Racing esports: competition on simulators.

From games to simulators

Wikipedia's (secondary) history of sim racing traces a line through a handful of titles:

• 1982: Namco's arcade game Pole Position introduced qualifying laps, computer-controlled rivals and the chase view from behind the car.
• 1989: Papyrus released Indianapolis 500: The Simulation, often called the first true PC racing simulation, which sold more than 200,000 copies. Papyrus followed it with Grand Prix Legends (1998), based on the 1967 Formula 1 season.
• 1997: Gran Turismo on PlayStation was seen as the most realistic console racing sim of its day.
• 2005 and 2008: rFactor arrived in 2005, and in 2008 Papyrus co-founder Dave Kaemmer launched the subscription simulator iRacing.

Sim racing also began feeding real racing. Wikipedia says Nissan and Sony's GT Academy, which ran from 2008 to 2016, turned 24 Gran Turismo players into racing drivers over eight seasons, among them Lucas Ordonez and Jann Mardenborough. It also records that when COVID-19 stopped real racing in 2020, sim racing streams drew up to 400,000 viewers and iRacing subscriptions reached about 160,000 in April 2020.

iRacing

iRacing's own Papyrus history page says its online service officially launched in August 2008. Its pages give two different starting points for the company: one says it was founded in 2003 and another that development began in 2004. Wikipedia (secondary) says the project started when Dave Kaemmer teamed up with John W. Henry, and that iRacing builds its cars and tracks from laser scans.

Wikipedia lists official esports series hosted on iRacing, including:

• The eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series.
• The IMSA iRacing Pro Series.
• The Porsche eSports Supercup.

Wikipedia adds that iRacing hosts 24-hour online races modelled on the endurance classics at Daytona, the Nurburgring and Spa. Several of these series carry the name of a real-world sanctioning body or manufacturer; see our pages on NASCAR and IMSA for the real championships behind them.

The FIA and esports

The FIA says it has certified esports competitions since 2018. Its esports page lists FIA Certified Gran Turismo Championships, the Olympic Esports Series and a Motorsport Games Digital Cup among its activities. The FIA says its World Motor Sport Council approved an esports rulebook in December 2024 as Appendix E to the International Sporting Code used for real-world racing, and it publishes that framework as the FIA Esports International Sporting Code, which applies from 1 January 2025. Our governing bodies page explains the FIA's wider role.

F1 Sim Racing World Championship

Wikipedia (secondary) dates Formula 1's official esports series to 2017. Formula 1 now calls it the F1 Sim Racing World Championship, and its entries carry F1 team names.

Formula 1's published 2026 standings show a 12-round season. The drivers' title went to O. Lawrence (Alpine) on 156 points, just two points ahead of I. Fahssi (Ferrari) on 154; Formula 1 lists the drivers by initial and surname. In the teams' standings Oracle Red Bull Sim Racing finished first on 227 points, ahead of Alpine Sim Racing (224) and Scuderia Ferrari HP Esports (220). The 2025 champion was not found in the research for this page.

The Esports World Cup

The Esports World Cup is a multi-game esports event. Wikipedia (secondary) lists racing games among its titles, but we could not confirm them from official sources. Wikipedia says it started in 2024 in Riyadh.

The 2026 edition moved. The January 2026 official release listed Riyadh, 6 July to 23 August, but PocketGamer.biz reported on 9 July 2026 that the event officially opened at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, running to 23 August, described as its first international edition. The organising foundation said Riyadh remains the event's home. The reason for the move was not confirmed in the sources checked. Because the racing games on the programme each year could not be confirmed, we do not list them.

Getting into sim racing

For the discipline itself, the hardware and the driving, see our pages on sim racing, sim rigs and sim technique.