The Sport or gaming-what was first for you?

[tannat]

My love of auto racing preceded my love of racing sims. Racing sims became a substitute for a sport I could afford to do on only rare occasions.

Sure, when I was quite young in the 80's I had an Atari 2600, but there was really nothing sim like at the time. Concurrently I followed my passion for rallying watching IMSA GTP racing, rallying and F1. The 2600 went on its way in 1987.

About 10 years later after diligently following the fortunes of F1, sportscars and rallying my brother offered a PS1 to me, I started racing sims and here I am today.

How about you-were you a fan of racing before racing sims, or vice versa?

[pettersolberg29]

Interesting question - for me it was both at about the same time. V-Rally on the PS1 was my first ever game, at about the same time I went to my first ever rally. With other sports the game starts my interest in the sport e.g. DTM from Toca and F1 games.

[Bruce D]

Well started out racing Pitstop 2 and Pole Position on the Commodore 64 before progressing to Grand Prix on the PC (good old 286 pc). Only then did I do karting in real life then realised after 2 seasons that for various reasons it wasn't for me and pulled out and since I've been doing sim racing.

[lcd]

Very nice thread Tannat! ;)
I got Into the rally world through gaming first!
It was the early 00's when by accident got my first rally title-It was the legendary cmr2!
Couldn't believe how addictive a video game could be back then!
From that point, I got a devoted fan of the real sport and a passionate rally gamer!

Can't really tell which I prefer most: gaming or real rallying;
I'd say I couldn't do without one of them! :)

[Bruce D]

I might want to add that while my previous post was my circuit racing experience, as far as rallying goes, well my father was a co-driver when I was born (in fact he went to do a rally the day after I was born!) before servicing for guys and now organising rallies so I've been around the sport all my life so it was only natural that I'd get involved.

[raybak]

I have been into rallying for quite a while before getting into the sim world. Have been competing as a driver and codriver since 1999 in the real world and in the sim world since about 2002.

Ray

[MrJan]

The sport. I was watching rallying and circuit racing before I even knew what a computer was :D Competing followed being interested in gaming, but not because of it.

[Allyc85]

It was the sport for me, the first race I remember is the Monaco Gp 1992 with Mansell V Senna :D

The first game I bought was GP2 which I played and modded way too much for my own good lol.

[tmx]

I was playing Need for Speed - Porsche Unleashed. It was the only Need for Speed game I ever liked because it was more about sim. So I was interested in sport car racing at the sametime.

Then I saw Marrko Martin in Finland 2003 on SpeedTV, I was amazed at the speed. I actually recorded the onboard they shown to the DVD recorder. I seek out CMR2003 after that.

[richy]

The sport, i remember dad taking me to watch the newtwork q rally in brechfa (which I had to scive off school for :) ) when I was about 5. The day was misty and it was about 8 o cloock in the morning then next thing Colin Mcrae comes sideways at full chat out of the mist past us in L555 BAT, one word hooked! still go watching rallies every other weekend now, when nights out on the beer allow lol.

Though I am part of the playstation generation and am on the ps3 all the time when im not in work, if I had to tak one or the other I think rallying would edge it...

[52Paddy]

I was always interested in cars and rallying for as long as I can remember. I used to watch it on TV a lot. Then, in 1996, I got a PS1 for Christmas and the first games that hooked me on sim racing were Monster Trucks and Toca Touring Cars. I was also interested in general gaming, as a pre-teen buck would be. But, for sure, if it wasn't for my love of the sport, I probably wouldn't bother too much with the games.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

I used to watch motor sport on TV from a very young age. I remember Damon Hill winning the WDC in 1996 but the first racing game I played was Rally Championship. It was the game that got me into rallying.

I do remember watching the BTCC in 1997 but I didn't know any of the drivers. I got the first Toca game and fallingn in love with that game made be watch every race of BTCC 98.

In short ,I would probably have found my love for motorsport without games, but games accelerated my love.

[wedge]

Both

I remember seeing F1 races on TV and enjoyed racing arcade games.

It wasn't just Days of Thunder that got me into NASCAR, it was Daytona USA arcade machine as well.

Then of course the next step is karting, trackdays and doing the Nurburgring.