Rally Racing is a distinctive form of car racing. Cars go down specially cordoned off sections of roads called ‘stages’, which can be all shapes, sizes, and surfaces. They do not directly race against each other but instead compete for the fastest time. Cars have a crew of two with a navigator/co-driver giving rapid directions to ensue the driver has greater reaction time.

Rallying is one of those sports that’s not very big in the US compared to its massive European popularity and it’s easy to see why. Rallying came from small, closed, twisting European roads. Big open American ones were/are more favorable to things like straight-line racing (less popular on the other side of the ocean).

I find it an interesting distance sport, and I don’t mean the length the cars travel. Rather it’s incredibly fascinating at a distance. A rally driving crew and their car has to be a generalist unlike the specialists of other racing disciplines. One has to be a speedster AND a cornerer AND an offroader and so on. Yet it’s also not very photogenic, whether in person or on television. It’s because the cars aren’t directly racing each other. So you see a car go by, then another car go by, and so on.

Still, I like looking at sports from a distance, which is why rallying is my newest fascination. That it’s extremely easy to simulate in BeamNG.Drive doesn’t hurt either.