seems to me its more like the 1st is hotlapping and the 2nd is racing.

I had the most fun years ago in LFS S1, which I guess you could consider 'driving' simulation. In s1 there was no fuel usage, tire wear, or damage (Only engine damage) and i used to have some of the best online races. Plus the netcode wasn't like it is now in S2, you could really race close without worrying about touching someone and sendung them flying. Anyways It wasn't hotlapping, it was just really fun, laid back racing without having to think about the other stuff..

There is really no right or wrong answer in the discussion but only a question of what you enjoy more. The truth is most races have an element of each with the scale leaning one direction or the other. Let me make some generalities here on what I think I have observed in my four years of simracing. Some of the young players rise to the top when the simulation is more geared toward driving. Face it; young guys have nerves of steel, quick reflexes, great hand eye coordination and have grown up playing other computer Sims and games. It's very hard to for an older driver to beat out a young guy on just driving the car. The opposite seems to be true when the simulation is more racing based. When high tire wear, fuel consumption, race pace strategy, and pit strategy come into the simulation the older drivers seem to filter toward the top. I realize these observations are general but I have seen this trend. Agree or disagree? Where do you see yourself in this and what is more fun for you? After all fun is what this is all about.

This is an interesting discussion. I remember working for Silicon Motor Speedway back in 2000 and getting N3/NL/CTS. Although I loved the immersive environment offered by the 3/4 scale cars on hydraulics (sp) and the 3 screens, I was very dissappointed in the lack of tire wear, car setup options, damage and so forth. Even though racing on a 15 inch monitor with N3 was much less immersive, I at least knew that my car would feel VERY different after 30 laps at Charlotte. That was far more important to establishing a feeling of reality then all the smoke and mirrors offered by the SMS systems. Then I ran a offline N3 race at Daytona and Darryl Waltrip won. There goes believability!

Nice take on the distinction between driving and racing, Bill. I have never really considered the age factor but thinking about it, it seems to make sense. The answer to your question for me is definitely racing. I myself have never been a driver or hotlapper as Darin mentioned. Racing sims for 7 years or so I seldom had a top 5 qualify, but for the most part I seem to manage a top 5 result in any length of race. So I supposed it would have to deal with what frame of mind your in. Is it just to see if your faster than everyone on the grid or if your able to overcome the elements encountered in a race, ie; length, traffic, yourself.