Well, there seems to be a lot of people who are into cars, racing, and driving, so I thought some of you may be interested in this.
Almost by accident, I stumbled across a little Italian game that lives in obscurity, but is one of the best driving simulations I've ever tried.
netKar 0.9.9 Beta (The website is a little slow, and the download links are a bit hard to spot, but it's all there, and all free downloads) Unfortunatly, it's Windows only. :-( Also, you need a fairly powerful system and an analog control device.
And, be warned -- It isn't a free version of Need For Speed. This thing has seriously accurate on-road physics. It's fair, but brutally realistic. (Actually, if anything, I'd say a few of the cars have LESS grip than their real-world counterparts -- but like I said -- it's fair. When you screw up, the cars will push or drift very similar to real life. [at least up until you go off onto the grass, from which point it's a straight-shot into the wall])
I used to consider myself a pretty good driver, but this game is always a humbling experience. Just like real life, as soon as you get {bleep}y, the cars will bite you. The first time I played it, I piled my car into the first turn wall on my first warm up lap. :lol: My first thought was WTF?? My second time out, I hammered the gas and had similar results. Since it was a free game I'd never heard of, I almost deleted it right then, but decided that I wanted to complete one good lap just to spite the game. So I took it slower this time, and started realizing that it wasn't that the game had bad physics, but that I was expecting to be able to get away with the same bad habits I used in other driving games....
When approached as a simulator, it's a lot of fun, and surprisingly rewarding when you get it right and watch the replay of yourself tearing a perfect lap around the track.
Anyhow, it's free -- check it out. :-) I'm probably going to set up a dedicated game server for it sometime soon, so maybe I'll see ya out at the track.
