Assetto Corsa Review 2025: The Ultimate Modded Sim Racing Experience

[@GregzVR]

AC has basically replaced rF1 as the default top modding experience. No matter how good ACE will be, AC will live on for another decade at least. Ilja and Peter certainly hope so!

[@martymestemaker4550]

This had to be a ton of work. Great video, Mike.

[@SimRacing604]

@@martymestemaker4550 thank you so much. That means a lot!

[@krime2001]

I download a lot of cars, and I delete a lot of cars. But sifting through what's on offer and testing them all out is part of the enjoyment!

[@reviewforthetube6485]

Ac is and will remain the OG goat for a truely good feeling sim. Not just physics but the actual ffb snd car feel is unlike any other. Nothing has topped it still. The people who say they dont like the ffb clearly have something wrong with there settings lol.

[@bernardausterberry9795]

I feel I need to state were I'm coming from. I'm over 70 years old, I don't have the reflexes, response times or red mist to drive me. I'm not a 110% competitor or agression person. More like someone like 75 to 85 percent. The most competitive RL car I've driven is a very well prepared Datsun 510. And that was at a track day lapping session. I ran many track days over a few years, in my moderately prepared first generation Sirocco. Ok there's a reason why RBR, Dirt Rally 2, AC1, are still popular, it's game play. Please remember these are games only need to be similar. Most of us have never driven RL race cars, exotic road cars or hyper cars. But if they offer good game play and a decent default setup that is what's needed. I don't want to be an engineer, constantly fiddling and farting around. AC can make you turn up air conditioning to refrigeration. The missing eye candy won't be noticed. You're into every lap. I should also state that I gave up on head to head competition. I gave up on people who don't know how to drive real cars never mind sim cars, they can't think like they need that car to get home. People who don't understand there is always another race and you don't need to win every one. Learning sportsmanship, racecraft and patience is what you should be after. Now back on track so to speak. The moding in AC is so important. I live in central Ontario. There a lot of excellent tracks are within a few hundred miles or so. The problem is they can't be found on any other sim. I want access to those tracks. We all have, let's say have neighborhood or nearby tracks we can't find elsewhere. I understand you're on the left coast, Westwood, Riverside, Sears Point to name a few. There's also the old European lost to time and safety standards. Anyway any sim the that can match or surpass that level of value, eye candy or not will be a winner to me.

[@MrBasjunk]

I don’t how but the FFB in AC comes alive compared to other titles. It’s like AC take all the advantages of your sim setup. I can feel the road in my pedals through my wheelbase. Great video🙏🏽

[@SingleRacerSVR]

Fantastically put together video, Mr SimRacing604. The amount of effort you had to put into all that B-Roll footage is quite amazing. So even though we started at nearly the same time. I already knew I didn't want to have anyone "sponsor" me, so always wanted to stay that kind of Amateur Channel. But this is why I still have 2k subs - but you managed to crack the incredible 50k+ mark. As you ooze both quality & intelligence. But above all that, the sheer joy & fun of Sim Racing over all these years. So I wish you the VERY BEST for 2025. (and bring on AC EVO ; )))

[@steveh4264]

Been watching you for years Mike, but never commented. What a great overall take on AC, like putting a bow on the whole package. You're the man. Thanks for all the great videos, past, present and future.

[@tradesman1000]

Even though I’m really exited for ACE it won’t replace ( not straight away anyway), the sheer brilliance of its grandfather. Great vid mate 👍🏻 it was almost a send off 😢😁

[@dracula5487]

Great video Mike. Not often do I watch ANY KZbin video all the way through without a break. And to all those who criticize AC. If you can do better................MOD IT................😜

[@SimRacing604]

@@dracula5487 thank you so much! Very much appreciate the positivity.

[@jcoulter43]

EVO is going to have enormous shoes to fill (including the mod community support of course). I'm excited for what the new game can and will do. God bless and race on 🏁

[@xxTICxxTOCxx]

I play many sims, and each takes a lap or two to, almost subliminally, adjust to their handling peculiarities. Even after weeks of playing other sims, hopping into Assetto Corsa immediately feels natural, and in virtually no way removed from my own real world driving experience. Just wish you'd done a list of links to all the tracks used in the video, I don't have some of the older period tracks you ran, and they looked fantastic. I also realise the huge effort you must have put into the video, and appreciate it very much. Great job, thanks.

