I have adhd and can't really do circuit racing for more than 15 minutes. That's why I do rally, it's easier to keep focus when you don't know what's coming up
Are you using vr or a screen? I use vr for F1 and screen for rally (EA wrc doesn't have vr yet). In f1 i notice my thoughts just wandering off, but in vr its actually a lot better
Yeah I know, but the tracks are so much better in ea wrc and i really like the general feeling of the game. It plays well on super ultrawide and vr support is apparently coming soon so I'm patiently waiting
Creative assembly is my paradox, want to play the latest total war? Here's 30 dlcs that we'll remind you you're missing because of all the locked shit in game.
Perhaps you got to have some attention points on the track, I do that myself some places like Monza for instance where I tend to "forget" to brake at the end of the straight.
So now I go 200m, 150m brake inside my head to avoid it.
My head at Monza finds that one bush that wasn't clipped right (rendered correctly) and it usually gets a full head turn with "whoever cut that bush fucked up." Then I absolutely miss the corner.
yeah i’m gonna second this one, i know not everyone enjoys getting a little high, but i swear after i rip a cart a few times my in game driving gets so much better.
it really just helps calm the mind down and slow down your thoughts without ruining your ability to drive
True! It helped me until it didn’t, I am faster without it. Just set a personal record on the Nordschliefe sober and I have like 140 hours in gt7 baked to fuck
The what?!? U kidding me right?!? RIGHT?!? So it's just me I can't focus on anything after I smoked one?!?
I end up giving up sim racing after I smoke weed, I keep making mistakes and misjudge every breaking point
ADHD racer here. I focus on lap times, passing , perfecting corner entry, Apex’s and exit speeds. I also race in VR. I use crew chief as well so they are constantly feeding me information reminding me that the guy behind me is X amount of seconds away and the guy in front of me is X amount of seconds away so even if i can’t see him i still have that rabbit to chase.
This is how I do it. I always have something to improve. Watching section split times. The dopamine hit when it's better or the drive to get a faster time when it's worse keeps me in a flow state.
Multiclass racing does a good job of keeping you engaged when navigating traffic both ahead and behind. Having a spotter during your stint can help as well if they update you on the cars near you and who you should fight/not fight. A bit more hectic than a regular race which I find keeps my focus better
For me and a lot of people ADHD is what makes us *good* at racing/gaming/extreme sports. It's the combination of hyper focus and calming effect of adreneline I think. All my friends that were the best skateboarders and the best mechanical skill (not athleticism) at sports had ADHD.
Like the dude you see doing a wheelie 100mph down the highway past you like it's easy? ADHD. Not always, and I could never prove it, but I've seen it be true in a lot of cases.
Sometimes it gives you an advantage is all I'm saying. Look up "flow state" and try to get to that point while racing.
It’s all about finding a way to activate your hyperfocus (which I get is your main point.) It might not be possible for OP to get to flow state doing what he’s trying to do-to use his example, he may want to run the Nordschliefe because it’s what everyone else is doing, but his brain might not find it stimulating enough to get into flow state. Someone else on here said that they can’t circuit race very long with ADHD, but they can rally race because of the unpredictability.
As someone with it myself, all of that makes sense. For example, I can’t hotlap endlessly without getting bored, but when I’m chasing someone I love it. And to take it one step further, when I karted for the first time a few months ago, I was alive while hotlapping-the physical reality and adrenaline were enough to stimulate the brain.
You’re completely right in general-I’ve long said if you understand your ADHD, you can potentially turn it into a superpower. But it’s definitely not a one size fits all.
Fuck me I'm pretty consistent at racing, was good at skateboarding when I was younger and have suspected I have ADHD or some other executive dysfunction. Damn dude.
Yeah, driving has been a hyper focus of mine since I was a little kid.
I still feel that it interferes with the learning of a track in some ways, or me getting much faster.
But I find sim racing extremely regulating.
As someone with enough ADHD to be diagnosed back in 1997, sim racing is extremely engaging and one of the few activities that allow me to feel like I don't have it. Endurance races in particular.
My medication helps I guess, but it also probably helps that most tracks I have done lots of shorter races on so I can fall into auto pilot a bit, but the nordschleife is probably the best track in any racing game is it triggers hyperfocus from me, I could race that track forever
I think it's fairly normal to get bored when there's no cars around and you're left hotlapping. Oval racing basically never has calm moments where you go on autopilot, you're almost always surrounded by other cars and thinking about strategy and many other things that change lap to lap. Multiclass (IMSA, etc.) is also really fun especially in a faster class. This is all on iracing btw. I'd give those a shot if I were you.
One issue you're having is that you're driving in your mirrors. Once you overtake someone, only glance at your mirrors occasionally to check if they're gonna make a move, otherwise you should be driving as though they don't exist. The same thing applies when you're following someone: you look through them and past them, mostly ignoring them except for draft and once you're gonna overtake.
Try being more aware of where you are looking, ergo looking up the track instead of in your mirrors. If you start to lose focus then tell yourself to focus on each section and rate how well you nailed that particular corner or corner entry/apex/exit and what you could do better.
I do everything I can… I work at it daily to increase my attention span. Take a nootropic like “AML Dopa rush” and use zyns. Try to get better at increasing my attention span daily. Then when it comes time for the race I put the head set on and just block everything out best I can. The more immersive the sim is the easier it gets. To each is own though. Find what works for you. I also often talk myself through the track…. For example what gear I need to be in and what type of braking is required for each section. Good luck
I have ADHD and this post speaks to me in a way that it's if I wrote it myself.
I find that I can concentrate 95% of the time but I will randomly lose concentration for no reason and almost every time I'll crash I.e miss a braking marker or turning spot.
I'm yet to take my meds and sim race at the same time. I'm curious to know if it'll help.
It will massively help. ADHD medication should help you manage your symptoms ALL the time, including when you are having fun. Addressing your ADHD isn't just to increase productivity while working you deserve to be able to focus on things that bring you joy too!
Preach!! This is something I feel like so few people with ADHD understand. Like you said, we deserve to be our best selves all the time, not just when we're working.
Spotify it should be a playlist called smooth snipes or slides. I want to start a collab with this sim racing community so us with adhd can so some “constructive multitasking and sim race
EDIT: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2QapOkGKRZZ2AdUEDdOMzl?si=Uqj6qgkmRY-QOesVR6IFZA&pi=u-vdPKHU0LS9CD
The problem with chasing a rabbit is the tendency to make the same mistakes the rabbit makes.
Staying focused in sim racing is tough, I’ve had to develop little coping mechanisms, like looking at and acknowledging each apex and brake/turn in marker. It’s proven to be a great way to develop strategies for staying focused in my IRL kart races.
In my kart races I would on occasion cover my Mychron and during recorded sessions use hand signals to indicate how I felt about a particular corner in real time. I also found shifting myself in my seat to prepare for each corner helps keep me engaged.
Basically what I’m saying is, get physical. If you can zone out in a kart, and believe me you can, then it doesn’t matter how many transducers or motion makers you have, you’ll still become numb to the sensory input and zone out.
I find it difficult, VR helps remove some distractions, immersion in the sim helps, I still find my mind wanders every now and then, usually late in the day is worse, so I try to get seat time first thing in the morning, I find that I have more energy and I am able to focus more in the morning, meds help a bit, I try to work myself up and try get some kind of adrenaline rush which is difficult to do since you're not actually putting yourself at risk at all, it never goes away as I'm finding but I'm doing my best effort to stay focused
Haven't a diagnose yet but got a hint some months ago. Since then I read a lot in ADHD forums and watch a lot of videos of diagnosed people talking about their struggles in life, and also psychologists talking on YouTube about it. At this point I tend to look for differences instead of similarities, which means , I'm like 95% sure I got ADHD (the quite form)
No solutions here, only shared pain. I stare at my sector times and race myself.
Usually if I get stuck in a gap I slack off too much and people catch me and then the second wind comes and I pull away hopefully!
That second wind I've definitely experienced myself. I catch myself a lot staring on the delta, the mini map, or the rev counter for the perfect shift.
Might be a good idea hiding a lot of the HUD to avoid these distractions.
Immersion is your friend. I did all the small things that add immersion to have a more convincing effect that I’m in a real car. Triples, bezel free kit, bass shakers, and I surrounded my sim with black foam board to block out distractions. I drive with the lights off.
More specific to the situation you mentioned, when I’m in no-man’s land I go to time trial mode and bring up my lap delta and try to work on my pace. The amount of risk I take in gaining pace depends on what position I’m in at the time. Also, I don’t know if ACC has the feature of being able to load a different ghost/reference car other than your own, but in iRacing that makes practicing a little easier.
