What's the Best IndyCar Game? 

5:52 are we gonna ignore how the ai had an incident, and the fact that a pretty sizeable part, probably a wheel, went into the grand stands?

Indy deserves a dedicated Sim. So much history.

10:42 Man, I can't even enjoy an IndyCar Sim related video without Rossi crashing out in the middle of the action! Way to capture the realism!

You forgot about Project Cars 2. They had fully licensed roster for the 2016 season.

I'd be remissed if I didn't mention Automobilista as an option. If you are willing to forgo the modern Indycar for the 1998 CART Extreme version, you can have a decent oval race and fantastic road races. Some tinkering required, so not necessarily for beginners.

its cool seeing how popular Indy cars are becoming again, i remember the CART era when the Indy 500 was up there with the superbowl as a big name sporting event

Indianapolis 500: The Simulation from 1989 by Papyrus was the game that got me seriously into gaming in the first place. Up until that point I wasn't really into the platform type games that seemed to dominate the games world and the first time I saw it on a PC in a computer shop window I was blown away and knew that one day I would have to buy a PC just to play it! A couple of years later I had a bit of a stroke of luck that enabled me to spend... wait for it... £2,000 on a brand new PC (a 386 40MHz cpu with 4Mb ram, 120Mb hard drive and a 125Kb video card I think... the hottest pc specs you could get at the time!) and it was the first game I bought and I've never looked back! Thank you Indycar for turning me into a gamer!

In Assetto Corsa, RF2 and IRacing we can drive with classic cars from the 80s, 90s and 2000s, that is the same thing that I look for in Indy car or Cart game or mod, cars from the 80s and 90s, which inexplicably does not exist, saturated only with the new era. For me the mid-late 80s and early 90s are the best era ever.

Would be curious how you would rate Automobilista 2 on this list now, with all the amazing updates of the last year.

This editing is amazingly well done! I've been really wanting an Indy game with all the tracks, but thankfully mods have done that well enough. I always look forward to seeing your uploads, they're informative and always consistently well made.

Always a pleasure to listen to a GPLaps deep dive. Your depth of knowledge and breadth of experience make your views so valuable. Indy was just about the first form of racing that hooked me, way back in 1967 (the year of the first incredible STP Turbine Car), and my interest has never faded. I will be sitting watching again this year, hoping for yet another stand-up-and-yell final lap. Helio for five? Who knows.....

I really hope Reiza gives us a modern IndyCar with its ovals

Awesome vid Jake, perfect timing ;) I was surprised you didn't talk about raceroom, obviously missing lots of tracks but it's still really fun to race in.

As a sim racer fan and an even bigger IRL fan, I have to say this video was amazingly well done and informative! Thank you, I am subbing right now!

The IR18 is my favorite car in iRacing, and probably all of sim racing. 2 years ago it was only fit for ovals though. It's amazing how far it has came after receiving professional criticism.

Your an unsung giant of sim racing, I should know, I've watch more than a few. I never blow smoke up peoples arse's, but it has to be said, your sim racing knowledge is unparalleled on YT or Twitch. Not to mention your extensive real life race history knowledge. All delivered in a very enjoyable tone, an ambassador to the once bitten by the joy of sim racing/driving. So pleased you got recognition from Heusinkveld. Good on you.

The Indy Evolution game that came out in 2011 is the best Indycar game. It includes the 1961-1971 tracks, cars, and drivers which is pretty cool.

Hello. First time I see one of your videos. This is masterclass in terms of production and quality of information. I am gonna look all what you have been producing and what you will keep producing. Congrats and thanks for sharing

Brilliant video! Editing is incredibly smooth

I’ve tried to make this video for years. Life always got in the way. But this was so much better than I could have ever have even imagined. As a diehard INDYCAR fan born and raised in Indianapolis, this captures the passion of the Indy fan base. Thank you for this

I personally love still playing two of the old CART league games. "Flag to Flag" for the Dreamcast, made my Sega Sports, has some great tracks like RA, Ohio, LB, Laguna, and Portland to name a few. It's "more realistic" as you have to break. My personal favorite is "CART Fury", a pure arcade game by Midway, you leave it all out with no need to break, with a damn near perfect PS2 port. This one is high speed and very unrealistic, but FUN! I own both of these games with their original systems, and play them to this day. Great video!

Thats a very well made video sir! Will check out more of your content.

Great video my man! Thanks for laying it all out. I, along with so many, am just craving a dedicated Indycar sim/game. It’s so overdue it’s not even funny. I am stuck between wanting to either get a PS5 or a PC and don’t know what to go with next, and a dedicated game for console and PC would just make my year.

