Why Sim Racing Campaigns Are An Untapped Goldmine For Automotive Brands
With bloated budgets and soaring investor expectations the gaming industry is at a crossroads, but if you’re a racing game fan, especially one interested in sim racing, there’s never been a better time to be a gamer.
Despite the current volatility, gaming is a mature medium. With decades of excellent titles behind us, even older racing games from 10 or 20 years ago remain incredibly playable, and the market at the time made for games that can still be highly compelling for those fans interested in learning more about motorsports history.
While my own sim racing rig was temporarily out of commission, I used the downtime to go hunting for hidden gems and stumbled across a game I had somehow missed over a decade ago: Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends (2012).
What grabbed my attention was right there in the title: this is a Ferrari-focused sim racing experience, with a full campaign centered exclusively on Ferrari’s legendary racing and road cars.
A pure Ferrari single player campaign? Yes please!
Ferrari Racing Legends doesn’t just use Ferrari as a token brand asset, it builds an entire game around the brand. Indeed, the campaign takes you through a curated selection of the manufacturer’s most iconic models, placing them in historical race settings and allowing you to drive on classic circuits in their original configurations.
If you're a fan of sim racing games, or someone trying to understand what makes Ferrari such a dominant cultural force in motorsports, this kind of gameplay can be surprisingly effective on multiple levels.
It’s not just racing; it’s education, immersion, and storytelling all rolled into one.
Want More Insights Like This?
Subscribe to Return On Racing — the weekly newsletter from Vaucher Analytics covering actionable motorsports strategy, cost breakdowns, and sponsor intel.
In less than 500 words.
Video games make learning about Ferrari even more fun
Ferrari isn’t just a car company.
It’s an icon, a mythology, arguably the most influential brand in racing history and inarguably one of the world’s most recognizable brands. The emotional weight it carries for fans and drivers alike is simply unmatched.
From a professional standpoint, whether you’re in motorsport marketing, brand strategy, or just an auto industry nerd, understanding Ferrari is a strategic advantage. But the deeper you dive, the more overwhelming it can become. The brand’s history is dense, storied, and obsessively documented. It’s a rabbit hole you could spend years exploring.
That’s why games like Ferrari Racing Legends are such valuable entry points. They make the complexity fun and accessible, letting you participate in Ferrari’s evolution in a structured way, through the visceral experience of coming as close as possible to actually driving their cars.
What I got out of Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends
I picked up Ferrari Racing Legends for just a few euros. Despite its age and mixed reviews, I was more curious than skeptical, and a few hours in I can confidently say it delivered on what I was hoping for:
A chronological tour of Ferrari’s foundational race cars
A chance to drive historical circuits as they originally were (you’ll quickly understand why Monza is referred to as “The Temple of Speed” and why it saw so much early tragedy)
A better understanding of what early Grand Prix driving must have felt like (short version: terrifying)
It’s not perfect, but as a way to build deeper ties with a brand, especially for Ferrari fans, it’s a rare kind of digital time capsule because this type of game just does not exist anymore.
“It’s not perfect, but as a way to build deeper ties with a brand, especially for Ferrari fans, it’s a rare kind of digital time capsule because this type of game just does not exist anymore.”
The changing landscape of sim racing and racing video games
As video game audiences have matured, so has the racing genre, particularly in the world of sim racing, which has evolved from a niche community into a community that is now slightly less niche than before, but ever more demanding.
Back in the late ’90s and early 2000s, it was common to see mono-brand racing games, titles entirely focused on a single automaker.
From Automobili Lamborghini and Beetle Adventure Racing on the Nintendo 64 to Porsche Challenge on the original PlayStation and Ferrari F355 Challenge on Dreamcast, these games carved out unique lanes in both the arcade racing and driving simulation spaces.
They weren’t always perfect, but presumably they had room to exist. The gaming landscape was smaller, audiences were less fragmented, and expectations were lower, which meant that even quirky or narrowly focused titles could find a fan base. You could have a game centered on one car, one brand, or one absurd premise (Beetle Adventure Racing, anyone?) and still build a cult following based on quality.
Fast forward to 2025, and things have changed dramatically.
The rise of sim racing
Today’s racing games are largely dominated by two ends of the spectrum:
Arcade racers like Need for Speed and Ridge Racer, which emphasize spectacle and accessibility
Sim racing platforms like iRacing, Assetto Corsa, and Gran Turismo, which focus on realism, physics, and motorsport authenticity
(And yes, there's a middle ground often referred to as “sim-cade,” and there’s Mario Kart which is practically its own genre, but for simplicity, we’ll leave those out.)
