I’ve been sim racing for 6 years, and then I tried real-life racing — here are 3 things I wish these games taught me Don't get too ahead of yourself, sim racer! So there I was — Silverstone. The track that created so many moments for me as a spectator and a sim racer, but now I’m in my single-seater racer and ready to drive my first ever laps in real-life. The drizzle darkening the tarmac with a rather scary-looking slickness, the smell of fuel, and the coarse texture of the steering wheel fabric all fueling the adrenaline. This is a huge contrast to my six years of confidence driving the best sim racers out there, as I immediately realized that a real formula car does not care about your virtual safety rating. But much like a lot of my friends who make the jump from the virtual to physical world, I went in with the world of confidence. “If I’ve mastered this in sim, I should be fine here,” I told my Dad. “It’s a realistic simulation after all.” Not true. Not true at all. Don’t get me wrong: there are some lessons you learn in sim racing that you take with you, but taking to the real track is on a different level. It’s a life-changing experience — a scary one but also some of the most heart-pounding fun I’ve ever had. So to help you make the most of a track day, here are the three harsh reality checks I faced in those 15 pulse-heightening laps, to help you prepare. Yes, there are far cheaper wheels than this from Logitech, but if you're keen to get serious about sim racing from the start, this is one of the best feeling wheels with 8nm of direct drive force