Motorsport and racing have been synonymous with video games since their inception. And I've been taking part in those games since a very early age with Mario Kart for Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64. In 2024, e-sports are more popular than ever with online simulators like Gran Turismo 7 (GT7), Forza Horizon, Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC), iRacing, and more. But what about all the non-simulation racing games that don't get the same attention?
There are so many examples including Need for Speed, Team Sonic Racing, modern versions of Mario Kart, and more. But there is one racing game that I think deserves the spotlight more than others. In 2016, Trackmania Turbo released into the world of time attack racing games. Yes, you can race against your friends, but you’re really racing against time. More accurately, you’re racing against yourself. You might ask “How is that fun?” Well, let me explain…
2018
In 2018, I was given the gift of being reunited with a side of myself I’d long forgotten. The racer in me was quiet and my competitive spirit was not active. But then I got 2 races at a local kart racing facility and as soon as I felt the speed and torque of a 45 MPH electric kart, I wanted more. I dove into all sorts of options to entertain this compulsion to go faster, whether real or simulated. I started watching documentaries about every racing series including Formula 1, IMSA endurance racing, IndyCar, Super Formula, and GT racing. And eventually started following those real racing series.
Once I realized just watching those races wasn’t enough, I wanted to start racing myself. Since a race car was not in the cards, I figured kart racing and simulated racing were my best options, outside of attending real races at Circuit of the Americas. With my limitations in mind, I purchased the PlayStation 4 gaming console so I could play the latest version of the official Formula 1 game. After months of playing, I admit, it got old. Options were limited because F1 doesn’t race everywhere and it’s not an open world scenario. It only had the same tracks, cars, and teams. PlayStation offers many racing games in their catalog, so I started looking for more.
Enter Trackmania Turbo (AKA TM Turbo) - a time attack formula racing game! I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. It was fun and I kind of understood it, but the nuances of the game were not yet understood. In the process of understanding this game I tapped into a skill I didn’t know I had. With the added benefit of heightened reactive skills, I was able to excel in the game very quickly. Let me break it down for you…
The objective of Trackmania: Turbo is to drive each map as quickly and as accurately as possible. You can only play this game with a controller. Sim racing kits are not compatible and that increases the difficulty quite a bit. Honestly, I wouldn't want to play this game with a wheel and pedals. The combination of real physics and exaggerated physics wouldn't translate to a steering wheel very well, especially big jumps and boost pads.
The tiniest mistakes are penalized without any mercy from the game! It offers five different difficulty categories, broken out into 40 different maps per category. In total, that’s 200 maps. There are four cars meant for four different types of terrain, adding to the game’s replay value and learning curve difficulty. What’s a map? You can refer to it also as a “track”.
The game’s interface allows you to enable your personal best “ghost” so you can see if you’re behind or ahead of your previous attempt on that map. Each map has a ranking, and you have an overall game ranking as a player. Each time you finish a map the game shows you where you stack up against your fellow competitors. In my experience, it’s challenging to reach the top of the rankings but not impossible. But that’s just one aspect of the game that brings about satisfaction.
Where I really found my joy in the game, is when I beat my previous personal best by any amount of time. Sometimes I’d set a record on a map by only .02 seconds. Other times, my new personal best time would be over 5 seconds ahead of my previous record. Whether the gains were incremental or massive, the satisfaction was there. The improvements in my driving skills were apparent and there was no doubt in my mind that I was good at this game. Here's a sample of the number of attempts it might take after you've understood a map.
In the game, there is what’s known as “author time”. An author time is the lap time set by the designer of the map when the game was designed. It’s referred to as the Trackmaster medal in this version of Trackmania. I found it almost impossible to beat that time usually because it demanded a level of precision and perfection that I was unable to deliver with such little time with the game, so I wrote it off. But everything changed when the pandemic came around…
2020
At this point, I was playing Trackmania: Turbo from time to time but it wasn’t yet the obsession it would become. Then the pandemic came around and changed all our priorities. Specifically, the lockdowns presented an opportunity to dive deeper into mastering this game. Lots of time to kill and no one to help me do it. I furiously attacked the game and started climbing the ranks. The obsession had begun.
