It sure must be fun to go for track days, especially if you live near the Nordscleife but there's one critical element that you won't get into unless you're a s

It sure must be fun to go for track days, especially if you live near the Nordscleife but there's one critical element that you won't get into unless you're a semi-professional racing driver: the competition. Yes, hotlapping can be a competition but wheel to wheel racing is where the fun is at. Someone already replied to you about how detailed iRacing can get. Some other sims are also quite good, but IMO none come close to iRacing's fidelity let alone the great online competition with safety ratings and sanctioned series. You absolutely do have to care about tire temperatures, bumps on the road, dirty/clean/hot/cold track (e.g. shadows are cold) and brake temperatures. Especially once you get into the single seaters like Star Mazda or Formula Renault, where you have to start with cold, underpressurized tires because for competitive times you need an aggressive car setup that only starts working once you're warmed up. It's no substitute for track days, but no-one in their right mind would let me take a 1966 Lotus 49 Formula 1 car (only a handful in existance) on the Nordschleife, let alone go wheel-to-wheel with others on one.