This is what iRacing is trying to do, whether it's the greatest idea of the decade or a giant marketing trick, time will tell.
Personally I (and others in this thread) came from Trackmania and I do not regard myself as an 'unserious' player (well, given the constraints, i.e. I can't play 8 or 12 hours a day like some younger fellows, or spend thousands of euros on sim equipment at the drop of a hat)
I also don't give a royal fudge about real life motorsports, as seen in TV. It's just the entertainment circus, which as far as I'm concerned could be shut down tomorrow morning, that's the extent of the regard I have for it.
As for amateur racers, I suppose some may actually develop an interest in simracing but not all of them. The relation simracing ~= real life is too easily falsified.
First there's a problem with fidelity of the recreation of real cars and tracks, a problem which has been exemplified quite evidently by the continuous revisions in some of iRacing contents. If it doesn't behave exactly like the real thing, it's not the real thing, no matter how many licenses you got under their belt, or the money you pour into exotic marketing techniques.
The other problem lies in the shortcomings and affortability of the feedback system. As far as I'm concerned learning to drive in LFS is almost like learning to drive again. To be fair, the two sets of skills have some degree of overlapping but not as much as one could reasonably expect. Sensing speed and accelerations is an almost totally theoretical exercise, unlike IRL.
E.g. IRL I can stop any car I hop on in the exact spot I want without even thinking about it. It's the same for the clutch. In LFS after months behind the wheel I'm still struggling to do that as naturally and perfectly whereas IRL it was just a matter of weeks.
Motion simulators and projectors both have shortcomings and affordability (as in money but also space) issues, though I'm sure in due time technology will offer some innovative and interesting development that could suit simracing.
LFS being a sim it's not quite completely a game and as such, concepts like being 'outdated' or behind the times don't completely apply as you were talking about a new installment in whatever FPS franchise comes out these days. The lifespan of products like GPL and NR2003 offers an interesting comparison IMO.
Back to the point, some people try out TrackMania because it has cars and it's free. Both TrackMania and LFS have several things in common: they are not games where you step in and with no experience whatsoever make a lap within cents of the WR. They need lot of practicing and effort to master them, as all those who completed the solo found out joining the online servers for the first time, immediately realizing the gold medals they sweated to earn, were easily beaten by the most average player.
And they have transversal appeal, in that they draw in people from many different backgrounds. I've raced against 50 yo people more often in my TM days than I ever did in LFS
And you can bet your ass they're damn serious about being competitive, spending evenings and weeks training in e.g. the drifting technique which in TM is one of the keys to higher rankings. They have tournaments just as regulated and demanding as those there are in LFS, don't let the arcade physics fool you.If we were to set up an LFS promotion initiative, we would certainly not expect a 100% conversion rate, and even 10% is likely asking for too much. But in LFS if there's a server with 20-40 people on it at once, it's an event, the most popular server etc. In TM there are dozens of them
