Raceroom Racing Experience is a 'Free to Play' simulator from Sector 3 Studios (formerly Simbin - makers of GTR, GT Legends and Race 07). The free portion of the game includes the 5 cars and 3 tracks listed below:
Cars
- Aquila CR1 Sports GT
- BMW 134 Judd V8
- Canhard R52 (fictional Silhouette racer)
- DMD P20 (fictional Le Mans Prototype)
- Saleen S7R
Tracks
- Lakeview Hillclimb
- Portimao
- Raceroom Raceway
Even though it is considered free to play, this content mainly acts as a demo for the game. The rest of the cars and tracks are paid content, with prices displayed in vRP (Virtual Race Points - 100 of these equals approximately 1 Euro). If you want to get into Raceroom, the best way of going about it is to buy one of the Experience packs (DTM or ADAC) as they give you 8-9 tracks plus a full grid of cars for a reasonable price (especially when there's a sale on). This will also give you a discount on any other packs that include those tracks or car models.
The content that is available to purchase is rather varied, from current WTCC and GT3 cars, to 1992 DTM cars and 1970's Group 5 monsters. Many of the classes in the sim have a wide selection of vehicles, not just the one or two popular cars from a class like many other sims have done. There's also a good range of tracks, most of which are from the calendars of the officially licensed series in game with a few others included... one of which being a 6.213km road circuit in country NSW.
If there was one aspect that Raceroom really shines in, it's the sound department. Each car sounds much like it's real world counterpart, plus there's a lot of subtle effects, such as transmission flex and the chassis creaking as the car hits a kerb. Coming from GT, to have sounds like this in a sim is simply phenomenal (it really does make GT sound like a bunch of Hoovers in comparison).
The only real disadvantage to this is the pricing model, especially for those who want all of the content. In saying that though, whilst the single cars and tracks are a bit expensive, most of the content packs are reasonably priced. It's still certainly a lot cheaper than a certain subscription based sim that has tracks for $15 USD each at least.
Post edited to better reflect the current state of Raceroom - Original post below in the spoiler tags
This is Simbin's new "free to play" sim that's just about to enter open beta, Raceroom Racing Experience, and if you've already watched the video, you'll have noticed a certain mountain course that is 6.213 km in length and that many of us on ROOZ really want in GT5.
Sadly, for fans of previous Simbin sims, this isn't GTR3. Instead it's free to play, with a mix of different vehicles and track types. You'll get 5 cars, plus two tracks for free with the download, though all other cars and tracks will have to be bought (unlike the other free to play sim, Simraceway, where all tracks are free). Different game modes will be available for purchase as well, with the "Get Real" (no driving aids) mode costing the equivalent of about $1.50aud - which does seem to be a blatant cash grab, seeming you can get older Simbin games for a dollar or so more in some Steam sales.
This seems as if it'll be a good or even great sim, possibly ruined by the "free" to play model that the developers have decided on.