Ever since the creation of racing games players have been able to experience what it is like to be in the driver’s seat of a racing car. With time came evolution and that meant that developers got better and better at simulating the feeling of a genuine car. From imaginary interiors to reconstructing real-life cars, players have been amazed at what gaming technology could do, and became more entranced with the games. But what does a player do after he had his fill of adrenaline racing around famous circuits from all over the world? This is what led to the invention of parking games. This was a more skilled based approach to motor-gaming and had the added advantage of using a more mundane occurrence in the life of real drivers.

Why race?

Racing games can be found in many varieties across multiple platforms. From its humble beginnings to this day the genre has developed into a phenomenon that unites players of all ages and professions eager to experience and better understand what sitting in a car feels like. The main advantage of these games is that it gives players the chance to experience everything, from slowly driving in the countryside, to a full-on battle between formula 1 pilots for the championship. What’s more important is that the player can do this without being in any real danger.

Racing games give anybody the chance to experience almost any car and situation imaginable. If a player ever wondered what it would be like to race others down the historic Route 66 in a tank, thanks to the wonders of gaming, now he can find out. He can also experience what’s like to go into a pit stop during a NASCAR race or what the driver sees and feels during an up-hill rally race; all this from the comfort of their homes.

These games have been proven to improve skills also. For instance, players have been known to have improved reaction time and better hand-eye coordination. Also, players that used racing simulators can, in certain conditions, apply what they have learned in the game to real-life situations. Some of them, who have never driven a car before, got behind a wheel for the first time and drove only with the information they had from the simulations.

Why park?

Parking games have been a rising star in motor-sport gaming since the early 2000s. These games appeal to a more specific type of gamer than others from this category. They have been the alternative to short, adrenaline fueled games. Their core players come from all walks of life and the games are a combination of feeling what a car really looks like and how it handles with the concentration needed to make split decisions, have a steady hand and focus on a fixed goal.

Although some of them require missions to be completed in certain amounts of time, parking games are designed to make a player understand why it is important to take your time and think your move very carefully before making it. This, along with the realistic feel of cars that game design engines are capable of recreating, make these games unique in the gaming community.

Parking a car takes skills. And that’s what these games aim to develop. They are a very good teaching tool for players that want to improve traits like space approximation, control sensitivity and patience. High resolution parking simulators have been used, with considerable success, even in real-life driving schools and have helped student drivers smooth out their rough edges before going on to do the real thing.

Whatever a player is into, either if he wants to race with friends from all over the world or just practice parking cars, the gaming industry has a solution for it. Improvements made in the last two decades have demonstrated that playing a car-based game can be almost as real as getting behind the wheel of a ’69 Mustang. The important thing to learn is that these sorts of games have become omnipresent in our lives and, as long as players are happy and demanding more and more of game developers, they will continue to evolve and get better and more life-like. Also, don’t forget that games have the main task of being a way to relax and cut loose, and nowadays even a way to socialize and meet new people; people that have the same interests. And if one can even learn from them, even better.

Resource Box: Whether you like the adrenaline of classic  racing games  or you like to sharpen your skills by playing  parking games  there is a right game for you out there.