Owning Up to Mistakes: A Message for the Sim Racing Community 

Shaun Cole- OG sim racer, been a fan for 7years now👍✌️👍 Love the Channel Woo Woo have a great day✌️

Good on you for sharing this video! We've all been there!

its just the wonders of red mist mate and passion, words of wisdom too everyone is not perfect been around since 2008 and quite frankly you made me a sim racer, without you Darren and Jessica I wouldnt of got a G27 or discover direct drive I probs would of gave up playing my DFGT on race driver grid. Mistakes happen and you shouldnt be embarresed by them thanks for everything.

Good job for owning up to it Shaun. You’re an old school sim racer like me. Thank you for putting this out!

Wise words Shaun. I’ve had some bad seasons lately. I’ve made mistakes yes, and taken the penalties but mostly it’s being crashed off by other cars that builds my frustration. Some races are so acutely annoying that it takes hours to calm down. I literally cannot sleep, I’m fuming so much. It’s not good for my health. Ironically much of this racing has been in the ONID league which promotes a concept of ‘Racing Stronger’, an idea that sim racing is good for mental well-being. Unfortunately the opposite seems equally likely. So I agree with your advice, I’ve stepped back, after twenty years of sim racing, I’ve hung up my helmet and dismantled my wheel. Something has snapped, It’s just fundamentally annoying to me now. I play Civ6 instead and fall asleep in my chair.

One of the things you learn in advanced driving in real life, is that your emotions directly affect your driving - get angry and your decision making is clouded and your attention is divided, so your driving is worse. On that basis why would you want to drive worse? Relax, realise that people make mistakes and show that you’re the better driver.

Sim Racers rarely read books on driver development, terrific book called Inner Speed Secrets by Ross Bentley and Ronn Langford is a great start.

A lot of sim racers have what I've dubbed "main character syndrome" and don't think about their individual role as it relates to the race as a whole. Couple that with the fact sim racers are getting younger in age, and it's a lot more toxic than I remember it being overall. Some of the NASCAR stuff on iRacing friends have streamed for me, is just pathetic.

We have all been there. Frustration has a way of overtaking rational thought.

I know im guilty of this lol controlling emotions after you mess up can make or break the rest of the race! Cheers!

This is a really important video and I'm glad you made it, I think a lot of us prefer to push aside moments like this because we feel ashamed about them once we've calmed down. It's not the biggest deal, but another point I would add is that when you're becoming toxic like this (for whatever reason) with other people watching, in the same race, or in your Discord, you're causing them to also feel upset. Some may not care, especially in the moment, but it's a really important factor to keep in mind. I'm not sure how you and Ameer normally interact during a race, but I couldn't help but notice how quiet he was in the highlights you picked out and watching the VOD in this video was even making me upset too because I can sympathize with the headspace you were in. The biggest thing I always try to think about in these situations is that it's just a game and the result of one race isn't going to matter after a few more. I also try to think about myself in the third person. What would I think if I was neutral and watching somebody say I'm saying or do what I'm doing? The truth is that most of the time, I realize that it's not that serious and it helps me relax.

Classic gamer rage. We've all been there.

A message for life

We have all been there, the difference is we don't have a camera in our face recording it for all to witness. Chin up and move on 👍

Imola mate, recipe for anger!

Always remember Shaun my friend, what frustrates you is all zero's and one's creating digital illusionary realms, don't forget lol, you're trying to conquer a digital none existent entity to our reality, it's just a game and is not real thus you should not be beating yourself up over it, whenever I make mistakes, even in serious events, I always laugh it off, for me it's about the laughter if anything, that's what I want the game to provide me with, fun and laughter, we all make mistakes when playing games, even the old board games in real life for that matter, but it's real life that's most important, not the game. When on overload the best thing to do is just, slow down lol. Over reacting the way you did, we all do it at some point, we're human beings. The fact you've reflected on it and talked is a good ;) take the rough with the smooth mate!! What's done is done, move forward, it's just a game. ;) .... imagine, what would happen if suddenly, nobody had power to play these games? What would happen then? lol.... now, that's something I'd really like to see lol :D

Ill never forget taking things personally on track. And then I had a moment how the F$%@k can it be personal. Im racing virtually. Then I started laughing. Last night I came home from dinner a little inebriated. Tanked my safety rating in a single evening. Don't drink and drive kids

I feel ya... Word for word... lol

Id argue , the key would be to identify when it's an individuals fault Vs a system / games fault. And that people are equally as bad at self blame as they are systemic blame. In simracing due to people wanting to believe the game they are playing is "real" they often blame themselves for what are very clearly issues with game design or a simulator working in a way that's way outside the rhelms of what should happen in something that's meant to be "realistic" but then is obsurdly different to even other Sims. Even if a person has chosen to play a game or a given activity and some will then say "well you then agreed to play by the rules of that game " that's not an argument for a given game having rules that are bad for everyone playing that gane or rules that make no sense. The key in either scenario would be not being frustrated and just being pragmatic about a solution to any given issue. What's not helpful is when someone is being pragmatic identifies specific issues in themselves or a system and then others deny the clear explanations of what the issues or , or can't engage in reasonable discussions on those issues. Ironically you being anoyed is entertaining and produced this video so its more pragmatic for you to get anoyed 😅

Hey Shaun👋 never let them see you sweat. Thank you for another video. Peace✌️

The harsh penalty system in iracing stifles the racing in my opinion. LFM and Assetto Corsa is much better….and practically free!

To be honest, that 4x shouldn’t of been a 4x

I'd quit the league if I had to listen to that kind of chatter while racing.

Great vid, But I still think RAGE QUITTING solves a lot of issues !! But its never the games fault ☝🧐