What driving abilities do racing video games stimulate? Rating the levels of realism experienced in commercial racing video games

The relationship between racing video games and road accidents is producing relevant research, but there are no studies (or game-content rating systems) that analyze the quality of the driving experience in video games. The aim of the present research is to propose a taxonomy of the driving experience content, to evaluate and cluster the realism of the driving experience created by different racing video game. A selection of 11 commercial video games, previously considered in safety researches, was used to build and test a Driving Experience Analysis - Rating Grid (DEA-RG). Levels of “environmental realism”, “driving realism” and “accident realism” were assessed. DEA-RG scores showed that different categories of racing games generate very different user’s experiences in driving simulations, with mixed levels of realism even within game-categories previously considered as homogenous. Implications for video game developers and road-safety researchers are discussed, for more systematic research hypothesis.