Really cool video this really gives a good breakdown to what is available. I too have a dream that one day we will get a dedicated Indy Car racing game as well. I just finished putting my final build (For now I may need to update T3PA pedals to a load cell set in the future) and I plan to do me vs an AI race every year a few days before the actual Indy 500 as a way for me to have fun myself as the actual race ensues. Based on your videos and the driving I will have to tune the A.I. to be competitive while probably turning down aggression this year I plan to try Rfactor 2 and may see if Automobilista 2 has an option for it with mods or something but my big chance at glory will be with Rfactor 2 as it just made the most sense when it comes to bang for my buck. Thanks for the help in this as it does get VERY expensive at times to find what you want. The only issue I will have will be pit stop strategy for the A.I but that is secondary I suppose. Thanks again for all your videos as I really enjoy every single one you make and I hope to get my skills to the point I can enjoy some of the older series as it can be pretty hard racing a Formula race with the older cars but there is SO much to choose from on that front! Awesome and happy to be in the sim racing world and hopefully turning competitive laps as I get adjusted to my settings and preferences. I have already had some AMAZING absolutely amazing GP races on a few of the sims here and I have very high hopes for Automobilista 2 in the future if they add an Indy series which could be epic if the AI is on point.

RFACTOR 2 indycar - dont waste time, is the best by far

are we just gonna ignore GPLaps predicting Colton Herta's Carb Day crash at 2:23

i remember playing newman haas racing for the ps1 (i believe it was released for pc too) and it really gave me a hankering for more, this is a useful video

Online racing in Indycar in iracing is just incredible. It’s at Detroit from Tuesday. Using the PTP, fuel maps and different tyres is excellent

Thank you for the heads up on the sales! Just picked up both games for less than $20!

Although it might not be the ultimate, best-of-the-best simulator, Project CARS 2 has decent IndyCar content. You have tracks like Cota, Daytona, Indianapolis, Laguna Seca, Road America, Watkins Glen - heck, even Long Beach. And you have the IR12 in Speedway and Road Course configurations. (and you've got all the official teams as well!)

Thank you for posting this. I've been hoping for an Indy game since I've been having so much fun with F1. I'm a new racing fan that's gravitating to Indy for the more familiar sponsors and North American tracks.

Finally, Reiza just announced a 2022 IndyCar for the next AMS2 Update Edit: it just get delayed...bc of conversations for an indycar license 👀

Great video...fair and well researched

Informative but overwhelming. I just want an Indycar game to play on my Xbox One. Maybe someday I can work up to a sim setup, but between the wife and kids, that’s gonna be a tough sell lol. Thanks for the video.

Thanks for letting us know about the RF2 sale, been wanting to grab it for a while lol

Hey GP congrats on 40k!

I'd like to see MGI take iRacing's tech and turn it into a polished off-line only Indycar sim. Something that would be popular on its own and also pull people into the larger IR experience.

Hey Jake, I highly recommend you give RaceRoom a shot, especially since all the content is free until May 30! They have a modern Indycar model and also just released the Indianapolis Oval and Road Circuit a couple months ago. Their track design is damn good but most importantly, the AI is probably the best in the market out of the box. The driving model is a tad different (hard to describe...I guess not as slidey as iracing and Automobilista 2, you'll be doing less mid-corner corrections, it's a tad more unforgiving when it comes to saving oversteer moments, tires feel a bit stickier), but as a classic car head, there's a ton of wonderful content that ranges from the lateish 70s to modern day tintops and openwheelers.

6:27-6:39 For some reason it looked so real to me (at least on a smartphone screen) that for like five seconds or so I was convinced you edited in some actual footage, even though centered helmet cam clearly tells the opposite. In other words, my brain was fooled.

When I got into iRacing, I found leagues fairly easily and enjoyed the racing aspect of it. I got into the Indy Open SoF races and won a few in my split. Also did the IndyCar iRacing Series for a few races and won my race at Barber. I fell in love with driving Barber in that game and it's part of why I want to see a proper IndyCar game. I enjoyed racing USF2000 and Indy Pro 2000 at places like Phoenix was great fun. iRacing could use any new scans they do to add to iRacing and add to that experience. The same with the updated USF2000 and Indy Pro then adding Indy Lights. It could essentially be an iRacing taster of the best in iRacing. Maybe with some non-schedule tracks like Michigan/Fontana and other 1.5 mile circuits. Hopefully, they use their new acquisition with Monster Games to bring an IndyCar to a standalone game. I feel like that would be the best product. Maybe with a career mode where you can create your own team and bring them up through the series.

