So yeah a couple of sims that were left out (purely by mistake i'll add) R3E - Pure sim. It looked pretty dated by today's standard, but this is an awesome sim for those who aren't interested in driving GT3s at Spa over and over again (Tho you can do that if you want). It also has the Group 5 cars which are probably the most difficult/rewarding cars available to drive in any sim LFS - I've honestly not played enough of this to give a proper opinion (my sim racing 'career' started with rF1) I'd love to hear your thoughts tho. GTR 2 - At the time i'd label it as a pure sim, but given advances this game sorta falls into the Sim-ish catagory. Still an amazing game and definitely worth the effort of booting up every now and then. GPL - I've never got this game working correctly so I can't comment. Ask GPLaps!

"Sim racer and occasional real life racer" My brother in Christ you won a Britcar championship, you're a seasoned racing driver

Just because it's a common trend doesn't mean it's horrible, I find tier lists hilarious when the person doing the list is engaging and has some spicy takes lol

Happy to see Pyongyang Racing finally get the credit it deserves as the greatest racing sim of all time! 😁 Its only problem is that I can only finish second to this Kimi Jung Il guy.

What was great about PC2 was that it made Sim racing accessible to a whole load of people that never would have thought about buying a PC & a Wheel to get into it proper. I made a load of exotic, historic, rare cars & circuits available off the shelf to console users. For that it holds a special place for me & many of my friends.

Mario Kart is my all time favorite sim, how dare you put it at the bottom.

I love that there are great games in every category. If I don't feel like getting sweaty af in Mario Kart, I can always sit back and relax with some Assetto Corsa

I think arcade is really important and valuable part of the racing genre

Raceroom is also a good sim with the best sounds imo

I worked on the original _Need For Speed_ PS1 and it is amazing to see the progress of racing games. We ran our physics at 100 Hz with rendering at 30 Hz. Some of the racing games are running their tire sims at 600+ Hz today!

Can't wait to see Jimmy refer to himself as occasional real life racer after winning Le Mans or something like that

Would’ve love to seen Live For Speed in this list, even if it’s 20 years old, intoday’s world it’s handling and tyre physics are still debatable to be the best.

After All these years Assetto Corsa Still Triumphs at the top

Isn't it cool tho how atleast 20 of these games are worth spending time in/are fun to play? we're spoiled these days!

Mario Kart 8 is pure sim, being hit by a blue shell with an angry Luigi giving you the stare down on his way by while using a magic mushroom is exactly like the real thing

GT7 is the only game on the list that keeps me coming back. I also think putting it middle of the road is a good choice. It really is flexible enough that you can get it to sim-ish if you tweak the settings and use a proper sim rig or get it arcade-ish if you just want to turn on all the assists and play on the couch with a controller.

The more you play Wreckfest, the more arcadey it starts to feel. At first, it does feel pretty decent, but as time passes and you figure out how to actually drive fast, you notice just how weird the physics are. After 1600 hours, i've figured out nothing that you'd do in a sim is going to make you fast there :P

LOVELY touch with the Pyongyang Racer mention….I mean, how can you do this list without mentioning the GOAT??

Current BeamNG driving is definitely simulator worthy now. especially their changes!

My list would be really similar. GT7 probably pop that up to simulator-ish though.

PC2 got me into serious sim racing where GT Sport lacked, it really is a gateway game to stuff like iRacing ACC etc

Enjoy witness protection mate. 😉👍🏼

I do notice just how much assistance you get in dirt rally with a wheel, even with the assistance as turned off as possible, makes it more difficult in my opinion.

Fantastic list. I agree with 99% of your choices. GT7 being the one I thought should be at least one tier up. I LOVE me some racing games. Gots me a wheel and all and truly makes the difference.

Nice list man. What about RaceRoom?

Should have mentioned Raceroom Experience

So my takeaway from this, as a relative newcomer to sim-racing (and only plays console atm), is that I gravitate towards games that are somewhere in between pure simulators and arcade-y racing games, as I mainly go for Project Cars 2, F1 22 (and F1 2019 for classic cars), and Gran Turismo 7, while occasionally dabbling in the Assetto Corsa series. Also not ashamed to say that you, Jimmy, are the guy that got me into sim-racing. Your videos are fun and informative and you seem to be a really nice guy in every one of them.

