Between Passion and Profit: The Commercialization of Sim Racing

Between Passion and Profit: The Commercialization of Sim Racing

The growing level of professionalisation in sim racing has brought remarkable progress in many areas. High-quality hardware is becoming increasingly affordable and the variety of available products is growing steadily. Nevertheless, the advancing commercialisation also has its downsides, which are increasingly causing frustration among many users.

A Give and Take – The Sim Racing Community as It Should Be

A short look at the past: The sim racing world used to be characterised by a decentralised but closely networked community that exchanged information via numerous forums and Teamspeak servers, for example. Large, centralised community platforms such as Low Fuel Motorsport (LFM) were still a dream of the future, and huge communities were the exception rather than the rule. Many leagues consisted of a fixed group of drivers, some of whom competed together and against each other for years and often even hosted their own servers. Support was quickly found for setup questions or technical problems – the exchange within the community was uncomplicated and reliably provided useful solutions. The idea of charging money for such help was unthinkable at the time. The focus was on togetherness, characterised by passion and solidarity.

Commercialization in Sim Racing: A Boom with Lights and Shadows

A leap into the year 2025 shows that sim racing has long since broken free from its niche existence and become a thriving market in which financial interests increasingly set the direction. The growing number of sim racers has led to an explosion in the range of hardware and software available in recent years. Whereas in the past, the average user could only choose between brands such as Fanatec, Logitech and Thrustmaster, today new manufacturers are presenting innovative products almost weekly – often of impressive quality.

At the same time, the spread of 3D printers, among other things, has spawned a wave of small suppliers on platforms such as Etsy or eBay, but these do not always offer good quality. Some of these suppliers seem to be primarily focused on quick profits, which poses challenges for buyers. To avoid making bad purchases, thorough research, reviews from various sources, or recommendations from experienced sim racing colleagues are essential.

Monthly Fees on the Rise

In recent years, subscription models have become firmly established in sim racing. Instead of one-off payments, many providers rely on monthly fees to finance their services. Platforms such as iRacing, which charge £10 per month (excluding taxes), offer clear benefits in return: continuous development, regular updates and reliable server maintenance, ensuring a stable and high-quality racing experience.

However, many newer services paint a different picture. These often start out as free or low-cost offerings, but are increasingly being commercialised, which is causing mixed feelings among users. Below are some examples of services with monthly fees:

• Setup shops and coaching (VRS, Grind&Go, Coach Dave, etc.) The most popular offers currently are setup shops. There are now dozens of these shops offering a wide variety of services on the sim racing market. Prices range from limited offers for around £5 to coaching bundles for up to £100 per month in some cases. In many areas, casual sim racers currently have little choice but to take advantage of these offers, especially since setups are now almost mandatory in the popular iRacing series.
• Overlays (RaceLab, Kapps, etc.) Overlays are particularly popular in iRacing – until the long-awaited UI update is finally released. An active subscription is required to unlock premium features, which is usually available at a price of around £5 per month.
• Event platforms (Simracing.GP, LFM, etc.) Even event platforms now offer convenience features in exchange for an active subscription.
• SimHub profiles/dashboards (Lovely Sim Racing, Daniel Newman Racing, etc.): For a long time, the popular and highly community-driven SimHub software was developed exclusively by the community and offered free of charge. Now, however, there is even paid content available here.

In addition, there are offers such as Trading Paint, AI coaching and many other services, for which an additional monthly fee is charged for parts of their functionality. This quickly adds up to a hefty monthly sum, which often reaches a low to mid double-digit amount. This raises the question of which of these services are really worth the money and whether the transition from a community project to a money-making machine has perhaps been pushed a little too quickly.

Example: Daniel Newman Racing – A Textbook Case of Rapid Commercialization

A good example of the extremely rapid commercialisation of sim racing is Daniel Newman Racing (DNR). The project started in 2024 as a small project called “Lovely Dashboard LED profile”. It was made possible by many questions answered and content posted by the SimHub community. At first, it was available for free download. Almost as fast as the release of the LED profiles, the first Kofi account was created. This gave users the opportunity to voluntarily support the creator for his work for what was then still a small amount (2 £ per month). After just a few more weeks, the project got its own website, which soon became commercial.

For anybody looking for some of the coolest SimHub LED profiles known to us petrol heads .. you can check out my BRAND NEW website that launched tonight. All the downloads are accessible and free, and if you like what you see, you can donate to support me, or join my Discord via that website.

