How to sastify your racing addiction during the off season

  Okay, so the off season is officially upon us with Homestead ending today.  For many, a little time away from racing sounds like a good thing, particularly for NASCAR fans, who’ve been watching 38+ races since February.  Of course Indycar, sports car, and F1 fans probably aren’t feeling burnt out right now.  So, what can people do to satisfy their racing hunger?  Here’s some ideas I’ve got. 

  Keep reading the blogs:  Some blog go sort of into “hibernation”, but most don’t.  To be fair, and I didn’t understand this until I got into full time blogging, but, blog post can be a little hard to write on weeks were there may be zero news.  Still, a lot of blog’s will keep content up.  This one, for instance.   Besides me, check out everyone on my blog roll.  To be more specific, My Name Is IRL  , Pressdog, and Curt Cavin’s Q, as well as Speedtv’s Robin Miller keep good Indycar stuff coming even in the off season.  For NASCAR, just go to Jayski, and check out any links that look interesting.  I’d recommend Bump Draft and Frontstrech, personally.  Oh, and don’t forget Oilpressure, the Indycar blog, it’s got around three articles a week, and they’re all very good Indycar stuff!  Yahoo sports have some good stuff, too. 

Podcasts:  Another thing to keep racing in your life is podcasts.  Indycar Trackside, Live Fast Racing, Rowdy, Mid Week Motorsports, and, sadly, Planet-IRL the most.  Here’s a breakdown of each podcast.

Livefast Racing:  My favorite, and the one that got me into listening Podcasts.  It’s a general racing show, with a lot of motorcycle stuff, including World Superbike, street bikes, Moto GP, as well as NASCAR, F1, and sometimes Sportscar and Indycar.  Very funny, and a more laid back, conversation type format, then many of the others.    The only down side is that, because they’re busy, the wait between shows can be rather long.  The wait is worth it, though. 

Rowdy:  This is a daily podcast about NASCAR.  It’s interesting, and has good interviews.  Of course, it’s a NASCAR only podcast, so you get the usual lines about how NASCAR is the best racing and such.  Still, I’ve got to say I do like it, they are very fair and don’t put out the NASCAR Pr like a lot of site, or the conspiracy stuff. 

MidWeekMotorsports:  A weekly Motorsports online radio show that gets turned into a podcast.  I’ve only recently started to listen, but, I do like it.  Lot’s of sportscar, with a fair amount of F1, Indycar, and  even some NASCAR.

Indycar Trackside:  It’s an actual radio show, at least for those of you who live in Indiana.  It’s most thursday nights, although they’ll take off Thanksgiving, and I would guess Christmas.  It’s Curt Cavin and Kevin Lee, with emails, call ins, and guest interviews.  It’s a very good IRL show that covers pretty much everything you could hope for.  It can also be listened to online, but you’re required to sign up to the station online. 

Planet-IRL:  Yeah, I’ve had problems with this place, and the PT hate from a certain person is insane, yet, they somehow get very good interviews.  Including Tony Kannan, Lindy Thackston, Curt Cavin, and Speedy Dan Clarke.  Also they often have different bloggers who aren’t as know for podcasting.  They sometimes do F1 shows as well. 

  Racing books:  Okay, to be honest, I don’t have any good racing books to recommend.  And, remember, most NASCAR books are mainly just PR stuff.  Still, they can give you some insight into the past.

  Video Games/Simulations:  For those enjoy racing, racing games can be both a lot of fun, and very frustrating.  Indycar hasn’t released a new game since 2005, NASCAR since 2008, and F1 since the 06 season, except for the new Wii and PSP game.  Forza, Gran Turismo, and Need for Speed don’t always have the most accurate racing compared to what real racing fans would expect.  Iracing takes too much time/money, SimBin is to plain, and RFactor relies on mods, which I don’t enjoy as much as some people do. 

  All that said, these can still be a lot of fun.  I’ve not tried most of these, so this is all second hand, but, if you own a X-Box360, buy Forza 3.  I may be buying it, if I do, I’ll put a review up on it.  It’s got lot’s and lot’s of cars, all of them licenced.  Also, they’ve got race cars, including current Prototype cars, including the 2009 DeFerran Acura.  There’s also stock cars that are licenced by Chevy, Ford, Dodge, but not NASCAR. And, V8 Touring Cars, but, no Australian tracks. Lots of tracks, some real and some not, including Road America, Laguna Seca, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Silverstone, the full Nurburgring track, longest in the game, and Le Mans.  The game can be set from arcade to ultra realistic, very good graphics, and good control’s, so I’ve read.  However, damage is there, and it affect’s performance, but, the damage model, like all production car based games isn’t quite what you’d expect.  Running a car straight into the wall visually just makes it look dented, although the performance will drop in a big way.  Also, only 8 car fields, and no rain or night races, but, there are enduro races. Here’s some pictures:

  Need for Speed  Shift is available on all systems but Wii, and is an okay game.  Again, haven’t played it, but, from what I’ve read, it’s fun, but it has fewer cars and tracks then Forza, and doesn’t represent any real series, either.  The damage doesn’t do much, and AI is weak, but, the in car view is supposed to be great, with a major jar when you wreck.  It’s not sold well,  so you might find it on discount fairly soon.