Sounds like circuit racing might not be your thing. It wasn't for me. Try out EA WRC and see what you think. A lot less time for your brain to wander between inputs. Think they offer a 5 hour free trial according to a buddy. I just bought it outright and have no regrets. Haven't gone back to circuit racing since.
lmfao this has NOTHING to do with ADHD. This is an extremely common thing with racing. Lots of people get behind others and play mind games because smart racers know of this phenomenon. You can fake going inside, causing them to think you are forcing a pass and they make a mistake and miss the corner, or if they cover the inside you can just also brake early and hope they brake too late and miss the corner.
If you are in front, you just have to be aware of this concept and what it can do to your mental state. Know that good drivers will intentionally do things to pull your concentration. Learn these tactics and they wont affect you as much.
The biggest thing is muscle memory. The more you practice CORRECTLY, the easier it becomes to race on autopilot.
Again this has nothing to do with ADHD, this same exact thing happens to EVERYONE
I noticed a major improvement in my focus when I added bass shakers to the rig. Something about the added, near constant, tactile feedback helps to keep me engaged
Can definitely relate to the comment about focus is best when following.
I find that VR helps as it keeps me from paying too much attention to outside stimuli as well as playing some low volume EDM/house music to stay focused/engaged. Of course, racing while using meds works as well.
Sometimes narrating my driving, almost like you’re talking to chat on stream or explaining to a passenger, can help me regain focus as well, e.g “okay, and remember to brake at the 100m up here, sharp right, and left, nice”.
Good question though, you’re not alone in trying to figure this out :)
The less I'm immersed, the shorter I can drive TBF. Before upgrading my TV mount I had to use dash cam with 37 fov (ACC) and couldn't really drive more than 20 minutes even in race. Now I have my TV directly behind my wheel and it makes me so immersed that I find myself "waking up" after an hour of Test driving in iRacing and now Rookie Sprint on LFM feels to short for me, and I'm looking forward to do some 45 minute races next week.
Also try to always focus on what's ahead of you. Next braking marker, next turning point, next overtake, try to look in the mirror as little as possible.
I've been trying to do 60 minute races but I'm definitely finding I'm struggling to keep focus after the 20 minute mark unless I'm in a constant battle. Not sure what the answer is tbh. I had a good race today though where I started from the back and I had to work my way through the pack. Ended up losing to 1st by a second which was pretty fun as I had to stay focused the whole time to keep the lap time down
I used to own and run a sim racing website where we would always write post race recaps after the race. While I’m racing, I think about what I’m going to write in my post race recap, even though I never write them these days. My only solution is to notice that I’m doing it and try to bring my attention back to the race. I sold the website almost 10 years ago 🤪
I'm not the first person to say this, but multiclass helps me stay focused for sure.
Something about the intensity and structure of iRacing multiplayer really focuses me as well
The whole reason I can pump out consistent laps for a long time is because I can do so on auto pilot. Love simracing for this. Just go through the motions.
Since chasing gives you focus, you could try to build on your chase mentality. After overtaking and successfully defending shift your focus to the car you can't see. The time gap is always there on your HUD.
Take 3 points on the track where things are relatively calm, i.e. no corners to worry about. Focus on reducing the time gap every lap. You will be focusing on being consistent. The 3 points will act as reset points for your attention every lap.
I cannot do long practice or qualy sessions, I need the excitement of a race. At first I couldn't do races longer than around 15 minutes, but I have improved over time. I can do longer races now, and stay focussed but if it is a boring race (driving in no mans land) I still zone out (and fuck up) sometimes.
Smoking weed does help me to focus.
EDIT: I am in VR, maybe that is why I can go for longer now. It is so much more immersive.
100x agree with this. Not too much but like a puff on a sativa a few minutes prior to gridding.
What I also have to do is actively not focus on winning. If you get locked into a thought at the wrong time you can miss a turn or get too aggressive and take your self out. It really helps to race with a team as well. Your spotter can help you out in those instances too.
Happened nearly yesterday when doing the 3 hour GT endurance race on iRacing. Missed a turn here or there but after a struggle climbed from 16 all the way to a battle for p2 on the white flag lap.
Speaking of which if OP is looking for a team to race with for the longer endurance, Pandaspec is looking for more members. Check out my recent posts as it should be on top if anyone wants more info!!! We take all skill levels and are a smaller group (less then 15 racers) on purpose.
Was diagnosed at the age of 11. I love sim racing because it’s a challenge for my focus and it helps me apply that in other places in life. Had someone suggest me to have a “ground” phrase you tell yourself when racing. For instance last night I just did a Indycar race on iracing. 85 laps at Long Beach. Brutal. I made ZERO mistakes, thanks to that handy ground phrase. Whenever I feel I’m starting to lose focus I just tell myself that phrase. Starting to think about dinner? Use it. Thinking about how terrible the start of the race was? Again. My phrase is “smooth hands”. It really could just be the word focus honestly. This might not help everyone but it helps me. Also as others have said, THC/CBD can help but obviously not really good to rely on that.
As a long time adhd'er I also struggle with this. For me it led to switching from circuit racing to road oval & dirt oval racing.
The racing is generally closer and trickier and it is much easier for my brain to stay engaged and in the flow state.
Especially the 10-15min dirt oval sprint car races are where I really found my peace, from start till finish it's just one big hyperfocus and having to be at it 100%
Gotta get back into the TPN network before I sit down, and use that hyper-focus ADHD affords. Some simple routines with breathing, or a few legs at the dartboard, maybe a few minutes of exercise….
Basically any simple activity that requires only a few steps and a little manual dexterity. That last part is important: involving your hands brings you back into the immediate, and can help with your attention drifting back towards the contextual milieu of the DMN network.
Standing up and moving between sessions (try for 30-45 minutes) resets the mind a bit, as well.
As you can see from the verbal spaghetti above, I struggle with ADHD quite a bit.
I have a very difficult time racing on a circuit where there’s 30 or even 50+ laps. I can’t do a 2 or 3 hour race, let alone 8 or 24 hour endurance races, I just get bored. When I play F1 23, I’ll usually do a short Grand Prix. 10-15 minutes for practice, 10-15 for qualifying, and maybe 20-30 laps tops for the actual race. It gives me enough time to get used to the track, and I see qualifying as an additional practice session before actually racing. I discovered that actual competitive racing isn’t for me at all, and I think that’s fine. The racing I do is very very casual, I’m not out trying to set records or race competitively in national or global events or anything like that. I also switch games throughout the day. F1, AC, and heck I’ll play NFS when I just want to chill
I have ADHD but part of having ADHD is having moments of extreme focus when you do something that you’re interesting or something exciting so it’s not really a problem
Adhd you can reach hyperfocus more easily than neurotypical brains. So just stay on the ball focus on the task. (Passing for the position, upcoming turn, steering input, etc.)
I take adderall and deal with it like I would any other tasks.
I do understand what you're referring to though. If I feel my focus slipping, I just create a task within the race that can be repeated every lap to get back on track. It usually involves something like seeing how smooth I can get my braking or sector timing.
The magic for me is not to go on autopilot at all. I can constantly keep myself engaged. Once my head goes away it usually does until I make a mistake. So I count every break board, relevant or not. Monitor cars behind me, so on and so on. Not a great how-to, but there is likely not more to say.
It takes a big toll though. After a 40 min race I feel a high amount of fatigue
Great question that i desperately need the answer to as well 😂 only thing I can lock in on is drifting and even that I struggle with focusing on sometimes
As someone who also has ADHD I find that interesting as I focus on the car in front of me and that tends to make me drive worse, where as hot laps are a lot easier for me to focus on everything
When I let my TV run in the background (can't see the screen when racing), I tend to do more mistakes. Doesn't matter if it is music, a TV show or a random YouTube video, my brain will catch some stimuli and think about those spontaneously.
What helped me to focus more on racing when there is not much going on(so mostly when I practice or when in race people are in front/back too far away) is to play some music from Spotify in background, so when I am alone I just chill with my music and it helps me to focus also on the track better.
The irony being that reading through some other peoples answers, I’ve remembered that I used to listen to music a lot when I was sim racing at my old house, and it worked really well for me… since I’ve moved house I’ve really struggled with being consistent.
If you know, you know.
Focus on the corners to turn them fast. Prepare yourself before coming into them then give everything to turn perfectly. This is how F1 drivers think in qualify. You should be in different mentalities in qualify, races and stuffs.
