If you want to get into PC sims, it is important to get out of the mode of thinking about graphics first. It changes your mindset once you experience your first race online. when you get in that zone and race, you don't even notice the graphics and mostly don't see the graphics other than the track and your braking/track out points and competitors and the track itself. The rest is fluff that fades into nothing once you really get on it.
-rF2 is not the prettiest girl at the dance, but she does dance better than all the rest. In a race, there's no other sim that is close to rF2. It has weather, the dynamic racing line and rubbering in of the track, marbles offline, flatspotting, tire wear- in a race there's nothing even close to how rF2 simulates all the major things going on with your car and the track. Some mods and tracks look spectacular but not even close to the Codemasters F1 series. Some tracks and mods are horrible, you really need to curate your own content. the game is very moddable and there are cars and tracks being released for it at a pretty steady rate now. AI is spotty- some mods are good, some bad. You need to train cars and that is a PITA. Online is fantastic. I have raced wheel-to-wheel (literally) with no lag and enjoyed very close racing. No other sim out there I have tried has had such good multiplayer online prediction code, low latency and lag. You can set up your own server with a dedicated client, choose your own tracks and cars, ISI normally has official servers (they have been down in the latest build) to race on if you want a pubby. Lots of leagues are springing up too.
-the Codemasters F1 series does not simulate the driving of a race car as well, but overall with the weather, the organization of the race weekend, the limited tires etc it simulates the overall experience of racing better than any other game out there. If you turn off the assists, use the most real rules and turn on fuel, tire management and all that, you have a complete sim. But the driving will always be lacking in realism. The F1 games look awesome and have all the latest bells and whistles to make you ohh and ahh but you won't see any of it once you race. Really race. AI is great, Online blows goats. It is truly terrible.
-Assetto Corsa is probably the prettiest girl at this dance. You can hotlap in the game and race against AI. I have heard the AI is pretty good. The game is moddable but there are very few mods right now (they are coming). There's no weather (they have a time table for weather of about 1 year). There's no online though it is on the way and there's no way of knowing if it will be any good. The game was not built around the multiplayer it is being added to it and that worries me. No way of knowing if there will be a server client or what it'll feature. There is no dynamic realroad, I have heard that it will be implemented, I have heard that it will not be implemented. Fact is, right now there is no realroad at all (well, there is a static realroad that comes in, but it is graphical only and does no affect the grip level in any way). Look at videos, look at screenshots. Gorgeous game.
-pCARS. really this is a moot point. It is no longer available (they raised the kickstarter money they needed and closed off the game to anyone else until release) and won't be released until it is done. I have heard that the physics is more a semi-sim, but it is pretty and has weather. But, moot point.
-Older sims. I bunch SRW and RRRE in with the older sim racing games. They look OK, sound good, race well for a gmotor2 based game. they have no dynamic realroad, no weather, not moddable, small and shrinking communities and in the end will turn out to be more expensive per mod than other sims. And as for other older sims, rF1, GTR2 and Race07 series etc all have existing online communities, they all look like 7 year old games race OK, have various implementations of static realroad and have decent online. They have huge mod databases. They are yesterday's news and fading, they won't stick around forever but can be fun today. If you are looking for pretty, SRW looks pretty good. RRRE sounds great and looks pretty good.
A replay with 20+ cars kicking up smoke or dirt can drop me down to 27fps.
