Modders have turned one of racing's most hardcore sims into a Speed Racer game
I love Speed Racer, the Wachowski's kaleidoscopic family film which depicts a form of racing that's both a transcendent act of self-expression and an absurd, Wacky Races-style gauntlet around the coolest Hot Wheels track you've ever seen. The film was accompanied at the time by Speed Racer: The Videogame, a middling tie-in for the Wii. It deserved better.
Enter Assetto Corsa. The 2014 racing game is a staggeringly detailed simulation of real cars and racetracks, but it's also home to a vibrant modding community. Which I discovered when YouTube offered up a video titled "Insane Speed Racer mod" and didn't disappoint.
The copyrighted soundtrack isn't present in the mod, to be clear.
I love arcade racing games, but sims tend to be beyond my tolerance (unless they're about delivering freight across Europe). I have therefore never previously had any interest in playing Assetto Corsa until I saw the video above, at which point I immediately got it on Steam.
If you're now considering doing the same, I should warn you: all my dreams did not come true.
For a start, there is no "Speed Racer mod", as the YouTube video title suggests. There are instead two different mods: a T-180