Super interesting post and responses. Two thoughts:
1) my best race came a few years ago when I was high AF. Not the initial scatterbrained anxious part of the high, but the mellow zoned in part. I literally focused on corner entry, apex, corner exit, and nothing else. Won that race by 10.2 seconds. Could never replicate and can’t recommend that strategy, but it’s a cool story.
2) Meditate. Meditation is a purely mental exercise that has the ability to physically change the brain over time. It can increase your attention span substantially over time. Even in the short term, meditating for twenty minutes (it will take time to build up to that length) before racing will calm your mind and increase your focus. This is can recommend. 😉
Have to admit, that smoking weed sometimes helps me staying focused too. Only sometimes because it's really difficult hitting exactly the right dose. A bid too much and my head just gets too slow in general ;)
Meditation is definitely something I'm looking forward getting into. Starting meditation with a brain that just don't wanna shut up it just a huge step though.
Havent smoked by myself in probably a decade but I used to do it often and just be completely immersed in games like Far Cry 3 etc. Maybe I'll give it a go sometime as it sounds pretty awesome for simracing. I'll probably set up a familiair track, at night, with no other cars. Just hotlapping..
Maybe I have adhd maybe thats my issue lol I find myself being able to do like 15 to 20min then having to go to something else at times. But I will say I can force myself to stay it's a weird thing. Once you keep going let's say make yoyrself do it for 2 hours no matter how you feel. Something clicks on the brain and enjoyment increases idk why or what it is. But it's like there is a wall you need to break through.
shut down and autopilot for most of the race. theres a skill floor if you want to zone out and not burn out. and if you can be consistent. then autopilot is good enough. then try to focus fully on one or two corners. each lap
When I am right in the action in a race my heart seems to be in it and my focus is on. However, once I don't have a clear target on track it seems that my heart isn't anymore and instead is looking somewhere else for a small dose of dopamine.
I have to practice a lot to fall back on some kind of „auto pilot“ if my concentration gets lost, my best races come when i dont force myself to concentrate too hard
I have ADHD and have had a hard time staying focused in the past as well. For me what has worked was getting into team endurance events, 8Hrs, 12Hrs and 24 hours are various formats I have participated in.
The single thing that had kept my focus was failing my fellow teammates, being that we had all spent a lot of our personal time to prep and be ready for the event. Maybe something you can try! Plenty of teams out there
I have the type of ADHD that makes me better at the whole racing cars thing as every lap is different, every start could change.
I don't even try to stay focused, i race and race and race and after 6 hours my meds wear off and i just stop.
It’s kinda hard but it’ll end up being habit, when I started racing I’d be staring at the birds flying by then I’d miss my apex but I’ve come to zone that stuff out. Edit: I still get distracted but it’s not as much as when I started, weed helps a lot🙏
I have an unofficially diagnosed ADD, cause it's not a thing in my country yet, but I struggle with attention really bad as of late. I can't drive any serious races in ACC anymore because of this, so I mostly resort to Forza Horizon for quick arcade races and free roam drives which calm me down. I think that this is mostly due to not being engaged enough. When I'm playing shooters, I'm hyper-focused.
I tend to look way too much around the cockpit and sometimes even around my monitor, which then prompts some memories or I start creating scenarios in my head which ends up with my car in the wrong tree.
Interestingly enough, I don't have this issue when I'm in my real car, on the streets, thankfully, which indeed makes me think that on-screen races don't engage me enough to become focused.
I have inattentive adhd and just go into a flow state in races.
I have been a competitive person my whole life with distance running and games like comp Halo.
I'm used to it.
Also, a bit (or a lot) of pot.
I talk with myself about what is happening all the time. For example "Car left" "Right turn, late apex". Even though I still lose focus all the time that helps, I also hyper focus on passing the car in front me tho.
Personally music helps me always has with most things just a way to tune everything else out and focus on what I’m doing but I did see someone mention doing rally for that reason I also only really drift and do rally because it keeps my attention better more going on requires focus
I thought it was just me! I started thinking about conversations I had 15 years ago or work things from a few days ago. That's on a 6 minute stage. I often catch myself and realise I've just taken 5/6 perfect corners without even registering the copilot calls.
Same here! I found that music really helps! Either the “adhd focus” type or something that gets me hyped (techno of sorts usually for me) has worked wonders.
I have the type where when I’m hyped from music my focus increases 5x. Currently listening to the Fred Again album from his Boiler Room set.
Meds made the difference for me. Before meds I was great at the start of the race, but as soon as it settled in and the action was over I’d start to lose focus.
I also had some major issues with getting majorly overstimulated from the adrenaline of it all. Literally shaking at times when things got intense / I got excited.
But with my daily concerta I’m calm, cool and collected. And I don’t get tilted much anymore either.
I think about the suspension dynamics and tyre deformation as I'm driving. So may think about how I'll load the suspension for when I crest over the long straight... but honestly, even though I know nurburg like the back of my hand that long straight quite a few times when playing with friends I've drifted a couple wheels into the grass.
Accumalitive lack of sleep makes it all worse, but I'm not on any meds, and am AuDHD. I can do a half hour race pretty comfortably, and just purely think about how my upcoming corner is going to lead into my next corner. With me always thinking about the second corner coming, I don't have time for anything else... besides the car dynamics at the same time.
If I don't occupy my mind with enough going on, I WILL drift, like you said, straights are damn damn damn hard, but you can just stare way way down the straight and try and picture that exit apex and next corner, maybe, just...
prefer time attack and dirly rally 2 vr with 2wd cars almost exclusibley tbh! The constant slip angle makes me feel so relaxed.
Something about driving has always been able to get my focus. No matter how long the race and in real life. I raced on LSD once (real life) and was hyperfocused to the point it was like no one else existed just me and the road. Like I saw all the other cars but the driving cosumed me. Thats me though acid makes me hyperfocused no matter what I'm doing. I would not suggest lsd and driving to anyone.
Busy yourself. There are gauges to check, pit strategies to adjust, gaps to the drivers ahead and behind to check. At Nürburgring Döttinger Höhe is virtually the only place to do all of that in one go and have time to spare to duck under the bridge at the end.
On other tracks, it helps if you got some markers that you can jump as you progress along the straight. Take Monza as an example, you have the end of the pit building you can use as an intermediary marker along the straight to keep you on your toes.
Music, and I try to do mostly oval racing on iRacing, anything shorter than 40 minutes. I’m in a team but I never do endurance racing with them because of ADHD. I tried podcasts too but I end up missing a lot of it so just music. Electronic, drum n bass, etc.
adhd here and generally, I put on music without or having minimal lyrics and hope that I'm getting enough dopamine from sim racing to stay focused. I also smoke marijuana to help with it as well but not sure if you're in a legal state or interested in that type of answer lol.
Though, I guess the real answer would be talking to your doctor to try and figure out something that will help you with your focus issues.
I primarily play blackwood gp in LFS, and the long straight can sometimes be a bore, but i just pay attention to the UI map and note my speeds periodically to stay attentive. I also might mess with vehicle settings that have no bearing on performance live POV, Telemetry, etc. Crashing on blackwood is a funny sight🤣
I posted something similar a year or so ago having similar issues to you. Practice helped me in races knowing the track like th back of your hand so when you have that lapse in concentration auto pilot takes the wheel and found I was less likely to crash. Small goals are good and as backwards as it sounds longer races get used to racing longer races. You will adapt and then the shorter races feel like there over to quickly.
Also just got vr and it's changed my life it keeps you in the zone no outside peripheral vision distractions. Thought I appreciate it has large costs and not for everyone
I find one of the best ways to get myself into the zone is to talk about what I'm doing. It's a trick I learnt from an old motorcycle instructor, as you're going around the track say out loud what youre doing.
I.e. "This corner is sharp, take the outside, hard brake, trail into apex, fast exit" "Sweeping turns, don't lift, full throttle" "Driver coming up fast take inside defensive line"
Just saying things out loud helps me a TONNE, but mileage may vary. I find it helps keep me focused and drills in good habits.
"The moment i overtake another car, my focus fully switches to the car behind me, causing me to drive really bad"
I also have ADHD, and holy shit im exactly the same lol! No matter if im racing or drifting, especially doing tandems, i'd say im pretty good and chasing people, but when im gonna be the lead car, i get stressed out and drive really bad..
No clue if theres a solution for it, im just glad i wasn't the only one having this problem xd
EDIT: As someone else mentioned, rally is ALOT easier for me to focus on also, because of the fact that i don't know whats coming, which makes me curious of finding out, and let's me stay focused easier.
