Well my first racing
simulation was Grand Prix Legends, and that was in 1998-99, so I was only 14-15 then. I had a Microsoft Sidewinder FF joystick, and man that was hard!!! But I was persistent in learning and trying to get good at the game (hard work pays off in this), because I did not want to go through the hassle of returning something at this one game/software store at a mall. Those were the days.... (along with MS Flight Simulator)
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.
Any other racing games, those go way back... anything on Nintendo, Sega, etc... but those don't count in my book, GPL was truly my first racing game
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. And then I started to have a growing interest in Formula 1 games, NFS titles.... and those were something else!