Amazing video dude

Would be useful, interesting, and fun to see a version of this for Stock Car/Nascar, F1, Vintage F1, Vintage GT etc.

racing in iRacing without irFFB should be a crime at this point. It completely transforms the feeling of the tires and physics. I could never go without it again.

Nice vid! Now I need to check your others and subscribe. See you back home in Indiana! I'm headed out to Indiana for the Sprint Speedweek in July. I've become a fan of the non-wing sprints though I hate to use the term non-wing or wingless. Running without a wing is how these cars started but the wings do offer more safety than the lidless cars. Have fun!!

Going to The 500 this weekend. Perfect timing!

A great great video. In my opinion, the indycar mods need to add the real rules of flags and pit stops, and random engine failures or accidents with AI triggering the safety car. It would be awesome

Great video, iracing is a close to Indycar Racing 3 as you can get. I can almost hear in my head ‘I am Paul Page, from Papyrus this is IndyCar Racing 3'.

Reiza soon entering the battle, it will be interesting to see how they will stack up. While we won't have the full track selection I'm sure what will be there will be very high quality and possibly the best offline racing option.

I had no idea there were so many advanced options. This is a perfect video for my purposes. The discussion of the AI was intriguing... the last AI I was familiar with was the Indy 500 Sim from 1989. Things have changed for the better in ANY case, yes? I've saved this video for further study as I now have a goal to renter my old racing sim world. But, with what tools, what controls? I used a flight sim joystick in the past. What should I get starting from scratch with $500 max for hardware (PC and display gear excluded)? I imagine I could get used premium equipment on eBay, eh?

The Indycar license must be rescued from Motorsport Games! That and the Le Mans license too.

Hey gotta appreciate the fact that you pronounced Toronto correctly. Nice!

IndyCar deserves its own game. I want an IndyCar game that you can enjoy fully offline and online (meaning you own the experience fully).

You have a voiceover kinda voice. Nice video. Thanks

I've not done much in the sim, but I was genuinely curious of the thoughts on Project Cars 2 Indycars. They are the DW12 cars if I'm not mistaken with the old aero kits. I've finally found a comment below that answers the question. Sorry.

Consistently the highest quality and most engaging sim racing content on RU-vid - bravo GPL, great video. And that's coming from someone with zero interest in IndyCar! iRacing is a real contradiction - that excellent offline AI but with the offensive subscription model - I just can't bring myself to do it.

Ready for the Indy 500 !

6:23 DLCs go on sale nearly every Steam sale, but given how new IR18 and Laguna Seca are, it's gonna take some months for them to go on sale.

Really cool video! make the same with IMSA or NASCAR !

Dallara Dash is the best part of being a new D licensed Iracer. I also think it's worth mentioning that Iracing represents a virtual racing 'career', and comparatively peanuts to the cost of real motorsports. I mildly scrapped the fiberglass door of a rental BMW race car at Nordschleife on a rock in the parking lot and it cost me $1200, so Iracing price ain't a thing to me. For VR, Iracing is smoother and I can get better frame rates than AC or RF2 for some reason I can't figure out, and I've never had it crash like the others. The other sims seem janky in VR but Iracing looks great to me, and online races are easy to find and get into.

Great overview GPLaps, I opted for the RSS Mod in AC given its road/oval variants and the great range of skins available. Feels great in my home built motion rig too! Posted a vid overnight of a lap around Long Beach showing how it all works, come check it out!Keep up the great vids mate 👍🏼

Nice Video!

02:25 that is a little prophetic...

Great video! One quick question. I noticed with the Indy oval on AC that the structure above the start/finish that held the lights for takeoff was missing as it should be in real life.. how or what did you use to get rid of it? I have been looking all over to get rid of those lights.

I think I'm going to finally get Rfactor 2 since PIR is my home track and I've driven many laps in real life around it.

Might add project cars 2, it doesn't have the aeroscreens, the short oval config and all the tracks, but when you get it on sale it's worth a try

It's funny to say that it's one of the quickest growing motorsports when just a few short decades ago it was one of the most prestigious on the planet

Am I the only one who remembers Simraceway? I remember playing a demo of it at IMS in 2012 using the DW12 at Indianapolis.

