Quote from Hyperactive :

Just because LFS is kinda fading away for the ones who have been racing for longer times it is still very good sim for anyone new to LFS.

...If LFS is fading away...I'm curious to know as to what is the most popular sim that is taking its place...? - Thanx in advance for your opinion, Grampa

...From what I've seen online, there are plenty of people *worldwide* that like to purposely cause accidents - "wreckers" I believe they're called. Adding demolition derby tracks (e.g. figure eight, arena) and cars (including a dynamic skin rendering feature that would simulate damage to the car's body) might dramatically decrease the problem while providing a place for such folks to happily indulge in their mayhem...another feature we won't see in LFS anytime soon...any other opinions on this? - Grampa

...Well, I'm a developer myself and I know all too well how much I hate being pushed to 'get it done now'. However, I think that there's gotta be a balance somewhere between failure/bankruptcy for rushing a project... and vaporware. Just look at Duke Nukem Forever. It too is controlled by just one coder, to the best of my knowledge. It'll be ready...'any month now'...

- Grampa

Quote from AndroidXP :

Actually I'm not so sure about this. Simracing is the niche of a niche product and big publishers usually only develop games if they look profitable (read: they are mass market compatible). It's hard enough to make profits on arcade racing games, true simulators are nigh on impossible to sell. There are only two ways to create such a product; one is minimizing the development cost (this is what LFS does, only three developers), or being fortunate enough to find a sponsor who is a sim racing enthusiast and doesn't care throwing a few million at development not expecting any returns quickly or at all (which is the iRacing way).

...Here's a great way of minimizing development costs: license somebody else's engine. Have you seen what the Source 7 engine can do in the way of vehicles? (Source7 is the engine behind Half-life 2)

- Grampa

Quote from AndroidXP :

LFS is a very good sim, though unfortunately progress is (very) slow. Personally, I very much doubt LFS will become a usable oval racing simulator in this decade (yet allow modding).

...oh, that is very unfortunate.

At the rate that 3D engine technology is progressing, by the time this decade is out, a huge development megacorp like EA will have already released a general-purpose racing simulation engine that will support all vehicles (cars, motorcycles, bicycles) and all tracks, fully support modding, and all the data will be in a database. In my humble opinion.

- Grampa

Quote from MijnWraak :

the devs said that they are planning on adding mod support some time in the future, so someone can make a NASCAR mod It may be a long time away, though.

...If modding support for LFS is, as you suggest, a long time away, that would be unfortunate. Look what Capture The Flag did for Quake; look what Counterstrike did for Half-Life. The competitors to LFS already have released racing games that support American racing and readily support modding.

What I'm about to suggest may be off-topic here, but I'll risk it...I'm a programmer and have looked at the file structure of LFS in its program directory. In my opinion, having persistent data stored as lots of binary files with proprietary formats and non-standard file extensions is rather old-school. In the first-person-shooter game genre, for example, engines have already been written that store their persistent data in relational databases that can be queried with SQL-like languages.

- Grampa

...I did search the forums - using google. The google site parameter does this. As for, the developers won't add american stuff like NASCAR cars and tracks, because the majority of their customers don't want it...so be it

- Grampa

OK, I will:

[Searching all Google with this query: lfs nascar ]
results: only videos from youtube *showing* lfs nascar 2; no link to download...

[Searching the LFS forums with this query: lfs nascar site:lfsforum.net ]
results: McLaren's Head of Race Operations, a couple of sound resources from the Programmer's forum, no link to lfs nascar 2 download...

...??

Hello, Grampa Here I'm a yank, been playing LFS for about a week. Very realistic - and extremely difficult, without a steering column and pedals (i use keyboard and trackball! :'D ) ...I've noticed that the game is very euro-centric...but it would be too easy to add in support for NASCAR, NHRA Drag, and Indianapolis-type cars...Has someone suggested this already?