If you are incapable of even writing down your own definition of what a simulator is, then you have little cause for claiming any game is or isn’t a simulator. People make lists about car games, ranking them by difficulty and putting hardest on top, easiest on bottom, to determine their realism.
The irony is, there are a lot of people out there who claim that a racing sim is realistic when it is difficult. But that is exactly what is wrong with a game like Project Cars. Or, for that matter, with the Sim Tires back from when GT3 had those as an option. It was highly ironic, their grip was so bad, that the AI had trouble staying on track
Have you actually driven any kind of car, slow, fast? I have, quite a few now. My dad grew up near the racing track of Zandvoort. We went to drive on the Ring in various cars. We rented a Porsche Boxter S to drive around the Ardennes for a weekend. That car, in its default configuration, it’s an MR, nice and snappy … and it is nearly impossible to let the car spin. Even getting a single wheel to squeal in a tight corner, practically impossible.
A simulation is something that imitates reality. All aspects of it. GT7 imitates a tonne of stuff from real life. There is practically nothing that is in the game that is not based on reality. And it does it pretty well. As I said, there are games that imitate certain parts in more detail, or more realistically. Tire flex, suspension, these are parts where other games have done better or more detail than GT in the past. There are games that focus on only a certain type of car and imitate that as well as possible.
But as a complete package, with the improvements GT7 has right now, it is absolutely, without any doubt, a sim, and it is also a good one, because it doesn’t make you spin out without any good reason (last time I played Forza), or requires you to change a tonne of settings to even remotely get near any kind of stability (Project Cars).
Assetto Corsa has a good driving model (at least last time I tried it it did), but very limited in terms of what you can do.
rFactor is probably one of the very best right now. A long time ago mods for an F1 game were the most realistic. But it should tell you something that GT Sport took inspiration from it directly. It prides itself that the best online players get a real racing licence training and a shot at racing in real races like Le Mans 24 Hours.
If you make a list of everything that GT7 does right now, it is absolutely one of the best racing sim packages. It has a very competent driving model that has improved in this latest version with more realistic suspension, tire modeling including visual tire flex, better aerodynamics simulation and so on. It has realistic graphics. The cars are extremely realistic and detailed models, that you can modify and upgrade to a great extent, as well as visually stickered up in any way possible, great force feedback controls when using a variety of supported wheels, driving with the controller is absolutely the most realistic there is out there, with the often wrongfully dismissed motion steering, feedback in the triggers and rumble. The real life tracks are also extremely detailed and realistically modeled. This new version has vastly improved surround sound even on stereo headphones. The weather and day night and cloud simulation is at least a match for any racing game out there now, unless there is one out there that emulates the rain actually being displaced rather than sort of proportionally pre-programmed, or supports snow.
The only part where it won’t soon be able to compete against rFactor is how customizable and extensible that game is. And the number of tracks is comparatively small compared to something that is freely moddable.
But make no mistake, GT7 is a true sim, not some Arcade racer.
Again, unless we cannot agree on a definition of what a simulation is.
Which is why I asked. For your definition.