Ever since my hands touched a videogame controller, I loved racing games. From Pole Position on the NES to Nigel Mansell’s World Championship Racing on the SNES, I’ve always had an affection for them. It’s the repetition of doing a long race and slowly shaving a hundredth of a second off of your time taking a different line into a turn, it’s so satisfying. My father who I always played games with while growing up got me into racing games as a young kid. Being a young kid, I didn’t have the ability to beat my dad in racing games.
That is until one day, playing NASCAR 98, we were racing at Bristol Motor Speedway. Here I come roaring out of turn four, elated I tell my dad I’m finally going to win, he then turns the PS1 off before the race ends and runs out of the room. All is lost and there is no god.
I’m not sure how to properly segway that into this video of the former Stig racing a professional Gran Turismo player, but I don’t care, I’m in a dark place after reliving that experience and I don’t care enough to properly segway.