Got AMS because of this channel, ended up getting AMS2 after enjoying AMS. I love the way 2's tracks look and love the day/night and weather. Probably my favorite sim, and all because you recommended the first one. The only other game I play as much as automobilista 2 is ACC. Reiza does an excellent job with project cars' engine. And really when it comes down do it when I am playing other games with the same tracks as AMS2 I prefer the AMS2 track. I won't say criticism of AMS2 isn't valid, or whatever, but what Reiza is doing is perfect for me, and not many games let you race f1 2022 cars against superKarts and copa trucks at silverstone while it is pouring rain.

"Occasional real life racing driver" Inaugural Praga Cup Champion Jimmy Broadbent

AMS2 is where I end up 95% of the time now. To be honest, I will never have the experience of what a real race car feels like at the limit, so I can't make good judgements on what is "real" sim or not. I enjoy AMS2 for what it is, and that's good enough for me.

Automobilista 1 needs sooooo much more respect, and I'm really happy to see you give it some :)

Haven't played all of these but I pretty much agree with the positions of those that I have. I still long for a modern true rally simulation, I really enjoy both DR2.0 and WRC10 but apart from the various physics issues one of the biggest things I don't like about them is they are way too forgiving in terms of crash damage, which is something Richard Burns Rally nailed. I know on hardcore damage mode it is possible to totally wreck your car in DR2.0 but most of the time what happens even on that setting is you hit a tree at 140mph and now your radiator is broken and you have a puncture. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've actually retired from a rally completely because the car was undrivable, which given how terrible my driving is shouldn't be the case.

I think that SMS would be very happy with "middle of the road". Accessibility was exactly its strength. Hugh amount of content, engaging enough to think about the ideas behind racing (even if some of them don't quite work right). It was exactly how I got in to sim racing. Most importantly "sim vs arcade" is independent of "enjoyable vs not enjoyable"

To be fair, this is the man I want doing the sim tier list

No Live For Speed? 😮 I’d put that in Full Simulator. Love that game.

Since you are a real racer, that lends credibility to the list. I don't see Lando or Max doing this (I can't believe they wouldn't have the time or anything). Of the ones I've played, I like your ratings. I think I would have given AMS2 a "pure simulator" rating, but I've never raced a real car. Thanks for the video!

Surprised that Live For Speed was not included in the list. Interested to hear in which category Jimmer and others would put it in? If you reply, please base the rating on your experience.

I think the list is almost completely spot on though I would put Automobilista 2 in the Pure Simulator section. I think you are right that after all of these years, Assetto Corsa is still a beast in the pure simulation space. It is a shame they gave up development on it but thank you modders for keeping it alive! BeamNG continues to surprise me which is a good thing.

Project Cars 2. Where it all began for me. A missionary at my church left his PS4 for the kids there, and after the service my brother and I would do countless laps. I really wish i could get this game for PC now.

We need a part 2, to add in the titles you missed! GTR2, Race07, Live for Speed, RBR, KartKraft, GT Legends, Ride 4, Power and Glory, etc.

Bro, Jimmer makes life worth living

Project Cars 2 was a massive step from the original. I think it’s borderline between middle of the road and simulator-ish…

Jimmy. I can't tell you how happy I am for you that you can add "real life racer" to your ethos. Keep making it happen, you seem like such a down to earth guy

Have you played "live for speed" i would rate this one of the best feeling racing games (gfx are 2005) but the feel with a good wheel setup is brilliant! Would love to hear your thoughts on it 🙂

Raceroom? I would have put AMS2 where you put it up to the 1.4 release. Since then I've been really enjoying it.

Bro where is Raceroom? You've raced that a few times.

I'd be interested to know where you rank R3E. I haven't touched it in years and it was sort of my gateway into pure sims but it felt like a pure sim to me back then.

Bang on, agree with everything bar AMS2 (in my opinion of course) - i think it's come leaps and bounds with the latest updates and has basically replaced AC as my VR racing addiction. Def worth another go if you haven't played recently. It's hard to get more consistent AI opponents in any other sim right now, handy for those that don't race online much!

