"My name is Sam.. Eliza is out. What is your problem?"

I have been wondering about this for some time myself. I started playing Papyrus IndyCar & NASCAR Racing sims in the 90's, and later on got into EA Sports F1 '99-'02, which in my opinion is the best F1 simulation to date for the PC. It's amazing to me that since then there have not been any earth shattering racing simulations for the PC. Everyone is making more money writing console arcade-type games.

I can understand this. On the other hand, there is an entire subculture that lives out their dreams vicariously through racing simulations. I tried joining a NASCAR 2003 league once (the tryout was 2 laps at Loudon) and didn't make it because I was not stable enough through the turns. That track is difficult to excel at, but I saw others take those turns like professionals.

There is a driver (whose name I cannot recall) who grew up playing racing sims, and made it to NASCAR partly because all the practice in the video world translated well onto a real track. Even Dale Jr. has been known to race online; I've heard that he's put in a lot of sim time especially on the 2 road courses the league races on.

Certainly there is a market for serious driving simulations. The question is, how profitable is it?