iRacing Arcade is zippy bumper cars from the folks behind the simmiest racing sim ever to sim racing simishly

iRacing’s always scared me a bit. Not just because you pay for it with a subscription that I’ve never felt committed enough to proper online sim racing in one place to sign up for, but because it’s serious. No giggling allowed. Obey the track limits, spend hours playing around with damper setups, do not touch my bumper or I’ll call three different police forces level of serious. A 42 page-long official sporting code doc for members level of seriously serious.

iRacing Arcade, its new sibling with a Steam Next Fest demo, is thankfully not as serious.

“Funlop”, reads the parody-centric text scrawled across a bridge over the game’s version of the Japanese Tsukuba Circuit. To be honest, the simple fact developers Original Fire Games and iRacing have opted for a classic Gran Turismo track as the venue for the single Porsche one-make race which makes up the Next Fest demo had me 90% sold before I’d even turned a wheel.

First up was a two-lap qualifying session, with each 911 out on track at the same time, but separated by intervals. As I quickly found out, getting close to another car in one of these sessions just sees it turn into a ghost to prevent collisions, so even if you race up to those in front, there’s no danger of being blocked. However, you can very much get a track limits penalty which slaps you with a temporary forced slowdown period as punishment for your corner cutting. It’s a reminder in case you needed one that this is still iRacing, so you’d better locate the brake pedal rather than trying to bounce at full speed off of walls, sonny Jim.

Provided you keep it between the lines, driving the licensed GT racer with a controller is brilliant. The model’s a cute mini-me of a full-size 911, but packs the same punchy soundtrack of straight-six screaming. It feels great to fling into one of Tsukuba’s tight hairpins, and tricky to balance on the edge of adhesion as you try to maximise velocity through the flowing chicane midway through the lap or hang on for dear life through the sweeping right of the final corner.

Once the grid’s decided, it’s on into a six lap race, which sadly doesn’t allow you to test out the cartoon pit crews standing vigilant watch along the pit lane. To be fair, Tsukuba’s a less than 30 second tour in a iRacing Arcade’s Porsches, so there’s hardly enough tyre wear in this length of sprint to warrant fresh rubber. Things get nice and chaotic right away if you’re running mid-pack, with the AI drivers glomming together like swarms of hornets to try and dice your way through.

Shhh. Come here so I can whisper this without big iRacing hearing. You can drive into people. You won’t get penalised. Each minor hit will only cost you a single one of your car’s very generous hundred health points. These bumps and scraps are nowhere near as satisfying or played up as they are in more anarchic arcade racers, only offering a dull thunk resulting in little to no visible damage on contact, but this is progress. Who knows, in ten years time we might get iRacing’s take on Wreckfest.

Admittedly having not double checked the assigned handbrake button, I also couldn’t manage to get the rear-wheel-drive racer drifting all that much. Please keep that quiet too, I don’t want to get a letter in the post which reads ‘LOOK AFTER YOUR TYRES. GRAINING, MARBLES, CONTACT PATCHES, SIDEWALLS. DO THESE HOLY TERMS MEAN NOTHING TO YOU, HEATHEN?’. I apologise, o racers of the lowercase i.

iRacing Arcade’s due to release on December 2nd this year, and you can grab the keys to its Next Fest demo from its Steam page.