I've enjoyed Need for Speed and Burnout titles for a long time. But since both Driveclub and The Crew were both a little disappointing, I think it is time for me to learn a less arcady racer.

Dirt 3 seems like the right game. But with all of the assists on it is very easy, as soon as they are off, I fail a lot.

Should I just keep at it and get my skills up? Is it worth playing through part of the game on easy to have more variety to learn on? Are their other games that ease into the driving mechanics?

DIRT 3 on a force feedback wheel with no assists is possible the most engaging, enjoyable racer I've ever played. The on the edge of your seat tension you get flying through the courses at silly speeds on slippery surfaces is second to none. I actually think DIRT 3 strikes the arcade/realism balance better than most games.

Have you played much of Forza, or Gran Turismo? The recent GTs are quite stale in terms of atmosphere, and much less arcadey than DIRT. I don't know a lot about Forza though I'm afraid.

There's Project CARS coming out soon on new consoles and PC, and having played a lot of that in development I can recommend it too. From what I've heard about Forza it seems to strike a similar arcade-sim balance if you have assists on, but gets really deep if you turn them off. Might be worth a punt if you don't mind paying full price.

Dirt 3 seems like it is the right game, but as soon as I turn off the assists I become terrible. Would you recommend an order to learn each assist in?

@sumjugei: I forgot how many assists there are in DIRT 3! Which ones do you have on still? Obviously auto-steer and corner braking should be off as they are doing steering and braking for you. I think throttle management might also make sure you don't apply too much accelerator and spin out of a corner? Leave the racing line on as long as you need it, especially if you haven't learnt all the routes yet.

Basically, if you haven't turned off Auto-Steer, Corner Braking and Throttle Management do that first. (If you are willing to try it I'd advise switching to Manual transmission at this point too - changing down gears is a really nice way to slow the car down, in combination with braking. Once you turn off ABS using the gears to slow the car down is quite a useful skill!)

Once you are comfortable with that, turn ABS off before you turn off Stability Control (which I assume is like Traction Control). With ABS off you will notice that the car won't turn very much under braking. This will get you used to the idea of braking to slow down before a corner and then steering into it. Then lastly turn off Stability Control, which will mean the car will be more likely to spin out when accelerating out of a corner.

I doubt you will ever be able to drive with no assists at all on a gamepad though. It's pretty tough even with a wheel, but trying to turn and smoothly with a gamepad is nearly impossible, which makes you much more likely to spin. The throttle needs to be gently applied until you are sure the car has traction again and small adjustments in straight line driving should be made smoothly rather than in the fast jerks you get when adjusting with a joystick.

Good luck anyway!

@bollard That is exactly what I needed. I am starting to get the hang of having auto-steer, corner breaking and throttle management off. Looking forward to being in total control--when i get there.

Thanks so much

@sumjugei: I'm glad I could help! Hope you continue to enjoy it, it feels great when you start racing with assists off, even if you get a bit too sideways sometimes :P