Do Racing Games Make You a Better Driver?

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Written by Phil Bruton Friday, 17 December 2010 05:00

It's winter here in Minnesota and along with that comes everybody's favorite road hazard, snow. Now this past weekend, we received 21.5" of the wonderful white stuff at my home. We received an average of 17" around the Twin Cities metro area. Why is this relevant? Well, although MNDoT (MN Dept of Transportation) is excellent at cleaning the roads around here, they don't always get all the snow and more importantly, ice. We get a large amount of ice on our roads during the winter, as salt is spread by the MNDoT trucks and it will refreeze each evening. Roads can be treacherous and unfit for driving, but as we all have somewhere to be, what choice do we have?

Sunday, as I drove out to work in my 4x4 SUV, I went around a corner and caught some of the infamous ice. I could feel the back end of my vehicle starting to slip away from me. So I did what anybody would do, I turned into the slide, eased on the gas and pulled myself through. It was done completely by instinct without any thought on my part. As I drove down the road a minute later, I thought to myself, "how the heck did I do that?" Then it hit me.

Video games.

Yes, I truly believe that video games, not 15 years of driving experience, are what taught me how to drive on hazardous roads. The more I think back to my years of being a gamer, small things from all the racing games I've played have stuck with me. Now, don't get me wrong, I learned nothing from Mario Kart. Burnout Paradise didn't teach me how to slam into other vehicles on the road and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit did not show me that running from the police is a good idea. It's much more subtle then that.

Each game, in it's own way, is a driving simulator. There are games like Forza Motorsport 3 and Gran Turismo 5 that do their best at recreating the actual driving experience; putting you in real world vehicles within real world tracks. They have realistic physics, realistic handling and realistic weather. These are the best games for learning how to drive properly. Driving 120 mph coming up to a corner and hammering on the brakes just won't work in these games, you'll crash right into the wall, destroying your car.

Now games such as Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Project Gotham Racing 4, start to bring you a little farther away from the realistic driving simulators. These games start to put you into an arcade racing style, favoring drift and speed over realism. Need for Speed requires you to especially rely on drifting properly around corners as to not lose speed. This is part of what I can equate my success with the Minnesota ice to. Proper turning and use of acceleration without braking is something that you can use in your everyday driving. You don't always need to brake when taking turns or when you go around a bend in the road. Easing off the accelerator and allowing your car to slow itself down, not only can be safer for you and the drivers around you, but it also reduces wear on your brakes!

Mario Kart, Blur and Split / Second are flat out arcade racers. They are unrealistic, over the top and provide nothing but pure, visceral entertainment. These are the games that won't teach you much about actual driving. There are no red turtle shells, even though you might wish there are. It would be fantastic to activate a power play and open up a faster route to work, but it's not going to happen. I'm very happy that games like this exist, but unfortunately they add little to nothing to supplement your driving skills.

I'm not saying that Need for Speed and the like have taught me how to drive in inclement weather. But, slight tactics that you use in them, can come in handy on a daily basis. I've played enough games, that I'm able to pick up and play almost any racing game that comes along, with much success. I think all of this practice can be easily applied to your own driving; things such as slowing down earlier when coming to a corner when there's snow or it's raining. I believe that not only are racing games fun, but the realistic physics in them might just save your life someday. I know that they might have saved mine.

 

Comments  

 
# Dirk 2010-12-17 23:36
What video games do is improve hand & eye coordination, which usually means faster reflexes. If the events happening in the game are similar to what is happening in the real world you don't have to think about what to do, which could get you killed, you just do it.
 
 
# Jim 2010-12-18 05:33
No... because does a sports game make you an athlete? NO.
 
 
# Dirk 2010-12-18 07:10
Quoting Jim:
No... because does a sports game make you an athlete? NO.


But the sports game can teach you moves, plays, and patterns of behavior to use and avoid just like in the real world. Even the physical aspect is now being addressed with 360 Kinect and PS3 Move. So I would say this person is wrong.
 
 
# brad 2010-12-18 08:06
The simple answer is NO.

When you get behind the wheel, it's totally different thing than a video game...and in real life, there is no restart button...so you need to be much more cautious than in a video game.
 
 
# racing games 2011-01-13 13:19
I don't think so. Because game is just fun but driving is real world.
 
 
# racing games 2011-01-15 14:39
There's a free online version of Fast and Furious but from what you wrote, I think the iphone version has much better features. I really like the movie so I might have to try it.
 
 
# racing games 2011-01-16 13:37
I should probably that I’ve never liked 3D anyway, not until we do away with the glasses! Perhaps to someone who likes it it looks good, I’m just speaking subjectively.
 
 
# alan 2011-01-28 03:30
well i think may not help you became a real racing diver, but lets face it, how does airline pilothe ts or figther pilots train even nasa has simulators, so you can experience what is like to be in that situation. im not saying that a video game will recreate the experience, but in the case of racing games well if you play with a wheel and stick at least will give you the coordination in order to drive a car, because you "train" yourself in a videogame, will give you the theroy not the practic, all you need to do is to be able to recognice videogame situations like drifting at insane speeds and the real life, also video games may help you to reach faster and helping you to think ahead so you can react faster and in a proper way.
 
 
# Kenny007 2011-01-31 12:26
I believe there have been a few studies suggesting shooters make you a better driver. Not only the generic hand eye coordination video game bullet point, but quickly gauging estimated trajectories, target recognition and tracking multiple objects, all useful tools on the road.

I don't think about games helping me become a better driver as I actively drive, but it is amusing watching some of my non gamer acquaintances drive. Perhaps they're all just subpar drivers...lol.
 

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