Most professional athlete see their talent as kids after stumbling onto a basketball court or football plain . But unlike basketball game or football , race car driving is a sport that ’s pretty hard to pick up nonchalantly . It requires an intimidating amount of capital to get begin , and even semi - professional driver sometimes pay off century of thousands of dollars to get on a team . As a effect , there ’s a eonian shortage of forebode new drivers egress .
According toWired , Nissan and Sony team up in 2008 to tackle the problem and came up with a originative solution : TV games . They founded the GT Academy , name for the PlayStation drive gameGran Turismo , and launched a contest to recruit the best video plot drivers . The premiss is simple : since it is too expensive and dangerous to allow aspiring drivers onto the raceway , hyper - naturalistic driving video games could play as a safe alternative .
The honorary society test for a range of different skills . Not only do number one wood vie within the video game , they must also go through a series strong-arm trial and public coitus challenges — it ’s authoritative to Sony and Nissan that likely driver are equipped to deal both with the physical challenges of bucket along as well as challenges off the racecourse .
Since 2008 , 19 drivers have calibrate from the honorary society . The competition is improbably tough . This twelvemonth , 300,000 people compete and only three were named winners . But for those who do make it through , the experience is life history - changing . Three GT Academy alumnus competed this twelvemonth at the 24 hour of Le Mans , the world ’s oldest endurance motorcar race . Bryan Heitkotter , who graduated from the GT Academy in 2011 , toldWiredthat his transition from video recording game aficionado to professional driver was a dream come true , explaining that he ’d always wanted to race for real but never had the monetary fund . When inquire whether he still plays picture games for fun , he reply , “ I do n’t have time any longer . ” He ’s too officious rush for literal .
[ h / tWired ]
