Jessica, Darin & Shaun of Insidesimracing.tv have released a new episode of InsideSimRacing, bringing us reviews of Supercar Challenge for Playstation 3 as well as 2PEZ’s Top Race PC simulation.

Furthermore, the guys take a look at the recently added content to iRacing and continue to build their list of top sim race cars. Enjoy the show!

RACE On has been released on Steam and in stores four weeks ago and now, Simbin has released the painting templates for their newest simulation.

The pack includes templates for the muscle cars, the International Formula Master car as well as the SEAT Leon TDI and the Lada 110 of WTCC fame. Happy painting!

RACE On includes all RACE07 content and brand new stuff including the 2008 WTCC season, the Swedish Touring Car Championship, US muscle cars and the Formula Master series. The title is available both as upgrade and standalone version on Steam, starting at 25€.

Download RACE On Painting Templates Here

This is not exactly sim-related news but very worth mentioning as the future of one of the world’s finest race tracks is in jeopardy.

Local residents are threatening the existence of Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium’s Grand Prix venue, with their noise complaints. Even though Spa has hosted racing since 1921, noise seems to be an issue all of a sudden as the residents have managed to get a court decision in their favor.

It’s time for the motorsport community to speak up and voice support for this great track. Featuring the legendary Eau Rouge corner, Spa is one of the very few race tracks have managed to save their historical flair despite modern developments. Over 21.000 people have already joined the petition and you can too – It’s free and easy.

Sign the Spa-Francorchamps Petition Here

Jessica, Darin & Shaun of Insidesimracing.tv have released their video review of Sligthly Mad Studios’ Need for Speed Shift title, giving us an extensive look at the popular new racing game.

Furthermore, the video includes the newest edition of their top sim cars rating and the guys answer some Forza Motorsport 3 related questions. Enjoy the show!

Over a thousand readers have taken the chance to win a copy of Simbin’s recently-released RACE On titles and here are the results of the VirtualR contest.

Even though I thought I chose two rather easy questions, the first one proved to be a deal-breaker for many contestants as the majority of users have answered it wrong.

A) The first Diesel-powered car to win a prestigious endurance race wasn’t Audi’s R10 TDI at Sebring or Le Mans. In 1998, BMW Motorsport won the Nürburgring 24hr race using a 320D touring car equipped with a diesel injection engine – Eight years before Audi debuted their car. Since the Nürburgring event is one of the most famous 24 hour races and it was a full works effort, I thought most people would think of it…

B) The other name of the Okayama circuit is of course TI Aida and the most famous event it hosted were the two Pacific Formula One Grand Prix in 1994 and 1995, both won by Michael Schumacher.

Due to the fact that the majority of readers answered the first questions wrong, only about 90 contestants remained in the winner draw. And the lucky winners are:

• Steve Coe
• Adrian Vidrighin

Thanks to everyone who entered, stay tuned for more contests on VirtualR in the future!

Back in 2006, Simbin introduced the first RACE title, bringing the World Touring Car Championship to the PC. More than three years later, the popular RACE series is being extended by its latest installment – RACE On.

Is newest RACE offspring worth its money or is the RACE-series starting to fall behind the competition? Read the review to find out.
Read More

In a somewhat surprising move, the release date of Simbin’s new RACE On title on Steam has been moved forward from October 23rd to October 16th – Today.

According to the Steam website, RACE On will be available in 19 hours from now. Until then, you can check out the newest artwork below, showing the title’s US muscle cars. If you´re looking forward to RACE On, make sure to enter the VirtualR contest here.

RACE On will include all RACE07 content and brand new stuff including the 2008 WTCC season, the Swedish Touring Car Championship, US muscle cars and the Formula Master series.

 

Thanks to Simbin, VirtualR is able to give away two copies of the upcoming RACE On title. The winners of this contest will be getting a little head start as they’ll be the first ones to enjoy the Steam version of the simulation.

To participate, simply answer the two question below:

A) RACE On includes the Seat Leon TDI Diesel race car that clinched the WTCC title in the hands of Yvan Muller. Which was the first Diesel-powered car to win a prestigious endurance race and which event did it win?

B) RACE On also introduces Okayama, a Japanese race track that hosts an annual WTCC round. The track is more famous under another name and for having hosted another event though. What’s the name and the event?

You know the answers? Great, then make sure to send them to contest@virtualr.net (please include your full name and a working email-address!) until Tuesday October 20nd 23:59 CET. The two winners will be randomly drawn from all correct answers and announced on Wednesday.

The winners will be receiving their copy the very same day, two days before the game’s official release on Steam! Good luck to all participants!

