Not 100% true. A simulator gives you an idea. However you can never use one to practise. As real life can never be turned into a computer game/sim. I like sims over games mostly because... I don't have bottemless pockets, nor could I afford a car and keep it running well and all the other FIA mods you need to do to a car to enter it into most racing events. Plus the face I don't even drive on the roads, and I rarely get to go to the airodrone these days. So this is the next best thing. I can drive flatout, and not have to worry about what if I cock up the corner as next time I can break sooner (or later) and not have put anyone else in risk.
Though sims started out with a goal of training, after they made it into the markets they have become part of a new bread of gamer. Those who want more then a game where you can fly around a 90 degree bend at 200mph and not come off the race line.
And they are trying to make soccer games real. They are for the people who want to win the world cup, but suck too much to play the game. Same with baseball, and pussy rugby (aka American football). The list could go on. Example, I play NHL2002, I know it's not real, but it's as close to ice hockey I'll ever come, so it's the next best thing. If I could get an ice hockey game that was as close to real life as possable, I'd buy it in a heart beat. Because I know I'd never be able to play the game with the ammount of bone releated problems I have in my wrists (more so left) because of not sitting at a keyboard correctly for years on end. So I turn to the game world to get the face crushing, pushing little rubber disk into a net fun.