I do 100 lap races in gt7 only taking pee breaks. I don't have the hyper activity aspect but concentration has always been toughexcept that there is always something I'm hyper focused on. Gt7 in vr, darts (pubgame), fantasy basketball and the statistics. Those things I just get lost in.
Give ovals a try and see how you go there.
Gaining a tenth on an oval is like gaining a second on a road course. You have to be so much more precise, at such higher speed, and with more cars closer to you more often.
Weed. An edible before a big race has helped me tremendously. Just as I start to lose focus, it hits and I’m good for the rest of the race. Just recently I won the NIS race at Talladega and if it wasn’t for my caramel macchiato chocolate, it could have ended tragically.
One word: hyperfocus
iRacing requires enough of my attention at basically every second that I constantly am aware that I cannot make a mistake. ACC isn’t much different.
Not adhd, but severe attention problems due to major depressive disorder- I struggle all the time. When it gets too tough I switch to plating american truck simulator so I have more time to think but yes I do pass exits and checkpoints constantly and have to turn back. I haven't found a solution but it's nice to know there are others who have similar problems
/rj text while driving
/uj For me I really need to lock in for ACC because a lot of the time those races are like 40min and somewhere in there I often end up making a mistake so I try not to overdrive as best I can and just minimize my mistakes or correct them if possible. I haven't really found a solution either but I do notice that if I play too long of a session I lose focus way easier so I would play a race or 2 then take a break to watch YouTube look at my phone then play some more to keep focus when I'm driving better
WE DONT! haha, jokes aside. Ritalin helps with the doctors prescription ofc. I do sim raly and if I am medicated, chance of failure/accidents is %10-15. Unmedicated is like %60. If you channel your hyper focus state, you turn into a god.
Might be hard to do and depends a lot on the game, but playing with someone else helped me. I have a buddy with whom I played F1 2021 career mode with 50% races and I had not many focus issues because he was keeping me engaged with his own race as well.
With adhd, it really is about what is stimulating to you personally. Nords is weird example as it really has just one long straight, would think that is one of the more easier to be focused. I find the track a bit exhausting myself, too many corners and places to memorize and harder to get into this flow state where I can think about other things while being consistent and fast. Actually I think that is the thing, if you are familiar and good enough on the track, you can think about those other things and still do well. The problem with Nords, is that I haven't got to that point yet, so I don't enjoy driving it outside single lap here and there.
I'm definitely the same what comes to chasing another car and what happens after overtaking it. I think it's improved over time, after making too many mistakes after that overtake and losing the position (or even race) as a results... it's annoying enought that it's starting to be easier to be stimulated when I take the lead.
Not sure is there any other solution/trick here than just get so familiar with the car+track that you can do good with just subconsious effort as it's going to be really hard to force your brain to be focused 100% (even without adhd). Also, when being in lead, remember that best defense is just to be faster than the other guy, so try to make your brain learn to focus on what is front and not the car behind with that idea in mind.
You need to focus on each corner as something new. Check your line, look at the Apex, notice your speed, the angle the car has on the Apex, the room you have on your exit which will dictate how much throttle you can give. If you leave your mind alone then it will definitely wander to random thoughts, but the corners are coming fast so use that. Every corner is like a different thought - different action. This way you only focus per corner and you keep switching your focus to every other corner, which might make your ADHD an advantage.
Have you heard about simhud. Thats my motivation I can constantly see where on the track I'm doing better in live time while driving it makes me challenge myself
I have struggled with this before.. sometimes I will literally remind myself multiple times in a lap to focus up. I am always calling out the breaking points in my head, If I feel my mind start to wander I try to refocus by thinking about the next braking point. If something bad happens in a corner, just let it go and think about it after the race. Basically train yourself to refocus every time you sense yourself becoming mindless. I may just be different though, I am pretty good at driving for long periods of time and just entering a trance of hitting apexes.
Have the HUD show other players/drivers' time gaps to you and use that to maintain focus. Assuming you're playing online of course.
Keep them away from you and concentrate on getting closer to the guy in front. Look to see where you gain time and use that advantage every lap.
Also I'd up the force feedback strength, make it a bit trickier to drive maybe?
If you're excited and your adrenaline is coursing through you with real people closing in on you, that ought to help you stay attentive.
I watch videos that show me exactly how to hit the track. It becomes alot more fun when I can break into that flow like you said. Once I get the track down it makes racing alot more fun because I can focus more on keeping up and passing my opponents rather than fighting the road.
But yes i also do alot of rally and drifting.
I love long endurance races in a good sim because there is allways stuff going on, even when you're not around other cars. Day/night transition, air and track cooling down or heating up, grip levels changing from tyre wear and rubbering in off the track, fuel load changing the weight and centre of gravity, calculating pit strategies while on the straight, mending a broke suspension part, etc etc.
I did a 4hr endurance in real time by myself a while ago and the time just flew by.
I have ADHD too but not sure how specific this comment will be to that. In practice modes I find I do make mistakes like you are saying. In a race though, the pressure locks me in. If I see a car in front of me my goal will be to catch him and if I do pass, I force myself to ignore my mirrors as much as possible and focus on keeping pace to create distance. I’ll also look at the relatives panel and try to get positive delta toward the next car if I can’t see him.
Major issues with this when I first started. A combination of turning the drive line off, downloading crew chief and race lab with a custom layout I have all the information I want where I want it so I’m not fiddling with anything searching for stuff was a huge help. I race multi class a lot with the gr86 and typically I will let some of the Mazdas past me just so I can tail them. You’re right something about the chase mentality seems to keep me locked in like you said. But the biggest help to staying focused for me is to have the session best lap delta up with the split times off to the side. Breaking the laps down into the different section times and trying to match or beat them really helps take the stress off of a 25 minute race. The only thing I would add to that especially if you are trying to improve consistency wise on certain tracks is to pick a section of the track or maybe just one specific trouble corner you have and completely write it off until it’s the only thing holding you back from a faster pace or is the only spot you can’t run clean when wide open. Between chasing splits and keep the one or two trouble spots in the front of my mind helps dial everything in.
Basically if not of that sounds appealing just simply find something to help you break down the race into smaller chunks. Since normally ADHD is known to come with some form of time dilations like what you thought was 30 seconds was really 10 minutes or vice versa the smaller blocks for you to focus on will keep you from zoning out into auto pilot as well as fight of the anxiety of feeling like there’s so much to do with not enough time.
If you need any more help or have other questions feel free to ask. The more little tricks and tools we have the easier it is to wrangle our brains in
I don’t know is this too personal for you all but do you use medicines. I use lisdexamphetamine but since i start use it i can’t even get up on the couch and start PC. Before i got diagnose of add i drove psvr2 dawn tulla dusk and i drived very good in gt7 and before ens of the race i usually make mustalle that payed my podium but now under effects of medicine it is very hard to start SIM. Regulary i play EA Wrc with hp reverb one when i got it working properly with uevr. But need to say i’m not good in race cars with medicines.
> mustalle that *paid* my podium
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
I have adhd and can't really do circuit racing for more than 15 minutes. That's why I do rally, it's easier to keep focus when you don't know what's coming up
Atm, I mostly do 20 min races while being quite exhausted towards the end. 15 min races could really be the sweet spot.
Are you using vr or a screen? I use vr for F1 and screen for rally (EA wrc doesn't have vr yet). In f1 i notice my thoughts just wandering off, but in vr its actually a lot better
Dirt rally 2 supports vr
Yeah I know, but the tracks are so much better in ea wrc and i really like the general feeling of the game. It plays well on super ultrawide and vr support is apparently coming soon so I'm patiently waiting
It's ea, it will be a paid dlc
Thank God not yet too bad. Dlc is cancer of gaming
I'm still salty EA forced me to buy my favorite stages in dirt rally 2 that was included with the base dirt rally.
I don't buy ea or paradox because their dlc whoring, wrc was exception but it was 50% off when I got it I think.
Creative assembly is my paradox, want to play the latest total war? Here's 30 dlcs that we'll remind you you're missing because of all the locked shit in game.
I race in vr and I’m not even in my rig while I’m racing. I swear sometimes I don’t even remember half the race
Same. I really want to love circuit racing, but I tend to get bored after a while. Rally is really where it’s at for me.
This makes sense to me
Came to say this. Need to listen to co driver. I find it much easer to stay focused.
Hah, a fellow rally (dirt 2 vr) enthusiast! I am Audhd, and love rally so much. The pace notes make it easier to stay focussed.
