SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone: Review: ARCA Sim Racing

The first thing I noticed when I clicked “Race” was how incredible the car sounded when it fired-up. Sitting in the garage the car just sounded fast and mean, and I hadn’t even put it in gear yet to head out to the track. That compared to the very realistic cockpit view in the car, I almost felt nervous taking it out on the track.

Cockpit

Every practice session starts in the garage area. Unlike rFactor with a guy standing out front pointing you in the right direction, you’re left on your own to figure out where you need to go. With full flag rules on you can be DQ’d for going the wrong way so it’s best to wait for other cars to head out before you or try the tracks out before hand so you know which way to go. No big deal though. Everyone has to have their first time at a track and figure out where to go.

After getting a feel by myself, I decided to throw about 20 AI into race conditions with me. These guys are ruthless, and will take you out if you’re not careful. Following suggestions from people at some of the forums, I dropped AI aggression to 0% but left their skill at 100%. This helped quite a bit by keeping them competitive but not trying to kill me. They’re still not the greatest drivers, but okay for some offline driving practice. There has been mention of a patch in the works to help out the AI a bit, but this was designed more for the online sim aspect, and online is where ASR shines.

Speaking of racing, ASR has something the other guys don’t. Real rules! ASR has “Lucky Dog” for lap down cars, pits closed/open for leaders/open for all during cautions, a good working safety car, lap down cars line-up inside for restarts, and maybe one of the best rules: green/white/checkered flag finishes if there’s a caution before the white flag. G/W/C will continue indefinitely if the caution still comes up before the white flag signals the last lap. No more finishing under caution with a handful of laps remaining. It makes for some great racing and great finishes. Plan for a good pit strategy because you may go beyond the scheduled number of laps and don’t want to run out of gas!

Running with other cars, the draft works very well. Front-to-rear, and even side drafting works. Unlike most other sims, the bump draft isn’t nearly as dangerous. A good bump drafter can help push you to the front without wrecking you. It’s also possible to “bump and run” without taking out half the field if you can’t seem to get around a slower car any other way. Yes, you can still spin out and head up the track to the wall, but it doesn’t feel nearly as dangerous as with other sims and you shouldn’t see nearly as many “big ones”. With a bit of skill and/or luck you can recover fairly easily.

Drafting

The car physics feel great to me. The Sim Factory lists the following features:

15 degrees of freedom physics
Advanced tire modeling based off of Calspan data from Hoosier Tire
Advanced suspension modeling
Engines based off of real DYNO's
Complex aerodynamics with Active Rear End
Head physics, cockpit vibrations
Track specific physics and tire modeling
LIVE-TRACK - Active Grip Technology

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