The Best Way To Return To Sim Racing After Taking A Break

Even professional eSports atheletes take holidays or need to recover from injuries. And for the rest of us, life can often interfere with our hobby. Alternatively, you might be feeling bored or burned out from lapping virtual cars. But when you’re coming back, what’s the best way to return to sim racing after taking a break?

I’ve had experience of this due to a couple of health issues over the last few years. And with another bit of unavoidable time away from the sim rig in my near future, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I’ve felt trying to get back up to speed in the past.

The best way to return to sim racing after taking a break will be different depending on your reasons for spending time away, but hopefully some of my tips below could help you come back successfully, and also in a way that’s more enjoyable.

1. Think about why you’ve taken a break

This is most applicable if you found yourself taking a break due to feeling bored or burned out with sim racing. And everyone needs a rest sometimes. But if you weren’t enjoying things, maybe it’s worth trying some different?

That could be a different sim racing title, or trying a different discipline. Doing some drifting on Assetto Corsa, or rallying in EA Sports WRC, is quite a change if you usually focus on GT3 races on iRacing. In the past, I’ve found that the mods of vintage cars and tracks for Assetto Corsa have always brought a smile to my face, even when I’ve been having a bad time in competitive multiplayer.

I spend a lot of time on iRacing, so when things have been going badly, it’s also nice to jump over to do some time trial competitions in RaceRoom. It’s also why I still enjoy arcade and simcade titles, along with the likes of SnowRunner and Euro Truck Simulator 2 for a different driving experience.

And if it’s a break for medical reasons, you might find your old sim racing set-up isn’t as comfortable as before, or needs some modifications. Something as simple as a basic memory foam cushion can make a big difference (I recently invested in this Everlasting Comfort cushion which has made my seat a lot more comfortable).

2. Clean and update your sim racing setup

Electronic equipment attracts dust like nothing else. So if your sim racing kit has been sat idle for a while, it’s a great time to give it a quick clean with some microfibre cloths and compressed air. It’ll make sure everything performs correctly, and avoids the aroma of burning dust at best, and burning electronics at worst.

Cleaning will also reveal if any nuts and bolts might need tightening, or give you the chance to adjust everything to be a bit more ergonomic. Tweaking the angle of your pedals, adjusting the height of your monitor and making sure you’re sitting at a position that’s comfortable will not only put less strain on your body, but being comfortable will make your sim racing more consistent.

New kit can also bring a fresh outlook to your sim racing, and it doesn’t have to be really expensive. You can find decent shifters, handbrakes, button boxes and other hardware fairly cheap new or secondhand, and they can add an entirely new element to your sim racing. I might be slower trying to drive the Rays FF1600 with a H-pattern Thrustmaster TH8S shifter, but I’m also having a lot more fun for £59.99.

I’m not suggesting you spend thousands in a professional set-up to replace your desktop G29 or T150 in the hope you’ll enjoy your sim racing more. But small tweaks can help you approach things in a much different way.

3. Update your software and check release notes

When you’re finishing the cleaning process, it’s time to make sure you’ve updated to the latest version of your favourite sims, along with any other software you’re using. There’s nothing worse than jumping into your rig excited to race, only to find out you’ve got an 80GB download to install.

And if you’ve taken a break for a while, it’s worth checking out release notes for all the sim updates to check if your favourite cars, tracks or the rules themselves have been significantly changed. Or you might find your previous choices are now at the back of the grid.

4. Be realistic, and remember other sim racers will have improved

If you’ve had a significant break, you won’t have forgotten all your sim racing skills. But you might be a little rusty, so don’t expect to be breaking your lap records as soon as you return. While your muscle memory comes back pretty quickly, that final five or ten per cent of your speed could take a bit longer to come back.

Schedule a little extra practice time before your return to racing. And also remember that the other competitors might have been practising every day during your absence, and it’s likely they’ll have improved while you’ve been gone.

Don’t be disheartened if you’ve slipped from regular podium finisher to mid-field sim racer. Not only will you get back on the pace with time, but other people will have their own absences to deal with, when you’re potentially able to spend 10 hours a day sim racing.

5. Check out new ranked racing platforms, leagues, and teams

If you’re coming back after a break, you might find the ranked platforms and leagues you competed in have changed, or disappeared. And new options may have sprung up whether that’s hosted iRacing leagues, Low Fuel Motorsport adding more supported sims, or Grid Finder listing a series you haven’t tried before.

Leagues and teams are a great way to find new sim racing friends, which can add a huge amount to your experience. It’s always good to share the highs and lows of virtual motorsport with other people, whether that’s working together in endurance events, or airing your frustrations after someone wiped you out with a careless rejoin.

One of the best things about sim racing for me has been the great people I’ve met through Team ORD, and some of the experiences we’ve shared. Sometimes it was watching my team-mates win our first races in Forza or iRacing. Other times it was laughing and commiserating over a broken car during an endurance event.

And like many teams, we’re more focused on enjoying sim racing and supporting each other rather than being ultra-competitive every second. Of course we aim to win, but it’s important to have fun on the way, even when someone might have planted our car in a barrier.

6. Most importantly, enjoy yourself

We all encounter times in sim racing when things aren’t going well, whether it’s bad results or not seeing the progress we’d like. Sometimes you need to push through short-term challenges to overcome them and see results.

But if you’ve been struggling to enjoy sim racing over a long time, then maybe it’s not the hobby for you, or there are other things in life impacting your mental health which require support way beyond the scope of this sim racing website. In those cases, it’s a good idea to speak to professional support, whether that’s through the NHS, or organisations like Mind, Samaritans, and others.

And don’t feel that sim racing means you have to be racing and winning in GT3s, dominating every series, or claiming every lap record. If you prefer hot lapping, cruising, drifting, messing around with mods, truck driving, virtually exploring the wilderness, racing against AI on easy mode, designing liveries, tuning setups or endlessly tweaking your sim rig it’s all as good, and as valid a way to enjoy the hobby as anything else.