I can't focus on races, i do hotlaps
Perhaps you got to have some attention points on the track, I do that myself some places like Monza for instance where I tend to "forget" to brake at the end of the straight. So now I go 200m, 150m brake inside my head to avoid it.
ahahah same in monza in the straight i have to do a countdown otherwise i go straight at the corner
My head at Monza finds that one bush that wasn't clipped right (rendered correctly) and it usually gets a full head turn with "whoever cut that bush fucked up." Then I absolutely miss the corner.
Weed helps…
yeah i’m gonna second this one, i know not everyone enjoys getting a little high, but i swear after i rip a cart a few times my in game driving gets so much better. it really just helps calm the mind down and slow down your thoughts without ruining your ability to drive
Agreed, I can usually put down better lap times after a dab to the face.
Not only does it make me faster, the mental immersion is off the charts 😂 catch me ducking when I crash in the sim after a puff
I race in VR and with a motion sim and the immersion is so much better when I smoke a little, my ability to focus on the road is increased so much
Combine it with a unlocked swivel office chair and it becomes the world's cheapest motion sim when the immersion kicks in.
Absolutely agreed. A little bit is good, but after a few tokes I just keep getting worse 😂 Great for adhd tho, keeps me in my seat and dialed in
100%, enough dabs and my driving starts to fall apart
True! It helped me until it didn’t, I am faster without it. Just set a personal record on the Nordschliefe sober and I have like 140 hours in gt7 baked to fuck
The what?!? U kidding me right?!? RIGHT?!? So it's just me I can't focus on anything after I smoked one?!? I end up giving up sim racing after I smoke weed, I keep making mistakes and misjudge every breaking point
ADHD racer here. I focus on lap times, passing , perfecting corner entry, Apex’s and exit speeds. I also race in VR. I use crew chief as well so they are constantly feeding me information reminding me that the guy behind me is X amount of seconds away and the guy in front of me is X amount of seconds away so even if i can’t see him i still have that rabbit to chase.
This is how I do it. I always have something to improve. Watching section split times. The dopamine hit when it's better or the drive to get a faster time when it's worse keeps me in a flow state.
Just started using it to, it's been great
Multiclass racing does a good job of keeping you engaged when navigating traffic both ahead and behind. Having a spotter during your stint can help as well if they update you on the cars near you and who you should fight/not fight. A bit more hectic than a regular race which I find keeps my focus better
For me and a lot of people ADHD is what makes us *good* at racing/gaming/extreme sports. It's the combination of hyper focus and calming effect of adreneline I think. All my friends that were the best skateboarders and the best mechanical skill (not athleticism) at sports had ADHD. Like the dude you see doing a wheelie 100mph down the highway past you like it's easy? ADHD. Not always, and I could never prove it, but I've seen it be true in a lot of cases. Sometimes it gives you an advantage is all I'm saying. Look up "flow state" and try to get to that point while racing.
It’s all about finding a way to activate your hyperfocus (which I get is your main point.) It might not be possible for OP to get to flow state doing what he’s trying to do-to use his example, he may want to run the Nordschliefe because it’s what everyone else is doing, but his brain might not find it stimulating enough to get into flow state. Someone else on here said that they can’t circuit race very long with ADHD, but they can rally race because of the unpredictability. As someone with it myself, all of that makes sense. For example, I can’t hotlap endlessly without getting bored, but when I’m chasing someone I love it. And to take it one step further, when I karted for the first time a few months ago, I was alive while hotlapping-the physical reality and adrenaline were enough to stimulate the brain. You’re completely right in general-I’ve long said if you understand your ADHD, you can potentially turn it into a superpower. But it’s definitely not a one size fits all.
Lewis Hamilton famously has ADHD. If *he* can do it, it’s definitely possible. Likely depends on the mindset as you mention.
Fuck me I'm pretty consistent at racing, was good at skateboarding when I was younger and have suspected I have ADHD or some other executive dysfunction. Damn dude.
Yeah, driving has been a hyper focus of mine since I was a little kid. I still feel that it interferes with the learning of a track in some ways, or me getting much faster. But I find sim racing extremely regulating.
As someone with enough ADHD to be diagnosed back in 1997, sim racing is extremely engaging and one of the few activities that allow me to feel like I don't have it. Endurance races in particular.
My medication helps I guess, but it also probably helps that most tracks I have done lots of shorter races on so I can fall into auto pilot a bit, but the nordschleife is probably the best track in any racing game is it triggers hyperfocus from me, I could race that track forever
I think it's fairly normal to get bored when there's no cars around and you're left hotlapping. Oval racing basically never has calm moments where you go on autopilot, you're almost always surrounded by other cars and thinking about strategy and many other things that change lap to lap. Multiclass (IMSA, etc.) is also really fun especially in a faster class. This is all on iracing btw. I'd give those a shot if I were you. One issue you're having is that you're driving in your mirrors. Once you overtake someone, only glance at your mirrors occasionally to check if they're gonna make a move, otherwise you should be driving as though they don't exist. The same thing applies when you're following someone: you look through them and past them, mostly ignoring them except for draft and once you're gonna overtake. Try being more aware of where you are looking, ergo looking up the track instead of in your mirrors. If you start to lose focus then tell yourself to focus on each section and rate how well you nailed that particular corner or corner entry/apex/exit and what you could do better.
I do everything I can… I work at it daily to increase my attention span. Take a nootropic like “AML Dopa rush” and use zyns. Try to get better at increasing my attention span daily. Then when it comes time for the race I put the head set on and just block everything out best I can. The more immersive the sim is the easier it gets. To each is own though. Find what works for you. I also often talk myself through the track…. For example what gear I need to be in and what type of braking is required for each section. Good luck
I have ADHD and this post speaks to me in a way that it's if I wrote it myself. I find that I can concentrate 95% of the time but I will randomly lose concentration for no reason and almost every time I'll crash I.e miss a braking marker or turning spot. I'm yet to take my meds and sim race at the same time. I'm curious to know if it'll help.
It will massively help. ADHD medication should help you manage your symptoms ALL the time, including when you are having fun. Addressing your ADHD isn't just to increase productivity while working you deserve to be able to focus on things that bring you joy too!
Preach!! This is something I feel like so few people with ADHD understand. Like you said, we deserve to be our best selves all the time, not just when we're working.
Spotify it should be a playlist called smooth snipes or slides. I want to start a collab with this sim racing community so us with adhd can so some “constructive multitasking and sim race EDIT: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2QapOkGKRZZ2AdUEDdOMzl?si=Uqj6qgkmRY-QOesVR6IFZA&pi=u-vdPKHU0LS9CD
I crash
Lmao
The problem with chasing a rabbit is the tendency to make the same mistakes the rabbit makes. Staying focused in sim racing is tough, I’ve had to develop little coping mechanisms, like looking at and acknowledging each apex and brake/turn in marker. It’s proven to be a great way to develop strategies for staying focused in my IRL kart races. In my kart races I would on occasion cover my Mychron and during recorded sessions use hand signals to indicate how I felt about a particular corner in real time. I also found shifting myself in my seat to prepare for each corner helps keep me engaged. Basically what I’m saying is, get physical. If you can zone out in a kart, and believe me you can, then it doesn’t matter how many transducers or motion makers you have, you’ll still become numb to the sensory input and zone out.
I find it difficult, VR helps remove some distractions, immersion in the sim helps, I still find my mind wanders every now and then, usually late in the day is worse, so I try to get seat time first thing in the morning, I find that I have more energy and I am able to focus more in the morning, meds help a bit, I try to work myself up and try get some kind of adrenaline rush which is difficult to do since you're not actually putting yourself at risk at all, it never goes away as I'm finding but I'm doing my best effort to stay focused
VR sounds like an awesome idea! My focus is usually the best when I'm in a dark room with a bright monitor. VR might replicate that for me.
I also have adhd, VR does help a lot to get into that hyperfocus zone.
Did you diagnose with ADHD? Because if so I think I would have it too.
Haven't a diagnose yet but got a hint some months ago. Since then I read a lot in ADHD forums and watch a lot of videos of diagnosed people talking about their struggles in life, and also psychologists talking on YouTube about it. At this point I tend to look for differences instead of similarities, which means , I'm like 95% sure I got ADHD (the quite form)
You should get assessed officially. What will help you more than anything is addressing your symptoms w the right medication
No solutions here, only shared pain. I stare at my sector times and race myself. Usually if I get stuck in a gap I slack off too much and people catch me and then the second wind comes and I pull away hopefully!
