this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2024
542 points (94.4% liked)

Memes

45509 readers
1540 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be civil and nice.
  2. Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 71 points 6 months ago (6 children)

*Don't actually drive fast unless you're a racer on a racing track

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

Or you're bootlegging.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Just drive fast in racing games, it is surprisingly not just safer but way more affordable than buying a sports car and paying for tires and getting speeding tickets…

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Even a decent driving rig can be had for under a grand. Way cheaper than almost any car.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It's also convenient that you can just press the reset button when you inevitably launch your video game vehicle into a fence at high speed. A single crash in a real car is real expensive when you gotta fix the parts of the track you just wrecked too. See: nurburgring barrier repair costs + towing

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

You can also still experience that strange calm people love that comes from driving at your limit, where there is zero room for anything other than your presence in the moment reacting to the road, your vehicle and what is coming around the corner…..

But with the throttle screwed on there is only the barest margin, and no room at all for mistakes. It has to be done right. . . and that's when the strange music starts, when you stretch your luck so far that fear becomes exhilaration and vibrates along your arms. You can barely see at a hundred; the tears blow back so fast that they vaporize before they get to your ears. The only sounds are wind and a dull roar floating back from the mufflers. You watch the white line and try to lean with it. . . howling through a turn to the right, then to the left and down the long hill to Pacifica. . . letting off now, watching for cops, but only until the next dark stretch and another few seconds on the edge. . . The Edge. . . There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The others -- the living -- are those who pushed their control as far as they felt they could handle it, and then pulled back, or slowed down, or did whatever they had to when it came time to choose between Now and Later.

But the edge is still Out there. Or maybe it's In. The association of motorcycles with LSD is no accident of publicity. They are both a means to an end, to the place of definitions.

The above is a quote from Hunter S. Thompson on this odd but enchanting species of calm that he gets from driving his motorcycle too fast and though I am sure it is much more intense to do in real life, the fact is if you play a good driving game you absolutely go to a similar place in your mind. You face the same mental situation of the road coming at you so fast that all you can do is exist in the moment, except instead of the edge-y boy antics of almost killing yourself or someone else from driving like an asshole (and also burning fossil fuels for no reason, though with a motorcycle that point is moot they get such good gas mileage usually) you are playing a video game where a spectacular crash is part of the fun (looking at you Flat Out, Burnout and Wreckfest :P ).

That mental state that people who love driving fast crave is the same mental state gamers who like playing competitive games pursue (you ever see someone play quake multiplayer competitively? It is the same exact flow state even when it isn’t a racing game), it’s just one hobby puts human lives at risk and the other is a fun time no matter what.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Absolutely agree. There's definitely a meditative aspect to driving on the edge; your entire brain is focused on doing one thing.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Also try not to hit the wall at 180mph.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Damn that’s some solid advice, thanks! I’ll hear it for ~250

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Or if you're boozed up

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago

Dont worry, I keep it under 140 mph. And I only speed when I have a spotter.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Its a scientific fact that I can’t drive 55.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

I used to have a "driving CD." It started with that song, and the second track was "Highway to Hell," followed by "Highway to the Danger Zone."

Surprisingly, while I do have 3 racing licenses, I have never gotten a speeding ticket.