Wake up babe a new GPlaps video!

forgets to mention that everything in iRacing is Laser scanned and that is why it's so expensive and why it takes so long to implement

i agree with you, RFactor 2 is great for doing Indycar or Nascar series. Most the Ovals and Road/Street tracks are available in Rfactor 2. Also we can do Rolling starts and realistic pitting. Nothing has come close to What I get in RFactor since Papyrus games many years ago. Assetto Corsa has allot of Indycar tracks, but the game does not have Rolling starts. We shall see what Assetto Corsa 2 brings to the table. There are several other good SIM games but only have a few of the Indycar/Nascar Tracks. So cannot do complete series races. Thanks for the video. Take care.

"With the low bar of AI from modern sims." That statement could not resignate more with me. It feels like in every sim I own there is one or more immersion braking behaviors that just completely kill the motivation to invest in an offline championship with full race lengths.

Indycar with assetto Corsa would be amazing if the sim had an actual legitimate flag system

I love IndyCsrs..or "IRL" I still say..but kool video man

Excellent video, thanks, It Got me thinking, and I found some content I had never seen before for Rfactor1 and AMS1. The two best sims for cheapskates like me :)

don't forget you can have plenty of fun with Automobilista 2 simulating late 90s indy cars

It’s not to the level of these titles but I’m able to run at IMS on GRID AutoSport in a Dellara DW12, on my Mac with my newly acquired yet antiquated Logitech Momo ffb wheel. I guess beggar’s can’t be choosers. I can’t do a full 500 miles but I can run three 20 lap races with points awarded for a 150 mile experience. GRID also has COTA. They’ve also the Indy Grand Prix layout layout along with the sports layout. So that’s my fix unless I run IndyCar Racing 2 in DOSBox. It’s all fairly competitive accept for the Indy Oval where the AI just aren’t fast so you have to dumb down the performance of your car to make it competitive.

I quite enjoyed the indycars in project cars 2

Oooh, museum mode. I’m in for that.

I'm surprised you forgot to mention Project Cars 2. Has a pretty decent Indy Car Championship

A few things: 1. I know Mike over at Simracing604 has done some IndyCar stuff in AMS2. 2. Unless you're a more dedicated sim racer, it seems like AC is friendlier as far as being able to drive the cars fairly successfully as compared to rF2. 3. Have you had a go at the Indy Cars in PC2?

AC - I'm not thrilled with the Mid-Ohio mods for Assetto Corsa. I shouldn't complain because they're free, but one version has the chicane going into the keyhole and another version is incredibly bumpy on the backstraight. Also the IMS road course uses the pre-2014 layout so you'd have to use that or the mid-2000s F1 layout. RF2 - The oval setups have come a long way. The initial setup was completely undriveable but thankfully they've fixed that. I have a video on my channel of the cars going on 2 wheels at Texas if anyone wants to see that.

Perfect!!!!!

I still hook up the original Xbox from time to time to play Indycar Series 2005. The best

Without a pc it's hard to get a dedicated indycar game for consoles. I had Newman Haas racing on ps1 that was pretty good

my personal opinion project cars 2 is good especially with the 2016 roster along with some older cars ovals need work for ai plus only 32 cars in total will always bug me at indy but once you can find a league you will have a blast and a half nr2003 is nr2003 so depending on the track you can have a good race or a meh race

I really hope the new game comes out. I never joined Iracing because I don't have the time to "work my way up", as well as money's tight, so I don't want to pay a subscription fee.

Thanks for this explaining this thoroughly! I hope Motorsport Games gives us a good IndyCar game that's complete and fun to play. I'm starting to like IndyCar more every day, and it's a sport I'm very interested in!

"Once in awhile you'll have some silly maneuvers and pile ups that can spoil the whole thing"... So regular IndyCar racing then

IndyCar video? Why yes, yes you have my attention...

Only criticism is all Indy (and Formula E) content seems to be hidden behind some sort of pay wall. AC makes things annoying by requiring you to download each track manually instead of having some sort of pack, like you have for the 1988 F1 season.

I had Project Cars 2 as my Indycar game

The CART 1997 Playstation game was amazing!

I still have hope that the next Forza Motorsport will give us good Indycars

All Indycars from 1911 till now sounds bloody amazing... and all the Indy configurations in history with it as well... would be amazing in VR. Even Project Cars2 is bad in many ways... I sometimes fire up an Indy500 race with the historic legends in VR.

iRacing’s pricing sounds like they’re trying to scare off casual gamers.

Everybody knows that the best Indy car game is the Indy 500 arcade game from 1995

Could you make a video with the links for all the mods needed for IndyCar on assetto?

Honorary mention: Project cars 2. Not the most realistic but still the only option for console users

2:23 is a heck of a coincidence :o

5:54 RIP random spectator