The thing I love about GT7 is the Dualsense support. Being able to tell grip from the feel of the pedals isn't something you get in real cars but it's a really good replacement for butt feel. For me at least, I'm faster than with a force feedback wheel.(I don't own a wheel so it's at least partially lack of practice) Also Wreckfest is the BEST Dualsense game on PS5

I never tought about it because now... I'm used to it. But good point saying iracing is the only one locking straight away in cockpit view... :) I agree a lot on FM7 and GT7... Great way to step up in simracing, and get your hand on how to learn to tune car.

Got my first wheel and pedals with shifter and bought games according to your list. THANK YOU! My "GO TO'S" Assetto Corsa for road racing and Beam NG for autocross practice.

Sad raceroom isn't in the list

Raceroom is missing 👀

iRacing is also the only sim that simulates how expensive motor racing is.

Totally agree about RFactor 2! Tried to play it for the first time the other day and despite my best efforts i couldn't get it to recognise my wheel.

I suddenly recalled that many years ago I worked on improvements of realistic specifications and parameters for rFactor1 mod about Group B bolides and tyre modelling for it ( I was just pissed off about all unrealistic aspects and just wanted to run for myself), but didn't finished and forgot about it on my old pc. Damn, after this Jimmy's video I caught myself thinking about that with some wishes to find and continue that "mini-project" ..

No Raceroom Jimmer?

Sim vs. arcade is just one dimension out of many. Nice video ftm.

agree with your list but I still love AMS2 especially for VR racing i think AMS2 is pure heaven to race in vr the sense of speed and the detail you get is actually incredible I can't get that from any other sim

Gtr2 with the NAP mod, blasting through spa with an mc12 GT1 is still one of the most satisfying thing I've ever tried. I'm surprised you didn't put it on the list

Missing Live for speed and RBR in the full sim tier. The rest is as I'd put it basically, the only difference is I'd pop GT7 into simulator-ish.

I wish raceroom was on the list, Would have been interesting to see where you placed that

This is a great Tier list of best simulator racers, good work!

With Horizon and Need For Speed in the list I wished for the original TDU Test Drive Unlimited to have made it on the list, too ...but interesting video anyway.

No Richard burns rally and no Raceroom , terrible list jimmer ! 😂😂

about Wreckfest : it's all about difficulty settings, it can be very arcadey as it can be absolutely unforgiving. Like in "normal" damage mode you can get rekt a few times and still continue the race, then you have "realism" and "intense" damage settings where one hard landing with suspensions too hard will fuck you up for good.

I haven’t been able to enjoy anything else other than ACC so far. I really think it’s the force feedback, sound and graphics, on top of the physics. Definitely helps a lot with immersion. But I’d be lying if I said I don’t want to drive other cars, GT4 and GT3 are only so many :))

I'd move GT7 and AMS2 up one but understand why Jimmy did what he did. I wish literally any game allowed you to feel the tyres like RF2 does.

Agreed! I love seeing Beamng in the top tier, definitely my number 1 of all and improves with every update. Few tweaks for me is I'd ALMOST bump Snowrunner up to simulator-ish, it's unique in what it does even though wheel support isn't great. If you had Dirt 3 on the list, it would deserve a Middle of the Road spot, certainly higher than Dirt 5. I'd might even add My Summer Car to Middle of the Road MAYBE simulator-ish.

You should do a tier list of pre-2000s simulators, such as all the Sierra/Papyrus (Nascar series, IndyCar series, GPL) and Crammond's Grand Prix series.

i was really pleasantly surprised with art of rally. i expected to hate it but ended up spending so much time playing it

How did you forget RACEROOM RACING EXPERIENCE???????

Forgot about RaceRoom

I really like how the music changes for each game

The original Project Cars got me into sim racing. I still play it today as the physics and ffb are phenomenal! Definitely a full-on sim, and gorgeous to boot.

Race Room Racing Experience?

Where would you place Race Room Racing Experience?

I think the best way to diffrienciate between certain titles is the question of is it really able to be played with a wheel or controller better

For my list, I combine the "middle of the road" and "arcade-ish" to be a "modern arcade games" and the full arcade game to be an "Arcade".

AMS 1 absolutely blew my mind, when I first played it. The handling is stunning and also the force feedback is absolutely on point. The driving in BeamNG ist getting better with every update in my opinion and it can be taken seriously nowadays.

ams2 has improved a lot recently. i would put it on pure-sim

As a sim racer that rejoined the hobby playing Pcars 2, my idea of the ultimate simulator would be Pcars 2 with iRacing competition system and R3E sound.