From a development perspective, this means it’s no longer enough to just make a competent game. You need to know exactly which niche you’re serving, and do it well enough to pull players away from entrenched titles with decades of content and community behind them.
“From a development perspective, this means it’s no longer enough to just make a competent game. You need to know exactly which niche you’re serving, and do it well enough to pull players away from entrenched titles with decades of content and community behind them.”
But here’s another reason you don’t see mono-brand games anymore: automotive companies themselves have shifted their priorities.
Two decades ago, a game like Automobili Lamborghini could be greenlit with a relatively light branding strategy, maybe even a goofy commercial to match. Beetle Adventure Racing leaned into the fun, bubbly spirit of the New Beetle.
Today, that kind of brand expression is virtually unheard of.
Modern car brands, especially those with deep motorsport roots or luxury positioning, are hyper-curated and image-conscious.
Being taken seriously is absolutely paramount.
That’s why most high-performance and prestige brands would far rather be seen in Gran Turismo or iRacing, where car physics, driving feel, and track accuracy are treated with reverence, than in an arcade game where their car might drift sideways through fireworks at 200 mph.
In short: arcade-style games no longer align with how these companies want their vehicles portrayed. The physics aren’t accurate, the tone isn’t serious, and the brand message doesn’t land.
That makes partnerships with arcade racers less attractive, no matter how big the audience.
Engagement is what brands are after.
Sim racing as the new standard for automotive engagement
That leads to the hypothesis that sim racing is the platform of choice, the penultimate destination before a car sale, for car brands today.
Whether they’re integrating into Forza Motorsport, building brand-specific events in Gran Turismo, or commissioning detailed car models for Le Mans Ultimate, the trend is clear: real cars in realistic environments, aimed at serious drivers.
I didn’t mention those platforms by chance because there’s a new challenge: competition for attention.
If you're launching a new sim racing experience in 2025, even a beautifully crafted one, you're not just up against other games.
You're up against entire platforms with loyal communities, mod support, eSports leagues, and years of refinement. Games like iRacing and Assetto Corsa Competizione aren’t just played; for many sim racers they can be foundational to their lifestyle.
That’s why the economics of building a standalone, mono-brand racing sim today don’t add up.
Even in a hypothetical case where the project were to be funded entirely as a marketing expense and reviewed favorably, this hypothetical title is unlikely to pull players away from the deep, ever-expanding sandbox of their current sim platform of choice.
Where do gaming companies and automobile brands go from here?
We may never see another stand-alone title like Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends, but that doesn’t mean racing games have lost their strategic value.
If anything, the sim racing ecosystem has become one of the most powerful tools for auto brands looking to build authentic, long-term engagement with a passionate, digitally native audience.
“If anything, the sim racing ecosystem has become one of the most powerful tools for auto brands looking to build authentic, long-term engagement with a passionate, digitally native audience.”
Brands are in fact already active in this space, but looking to past titles such as Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends leads to the hypothesis that there is a vast blue sky of untapped potential today.
The key is not to build another game, but rather to choose the right platform, community, and strategy for showing up inside the ones players already love.
Aligning gaming strategies with brand objectives
Before any automotive brand launches a marketing initiative in any space, gaming included, it’s critical to align around two key variables:
The brand’s core identity and positioning
The specific audience they want to reach
A brash, youth-oriented sportscar brand trying to win over Gen Z (or even Gen Alpha!) gamers will require a very different approach from a traditional European luxury brand aiming to build long-term resonance with, say, Southeast Asian consumers over the age of 40.
The point is this: even though there are only a handful of high-level entry points into gaming, the possibilities within each are vast, limited only by the imagination of the creative team and the appetite for investment from marketing and finance (please see summary table below).
These avenues don’t have to be mutually exclusive either.
Can you imagine the power of a sales funnel that:
Exposes huge numbers of players to your brand in a mainstream game, just as Porsche did when it decided to showcase its 911 GT3 RS in Fortnite
Directs a portion of those players who want to “drive” the car to sim racing
Then directs of a further subset of those players to the Porsche dealership to buy the real-life version of what they were first exposed to in Fortnite (or at least purchase a few items from the brand’s webshop)
The Porsche 911 GT3 RS in Fortnite (Photo credit: www.porsche.com)
Why custom downloadable content (DLC) may yield the greatest return on investment
What excites me most as a passionate sim racer, is the idea of custom campaign modes layered onto existing sim racing platforms.