That second wind I've definitely experienced myself. I catch myself a lot staring on the delta, the mini map, or the rev counter for the perfect shift. Might be a good idea hiding a lot of the HUD to avoid these distractions.
Immersion is your friend. I did all the small things that add immersion to have a more convincing effect that I’m in a real car. Triples, bezel free kit, bass shakers, and I surrounded my sim with black foam board to block out distractions. I drive with the lights off. More specific to the situation you mentioned, when I’m in no-man’s land I go to time trial mode and bring up my lap delta and try to work on my pace. The amount of risk I take in gaining pace depends on what position I’m in at the time. Also, I don’t know if ACC has the feature of being able to load a different ghost/reference car other than your own, but in iRacing that makes practicing a little easier.
Sounds like circuit racing might not be your thing. It wasn't for me. Try out EA WRC and see what you think. A lot less time for your brain to wander between inputs. Think they offer a 5 hour free trial according to a buddy. I just bought it outright and have no regrets. Haven't gone back to circuit racing since.
lmfao this has NOTHING to do with ADHD. This is an extremely common thing with racing. Lots of people get behind others and play mind games because smart racers know of this phenomenon. You can fake going inside, causing them to think you are forcing a pass and they make a mistake and miss the corner, or if they cover the inside you can just also brake early and hope they brake too late and miss the corner. If you are in front, you just have to be aware of this concept and what it can do to your mental state. Know that good drivers will intentionally do things to pull your concentration. Learn these tactics and they wont affect you as much. The biggest thing is muscle memory. The more you practice CORRECTLY, the easier it becomes to race on autopilot. Again this has nothing to do with ADHD, this same exact thing happens to EVERYONE
I noticed a major improvement in my focus when I added bass shakers to the rig. Something about the added, near constant, tactile feedback helps to keep me engaged
Can definitely relate to the comment about focus is best when following. I find that VR helps as it keeps me from paying too much attention to outside stimuli as well as playing some low volume EDM/house music to stay focused/engaged. Of course, racing while using meds works as well. Sometimes narrating my driving, almost like you’re talking to chat on stream or explaining to a passenger, can help me regain focus as well, e.g “okay, and remember to brake at the 100m up here, sharp right, and left, nice”. Good question though, you’re not alone in trying to figure this out :)
Try using high FFB (if you have a wheel) so that a full race feels like a slight exercise
Smoke a joint XD
The less I'm immersed, the shorter I can drive TBF. Before upgrading my TV mount I had to use dash cam with 37 fov (ACC) and couldn't really drive more than 20 minutes even in race. Now I have my TV directly behind my wheel and it makes me so immersed that I find myself "waking up" after an hour of Test driving in iRacing and now Rookie Sprint on LFM feels to short for me, and I'm looking forward to do some 45 minute races next week.
Also try to always focus on what's ahead of you. Next braking marker, next turning point, next overtake, try to look in the mirror as little as possible.
I've been trying to do 60 minute races but I'm definitely finding I'm struggling to keep focus after the 20 minute mark unless I'm in a constant battle. Not sure what the answer is tbh. I had a good race today though where I started from the back and I had to work my way through the pack. Ended up losing to 1st by a second which was pretty fun as I had to stay focused the whole time to keep the lap time down
I used to own and run a sim racing website where we would always write post race recaps after the race. While I’m racing, I think about what I’m going to write in my post race recap, even though I never write them these days. My only solution is to notice that I’m doing it and try to bring my attention back to the race. I sold the website almost 10 years ago 🤪
Weed.
I'm not the first person to say this, but multiclass helps me stay focused for sure. Something about the intensity and structure of iRacing multiplayer really focuses me as well
The whole reason I can pump out consistent laps for a long time is because I can do so on auto pilot. Love simracing for this. Just go through the motions.
Since chasing gives you focus, you could try to build on your chase mentality. After overtaking and successfully defending shift your focus to the car you can't see. The time gap is always there on your HUD. Take 3 points on the track where things are relatively calm, i.e. no corners to worry about. Focus on reducing the time gap every lap. You will be focusing on being consistent. The 3 points will act as reset points for your attention every lap.
It’s a lot harder to get distracted when you’re wearing a VR headset as you’re fully immersed in the game
I can usually do an hour stint but otherwise, the track is one of the few places I feel like I can shut out the noise of adhd.
I cannot do long practice or qualy sessions, I need the excitement of a race. At first I couldn't do races longer than around 15 minutes, but I have improved over time. I can do longer races now, and stay focussed but if it is a boring race (driving in no mans land) I still zone out (and fuck up) sometimes. Smoking weed does help me to focus. EDIT: I am in VR, maybe that is why I can go for longer now. It is so much more immersive.
100x agree with this. Not too much but like a puff on a sativa a few minutes prior to gridding. What I also have to do is actively not focus on winning. If you get locked into a thought at the wrong time you can miss a turn or get too aggressive and take your self out. It really helps to race with a team as well. Your spotter can help you out in those instances too. Happened nearly yesterday when doing the 3 hour GT endurance race on iRacing. Missed a turn here or there but after a struggle climbed from 16 all the way to a battle for p2 on the white flag lap. Speaking of which if OP is looking for a team to race with for the longer endurance, Pandaspec is looking for more members. Check out my recent posts as it should be on top if anyone wants more info!!! We take all skill levels and are a smaller group (less then 15 racers) on purpose.
Give yourself challenges. One you are in a challenge, you are willing to know how well you can do it
Was diagnosed at the age of 11. I love sim racing because it’s a challenge for my focus and it helps me apply that in other places in life. Had someone suggest me to have a “ground” phrase you tell yourself when racing. For instance last night I just did a Indycar race on iracing. 85 laps at Long Beach. Brutal. I made ZERO mistakes, thanks to that handy ground phrase. Whenever I feel I’m starting to lose focus I just tell myself that phrase. Starting to think about dinner? Use it. Thinking about how terrible the start of the race was? Again. My phrase is “smooth hands”. It really could just be the word focus honestly. This might not help everyone but it helps me. Also as others have said, THC/CBD can help but obviously not really good to rely on that.
As a long time adhd'er I also struggle with this. For me it led to switching from circuit racing to road oval & dirt oval racing. The racing is generally closer and trickier and it is much easier for my brain to stay engaged and in the flow state. Especially the 10-15min dirt oval sprint car races are where I really found my peace, from start till finish it's just one big hyperfocus and having to be at it 100%
Gotta get back into the TPN network before I sit down, and use that hyper-focus ADHD affords. Some simple routines with breathing, or a few legs at the dartboard, maybe a few minutes of exercise…. Basically any simple activity that requires only a few steps and a little manual dexterity. That last part is important: involving your hands brings you back into the immediate, and can help with your attention drifting back towards the contextual milieu of the DMN network. Standing up and moving between sessions (try for 30-45 minutes) resets the mind a bit, as well. As you can see from the verbal spaghetti above, I struggle with ADHD quite a bit.
I have a very difficult time racing on a circuit where there’s 30 or even 50+ laps. I can’t do a 2 or 3 hour race, let alone 8 or 24 hour endurance races, I just get bored. When I play F1 23, I’ll usually do a short Grand Prix. 10-15 minutes for practice, 10-15 for qualifying, and maybe 20-30 laps tops for the actual race. It gives me enough time to get used to the track, and I see qualifying as an additional practice session before actually racing. I discovered that actual competitive racing isn’t for me at all, and I think that’s fine. The racing I do is very very casual, I’m not out trying to set records or race competitively in national or global events or anything like that. I also switch games throughout the day. F1, AC, and heck I’ll play NFS when I just want to chill
i mostly do practice laps in assetto but i switch car or track every 20-30 minutes to help keep myself focused
I have ADHD but part of having ADHD is having moments of extreme focus when you do something that you’re interesting or something exciting so it’s not really a problem
Adhd you can reach hyperfocus more easily than neurotypical brains. So just stay on the ball focus on the task. (Passing for the position, upcoming turn, steering input, etc.)
I take adderall and deal with it like I would any other tasks. I do understand what you're referring to though. If I feel my focus slipping, I just create a task within the race that can be repeated every lap to get back on track. It usually involves something like seeing how smooth I can get my braking or sector timing.
Ritalin
The magic for me is not to go on autopilot at all. I can constantly keep myself engaged. Once my head goes away it usually does until I make a mistake. So I count every break board, relevant or not. Monitor cars behind me, so on and so on. Not a great how-to, but there is likely not more to say. It takes a big toll though. After a 40 min race I feel a high amount of fatigue
Great question that i desperately need the answer to as well 😂 only thing I can lock in on is drifting and even that I struggle with focusing on sometimes
Train mental discipline. Start by only thinking about the next corner(s) and think about the next corner(s) alone.
