#VirtualRacing

This year’s Nissan GT Academy will kick off at 8 p.m. EDT when the Gran Turismo 6 demo for the Sony PlayStation 3 hits the Playstation Network as a free download.

Virtual racing fans looking for the most realistic experience outside of a race car should start saving up their dollars. Fanatec, creator of the Porsche branded steering wheel and pedal set for gamers, has evolved one of its best products with its new ClubSport Pedals V2.

If you like playing Nissan‘s GT Academy, you’ll want to watch the TV series that uses the popular video game to find the next racing superstar. Catch the five-part reality show on the Speed Network, where virtual gamers will compete for their chance to become a professional race car driver.

In the video, the team at Turn 10 shows you how they take a real track like Hockenheim and turn it into a video game. They take centimeter accurate measurements and look out for details like elevation changes and cambers.

Forza Motorsports 4 comes out on October 11th of this year.

Hit the jump to see the official video

GT Academy’s American chapter is now also looking to find their next star, and are hoping to turn the process into a reality TV show. More than 52,000 contestants signed up for this competition, and the list dwindled down to just 32. These virtual racers then went on to compete in further tests in Orlando, Fl. but only half have advanced through. So now the ‘Sweet 16’ virtual racers will go to the Silverstone racetrack in U.K. to compete in the final competition. These new tests will test a person’s physical fitness and actual skill in a race car.

The Test Drive video game/driving simulator series is quite possibly one of the oldest out there. Yes, long before Gran Turismo or Forza Motorsport even existed; hell long before the original Playstation or Xbox were out there was Test Drive. It may not carry the same prestige as our console counterparts, but Test Drive Unlimited 2 is promising to deliver some groundbreaking virtual driving experiences.

So much like Mercedes-Benz is offering enthusiasts the ability to drive an SLS AMG virtually and in real life, the folks at Atari and Eden Games would like to get you behind the wheel of the Aston Martin One-77 supercar. But being the ultimate sports car from Aston Martin and a limited production of just 77, you’ll likely just have to settle for the virtual experience.

A trailer highlighting the Aston Martin One-77 in the upcoming Test Drive Unlimited 2 video game has just been released. It may not be the exact thrill we really want, but I guess we have to take what we can get. Besides, there’s probably a much better chance Test Drive Unlimited 2 comes out when they say it will in September of 2010.

[Source: TestDriveUnlimited2.com]