First and foremost, this avenue addresses the biggest criticism and greatest source of brand risk associated with any collaboration: maintaining quality and brand standards.
This is highly pertinent to monobrand racing games. In the early days, every new title had to reinvent the wheel and its physics. Each release required developers to build a custom physics engine from scratch or heavily rework an older one.
Sometimes it worked.
Often, it didn’t.
Take Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends, for example. Having spent time with it recently, I can confirm what many reviews said at launch: the driving physics leave a lot to be desired and I really hope that my dream F430 doesn’t handle like it does in the game.
For a title trying to celebrate one of the most iconic brands in motorsport, based on how its cars are to drive, that’s a real problem.
And clearly it’s not just a gameplay issue, it’s a massive brand risk.
In today’s digital ecosystem, if your game’s physics feel off, unrealistic, or just plain clunky, that feedback spreads fast. YouTubers, Reddit threads, Twitch streamers, and sim racing forums will amplify that sentiment, sometimes turning a technical issue into a widespread reputation problem.
We’ve already seen this play out in recent years with EA’s struggles around its F1 and WRC-licensed games, both of which have taken hits to credibility due to inconsistent driving models (though it should be said that the F1 series introduced a narrative mode in 2021 named “Braking Point”, whose third installment seems to be anticipated in the upcoming F1 2025).
This is why any brand considering a move into gaming, particularly sim racing, should think carefully about where and how they show up.
The risk of poor execution is significantly reduced when brands choose to collaborate with platforms already known for technical excellence. Whether it’s iRacing, Assetto Corsa Competizione, or Le Mans Ultimate, these platforms come with well-established physics engines, rigorous development standards, and credibility among serious sim racers.
Instead of reinventing the physics engine (and risking getting it wrong), brands can focus their energy on what they do best: storytelling, design, and creating emotional connection (my personal view is that EA actually did this quite well in some of the later WRC DLC packs, but we’re veering off topic, pardon the pun…).
“Instead of reinventing the physics engine (and risking getting it wrong), brands can focus their energy on what they do best: storytelling, design, and creating emotional connection (my personal view is that EA actually did this quite well in some of the later WRC DLC packs, but we’re veering off topic, pardon the pun…).”
Commercially speaking, custom game modes offer the narrative and brand-building depth of a standalone title (like Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends), but with the risk mitigation and built-in player base of an established sim ecosystem.
Take Le Mans Ultimate as an example. Right now, a new player might select a specific car simply because it suits their driving style or has good reviews from streamers. That’s already a small win for the brand behind the car, but it remains a purely pragmatic one.
Now imagine something much deeper.
A Ford example: A campaign mode as brand storytelling
Let’s consider Ford, a brand with legendary roots in endurance racing.
Imagine if Le Mans Ultimate offered a Ford-specific campaign mode as DLC. It could walk (drive…) players through the brand’s historical journey, from its early 20th-century race cars through the buildup to Le Mans 1966, and beyond.
This would offer players a narrative arc, not just a race series. You’d be building emotional affinity through gameplay, not just offering another car on the roster. You’d also be reclaiming storytelling from the silver screen (Ford v Ferrari, which, to be fair to the filmmakers, I enjoyed) and putting it into the player’s hands.
Yes, developing something like this would require serious investment. But the cost model could be offset through, where applicable:
Paid DLC (sold directly or bundled with an upcoming car release, like Ford’s 2027 Hypercar)
Merch tie-ins (Ford-branded sim gear, racing gloves, etc.)
Exclusive offers activated by completing the campaign; can you imagine the return on investment if gamers were provided with a code for a discount to purchase a car, or better yet an exclusive opportunity to purchase an options package, and actually redeemed that offer?
Cross-channel storytelling (e.g. social media series built around player progress in the campaign) which can be monetized at a later time
Why this matters: sim racing as part of a full-funnel platform
Modern car companies are no longer in the business of just selling cars.
They sell:
Branded merchandise
Tickets to brand museums and events
Fashion and lifestyle collaborations
Sim racing gear
Digital memberships and collector experiences
To unlock those revenue streams, which can lead and/or complement the big ticket car sales as well, brands need to bring new fans into the fold, not just preach to their hardcore base. That means going beyond gearheads, beyond esports, and reaching broader digital-native players with a narrative-rich, gamified introduction to the brand.
Companies like Moza and Lamborghini for instance have teamed up to appeal to fans in the hardware space, but it’s hard to think of a more niche product that only die-hards would buy (you have to like sim racing, be bought into the Moza ecosystem, and like Lamborghini enough and have the funds to spend 4 figures on this wheel…).
