Motor racing movies don’t appeal to everyone, but examples like Rush and Ford vs Ferrari have established a decent audience of hardcore and casual fans. But can the same happen with virtual motorsport film The Sim Racer released to stream via Amazon?
Dramatising the world of online racing makes more sense than you might imagine. The creation of writer and director Brock Drury, the film was birthed from the Covid-19 lockdowns, and arrives not long before the cinema release of the big budget Gran Turismo film from Sony. And while that production might have the star power of director Neil Blomkamp and a cast including Orlando Bloom, The Sim Racer utilises the iRacing platform to capture the track action.
It might not be a big budget production, with a running time of 1 hour and 7 minutes, and a cast including names known to the sim racing community such as Evan Posocco and Jeff Maconi. But it takes a relatively familiar tale of a racer in financial trouble aiming to solve their problems by winning the biggest event of the season, helped by an aging crew chief, and up against a rival.
And if you’re trying to introduce an audience more familiar with Days of Thunder to a film using virtual racing cars, then it makes sense that the plot is relatively straightforward. With sim racing gaining a huge boost in popularity during the pandemic, and being embraced by most real world championships, teams and manufacturers, plenty of people could be ready to enjoy the story of Like Wallace (Roman Boylen), his crew chief Bootie Burnes (Scott Oakley) and friend Earl (Chris Wolfe), along with rival Shooter Jones (Bradley Harrison).
With machinima utitlising game engines for decades now, it’ll be interesting to see whether it inspires more dramas centred around eSports and gaming.
The Sim Racer is available to rent for 30 days from Amazon Prime Video in HD for £4.99 or SD for £3.99. Or you can purchase it for £9.99 in HD, or £8.99 in SD. And if it inspires an interest in sim racing and games, then why not check out our sister site, OnlineRaceDriver?
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