[@John_Rambo864]

You should try bridgehampton, Riverside and Feldbergring!

[@xxTICxxTOCxx]

@@John_Rambo864 appreciate the reply. They're three of the tracks I do have.

[@finndog883]

Once you have everything dialled in, AC gives me the best all around experience and looks amazing in VR despite being 10 years old. The scope to recreate past grids using correctly livered cars, mods and tracks is endless. Looking forward to Evo but suspect it will be long time before I stop loading up the original 😊

[@simonoregan4744]

Only discovered AC a year ago. I'm so stoked Evo is coming out this week. AC is my favorite sim so far. Such good racing on LFM. I've also bought most of RSS content. Just need to figure out a way to improve the AI. My favorite is to take modded cars around the Nordschleife, which is an absolute trip. Tried AMS2 last night and it just cant even hold a candle to AC. Multiplayer AC is just on another level and its a 10 year old game.

[@RonaldRegain]

AC ist insane fun. But TCX, GT4, GT2 & TCX and soundengine in general is better in ACC. Best Track mods for AC ( excluding old legendary tracks) are ported tracks from ACC anyway :D I am soo excited for ACEvo. Hope I can remove big bars at top of windscreen, cause I got 43°, and I want to see as much as possible

[@beastly1146]

Under New AI Behavior, I unchecked straighten AI trajectory when starting, use simpler ai spline for low-level ais, teleport to pits if too much damage taken, and go to pit if taken a lot of damage. I checked fix up shift thresholds and go back to race after going to pits. I also race with 30% aggression. I found this info from watching a lot of videos and the ai works pretty well.

[@Anonnymouse53]

Sim racing isn't like other games. I think truly great titles NEED custom engines. ACC was really hamstrung by UE5 for me as a VR user. To expand on your "Compatibility" section: Just like actual racing, performance & efficiency is super important & what would be a narrow margin in other games feels miles wide when enthusiasts are spending tens of thousands on hardware & others are cutting up SRP with G29's on their mid-gaming laptops. Even if you are not a competitive player, you want competitive performance in sims. Only FPS e-sport gods are going to really tell the difference between 10% uplift in frames or super high refresh rates, whereas in sim racing your average 40 year old enthusiast will very much feel the benefits of great, reliable frame rates & low input lag. AC is the GOAT for me. 50 car multiclass grids, with dynamic weather and day/night cycle, amazing feeling FFB, motion, haptics, belt tensioners, VR, etc. It simply performs better & feels better than all other sims (all of which I've played, all of which I have at least 100 hours in). Evo will have to compete with AC, but if it can perform better than AC1 & add native features, in a few years it will Dominate. Even if it doesn't have the tens of thousands of mods, but rather just a good catalogue of high quality first party & "hand picked" third party mods. AC Modding is VERY important. But it's not the Sole reason why Assetto Corsa is so successful.

[@andrewpocock1234]

great effort on this video mate. It truly is the one stop shop for sim racing.

[@DanDiMaggio]

Thank God! I thought we lost you.... had me worried there for a few days lol

[@Barry843]

Excellent video sir & I agree 💯

[@mikebrown1281]

Well said, Mike. One thing I have never really gotten on well with in AC is the car setups. Maybe I'm missing something - or maybe there's a mod (or a simple-to-understand telemetry package) out there that everyone uses that I don't know about that makes car setups easier - but I've always found the set-up menu / screen to be opaque, confusing and unhelpful. The default setups are rarely any good, and figuring out what you need to do to get those tyres and brakes (and everything else) to roughly the right place generally takes me way more time than I'm happy and willing to spend on it. Life is too short to have to spend hours doing practice laps to tweak car setups. As a result, my driving experiences in AC often tend to be spoiled a little by the knowledge that my car is almost certainly very badly set up - not that ever I use this as an excuse for my failures :-) But, of course, it's just a PC game and so not worth worrying too much about.

[@ReverendSimRacing]

Mike this video is fantastic mate, so much work gone into it! Great job thank you 😊

[@CaptainCrunch99]

Epic production , I hope after 10 years ACEvo will also enjoy such a well respected reputation.