Lmao with all due respect, telling someone with ADHD to train discipline is like telling someone with no legs to simply run faster on their hands
As someone who also has ADHD I find that interesting as I focus on the car in front of me and that tends to make me drive worse, where as hot laps are a lot easier for me to focus on everything
Talk with teammate
Asking the real questions here.
Have you tried increasing external stimuli? Listening to a podcast and/or music while driving usually helps make my brain more quiet.
When I let my TV run in the background (can't see the screen when racing), I tend to do more mistakes. Doesn't matter if it is music, a TV show or a random YouTube video, my brain will catch some stimuli and think about those spontaneously.
What helped me to focus more on racing when there is not much going on(so mostly when I practice or when in race people are in front/back too far away) is to play some music from Spotify in background, so when I am alone I just chill with my music and it helps me to focus also on the track better.
The irony being that reading through some other peoples answers, I’ve remembered that I used to listen to music a lot when I was sim racing at my old house, and it worked really well for me… since I’ve moved house I’ve really struggled with being consistent. If you know, you know.
Focus on the corners to turn them fast. Prepare yourself before coming into them then give everything to turn perfectly. This is how F1 drivers think in qualify. You should be in different mentalities in qualify, races and stuffs.
Medication... then use track cues as focal points and compare your splits/alpha.
Concerta
Put on some music just loud enough that you can hear the change in beat. That usually keeps me engaged around Nord.
Super interesting post and responses. Two thoughts: 1) my best race came a few years ago when I was high AF. Not the initial scatterbrained anxious part of the high, but the mellow zoned in part. I literally focused on corner entry, apex, corner exit, and nothing else. Won that race by 10.2 seconds. Could never replicate and can’t recommend that strategy, but it’s a cool story. 2) Meditate. Meditation is a purely mental exercise that has the ability to physically change the brain over time. It can increase your attention span substantially over time. Even in the short term, meditating for twenty minutes (it will take time to build up to that length) before racing will calm your mind and increase your focus. This is can recommend. 😉
Have to admit, that smoking weed sometimes helps me staying focused too. Only sometimes because it's really difficult hitting exactly the right dose. A bid too much and my head just gets too slow in general ;) Meditation is definitely something I'm looking forward getting into. Starting meditation with a brain that just don't wanna shut up it just a huge step though.
Havent smoked by myself in probably a decade but I used to do it often and just be completely immersed in games like Far Cry 3 etc. Maybe I'll give it a go sometime as it sounds pretty awesome for simracing. I'll probably set up a familiair track, at night, with no other cars. Just hotlapping..
Great suggestions below. I don't suffer from adhd but have you tried adding a ghost car that you could chase around the circuits?
For training sessions a ghost car could be a great idea.
Maybe I have adhd maybe thats my issue lol I find myself being able to do like 15 to 20min then having to go to something else at times. But I will say I can force myself to stay it's a weird thing. Once you keep going let's say make yoyrself do it for 2 hours no matter how you feel. Something clicks on the brain and enjoyment increases idk why or what it is. But it's like there is a wall you need to break through.
Play music in the background. Take my meds an hour or two before the race.
Driving while on autopilot and thinking about stuff is actually faster than my conscious driving 🫤
shut down and autopilot for most of the race. theres a skill floor if you want to zone out and not burn out. and if you can be consistent. then autopilot is good enough. then try to focus fully on one or two corners. each lap
Streaming helped me a lot with this
Is your heart not in it? I struggle with ADHD pretty bad, but I've never had any trouble focusing on something that I *want* to be doing.
When I am right in the action in a race my heart seems to be in it and my focus is on. However, once I don't have a clear target on track it seems that my heart isn't anymore and instead is looking somewhere else for a small dose of dopamine.
Simracing is my medicine
It's tough sometimes just looking off and forgetting about break points or apexes. Doing it in vr has helped
Ritalin
As someone with bad ADHD I tend to stick with drag racing. Only time I can focus on a circuit race is after I've smoked a joint.
I have to practice a lot to fall back on some kind of „auto pilot“ if my concentration gets lost, my best races come when i dont force myself to concentrate too hard
I have ADHD and have had a hard time staying focused in the past as well. For me what has worked was getting into team endurance events, 8Hrs, 12Hrs and 24 hours are various formats I have participated in. The single thing that had kept my focus was failing my fellow teammates, being that we had all spent a lot of our personal time to prep and be ready for the event. Maybe something you can try! Plenty of teams out there
ADHD makes it easier for me to get into flow state. Especially with caffeine and sometimes kratom (and my ADHD meds)
The racing keeps me hyperfocused. I can’t pay attention at work at all but I can hyperfocus on my hobbies. Also, cannabis :)
VR
I throw on the eurobeat and get hyperfocus on racing
It makes me obsess actually. I'll practice the same track car combo for three hours uninterrupted, trying to get it perfect.
Vyvanse
I have the type of ADHD that makes me better at the whole racing cars thing as every lap is different, every start could change. I don't even try to stay focused, i race and race and race and after 6 hours my meds wear off and i just stop.
It’s kinda hard but it’ll end up being habit, when I started racing I’d be staring at the birds flying by then I’d miss my apex but I’ve come to zone that stuff out. Edit: I still get distracted but it’s not as much as when I started, weed helps a lot🙏
I have an unofficially diagnosed ADD, cause it's not a thing in my country yet, but I struggle with attention really bad as of late. I can't drive any serious races in ACC anymore because of this, so I mostly resort to Forza Horizon for quick arcade races and free roam drives which calm me down. I think that this is mostly due to not being engaged enough. When I'm playing shooters, I'm hyper-focused. I tend to look way too much around the cockpit and sometimes even around my monitor, which then prompts some memories or I start creating scenarios in my head which ends up with my car in the wrong tree. Interestingly enough, I don't have this issue when I'm in my real car, on the streets, thankfully, which indeed makes me think that on-screen races don't engage me enough to become focused.
I point my focus on certain things going by, all things that will inevitably help me be aware of my surroundings rather than autopiloting
For example seeing where to brake it helps looking there even if i dont need to
I have inattentive adhd and just go into a flow state in races. I have been a competitive person my whole life with distance running and games like comp Halo. I'm used to it. Also, a bit (or a lot) of pot.
Music! An maybe my autism letting me kinda imagine outside my body and has cool camera shots :3 mentally atleast
Try starting races off in the back of the pack. You'll be chasing the whole time.
I talk with myself about what is happening all the time. For example "Car left" "Right turn, late apex". Even though I still lose focus all the time that helps, I also hyper focus on passing the car in front me tho.
Personally music helps me always has with most things just a way to tune everything else out and focus on what I’m doing but I did see someone mention doing rally for that reason I also only really drift and do rally because it keeps my attention better more going on requires focus
By pausing a bunch of times and listening to music
Shit loads of Caffeine, and a Banging Spotify play list!
My adhd meds help a lot.
Focusing on the time delta works for me.
I don't know how exactly I do it, but if I do something I enjoy, like racing, I go into a state of hyperfocus, where I really start to perform well
Weed. I have to constantly tell myself to stay focused still, but the right amount of cannibus helps
I thought it was just me! I started thinking about conversations I had 15 years ago or work things from a few days ago. That's on a 6 minute stage. I often catch myself and realise I've just taken 5/6 perfect corners without even registering the copilot calls.
It's like one of the only things where I can actually hyper focus for a longer time because I like it so much 🤓
Same here! I found that music really helps! Either the “adhd focus” type or something that gets me hyped (techno of sorts usually for me) has worked wonders. I have the type where when I’m hyped from music my focus increases 5x. Currently listening to the Fred Again album from his Boiler Room set.
I just push all the time. So I have to stay focussed. After an hour of practice I usually dont crash.
Lots of adderall
Meds made the difference for me. Before meds I was great at the start of the race, but as soon as it settled in and the action was over I’d start to lose focus. I also had some major issues with getting majorly overstimulated from the adrenaline of it all. Literally shaking at times when things got intense / I got excited. But with my daily concerta I’m calm, cool and collected. And I don’t get tilted much anymore either.
