Assetto Corsa is The Best Racing Simulation You've Never Played
I've always loved racing games, but the majority of the games I've played were what you'd call "arcade" style racing games. The most realistic game I'd played up until recently was Forza 6 on the XBox, but after playing Assetto Corsa ... there is no comparison.
That should be the entire post, but I know you all love reading a bunch of words, so here are some more for your eye holes to peruse. If you're looking for the best racing game you can get your hands on, then Assetto Corsa is it. Even better, it's on sale with all of the DLC for under $8 on Steam until July 8, 2021.
Why is Assetto Corsa the best racing sim evah? The driving mechanics are top notch compared to other racing games and it even does well with a handheld controller. There's no need for a $300+ racing wheel, but you'll want to get one anyway after playing it, just so you can shave another couple of seconds off your best track time.
Speaking of Tracks
There are an endless amount of tracks for this game! I'm not even kidding, endless. There is a very large committed modding community behind Assetto Corsa and they continue creating some gorgeous tracks that took weeks, months and even years to complete.
But it doesn't end there. You want cars? They've got cars! Just about every car you can imagine is available for free. You can also pay a few bucks and get some FullHQ modded cars that are completely worth the few dollars they'll cost you. There is an entire industry built around this game with mods.
You Want Apps?
Sheeeiiit, that's all you had to say! By far Assetto Corsa has some of the best free app mods I've ever seen for a game. The Content Manager should be in the Mod Hall of Fame for the top notch quality it offers which expands the game so much over the vanilla copy. You really shouldn't be playing AC without Content Manager. You can donate a few $ and get even more features, but you likely won't even need to do that unless you're just a hardcore sim racer with $5,000 sunk into a cockpit setup in your house (man they are sweet though).
Watch Me Fight
Below is a race I ran earlier today against the AI at 85%, car damage at 20% and penalties off ... because I suck ... but I'm still loving this game! As you can tell by the screenshot, I got some massive air that you really shouldn't be doing, but it was unavoidable thanks to the AI pwning me as I tried to cut between two of them for 2nd place.
In this race I went from 6th, to 2nd, to last place, to finish 3rd in 5 laps. It was a crazy race to say the least. The lesson you can learn from this video is ... never slow down in front of me! 😉
Mods
Here are a few of the mods I mentioned above in case you're intersted in grabbing Assetto Corsa and becoming a master sim racer one day.
All Mods
https://www.racedepartment.com/forums/assetto-corsa-mods.36/
Content Manager
If you get no other mods, get this one for sure. It's used as a replacement UI for the game and offers so much more over the vanilla game UI outside just being more eye pleasing. There are so many options here, it's simply an incredible piece of work development wise. Top notch stuff here.
This site is legit : https://acstuff.ru/app/
Custom Shaders Patch
The game itself is pretty dated, but you can make it look as good as a game made in 2021 with a few mods like the Custom Shaders Patch.
This site is legit : https://acstuff.ru/patch/
Sol 2.1.3
If you want the game to look even better and offer different weather, then grab this mod.
https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/sol.24914/
Sidekick 1.11.1
This app runs while you drive and helps you with all kinds of things like adjusting tire pressure and more. It also replaces a lot of other UI gauges in one slick interface.
https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/sidekick.11007/
Hot Cars
You can get plenty of free cars off of Race Departments website, but if you want to take it to the next level I highly recommend checking out Race Sim Studio's collection of cars that are currently on sale for 25% to 50% off. They also have what I believe is the only NASCAR themed vehicle, which you can take for a spin on the Daytona track mod if you like.
https://racesimstudio.com/shop
The P13C is considered "the best" car you can own for AC and you can buy it below. I didn't have any luck purchasing it (some site issue I believe) and have emailed them, but so far I haven't received a response.
https://www.iersimulations.com/p13c-store.html
Track Mods
Bremgarten 1954
This is my favorite track to drive on so far. You can grab it for free here.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/5o1xvvtfpu2zaab/bremgarten1954.zip/file
Le Mans 1991
This is my second favorite track.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/wby7bvrdww9gyzb/lemans_1991.zip/file
LA Canyons
This is such a fun track to just drive on for pleasure, but you can race on it too. It's very scenic and with the paid version you get so many more options where you can even have cops chasing you with or without one and two-way traffic to boot! The free version is still great, you just don't get those extra modes/versions of the track.
https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/la-canyons.15067/
There are so many tracks I won't bother listing all of my favorites because it would take up way too much time and room. Just do a search on YouTube for "best Assetto Corsa mods" and you're sure to find links to some good ones or just visit the Race Department site above and grab some.
Mod Installation Tutorial
Need help installing mods? This video should do the trick. Content Manager also does a great job helping installing mods and other apps.
Maybe one day we'll meet each other on the virtual track ... and I'll clip you from behind to send your car into a tail spin from which you won't recover. 😊