The bigger, long-term prize lies in building emotional connection at the top of the funnel with a far more approachable software product.
That’s where campaign-based content shines: it brings the Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends model into the present, flexibly, across platforms, with options for monetization and modular rollout.
“That’s where campaign-based content shines: it brings the Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends model into the present, flexibly, across platforms, with options for monetization and modular rollout.”
And in doing so, it offers something powerful: a way to meet players where they are, to tell a story that only your brand can tell, and a way to support the makers of these platforms who still need all the revenue streams they can get in today’s very demanding development environment (insofar as motorsports brands would engage them to create this content).
The associated benefit: Single-player campaigns for older sim racers
One of the more consistent criticisms of modern sim racing games - and games generally - is their lack of meaningful single-player campaign modes.
While titles like iRacing, Assetto Corsa Competizione, and Le Mans Ultimate excel in realism and online competition (making them excellent tools to prepare for real-life racing), they often fall short in offering structured, narrative-driven solo experiences.
“While titles like iRacing, Assetto Corsa Competizione, and Le Mans Ultimate excel in realism and online competition (making them excellent tools to prepare for real-life racing), they often fall short in offering structured, narrative-driven solo experiences.”
That’s a missed opportunity — especially when you consider who’s being left out.
Older gamers, typically aged 35 and up, remain a core segment of the sim racing community. Many of them grew up with early titles such as Gran Turismo (and even older PC games) and have stayed with the genre over decades.
Importantly, this group also happens to have high disposable income, making them an ideal target for premium DLCs, hardware upgrades, branded content, event tickets, and yes, cars.
Despite their loyalty and spending power, this demographic is often underserved by the current focus on online multiplayer, esports integration, and competitive leaderboards.
Speaking from personal experience, does it really matter what my rating is in iRacing if I have to make my wife mad at me to raise it substantially?
That gap creates a powerful opening for brands.
A car manufacturer that invests in creating narrative-rich, single-player content, whether it's a historical campaign or brand story mode, has the chance to:
Deepen emotional engagement through storytelling
Position itself as a forward-thinking supporter of the sim racing ecosystem
Differentiate from competitors by being first to serve an overlooked audience
In a crowded sim racing market, being the first brand to embrace single-player campaign content could generate disproportionate goodwill, both from players and sim racing media.
It’s not just good brand strategy, it’s smart audience targeting.
Sim racing is ready for its brand storytelling era
Sim racing is a niche, but it is not on the fringes of gaming.
Sim racing has become a technically sophisticated, community-rich ecosystem where players are not just consumers; they’re fans, evangelists, and lifelong car enthusiasts in the making.
“Sim racing has become a technically sophisticated, community-rich ecosystem where players are not just consumers; they’re fans, evangelists, and lifelong car enthusiasts in the making. ”
And yet, most automotive brands have barely scratched the surface of what this space can offer.
We’ve seen what’s possible in games like Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends over a decade ago.
While the physics may not have aged well, the structure, a narrative-driven, brand-specific campaign, remains a compelling model which hasn’t really been pushed forward in over a decade.
In today’s fragmented gaming landscape, bringing that experience into modern sim racing platforms could unlock enormous value for brands and players alike.
This doesn’t require building a standalone game. It requires thoughtful integration. A DLC campaign that weaves history, heritage, and identity into gameplay. A story mode that captures the essence of a brand and gives players a reason to care, long before they’re in the market to buy a car.
The tools are there. The audiences are ready. The platforms are established.
What’s missing is vision, and the willingness to treat sim racing not just as a product placement channel, but as a storytelling canvas.
The first brand to do this well won’t just sell more merch, brand experiences, or even more cars.
They’ll win fans for life.
What to do next
Does your brand want to:
Build sim racing engagement that lasts longer than a TikTok clip
Build an actual presence in sim racing, rather than just rent pixels
Then let’s talk.
You can get in touch via:
Email at contact@vaucheranalytics.com
Our site’s contact form
At Vaucher Analytics, we help brands, teams, and manufacturers identify and capitalize on opportunities at the intersection of sim racing and real-world motorsport.
From strategic DLC partnerships to full-funnel campaign design, we work with you to turn gaming engagement into lasting brand equity.
Whether you're looking to create a deeper fan experience, test market resonance, or future-proof your motorsport presence, we offer tailored strategies that align digital activations with business results.
Main image credit: Wikipedia
Disclaimer: Vaucher Analytics provides the links in this article for illustrative purposes only. It is not responsible for any of the material published via these outlets and no endorsement is implied from linking to them.