How Turtle Beach Helped Me Get Good At Racing Games

As I round the final bend my excitement begins to peak. I’m first place in a racing game. This is not a feeling I’m used to. Maybe I’ve managed to win a few Mario Kart and Crash Team Racing victories in my time, but this is real racing. This is photorealism, this is precision. This is Forza. It has physics and everything.

A rival appears in my rearview and suddenly I must change gear to keep my lead. I reach over and shift down using the Multi-Shift, a new addition to my Turtle Beach Velocity One racing setup. The gear slides into place with a satisfying clunk and I manage to pull further ahead and score my victory. I am a racing game champion at last!

Donkey Kong holding a rock with Astro Bot on it

Video Games Shouldn’t Be Afraid To Be Video Games

I’m all for dark and gritty, but sometimes I just wanna jump and wallop.

Last year, I tested out the Turtle Beach VelocityOne Race Wheel. At the time, I was delighted that I didn’t have to use manual gears. I’d never done the whole ‘realistic driving’ thing and was slightly intimidated by it. However, over time, I began to miss them, at least a little.

When I was asked to test the Turtle Beach VelocityOne Multi-Shift, I jumped at the chance to see if it really would make a difference. As it happens, not only does it feel more realistic, but it’s far more fun than changing gear should be. You can also do a neat handbrake turn.

Racing Ambition

Turtle Beach Velocity One Racing Set up.

When I was younger, one of my dreams was to be a ‘Star in a Reasonably Priced Car’ on Top Gear. For those unfamiliar, Top Gear is a UK motoring show which included a segment where a well-known face was tutored by a racing driver known only as The Stig. They then set a lap time on a short race course in what was usually a mid-sized hatchback.

There have been three official Stigs. Perry McCarthy, from 2002-03, Ben Collins from 2003-10 and finally Phil Keen from 2010-22, when the show was cancelled.

I had no real interest in racing outside of this. I just really wanted to feel like a rally driver for a day and loved the mystery surrounding it all. Also, how cool would it be to say you were a better driver than a random assortment of mostly British celebrities of varying caliber?

The show ended in 2022 and my celebrity status is whatever echelon exists below Z List, so I never had my chance. However, the more I played with my VelocityOne set up, the more I realised I could make my own chances, with no risk of actual injury.

Who Knew Gears Were Fun?

Velocity one over forza image of red car.

In racing games, the fun was always in the extras. I have brothers who watched Formula One together and know things about cars. I never stood a chance in Gran Turismo. However, I was able to perfectly place a TNT crate as I drifted in Crash Team Racing.

That side of me who wanted to race around an airfield in South England wanted to be able to take a corner expertly in a nice fancy car, but I was never able to do it. Until now.

The initial steering wheel setup helped me understand why people make proper racing rigs in their house. It’s so much more enjoyable to play a racing game when you’re actually driving instead of twiddling thumbsticks and holding down a button.

I’ve been driving for a couple of decades now, so I have had a lot of practice. I was delighted to find that this translated well into racing games with the proper gear. As a huge fan of peripherals like drums, light guns, and dance mats, it shouldn’t have been surprising, really. However, the real marginal gain was the addition of the gear stick.

The Multi-Shift has seven gears, plus reverse. I am still unsure when we got to seven. My first car only had five gears, to match the number of TV channels we had back then, when the world was black and white.

I’ve driven an automatic for a few years now, and hate driving a manual car day to day. Despite this, I discovered that the feeling of clunking a gear stick into place is immensely satisfying when playing a racing game.

I expected feedback from the steering wheel but not the gears. They attach firmly to my desk and change far more smoothly and more satisfyingly than any car I’ve owned ever has. I am very sensitive to sensory feedback, and this setup manages to give me an amount of pushback that makes it feel grounded and enjoyable.

Having a setup I find fun to use has given me a new love for racing games that don’t have a blue shell in sight. It turns out that the right setup can turn annoyance into enjoyment, and make gears fun to use. Who knew?

Now I just have to stop my teens from invading my office, since everyone wants to have a go with the “cool car set up.” I can’t allow this. They’ll no doubt become far better than I am very quickly. They already wipe the floor with me in Marvel Rivals. But I’m a racing champion right now, and I’m not giving up my crown already. I’ve only just got it resized.