NBCSports - Rossi’s greatness is in real racing; not sim racing
Alexander Rossi’s greatness is on display when he straps himself into a real race car; not a sim rig.
Though the IndyCar iRacing Challenge has provided competition-starved fans a nice diversion during the COVID-19 shutdown, nothing replaces the real thing.
The sights, the sounds, the color, even the smell of racing affects nearly every sense of a race fan at the track. TV also highlights the excitement and technology of racing.
But in order to truly appreciate how great an IndyCar driver truly is, one must watch drivers such as Rossi compete in the No. 27 NAPA Auto Parts Honda in an actual race.
Many of the younger drivers in IndyCar, have excelled on iRacing from the beginning. Veterans such as Will Power and Simon Pagenaud have used iRacing since 2008.
Rossi, however, was very frank in his assessment early in the IndyCar iRacing Challenge that he’s doing it to help support the series. Once real racing returns, he doesn’t plan on climbing into another sim rig in the future.
“I’m out, I think,” Rossi told NBCSports.com recently. “As long as racing returns to normal, I don’t think I’ll be doing this again.”
If the real series had started on schedule for 2020, IndyCar would be coming off the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach weekend. Rossi’s greatness has been on display the past two...