Daniel Newman Racing – SimHub-Discord

Driven by numerous requests to ChatGPT and the SimHub community, development then went in only one direction. The initial ‘goal’ of offering 95% of the content free of charge was long gone, as only the most basic features were still available for free. The original idea of a voluntary £2 per month subscription is now a distant memory, with monthly memberships now costing up to £9 excluding tax.

One thing should not be overlooked: developing such a plugin, whether it be creating LED profiles or designing a dashboard, is extremely labour-intensive. Hours of programming, testing and adjustments are required to create a product that meets the high standards of the sim racing community. Many users appreciate this effort and actively use Daniel Newman Racing’s offerings despite the high prices, which underscores the added value and quality of the offering. This shows that the transition from a free community project to a commercial model can also have positive aspects, such as continuous development and professional support, which would be difficult to implement without financial resources.

Nevertheless, this case is a prime example of the extremely rapid commercialisation of initially freely available community projects. The rapid transition from a voluntarily supported project to a paid service with partially restricted access has triggered mixed feelings among parts of the community. While some welcome the professionalisation, others see it as a loss of the original community culture.

Closed Source, Legal Actions, and DRM?

In the recent past, there was an incident in which a user modified the DNR dashboard, currently available for free download, to support the current telemetry values for the Le Mans Ultimate simulation. After some time, this was followed by a cease-and-desist message with an additional warning of possible legal action (damages) in the event of a repeat offence. Considering that the project started as “Lovely Dashboard LED profile”, it’s hard to deny a certain irony here. At this point, though, it’s pretty clear that it’s turned into a 100% commercial product; the community aspect is totally gone.

A few days later, further questions arose when Daniel Newman Racing asked on SimHub Discord about reading the PID/VID of connected dashboards. This would make it possible, for example, to exclude dashboards on the hardware side and introduce a kind of DRM system.

Unanswered Press Inquiry and Statement

To clarify the situation, a request was sent to Daniel Newman Racing on 12 July containing various questions, including the following:

• Is the introduction of a DRM system planned?
• Are there plans to take legal action against users who modify DNR content for non-commercial purposes?
• Does the project include content from other SimHub users, or is it entirely proprietary?

Unfortunately, no response has been received to date. Shortly thereafter, however, a post was made on the public, official SimHub Discord channel that appears to refer, at least tangentially, to the inquiry.

Just catching up on the DNR has “locked a dashboard theme to a manufacturer”. Also seems the usual crowd out in force. DNR built and released the Endurance Dashboard (for free). Just like many other dashboards do (for free). The same Dashboard has a bunch of customisable options and tweaks that can be made for people who pay for them. Again, many dashboards do that also. The same way you can listen to Spotify for free, or pay to remove adds. Similar to many websites or other services. As part of our close relationship with PSE, we have added a theme (literally changed the colours of some elements) for users who use PSE dashboards. Why’s it locked to PSE products? Because it’s their brand colours and uses their logo. I can’t imagine many companies wanting another companies logo slapped all over their products? Why does DNR have a paid product? Because we devote hundreds of hours into creating it, and that costs money as people are paid for their work and time. Not everyone needs to like it or use it, and that’s completely ok. But it’s pretty odd for people who dislike it to react to it by spreading misinformation or just being outrude rude. For those who wish to use it for free, I hope you enjoy it and have lots of fun. For those who wish to use it paid with customisation, thank you for supporting us and I also hope you enjoy it and have fun.

Daniel Newman Racing – SimHub-Discord

What Does the Future of Sim Racing Look Like?

The future of sim racing is at a crossroads: on the one hand, there is a risk of losing the community’s original passion, while on the other hand, further growth is possible. The ongoing professionalisation and commercialisation undoubtedly bring innovations such as higher-quality hardware, more realistic software and larger platforms. This makes the genre accessible to a wider audience. At the same time, increasing monetisation – particularly through subscription models and paid additional content – threatens to divide the community. Casual drivers could be deterred by rising costs, while the culture of selfless exchange and collaboration that originally defined sim racing is increasingly taking a back seat. Finding a balance will be crucial. Providers must develop sustainable business models without sacrificing the roots of sim racing – passion, community and accessibility. Only then can sim racing survive in the long term as both a profitable venture and a vibrant community.