Rally (part 1)

In late spring of 2022 I was getting a little burnt out on learning guitar and wanted to do something that was challenging, but also fun. Learning guitar is rewarding, but sometimes you get in a rut and the struggle overpowers the amount of actual fun you’re having. So I decided to buy an Xbox and get back into gaming.

Like most Gen-Xers I grew up playing video games and loved it. I started playing Atari and then when I was older saved up and bought a Nintendo (NES) and played that for hundreds of hours. I moved to computer games before giving it up the last couple years of high school. I was too busy studying and working in college to play much and, aside from a short stint with an original Xbox in the early aughts, never really did any gaming after college. I always felt guilty, like I should be studying or working or “doing something productive.”

I kind of regret giving it up because I think it’s a great hobby. But back then it wasn’t nearly as social as it is now. There wasn’t any online gaming so no Discord or Twitch, of course. Pretty much all socializing was done in person so sitting around by yourself and playing video games when you’re in your teens and 20s was a bit limiting, at least back then. At any rate, I decided now that I’m retired and live in a state that has winter again, I should make up for lost time and get back into it.

My original plan was to start playing F1 2021 since I was newly into F1 and thought doing some F1 racing on Xbox would be fun. I quickly discovered racing games on a controller kind of suck so I bought a low-end wheel and pedals. I also discovered Dirt Rally 2.0 and got massively into that, way more than playing F1. I also started playing Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC), which led to another, more expensive discovery: a PC is required for this kind of stuff. So I bought a PC and then upgraded my wheel and pedals and, yeah, things got a little out of control. This is all probably cheaper than golfing or skiing, but still a little ridiculous. And it’s even more ridiculous given the fact that I’m not a “car guy” and, in fact, kind of despise cars. But, for some very strange reason, I love racing pretend ones. At any rate, I learned how to use Discord, joined a league, and did a lot of online racing with humans from all over the planet.

League racing is probably the best aspect of sim racing since you get to know the people you’re racing against. That leads to cleaner, more competitive racing. And aside from the racing part, it’s just fun to meet different people and add a more social component to the whole thing. But, it’s competitive and ends up taking a lot of time. I had been doing it for nearly two years so at the end of 2023 I figured I’d take a break.

It’s been a couple months since I’ve done much racing but a couple weeks ago I picked up the latest WRC game during the Steam spring sale and have been playing that a bit. WRC was released last fall and is the successor to the beloved Dirt Rally 2.0. Like most new games it had some issues at launch, but seems to be a lot better now. I’ve been having a blast getting back into it and although it’s only been a couple years, it kind of feels nostalgic to be playing a rally game again. I don’t think I played DR2 after I started getting serious about ACC, so I’m back to complete noob status. But I’ve found some online communities who are obsessed with rallying and run custom events so I’m getting more serious about it.

I’ve got a bit more to say about this, but it’s getting a little long so I’ll pick things up in a second part. In the meantime, here’s an awesome video about Group B rallying in the 1980s.