For racers who want to embark on the sim-racing adventure, there are a number of titles (or games, if you prefer) that will enable you to take your first laps around the track. If you’re reading this, it’s likely that you’ve driven a virtual racing car, Super Car or Hyper Car. Every gamer has played Need For Speed, Test Drive Unlimited, Forza Horizon, Dirt Rallye, WRC and many other racing titles. It’s simple: it was practically our daily routine, and the Fast & Furious saga didn’t help matters at all.

Fast forward to 2024, and you’ve got racing games so realistic, you’ll sometimes find it hard to tell the difference between virtual and reality, especially with a VR headset. The tenors of the racing simulation section these days are none other than Assetto Corsa, iRacing, rFactor and a host of other titles. These games will literally plunge you into the world of motor racing, at lower cost of course. Admittedly, you’ll have to spend a small sum to acquire a rig sim-racing, but that’s nothing compared to the expense of a track day with your car. Racing is really expensive these days.

But among the racing simulation titles out there, we have a promising one that’s currently in the starting blocks. It’s called Rennsport, and in what follows, I’m going to tell you all about it.

What we know about Rennsport

Rennsport is a racing simulation title developed by 2 studios: Germany’s Competition Company and Poland’s Teyon. The team of developers currently numbers no less than 40, with positions open for various profiles if you’d like to try your luck. The team is headed by Morris Hebecker, who worked on Forza Motorsport 7.

The project was launched in 2022, and a closed beta on PC saw the light of day towards the end of 2023. By the way, the closed beta is still running, but Rennsport is set to go open beta in the near future to bring in a larger number of players to test the game and see what works and what goes wrong.

The team began work on Unreal Engine 4 at the time, and switched to 5 as soon as it was released. It has to be said that Epic’s new graphics engine is breathtaking in every way, except perhaps for the physics of the cars and their behavior, which has been specially developed for Rennsport. This shows not only the team’s dedication, but also their attention to detail in the ultra-realistic behavior of cars and circuits.

Speaking of cars and circuits, the beta features just 5 cars: Mercedes-AMG GT3, Porsche GT3 R, BMW M4 GT3, Porsche Mission R and Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II. And there are 5 circuits: Goodwood Hillclimb, Monza, Spa-Francorchamps, Nürburgring GP and Hockenheimring. It’s not much, admittedly, but the game hasn’t been officially released yet, so it’s okay.

As far as platforms are concerned, Rennsport will be available on PC, of course, but the developers would like to release a version for Next Gen consoles in the future. Obviously, nothing is certain with a studio employing few developers, and especially working on such an ambitious project. We can only hope that console versions can be developed for the enjoyment of our friends on Xbox Series X/S and Playstation 5, because in life, you can’t be selfish.

Rennsport release date

Officially, we don’t know. The closed beta has been operational since the end of 2023, and the open beta should open its doors to the general public by the end of 2024. So we’ll almost certainly have a year, or at least 6 months, of open beta before the game’s official release date. This will be an excellent opportunity to test all the game’s features, including mods that can be developed externally.

And for the picky, here are some details about Rennsport:

• Dynamic weather and a day and night cycle
• A dynamic track surface that changes as the race progresses
• Ultra-realistic car behavior
• A mod system
• A worldwide Esport tournament with numerous prizes
• A ranking system from rookie to pro

As for the price of Rennsport, rumors have it that the game will be offered free of charge in a basic version with a few cars and circuits, and a subscription system will be set up for those wishing to dive into the adventure.