2021
I realized that this experience might be worth sharing with the world, so I started tracking my stats in an Excel spreadsheet. Ubisoft doesn’t have public stats as detailed as I needed so I had to do it myself. My progress was now more obvious than ever. When I started tracking my stats, my global ranking across all the players in the world was sitting at 105,617. Out of 8 million players at the time, being near the top 100K players was still cool to see. Here's a snapshot of my progress from 2021.
Where Am I now? Lessons Learned in Trackmania Turbo
Out of 9 million+ players worldwide, I’m ranked 30th in Texas, 337th in the US, and 6,794th in the world. I'm in the top 100 players in Texas and top 1000 players in the US for 179 maps out of 200. I've earned Trackmaster for the majority of those, as well. Whoa! That’s an increase of almost 100K places, worldwide. How did I do that? It’s not a simple answer. Let's dive into the lessons I learned in Trackmania Turbo.
At this point, my racing passion is completely reignited. I am still obsessed with racing in all forms, whether it’s cars, motorcycles, or even powerboats. While learning about all these racing formats, I was also learning how to race. I watched my favorite racers’ techniques during races, learned how to attack a corner and hold a racing line. My reaction times were going further down and down.
Eventually, I found simulated racing equipment within my budget and started racing with games that were compatible with the Logitech G29 steering wheel and pedals. My ceiling for learning just got raised quite a bit. I had no idea how to use the kit at first, but I quickly figured it out.
I continued making progress in TM Turbo while also playing other simulator games like GT7 and ACC. What was interesting is that even with fantasy gaming physics in TM Turbo, I was still able to apply real-world racing concepts I’d learned in the simulator games to my TM Turbo gameplay. I began attacking apexes differently, feathering the throttle more appropriately, controlling my steering input more smoothly, and predicting subsequent turns more naturally. It was a complete shift in my thinking of racing technique.
How does this story end? I’m not sure yet, but I plan to keep the world informed through this site. I upgraded to the PS5 not long after it was released so I could enjoy other games that are specific to the new platform. I don’t play TM Turbo as often mainly because holding onto the PS4 or PS5 controllers for hours at a time isn't very fun. It does a number on my hands! It's one of the reasons I switched to a simulator kit. Accepting this reality has been hard because I love this game so much. But more to come on that with the release of the PlayStation Access controller.
Ubisoft recently made the leap to allow PlayStation users to join the PC gaming world in the 2020 version of Trackmania, which was only available for PCs for many years. That version has a similar format but is a bit simpler and more forgiving. I don’t play that version much, but it’s still very fun.
Why did I want to write about this game? Truthfully, it isn’t just about climbing the ranks or beating my previous best. It does more than that for me. If I ever feel any self-doubt, I can look back on this experience and remember how deep my capacity for learning truly is. My progress in the game is proof of my ability to learn, step away from the topic, learn something else, and then come back and improve again with new knowledge. This process isn’t unique to gaming; it’s a part of life.
If you wake up every day and ask yourself, “How can I be better than I was yesterday?” you will progress in anything in life. The purposefulness of that intention is incredibly powerful. The lessons within this story are relatable, as well. We all reach learning ceilings, but if you search for new ways to learn you will surpass your previous milestones and continue to succeed. Another takeaway is that learning curves are never perfectly linear, as demonstrated in my progress chart.
Learning can be messy, but by celebrating even the smallest of gains, you will reinforce your confidence and start to automatically believe that you can continue to learn and do better than you did yesterday.
If you want to see my stats for yourself, hop over to my Trackmania: Turbo profile. And while you’re at it, you can find me on YouTube and Instagram. I post gameplay from my racing sessions and every single Trackmaster from TM Turbo is there if you want to know what you're up against.
Do you want to race against me or my TM Turbo times? Let’s go! You can race my ghost in Trackmania: Turbo by finding me on the PlayStation network! I'm also frequently on GT7, The Crew: Motorfest, or ACC.
My PSN: rawbocop
My list of equipment for my sim racing setup:
Happy learning and gaming, my friends.