[@SimRacing604]

@@CaptainCrunch99 thanks for watching! I’m so stoked about ACE. 10 years of relevance might be a bit optimistic, but even half that would make it a success in my mind.

[@KiLDELTA]

I love AC and downloaded all the mods that I wanted. I even downloaded a mod for my own car (Toyota Vios/Yaris sedan 3rd Gen - SRPH VVT-i Cup). Even though Evo is gonna be released, it may take a while for it to catch up to what AC is currently at.

[@wibblewabblewoo6249]

Love AC for racing a lawnmower, or driving a 1960s F1 car at a Fat Alfie track - it will always be my sandbox sim (usually for driving offline whilst drinking beer) But personally I prefer RF2 LMU ACC AMS2 R3E for multiplayer fun online against other humans Great vid btw, style was as if Chris Haye was back - lots of work has clearly gone into making it! (Not saying your videos aren’t always high quality)

[@bernl178]

Very well done enjoyed it thoroughly. RF2 Is equally a great value and offers a great deal of moding and options I think both AC and RF2 is a must for any Sim enthusiast

[@SimRacing604]

@@bernl178 thanks very much.

[@Bluth53]

Thanks for reminding me to look up my very first car in real life and reliving that experience in AC ❤️❤️❤️

[@jomi568]

Thanks Mike for a fantastic video. 10/10

[@SimRacing604]

@@jomi568 thank you so much! These are the type of comments that make the effort worthwhile

[@Paradyski]

Great summary. Thanks

[@alsa4real]

soundmodders have made AC my favourite title to enjoy car sounds my biggest problem with AC is the AI behaviour

[@heddshot87]

Perfect time to review

[@Blur4strike-2]

As a long time user of Assetto Corsa, I have to say it's the most solid racing platform that I have ever used since the early access days. It's not perfect but the customization that it has on offer makes it quite enjoyable, the dent in the armor to me would have to be the AI especially when compared to its stablemate ACC.

[@bernardausterberry9795]

What is perfect? Especially these days.

[@tktigercat]

Even having owned AC since 2023 (I know, I was late to the party because of the bitter taste left by the NetKar Pro promises!), I still enjoyed watching this video.... and you didn't even mention its amazing VR implementation :)

[@tonybucca5667]

3 more days before AC EVO!!! Brand new PC AND RIG READY TO GO!!!! Thanks Mike!!! My non-car friend asked if there were solar-powered cars...couldn't find any.

[@liviu543]

Regarding the mod support: a good part of what we get from CM & CSP is the result x4fab's substantial reverse engineer effort. Vanilla AC isn't that different than e.g. RF2 in this regard

[@sjolson68]

Great video. Let's hope Kunos doesn't do anything rash with AC - like kill it - because the large playerbase won't want to leave what's an amazing experience for something less with Evo.

[@dannyadams5250]

CSP, Pure Sol, all these things make the game play work like nothing else in the market. But I must admit that after using these additions, I steal don’t now what the hell I’m doing. However, I love it😂.

[@RicHSAD2]

There's a lot to love about AC, but also a lot to hate imo. The combo of Content Manager, CSP and Sol/Pure is impressive, but the sheer amount of options available, most of which poorly explained (or not at all) makes the process of setting up the game a hundred times more complicated than it could be. Not to mention the countless ways that someone could setup their game suboptimally by checking or unchecking something they shouldn't have. Also, I don't care what anyone says, I think the base FFB in AC is just bad. The amount of damping/inertia/friction that I have to add at a wheel base driver level just to keep the wheel from oscilating or to try to rip off my arms is crazy. Meanwhile, I can load up RaceRoom, set the FFB strength with all driver-level filters at 0 and it immediately feels right. Imo, modders need to stop adding more checkboxes and instead work on removing all the fluff and hard edges from what they've created. Then there all the modded content too. You can drive pretty much any car that you want, but the quality of most mods, especially the free ones, is poor. Most of the good ones are now paid content, which is fine, but you'll often find the same cars available as paid mods by several different modding team, all with their own vision and idea of the best version of the car. In short, no consistency or shared vision that you would otherwise find from a proper dev studio.

[@aprosimracing]

Yes, RaceRoom is underrated! It is easy and without millions of setups. Its FFB is amazing!

