With no GT or Forza on the PC, what are the best 5 racing games I should buy? I have Grid and Need for Speed Shift, any others?
iRacing.com is supposed to be one of the best sim racers, but I think they require a monthly fee. top racer from that place got a chance to actually drive a real racing car. He came within 10 MPH of the pro’s cornering speed, and within a few seconds of what would have been considered a good time for a pro racer.
Just thought I’d share that tidbit since I just read about it today 
I would recommend Dirt 2 (and the upcoming Dirt 3), F1 2010, Test Drive Unlimited, GTR2, Race: WTCC, Shift 2, Race On,
For more arcade-y racers try the NFS series, Trackmania (2 is coming soon and looks awesome), Flat-out, Blur, Burnout Paradise.
iRacing is cool, but I found it very difficult. There is a point system that is necessary for promotion to get access to better cars/tracks, and the system is pretty stringent. For example, if you spinout or go off track on a practice run, even with no one around, you lose points. Also, I found it very obscure to figure out how you gain points other than grinding out long practice sessions for hours on end, or risking an costly accident in a race.
It can get pricey too; most of the good stuff costs extra, and if you don’t have a good quality force-feedback wheel, you’re going to have control problems. Framerate can sometimes be a problem too, not a good thing when you’re flying into a corner. Plus, it’s totally oriented toward racing online against human opponents, so you’re subject to their foibles. A headset for communication is recommended.
As for what I’d recommend, oddly enough I’d recommend a sim that hasn’t been around in ages: Grand Prix Legends. It’s from the same guy that runs iRacing now, and with the right patches and tweaks, it’s much more fun. If you look around, I’m sure you can find a copy on eBay. The engine is very tweakable, and you can download user created tracks and cars, and import cars from other Papyrus/Sierra racing sims.
Here’s an idea of what it’s about:
I also recommend GPL, even though it’s pretty old now.
rFactor is what I drive, tho you have to be “in the know” to get the best car mods and the best tracks, as it’s mainly user-made content driven. But since I love sports cars both Enduracers and VLN 2005 get most of my time behind the wheel. GTR2 is another top title, which gets extra credit for having dynamic weather.
iracing is indeed hard, pricey and few cars and tracks. But it is well done. Grand Prix Legends is old and you need patches to get it to work on modern computers. Hard too but there are plenty of mods put out by fans. Plus you can find it cheap. One advantage of GPL (for me) is there are some nice detailed pamphlets included on the era and how to drive the courses.
I have GTR and Rfactor and they are very good. But I always return to GPL so I recommend that one the most. The same people also did some NASCAR titles such as “NASCAR racing 2003” and "Legends’ (1970 season) that are better than the EA offerings if your tastes run to stock cars on ovals.
I’d add FUEL to that list. Not great but plenty of fun for ten bucks. Flatout: Ultimate Carnage is great for 20 bucks.
Shift 2 is stupid difficult because of the controls. You steer and the car doesn’t. You have to manually adjust the settings until the car becomes drivable. No fun at all when you can’t even get past the first race because of messed up controls.
Although they’re older games, I really love Need For Speed Underground 1 and 2. They’re fun and they don’t start getting difficult until you’re well into the game. NFSU2 is really neat in that you get to drive around in a totally open city which is very intricate. I didn’t like any of the other NFS series (Most Wanted, Carbon, Undercover, etc) but they’re playable at least.
My favorite sim has been NASCAR Racing 4. My favorite arcade racer has been a toss up between Need for Speed 2, from the PS1, or the most recent Need for Speed Hot Pursuit.