Sim racing presents itself as a compelling activity choice for corporate events, offering a uniquely immersive and customisable experience, opportunities for friendly competition, and even integrated marketing for your business. However, your specific needs should be considered when selecting the sim racing platform for your event. This guide will explore the top sim racing platform options and what makes them ideal for your corporate event.  

The Rise of Sim Racing in Corporate Entertainment

Sim racing’s recent rise in popularity has established its relevance in the corporate space. Gone are the days when driving simulators were either a home entertainment hobby or reserved for the high-tech, exclusive world of professional racing. While esports facilitated sim racing’s genuine expansion into the business world, it has since grown beyond that, becoming a viable and popular choice for corporate events. 

The immersive experience that sim racing offers is inherently interesting, especially for clients or corporate event attendees who may never have interacted with a driving simulator before. The opportunity of driving virtual cars, using force feedback racing wheels and, in some cases, experiencing the realistic movements of a motion simulator, can make your event memorable. 

The competitive aspect of sim racing offers fun and friendly competition as well as opportunities for team building and client engagement. Timed lap leaderboards and pitting teams and individual drivers against each other in races are excellent ways of doing this. 

Sim racing also offers marketing and branding opportunities as well, as some platforms allow users to integrate company logos onto custom car liveries and around billboards on the race track.  

Image via Williams Esports

Choosing a Platform 

Choosing a platform should not be taken with a one-size-fits-all approach. No two platforms are exactly alike, and their individual characteristics should be accounted for. The following factors should be considered.

Ease of Setup

A platform that is easy to set up is ideal for a corporate event. Not only does this allow your event attendees to start driving sooner, but also reduces the likelihood of technical problems and other unforeseen issues. Ideally, your chosen platform should have menus that are easy to navigate and understand, allowing you to configure the sim experience to fit your needs. This can help with things like hardware setup, changing assists, setting up lobbies, changing tracks, cars and in-game weather conditions, etc. 

Scalability

If your event involves a larger group, it is likely best to opt for a solution that allows as many people to drive at once as possible. Aside from simply having multiple simulators set up at any given event, this will likely involve choosing a platform with easily accessible and manageable multiplayer options that allow the event attendees to compete against each other. 

Custom Branding Options

One of the benefits of sim racing from a corporate standpoint is the ability to integrate your brand into the experience. If this is important for your event, choosing a platform that allows for custom car livery options and the ability to change the contents of billboards around your chosen in-game circuits will likely be beneficial. 

User Accessibility

At any given corporate event, it is likely that most of the people in attendance have never used a driving simulator before. Therefore, the skill level of the attendees will almost certainly vary so it is probably best to select a platform where the difficulty and realism can be altered. Driver aids should be able to be turned on or off, force feedback settings should be alterable, and other settings like field of view should all be easily adjustable. Thankfully, this is possible with most sim racing platforms. It may also be worthwhile considering whether you want a more realistic platform that allows your attendees to experience what driving a real car is like, or if you want to use a platform that is more entry-level and approachable. 

Image via SimStaff (Hero Events)

What platform is right for your event?

There are plenty of sim racing platforms on the market. Here are the strengths of a few that might be suitable for a corporate event. 

F1 24

The Codemasters F1 games have been a staple of the sim racing landscape for over 15 years, and F1 24 is the latest instalment in the franchise. F1 24 offers players the opportunity to drive all of the official cars and tracks from the 2024 Formula 1 and Formula 2 Championships. 

This platform may be suitable for your corporate event, as your attendees will be able to interact with cars and tracks that they are likely to recognise, even those with only a casual understanding of motor racing. 

As a more entry-level platform, F1 24 prioritises accessibility rather than hyper-realism, which will likely prove useful for corporate event attendees that have never used a driving simulator before. F1 24 has many game modes suitable for your event that are relatively easy to set up, allowing your attendees to race against each other in the Grand Prix, Multiplayer Grand Prix or Local Multiplayer modes, set their fastest lap time in the time trial modes, or race against the in-game AI in single player. 

Image via EA Sports ‘F124‘

rFactor 2

rFactor 2 may be over 12 years old, but it is still one of the top sim racing platforms, renowned for its realistic driving experience and its large array of official downloadable content and user-generated mods. 

If the goal of your event is to give your attendees a realistic taste of driving a real racing car, rFactor 2 is almost second to none, with software derived from the simulator platforms used by professional racing teams. 

rFactor 2 has two major strengths that will likely be useful for your corporate event; the sheer number of car and track possibilities and its ability to have your brand integrated into the experience. Between the official and modder-created content, it’s possible for those in attendance at your event to drive almost any car and track combination in existence. Your branding can also be integrated via custom liveries, driver helmets and race suits that can be dropped into the game files, and if you are willing to pay a mod creator, or if you’re willing to modify the game yourself, your branding can be featured on billboards around the in-game circuits.       

Assetto Corsa Evo

Assetto Corsa Evo is the newest sim racing platform mentioned in this article, having only been released in January 2025. However, given its similarities to its predecessor, it may be an excellent option for your corporate event. 

Evo is the long-awaited sequel to the original Assetto Corsa which released in 2014. Its predecessor became renowned in the sim racing space for not only being an excellent driving simulator but for its extensive modifiability, which allowed for custom liveries and track billboards in-game, presenting a great branding opportunity. Modding is set to be a major feature of Assetto Corsa Evo once early access ends in Autumn, 2025. 

Unlike other sim racing titles, Assetto Corsa Evo goes beyond just circuit racing, allowing players to drive both road and race cars in an open-world map. The un-modded game allows players to drive around in the Eifel region, near the world-renowned Nürburgring, but the expected modding potential suggests that other roads could be added as well. Should they wish, your event attendees could have the opportunity to drive their dream car on their favourite road or race track.

Automobilista 2

While being a slightly more obscure option, Automobilista 2 is certainly a compelling one for your corporate event. 

Automobilista 2 excels in terms of ease of setup and accessibility. This platform is renowned for being user-friendly, with an intuitive UI that makes setting up different game modes, including time trials and multiplayer game modes, relatively easy and has a long list of cars and tracks already installed out-of-the-box, compared to other platforms that often require users to download considerable amounts of additional content. 

Automobilista 2 also enjoys many of the same strengths of its peers in the sim racing space, including multiple choices of game modes, the ability to add custom liveries and a realistic driving experience. The title also has some of the best graphics and visuals of all of the platforms listed in this article, which may impress your corporate event attendees.  

Our services

In any case, organising a sim racing experience for your corporate event can be a challenging task. Choosing the right platform, and proper technical setup are crucial, and running a large event may be difficult without the correct expertise and support. That’s where organisations such as SimStaff can help, offering the services of experienced and skilled technicians and turnkey simulators that will allow your corporate event to run smoothly.