[@CaptainCrunch99]

Well said about the AC complexities, I hope ACEvo will have all that built in with just the normal settings options you see in most titles. I like RR also now, and the trainable AI.

[@GregzVR]

Must've taken you FOREVER to capture all that B-Roll, Mike.

[@SimRacing604]

@@GregzVR it did, but I have to admit I had fun doing it!

[@lugs118]

Lovely work Mike.

[@sitramaybe]

This game literally took over my life. (Not literally but you know what I mean)

[@harrysmith1986]

Thanks, please can you share your content manager settings also in game?

[@samuelcraigrangi]

Going to reinstall and use it as a backroad driving / track day simulator - I don’t see it as a Motorsports / racing simulator and that genre is well served by many others and it will be at least a year until Evo can properly scratch that itch.

[@micsafdas1]

What is that racing circuit that looks a little as if it's in the tropical setting?

[@krime2001]

I came to the comments with the same question. I'm sure I had it before I lost al my hard drive.

[@krime2001]

I figured it out from the video. Thompson Road Grand Prix!!!

[@micsafdas1]

@@krime2001 thanks!

[@silvereagle6985]

Mike,this fantastic and I'm only in <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="107">1:47</a>!

[@ZebbeBa]

Super nice video! - what mod is that Audi R10 tdi? 😅

[@SimRacing604]

@@ZebbeBa thanks so much. The Audi is by ChemFlummi. I highly recommend you check out their mods.

[@scottd7222]

Is ACEvo even a sequel? ACC is the sequal if anything but they all appear to be individual titles hence the different names

[@andrewtsousis3130]

AC with mods will not be beaten any time soon, maybe in time AC Evo will change this, but as I said, not anytime soon.

[@silvereagle6985]

Okay just finished, that was next Level! That has to be my favorite video done on AC!

[@SimRacing604]

@@silvereagle6985 man, thank you so much. That means so much. I appreciate it!

[@JacopoDiGiuli]

Best SIM "game" ever for me... i just wait for AC EVO!

[@yungtwiz]

It doesn't matter how moddable it is, it's complete lack of actual racing mechanics completely delegitimize it in my eyes. They didn't even try to make the racing AI somewhat intelligent. It's just not a complete game no matter how much you mod it.

[@Logan912]

That’s my opinion too. It’s great as sort of a driving sandbox, sure, but there are better options out there when it comes to racing specifically.

[@BadWallaby]

TBH if the ai would behave a bit less erratic and skittish, as well as proper pit stops, I would never play anything else

[@janikdz7612]

wich track is that on 2.27

[@imbamakaber]

Great message with this video, but why are the graphics settings so bad in almost all of the clips? That is a disservice to the message with this video :) Edit: youtube HDR still processing? Edit2: an example of how insane this sim is (like mentioned "dream"") kzbin.info/www/bejne/enLLhmSBj7F7f8U :)

[@max.racing]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1080">18:00</a> hi mate, im releasing my new AC ultimate SFX overhaul very soon do u wanna test it? I can send the mod over, if u want.

[@SimRacing604]

@@max.racing definitely interested…

[@Beatsbasteln]

I think your review is missing an important problem of assetto corsa. The size. In order to play with other people online you have to own all of the car mods the server owner wants you to have. and they always wanna put a lot of cars on those mountain passes, which is understandable, but they are all free mods and as you said, they lack in quality sometimes. so you're essentially just getting a subpar driving experience and your computer trashed with content you don't wanna have. On top of that the server owners might change the car list without notifying everyone and suddenly you have to download another car and also don't know which old car to remove again. So your computer is getting trashed even more. Assetto corsa's content folder is one of the biggest offenders of my main harddrive space and I really want it to stop. I hope Kunos comes up with a better system for EVO. I would rather play a smaller sim with a great approach to automatic resource management. Assetto Corsa was not really a game, it was an experiment. Kunos made it open to mods to get inspired what kinda features they wanna put in a "real" simulator. Now they know what to do and make EVO

[@AyaxRo]

AC has broken all norms. I cant see this not being relevant still 5 years from now, maybe longer.

[@kazanboiracing952]

i bought ac in EA and so i will with evo

[@Dylan-180]

the goat

[@earthexplorer579]

reasons not to buy AC evo lol

[@Haulinbassracing]

Yall want some understeer

[@touchdjlitc]

2nd