Viewpoint: Sim Racers, rejoice – There’s a new Assetto Corsa coming, and it looks epic
- Danny Davies
- Oct 1, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 2, 2024
I can almost guarantee that most people who love cars once had a phase growing up where they wanted to be a racing driver. I know I certainly did, and I’m pretty sure that dreaming of driving cars for a living is one of the fundamental stepping stones to becoming a petrolhead. However, actually pursuing a career in motorsport as a driver is essentially impossible; opportunities are so few, the cost is so high, the pressure is so much and the raw talent is so rare that, for many, the idea is completely inaccessible.
This is where the Sim Racing industry steps in. Over recent years, a vast range of equipment, games and competitions have become available that aim to provide authentic, dramatic and intense recreations of every discipline of motorsport you could ever think of from the comfort of your own home, giving people the opportunity to realise their motorsport dreams. And now, the most accessible and most successful Sim Racing franchise of all time – KUNOS Simulazioni’s Assetto Corsa series – will soon be receiving a new addition.
The Assetto Corsa catalogue is expanding with the release of a third title: Assetto Corsa EVO, coming in January 2025. Following on from the original game released in 2014 (simply called Assetto Corsa) and 2018's Assetto Corsa Competizione, which was the official game of GT World Challenge, EVO will be a natural successor to the original game released a decade ago. This is a big deal, even for someone like me who isn't especially involved within the Sim Racing world (I see it as a way of relaxing and simply having fun rather than being anything competitive), as these games are amazing and don't exactly come along very often.
EVO therefore has a very tough act to follow; the original Assetto Corsa still has a massive cult following, and even today, it still holds its own as one of the best driving simulators you can buy. However, the trailer for the new game, as well as a statement from KUNOS Simulazioni’s Co-Founder & Executive, Marco Massarutto, both provide several reasons to get excited about the future.
The trailer, which was released this morning and can be viewed above, shows many of the features that fans of the franchise were hoping to see - there appears to be an emphasis on road cars as well as race cars, which are both equally important to the appeal of the original game. While the goal of being a racing driver in real life can be a hard one to achieve, getting to drive your favourite road cars can be as well, given the rarity and price attached to many of the cars we love and aspire to own. Therefore, the beauty of Assetto Corsa was that the game made it possible to realise both aspirations; Whether you dreamt of racing a DTM 190E Evo wheel-to-wheel with an E30 M3 and an Alfa 155 around the Nordschleife, or to cruise in a 911 R through the Scottish Highlands, the game had you covered in both cases, providing a hyper-realistic, accurate simulation of each scenario that created a tangible difference in feeling between the cars you were driving. This only looks set to continue, albeit with an updated, more up-to-date list of cars and circuits at your disposal - which sounds perfect to me. There was even the suggestion of a more 'free-roam' style of map within the trailer, where you can see the new Morgan Super 3 cruising on the roads that surround the Nürburgring in the Eiffel Mountains, complete with traffic AI, which is a tantalising prospect. Real life, accurately-recreated roads, coupled to an incredibly realistic physics model and an extensive and diverse car list to play with? Yes please.
Things get even better, too. A 'new proprietary graphics engine specifically designed for driving simulations, which will guarantee support for VR headsets and triple screens' has been announced for the game, which will add another layer of realism and immersion to the driving experience in EVO, and as an accompaniment to the trailer, KUNOS Simulazioni’s Co-Founder & Executive, Marco Massarutto, also released a statement describing his excitement for the new game, and what his studio intend to achieve with it. Massarutto says 'EVO is all about car culture and the love for driving', and that 'Car passion isn’t a matter of age, experience, knowledge, or opportunities—it’s something that comes from within. You can love a supercar even if you’ll never be able to buy one.
'How you express your passion—whether it’s a poster in your room, playing with RC cars, driving in a simulator, or a real car—doesn’t matter; it’s entirely up to you. EVO is just one of those ways. Some of us start as kids, some as teenagers, others as adults. It doesn’t matter—car passion has no limits. We’re offering our fans a driving and racing simulation that, regardless of what they’re looking for, if they are car enthusiasts, they will love.'
That last line is just about the best thing Massarutto could have said, and it pretty much sums up why the previous two games have been so successful; providing the opportunity for petrolheads to live out their automotive dreams, regardless of whether they want to race, drift, or simply just drive their favourite car on a nice road, it doesn't matter - Assetto Corsa will be able to transport you there, and this is a recipe that will work time and time again for us people who love cars and love driving. Therefore, if EVO can pick up from where its predecessor left off, and continue to offer the closest thing to raw driving thrill that you can experience besides actually driving a car for real, then it looks set to become another classic, and another huge success for KUNOS. I can't wait to play it for myself.
(Open Beta for Assetto Corsa EVO opens on the January 16th 2025 on PC, with a console release expected at a later date).
Image Credits - KUNOS Simulazioni
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