RaceRoom Racing Experience

A race around the Nordschleife sounds like a pretty good way to make a treadmill session feel less like watching the minutes crawl by, but RaceRoom’s serious driving wants more attention than an arcade racer does. I’d start with a short race against the computer, not jump straight into competitive multiplayer while my feet are bouncing around.

Gameplay

The appeal here is that the cars are supposed to behave like cars, and RaceRoom puts that front and center with its driving physics and Force Feedback. I think that’s a good fit if you enjoy learning how a car turns and brakes, because paying attention to each corner gives your brain something to do besides ask how much longer you have to run. It’s less of a fit if you want to mash the accelerator and let the game sort it out.

There’s a lot of recognizable racing to choose from, including DTM, FIA WTCC, and WTCR, along with a large selection of cars and tracks. The up-to-date Nordschleife is the one I’d be tempted to try first, because a long, challenging track gives you a reason to stay focused beyond the next bend. It also sounds like a place where I’d miss a braking point and then spend a little while thinking about that.

RaceRoom is free to download, which makes it easy to give the driving a try before deciding how much you want to spend on the bigger garage. I like that the first step doesn’t ask you to buy a whole collection of cars up front, but I’d pay attention to what content is included before getting excited about the size of the full library. A huge selection and a huge free selection are not the same thing.

The racing itself should keep you busy, but there’s a learning curve in working out how each car handles and how much care you need to take into corners. I’d expect the less familiar cars to feel like a handful until I got used to their braking and turning, and I think that can be enjoyable when you’re in the mood to concentrate. It’s not exactly a game where you can zone out and hope your car finds its way around.

I don’t know how much of the setup and menu time you’ll want to deal with during a workout, so I’d choose a car and track before starting and keep the session simple. The game has enough content to make picking what to drive part of the fun, but a menu full of choices can also turn a quick ride into standing around deciding what kind of race you meant to have. I’ve done enough of that with less interesting choices.

Category Score: 2 out of 3

Treadmill and Bike Compatibility

The main thing you’ll be doing is holding a line through corners while the treadmill or bike keeps moving underneath you, and I think that’s manageable if you pick a steady pace and don’t treat every race like a championship final. A gamepad is supported, so you don’t need a steering wheel to get started. I’d use the controller and avoid making the controls more complicated than they need to be.

Racing asks for more precise inputs than the casual games that let you steer in a general direction, and that matters here. You’ll need to brake and turn at the right time, and if your hands are bouncing around, the car may drift wide or you may miss the corner. I’d expect a few mistakes, which is fine in a practice session and less fun if you’ve signed up for a competitive race where other people are counting on you.

For a treadmill, I’d keep the pace comfortable enough that I can look at the track and use the controls without feeling like I’m negotiating with my feet. On a bike, a stable effort and a short race sound like a reasonable way to settle into it, though hard intervals would probably make the corners feel more demanding. You don’t need to turn your workout into a qualifying lap.

I’d skip multiplayer while moving, at least until I knew how well I could keep my attention on both the race and the workout. A single player race gives you room to make a bad turn without immediately worrying about someone else’s result, and that seems like the sensible place to start. I’m not trying to make the person next to me pay for my treadmill wobble.

Category Score: 2 out of 3

Computer Requirements

The minimum requirements are modest enough that I’d check the graphics card and the 90 GB of storage before worrying about building a new computer. It calls for an older level of graphics hardware, though the space it wants is more demanding than the rest of the requirements. That’s a lot of room for cars.

Category Score: 3 out of 3

Conclusion and Score

RaceRoom makes sense if you want a focused racing game and don’t mind putting in some attention to learn the cars. I’d give it a try on a comfortable workout with a simple single player race, but I’d skip it if you want a game that lets you play on autopilot.

Overall Score: 2.33 out of 3