Update: Due to the surprising early release of RACE On tomorrow, the contest winners won’t be getting a head start on Simbin’s newest title. Still, the competition will stay open until October 20nd to give everybody time to enter.

Back in September, Simbin announced that their newest RACE On simulation title will be hitting the European shops on October 22nd.

Now, the exact same release date has also been confirmed for the Steam version of the title. Given the fact that many previous RACE07/GTR Evolution owners will be looking to use the cheap upgrade option, Steam will be the way to go for many sim racers. No pricing info is yet available but with the release being only nine days away, that should change soon.

Simbin has also released the recommended system requirements which aren’t really surprising since the title uses the same engine that has been used in previous RACE titles. RACE On will include all RACE07 content and brand new stuff including the 2008 WTCC season, the Swedish Touring Car Championship, US muscle cars and the Formula Master series.

Recommended System Requirements

• Supported OS: Microsoft Windows XP Home/Pro, Windows Vista*
• Processor: 3 GHz Intel Pentium IV or 100% compatible
• Memory: 2 GB RAM
• Graphics: DirectX 9 compatible graphics card with 512 MB memory, Nvidia 6800 or better
• Sound: DirectX 9 compatible
• Direct X Version: 9
• Hard Drive: 2.5 GB free space
• Input Devices: DirectX 9 compatible force feedback steering wheel
• *Limited support

The release of Turn 10’s Forza Motorsport 3 for Xbox 360 is just around the corner and more and more review material is coming in.

Jessica, Darin & Shaun of Insidesimracing.tv have released their video review of the title, using the Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo S wheel.

Meanwhile, VVVGamer has been adding loads of Forza videos, one of the most interesting ones shows the Toyota GT1 on the Nürburgring Nordschleife below. All of their stuff can be found here.

As you may have noticed, VirtualR had a short outage last afternoon. The problem wasn’t some glitch with the server but a complete overload of traffic, caused by hotlinked images from the Forza Motorsport 3 car gallery story that had been posted in several very popular forums.

Because of these problems, I´ve decided to temporarily disable image hotlinking until the traffic from those sources eases off. What does that mean for you? This doesn’t affect regular visitors, all it does is prevent users from posting images hosted on VirtualR on forums or other sites. You can still post links to images hosted on VirtualR but you can’t place them between [img] tags to have them load automatically as this creates a lot of traffic if images are posted in popular forums.

I´m sorry for any inconvenience this is causing but the first and foremost goal is to keep the site accessible.

Another thing: Many commenters have complained that they can’t use the comment editing feature anymore while others can use it fine – Including me. This seems to be a problem related to the latest system update, I think I´ve fixed what caused it but have no way to check since I didn’t have the problem to begin with.

So, if you´re reading this, please check if it’s working and leave a short comment. If it does not work for you, I´d appreciate if you could leave your browser version too so I can further investigate this issue. Thanks for your help and again, apologies for the inconvenience.

As announced yesterday, Simbin and publisher bitComposer Games have released a demo version of the upcoming RACE On title, letting racers try two of the title’s new cars.

Included are both the Dodge Challenger SRT8 and the Seat Leon TDI Diesel WTCC car which can be raced at Oschersleben and the Swedish Falkenberg track. Players can choose to complete a full race weekend including practice and qualifying or use the time attack mode.

The demo is limited to single-player only, an upcoming multiplayer demo has already been announced though.

RACE On has been announced to be released on October 22nd, the title will include all RACE07 content and brand new stuff including the 2008 WTCC season, the Swedish Touring Car Championship, US muscle cars and the Formula Master series.

Download RACE On Demo Version Here

While European sim racers and Steam customers will have to wait until late October to get their hands on Simbin’s newest title, Race ON is already available in stores in the United States.

Now, United States publisher Viva Media has released info about a Race On demo version being released tomorrow. There’s no info yet on which of the new content the demo will contain, it should help to ease some of the waiting time for sure though.

RACE On has been announced to be released on October 22nd, the title will include all RACE07 content and brand new stuff including the 2008 WTCC season, the Swedish Touring Car Championship, US muscle cars and the Formula Master series. VirtualR will be having a full review of RACE On soon so stay tuned.

Jessica, Darin & Shaun of Insidesimracing.tv have released a new episode of InsideSimRacing. Episode 48 includes lots of console content as the guys review Codemasters DIRT 2 as well as Superstars V8 Racing for the Playstation 3 and take a first look at Gran Turismo PSP.

Furthermore, their list of the best sim cars of all times is continued, this time reviewing three cars from iRacing, rFactor and ARCA Sim Racing. Enjoy the show!