{"id":337995,"date":"2025-12-11T01:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T01:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/337995\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T01:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T01:28:10","slug":"grand-pro-circuit-looks-like-the-retro-f1-racing-sim-of-our-dreams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/337995\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand Pro Circuit Looks Like the Retro F1 Racing Sim of Our Dreams"},"content":{"rendered":"

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With all the indie racing games out there, it can be difficult to stand out. But Grand Pro Circuit\u2014which frankly could use a better name, I say in the kindest way possible\u2014looks excellent. The trailer for this just dropped on Steam<\/a>, and I added it to my wishlist just on vibes alone.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to look back at retro racing games and call them quaint and unserious, but developers were truly trying to move heaven and earth with the silicon available to them, and it\u2019s projects like Grand Pro Circuit that remind me of that. The graphics, for example, are certainly low in polygon count with crunchy textures and no anti-aliasing, but the result looks authentic and visceral, with wing mirrors shaking in the cockpit view, and sparks flying as the cars bottom out on straightaways. There are even fully animated pit crews!<\/p>\n

If Sega ever released a 3D Formula 1 game in arcades, perhaps on the Model 3 hardware that powered Scud Race and Daytona USA 2<\/a>, it probably would\u2019ve looked something like Grand Pro Circuit, just a little blurrier. And part of why it works so well is the era of motorsport that it\u2019s attempting to convey.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\tGrand Pro Circuit \u2013 Official Announcement Trailer\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The cars here, clad in fake, amusing parodies of real sponsors, appear to be much like those of the mid-\u201980s. But back then, the closest F1 simulation you were going to get looked less like this and more like Pole Position. Even by the time Sega\u2019s Super Monaco GP dropped in 1989, with its gorgeous sprite work, 3D racing games were still only kicking off with innovators like Hard Drivin\u2019.<\/p>\n

Grand Pro Circuit, then, feels like the F1 game the world deserved during one of the sport\u2019s most exciting eras, yet technology was still a decade or more away from delivering.<\/p>\n

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\nMascot Entertainment via Steam<\/p>\n

It also commits to the bit. Clearly inspired by PC sim racing games from a quarter-century ago, Grand Pro Circuit\u2019s Steam page<\/a> even contains a video showcasing the game\u2019s keyboard controls. At the same time, we can observe tire, oil, and water temperatures onscreen, as well as fuel load, indicating this is going to be a bit deeper than the arcade experience some might expect from the game\u2019s aesthetic. I don\u2019t know how many people are going to be interested in that unique combination of modern complexity and retro sheen, but it\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m looking for, so I\u2019m very excited to see how this one shakes out.<\/p>\n

Got a tip? Let us know at tips@thedrive.com<\/p>\n

Backed by a decade of covering cars and consumer tech, Adam Ismail is a Senior Editor at The Drive, focused on curating and producing the site\u2019s slate of daily stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The biggest car news and reviews, no BS Our free daily newsletter sends the stories that really matter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-337995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}