  F1 2009 is only out for the Wii and PSP.  It’s got terrible graphics, not good AI, and a fairly plain game.  But, if you own either of these systems, and like F1, I’d say I’d probably suggest buying it, I know I would, although I’m looking forward to next year’s F1 2010 more.  First row of picture is PSP, second is Wii.

 Rally fans will like DIRT 2, a rally game that’s not quite sim, although there are sim parts.  A lot of events are races with multiple cars racing for position instead of the proper timed rallies, although they do exist. 

 SimBin’s RACE On for the Pc and RacePro for X-box360 are both realistic games based of the World Touring Car Championship.  They also have a F3000 or Formula 3000 International Masters, as well as some other cars.  I’ve played Race 07, the base of Race On, and it’s fun, although it is all sprint racing, and it lacks any of the flashy stuff.  Still, it has a lot of cool tracks, such a the Macau Street course.  If your a serious race fan, you might enjoy this. 

  For the super Hard Core Racers, Rfactor and Iracing are for you.  Iracing is lisnced by NASCAR and Indycar, and have a ton of tracks and cars, including the Trucks, Nationwide, Cup, IRL car, Corvette GT1 car, Star Mazda, 1979 Lotus, and more.  But, it’s all spec racing, as in only 1 make per race, except for special events.  And, each track and car has to be bought separately, after the starting pack that comes with the subscription, which also costs money.  All racing is online, and thus it’s not for the faint of heart, or those without lots of time.  And, you have to get licenced to race the faster cars, so at first your stuck with very slow and boring cars.  However, more and more features are coming out, and they have done a price drop.  This is one I’d advise buying if you’ve got the money, time, and skill.  Otherwise, just wait around, because stuff keeps getting added,  and maybe there will be another price drop.  Oh, and some real driver play this game, including Dale Earnhart Jr. 

  Rfactor is, in itself, not that great.  It’s in the mods were the fun is.  Current and former F1, Indycar, CART, CHampcar, NASCAR, sportscar, ect all exist on it.  For more, click the link to virtual r on my blog roll for more info on the mods.  Some are higher quality then others, and I’m not the biggest fan of mods, but I know most people love them, and racing enthusiasts speak very highly of this game.

  NASCAR 09 is based off the 2008 series, and it’s not the greatest, and the Nationwide and Truck stuff is really lacking, some tracks are missing, and many drivers aren’t there.  Still, if your a NASCAR fan, and own a PS3 or X-box360, buy it.  I’ll do a review if I buy this game.

  Finally, BATracer F1 management game.  I’ve already done a review, check it out for more info.  Because of the Ferrari issue, all the names have been changed so it doesn’t infringe copy rights.  This can be confusing if you don’t know a series enough to follow the hints.  For instance, Red Bell instead of Red Bull.

  Twitter:  Twitter is a great way to get in touch with Bloggers and fans, and follow drivers and journalists.  Just remember, sometimes the celebrities and most journalists will read tweets sent to them, so keep that in mind when you tweet.  Don’t be like a certain blogger, who got in a twitter war with Paul Tracy. 

  Sadly, I can’t really recommend anything on TV.  Speedtv sometimes has stuff, but most of it is just boring “reality” TV.  There are sometimes racing stuff on it, though.

  Also you can watch highlights on Youtube and, more than just highlights on certain places. 

  That’s how I’d suggest racing addicts keep satisfied during the off season.  Again, some people just want to get away from racing, but, a lot of people are going to miss racing.  Keep checking in here for more stuff, and, oh yeah, you can thank me for helping with Christmas shopping on the racing games, hope everyone enjoy’s the off season!  And, of course, most of you already know all of this, and likely know more than me, so this is written for someone with no exposure to any of this, like any casual fans who find this site!

Major Announcement: Respecting Ferrari’s Copyrights

 

 

  Ferrari today caused the shutting down of the online F1 managment game BATracer.  They were upset because Ferrari cars are used in the F1, Le Mans, and Ferrari Challange Sportcar sets, plus they are upset that user generated liveries and helments may include Ferrari stuff.  So, from now on, the name Ferrari will not appear on this site.  I don’t want to upset Ferrari.  Clearly, a team that runs on a 500 MILLION DOLLOR budget needs every cent it can get from royalties from an online game.  Classy move, Ferrari.  So when you hear Red Cars, F*****, or Pony Cars, I’m probably refering to, well, you know.  Hopefully, that will be execptable to them. 

  On a related note, go to the BATracer forum and show your support!!! 

  On another related note, I really want Red Bull or Mclearn to win next year!!!

  Thanks for reading this, I’ll keep everyone updated with any new developments.