Racing games are insanely realistic now - the car handling, the physics, the vehicle models and the telementry data are all amazing. So many millions of calculations per second to bring you the best racing experience ever. Wait a minute... It's a racing sim right? So let me go the wrong way around on the track; it's literally the first thing I want to do in a racing game. I like to see how the game AI handles a madman kamikazing his way backwards. Sometimes I park sideways on the crest of a hill and watch the AI cars trying to avoid me. Were they aware of me before they could see me? Just how well programmed is the game? And of course hopefully I'd like to see a massive pile-up that would make the Blues Brothers proud. But so many newer racing games prevent this either by flashing an obnoxious 'Wrong Way' warning message in red across the screen or worse the game magically picks up your car and plonks you back down facing the right way. That's not realism, it's a severe restriction on gameplay deliberately coded by the devs and one I can only attribute to their game engine not handling nutters like me driving all over the shop. Not only do I like to go in reverse though, I want to go anywhere - through barriers, across gravel, wrong way down the pit lane. Anywhere. I don't expect to win this way but I do expect the game to allow it and handle it appropriately. Years ago there was an Amiga game called Indianapolis 500: The Simulation and it let you do just that; meaning pretty much anything you want and I had more fun crashing into oncoming cars then I ever did racing. As a footnote that game is now twenty five years old - look how far we've come graphically but how backwards we are in terms of simulation. More recently the original Xbox title Rallysport Challenge 2 also allowed for near unlimited freedom even letting you roll down cliffs if your car could make it. It made the game much more real regardless of how proper you chose to drive. If game makers get any more rigid with their racing games I think the word simulation can be dropped and replaced with limitation. Speaking of limits...
A Welsh semi-retired television producer and actor known for low end work that astonishingly people actually watched and even garnered some awards. Originally residing in the electrically-challenged Amish areas of Pennsylvania he has written a few books (Hollywood Pants and Hollywood Horrible Hints and Terribly Fake Tips vols 1 & 2) which you can buy on amazon and all great book stores.
After a brief stint in Australia he now finds himself back in the Welsh valleys of his home country noting that it hasn't changed a bit!