I'd love to see another tier list video again, but with racing games that came out in between 2000-2010.

Raceroom sits in the corner.

Art of Rally is a wonderful game. Once you start getting the flow going... It's amazing.

Bang on Jimmy, I fully agree with your list. For me, Automobilista 2 and Project Cars suffer more or less from the same physics quirk. And the original Assetto Corsa, I also always thought that the way the road car tires feel here are just bang on, Racing tires and slicks maybe not so much, but normal road cars are sweet!

As a fellow sim racer, I urge you to play LFS.....also, its still obtainable and being developed on....and has great VR support...could be on this list;) completely agree with your tier list by the way...great stuff

what about Raceroom?

No matter if it is a simulator or arcade game. The racing is real in all of them!

you knew that was going to be controversial and it was. Gran Turismo 7 is a car collection game and I agree with the part you put it for that reason. However I feel the the esports section is a whole other game having really competitive lobbies which for that I would out in pure simulator. With those things combined, IT SHOULD GO IN SIMULATOR-ISH

I'd like it if you follow with a video ranking the best of each category and talk about their differences, I'm currently looking to get 2 games, 1 arcade(-ish) and 1 sim(-ish)

If you haven't give Circuit Superstars ago, it's similar to Art of Rally but with Track Racing and a fixed pov like a sim version of Micro Machines. It has loads of different classes from Vintage F1 to Trucks. It's great fun and really addictive.

wow, i could barely tell the difference between project cars 2 and assetto corsa back when i first got into sim racing, i have not played pc2 in years so i cant judge it. but i wouldve definitely thought it would have been classed as 'simulator-ish' due to the physics, the weather, the pitting etc. 'middle of the road' does seem a bit unfair on it. again, i have not played it recently and it may be way more arcade than i rememeber. edit: plus for its time it had decent wheel support/ ffb, it had VR support. it may have been lacking in the physics department but it had a lot of other realistic/ sim aspects going for it. i personally am insulted he put pc2 in the same tier as a forza game, lol. but thats okay, im sure he knows what he is talking about. also, i love dirt rally 2.0, its literally my favourite game. or was, these days it ties with assetto corsa, with ams2 not far behind. but its not thaaat much of a sim. it just doesnt have much competiton. like, i only ever played the rally cross in pc2 once or twice, but that felt more realistic than the rally cross in dirt rally 2.0 for example. i feel like dirt rally 2.0 tries to capture the feeling of driving a rally car, slightly more than the realism. plus it has famously got bad tarmac physics, and despite what people say, it is quite forgiving. i think (apart from tarmac, and rwd) they nailed the rally sim genre with that game. its sim, but not too sim to lose the thrill of driving a rally car. wreckfest in the same tier as pc2? holy damn, lol. he really is trying to trigger us. i hate wreckfest... :) so if he is putting beam ng at the top because technically it is a simulator. a crash simulator. a car simulator. not a racing simulator. why does pc2 not go higher, its not a good racing simulator either, but it is a good weather simulator, a good racing career simulator etc ;)

Non of these are true sims till you can fight the person who wrecked you in VR

Here I was, getting geared up to give you a complete roasting, and you saw the light at the eleventh hour and put Pyongyang Racer in its rightful place. Spot on tier list, Jimmer.

i think PC2 should be higher, and AMS2 is everything PC2 wasnt. yes, both have failings so in my view AMS2 is sim, and PC2 is almost sim (slightly higher than sim-ish)

But where is.. Live for Speed?! eeeh?

Raceroom? Surely that should be on your list and more simulator than not?

I like what you said about the original AC. I do real life track day instruction, so drive a lot of road cars and road-based track cars and I still tell people that regardless of whatever deficiencies you tell me it has under the hood, it's still the sim that feels most natural to me, and my steering inputs match very closely with video of my real life inputs in the same cars. It just works. I do disagree a little on AMS2, I think after the big physics update pretty much every car feels as good or better than what was in AMS1 anyway, and also feels pretty natural. Still maybe a step behind the other top sims, but I think it belongs on that tier.

What a shame, you forgot Raceroom ?? What the f... ?