Will COVID-19 Push Virtual Racing to New Heights?

With the mass spread of Coronavirus, many of our favorite motorsports events have been put on hold until the foreseeable future. In the past few weeks, top level race organizers such as Formula One, NASCAR, and MotoGP have hosted virtual races on their YouTube Channels to boost the morale of racing fans, with millions of views. All of the races had pre- and post-event press conferences, to make the virtual events as ‘lifelike’ as possible. Modern gaming graphics are now so realistic that watching virtual racing is almost as enjoyable as the real thing! NASCAR, for example, hosted their virtual race on iRacing, the very same program we run our simulators on in our gallery. The racers engage in friendly competition, allowing fans to see other sides of their competitive spirits. Ferrari Formula One driver, Charles Leclerc, told reporters that he spent five hours each day preparing for the race event. With more races planned in the next couple weeks, and their popularity growing, we are revving our engines to watch them!