss out on F1 2020. The official video game of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship, F1 2020 features all the official teams, drivers, and 21 circuits from the 2019 season.

The title of the article also includes F2, allowing players to compete in the 2018 season before stepping into the higher stakes racing.

Customize your Formula One race car by creating your own livery, or replay and share your best racing moments with a new automated highlight feature.

Dirt Rally

Dirt Rally is a great game for those in need of entry-level racing rig; the realism is not lost on dirt rally fans. With vast stages and cars, I’d say there are few flaws to be found within Dirt Rally. The sequel to Dirt Rally, Dirt 4, is also held with high regard among players as well for racers who enjoy off-road races.

Gran Tourismo Sport

While not the most realistic racing experience, Gran Turismo Sport can still help you hone your driving skills and best of all – it features a very active online user base with real FIA-sanctioned online racing series.

One of the drawbacks critics note about Gran Turismo Sport in comparison to Project Cars 2 is that it lacks tracks from around the world, like Le Mans or Roval Circuit at Nurburgring. However, one way the game compensates for this is with fantasy tracks where racers can enjoy themselves.

The creators introduced a few fantasy tracks as well as some that are their own design to make up for lacking real-life racing venues. Many people who have tried these circuits and noted its shortcomings instead enjoyed these new “fantasy” courses which they had not experienced before in other games

What Gran Turismo lacks in realistic tracks it makes up for with a large number of players looking to race against each other. If you want to challenge these drivers and enter competitions, you should download Gran Turismo Sport.

Start by following the instructions in the manual and watch our YouTube tutorial video on how to set up your new home racer!

The process is straightforward but does require a certain degree of patience and attention span.

If you need some help our sim building experts are on hand to guide you and we have a white-glove assembly service where they come to your home and assemble your new racing simulator.

Once installed it’s time for some racing action!

What are you waiting for? Download one of these free driving or motorbike simulations from Steam now.

Once assembled, home cockpits work much like their arcade counterparts: they simulate driving from inside the car’s cockpit.

About us

The founders of Blue Box SIMS were in exactly the same position as you and that is why they founded the company; they realised there was a gap in the market for them to provide a complete solution.

The founders of Blue Box SIMS know that sourcing all of the components for your home racing simulator is a daunting task and don’t want you to have to worry about it, they will take care of everything.

More than that they are actually racers; their son regularly competes in the club and national championships such as the British Karting Championship, LGM and Ultimate Karting Championship.

That was where Blue Box SIMS began.

Blue Box SIMS is based in Bedford, United Kingdom and are specialists in building racing simulators.

We offer everything from full-motion racing simulators to all of the immersion accessories that you need to get the absolute most from your simulator or driving simulator games.

Our team are not only experts in where to source all of the parts and components but also they are very experienced in assembling sims or racing simulators as well as configuring the motion software.

If you have any questions about simulators or SRS software or even the games and how to configure then get in touch, you can use live chat on our website.

We offer everything from full-motion simulators to all of the immersion accessories that you need to get the absolute most from your game or driving simulation.

Our team are not only experts in where to source all of the parts and components but also they are very experienced in assembling race sims as well as configuring the motion software. If you have any questions about race simulations or SRS software, then you can use live chat on our website.

If you’re looking for a home simulator with realistic graphics and an immersive environment, we’ve got just what it takes! All of Blue Box SIMS’ high-end home simulators come with that as standard.

You can find out more about home simulators by calling the team at Blue Box SIMS or visiting our website.

We offer everything from full-motion race sims to all of the immersion accessories you need to get the most from your driving simulation!

Not only are our team experts in sourcing parts for home simulators but they’re also experienced in assembling them as well as configuring the motion software.

If you have any questions about simulators or SRS software then we’re here on live chat and happy to help.

If you want an immersive home simulator with realistic graphics and environments then we’ve got just what it takes! All of our high-end home simulators feature everything you need.

So whatever your goal we can help.

Conclusion

We hope this post has proved helpful to you, and we’re excited to have helped. If there’s anything else you need help with feel free to ask us in the comments below or email [email protected]

There are a lot of different types of simulator games out there – most importantly, what’s your favourite? Perhaps, we haven’t mentioned it here either way let us know in the comments!

You never know if you suggest a really good one that we haven’t included we might even update our list in our next post.