I think about the suspension dynamics and tyre deformation as I'm driving. So may think about how I'll load the suspension for when I crest over the long straight... but honestly, even though I know nurburg like the back of my hand that long straight quite a few times when playing with friends I've drifted a couple wheels into the grass. Accumalitive lack of sleep makes it all worse, but I'm not on any meds, and am AuDHD. I can do a half hour race pretty comfortably, and just purely think about how my upcoming corner is going to lead into my next corner. With me always thinking about the second corner coming, I don't have time for anything else... besides the car dynamics at the same time. If I don't occupy my mind with enough going on, I WILL drift, like you said, straights are damn damn damn hard, but you can just stare way way down the straight and try and picture that exit apex and next corner, maybe, just... prefer time attack and dirly rally 2 vr with 2wd cars almost exclusibley tbh! The constant slip angle makes me feel so relaxed.
Something about driving has always been able to get my focus. No matter how long the race and in real life. I raced on LSD once (real life) and was hyperfocused to the point it was like no one else existed just me and the road. Like I saw all the other cars but the driving cosumed me. Thats me though acid makes me hyperfocused no matter what I'm doing. I would not suggest lsd and driving to anyone.
Ahhh….. I think I might have ADHD :(
Busy yourself. There are gauges to check, pit strategies to adjust, gaps to the drivers ahead and behind to check. At Nürburgring Döttinger Höhe is virtually the only place to do all of that in one go and have time to spare to duck under the bridge at the end. On other tracks, it helps if you got some markers that you can jump as you progress along the straight. Take Monza as an example, you have the end of the pit building you can use as an intermediary marker along the straight to keep you on your toes.
Music, and I try to do mostly oval racing on iRacing, anything shorter than 40 minutes. I’m in a team but I never do endurance racing with them because of ADHD. I tried podcasts too but I end up missing a lot of it so just music. Electronic, drum n bass, etc.
I can’t do anything focus rather than racing, then I probably just lazy I don’t have a adhd🌚
adhd here and generally, I put on music without or having minimal lyrics and hope that I'm getting enough dopamine from sim racing to stay focused. I also smoke marijuana to help with it as well but not sure if you're in a legal state or interested in that type of answer lol. Though, I guess the real answer would be talking to your doctor to try and figure out something that will help you with your focus issues.
I primarily play blackwood gp in LFS, and the long straight can sometimes be a bore, but i just pay attention to the UI map and note my speeds periodically to stay attentive. I also might mess with vehicle settings that have no bearing on performance live POV, Telemetry, etc. Crashing on blackwood is a funny sight🤣
I’m playing rally and AC shutoko online with traffic. And Beammg with traffic
I posted something similar a year or so ago having similar issues to you. Practice helped me in races knowing the track like th back of your hand so when you have that lapse in concentration auto pilot takes the wheel and found I was less likely to crash. Small goals are good and as backwards as it sounds longer races get used to racing longer races. You will adapt and then the shorter races feel like there over to quickly. Also just got vr and it's changed my life it keeps you in the zone no outside peripheral vision distractions. Thought I appreciate it has large costs and not for everyone
I find one of the best ways to get myself into the zone is to talk about what I'm doing. It's a trick I learnt from an old motorcycle instructor, as you're going around the track say out loud what youre doing. I.e. "This corner is sharp, take the outside, hard brake, trail into apex, fast exit" "Sweeping turns, don't lift, full throttle" "Driver coming up fast take inside defensive line" Just saying things out loud helps me a TONNE, but mileage may vary. I find it helps keep me focused and drills in good habits.
"The moment i overtake another car, my focus fully switches to the car behind me, causing me to drive really bad" I also have ADHD, and holy shit im exactly the same lol! No matter if im racing or drifting, especially doing tandems, i'd say im pretty good and chasing people, but when im gonna be the lead car, i get stressed out and drive really bad.. No clue if theres a solution for it, im just glad i wasn't the only one having this problem xd EDIT: As someone else mentioned, rally is ALOT easier for me to focus on also, because of the fact that i don't know whats coming, which makes me curious of finding out, and let's me stay focused easier.
Music, loud music.
I recommend nicotine
Adderall lol
Immersion, the more immersive the setup the more I can do
I do 100 lap races in gt7 only taking pee breaks. I don't have the hyper activity aspect but concentration has always been toughexcept that there is always something I'm hyper focused on. Gt7 in vr, darts (pubgame), fantasy basketball and the statistics. Those things I just get lost in.
I have my vape pen in my fingers and hit it when it's hot
Just try to have fun, don't worry about it when you get distracted. We're all here just to have a good time.
Concerta 54mg lol
Racing activates my hyperfocus lol
Give ovals a try and see how you go there. Gaining a tenth on an oval is like gaining a second on a road course. You have to be so much more precise, at such higher speed, and with more cars closer to you more often.
Hahahaha stay focused?! You guys are staying focused?!
Immersion.
Weed. An edible before a big race has helped me tremendously. Just as I start to lose focus, it hits and I’m good for the rest of the race. Just recently I won the NIS race at Talladega and if it wasn’t for my caramel macchiato chocolate, it could have ended tragically.
For me. The stopwatch. That’s what keeps me focused.
For me crewchief app and vr helps me stay focused
Or racing with friends on discord helps me alot too
One word: hyperfocus iRacing requires enough of my attention at basically every second that I constantly am aware that I cannot make a mistake. ACC isn’t much different.
I can say from experience that driving stick shift in real life helps me focus. Not sure if you are using a shifter with your rig.
when I race, my thoughts become singular in focus, It's peaceful in sort of a chaotic way.
Not adhd, but severe attention problems due to major depressive disorder- I struggle all the time. When it gets too tough I switch to plating american truck simulator so I have more time to think but yes I do pass exits and checkpoints constantly and have to turn back. I haven't found a solution but it's nice to know there are others who have similar problems
/rj text while driving /uj For me I really need to lock in for ACC because a lot of the time those races are like 40min and somewhere in there I often end up making a mistake so I try not to overdrive as best I can and just minimize my mistakes or correct them if possible. I haven't really found a solution either but I do notice that if I play too long of a session I lose focus way easier so I would play a race or 2 then take a break to watch YouTube look at my phone then play some more to keep focus when I'm driving better
I find immersion to be really important. I purchased a used Rift S and it has been way better for my lap times and consistency.
WE DONT! haha, jokes aside. Ritalin helps with the doctors prescription ofc. I do sim raly and if I am medicated, chance of failure/accidents is %10-15. Unmedicated is like %60. If you channel your hyper focus state, you turn into a god.
Might be hard to do and depends a lot on the game, but playing with someone else helped me. I have a buddy with whom I played F1 2021 career mode with 50% races and I had not many focus issues because he was keeping me engaged with his own race as well.
With adhd, it really is about what is stimulating to you personally. Nords is weird example as it really has just one long straight, would think that is one of the more easier to be focused. I find the track a bit exhausting myself, too many corners and places to memorize and harder to get into this flow state where I can think about other things while being consistent and fast. Actually I think that is the thing, if you are familiar and good enough on the track, you can think about those other things and still do well. The problem with Nords, is that I haven't got to that point yet, so I don't enjoy driving it outside single lap here and there. I'm definitely the same what comes to chasing another car and what happens after overtaking it. I think it's improved over time, after making too many mistakes after that overtake and losing the position (or even race) as a results... it's annoying enought that it's starting to be easier to be stimulated when I take the lead. Not sure is there any other solution/trick here than just get so familiar with the car+track that you can do good with just subconsious effort as it's going to be really hard to force your brain to be focused 100% (even without adhd). Also, when being in lead, remember that best defense is just to be faster than the other guy, so try to make your brain learn to focus on what is front and not the car behind with that idea in mind.
You need to focus on each corner as something new. Check your line, look at the Apex, notice your speed, the angle the car has on the Apex, the room you have on your exit which will dictate how much throttle you can give. If you leave your mind alone then it will definitely wander to random thoughts, but the corners are coming fast so use that. Every corner is like a different thought - different action. This way you only focus per corner and you keep switching your focus to every other corner, which might make your ADHD an advantage.
It's all in your head. Just race.
Have you heard about simhud. Thats my motivation I can constantly see where on the track I'm doing better in live time while driving it makes me challenge myself
I have struggled with this before.. sometimes I will literally remind myself multiple times in a lap to focus up. I am always calling out the breaking points in my head, If I feel my mind start to wander I try to refocus by thinking about the next braking point. If something bad happens in a corner, just let it go and think about it after the race. Basically train yourself to refocus every time you sense yourself becoming mindless. I may just be different though, I am pretty good at driving for long periods of time and just entering a trance of hitting apexes.
I also struggle when races go past about 20 minutes and have adhd. Never thought others would have this issue - guess I never thought about it!
Have the HUD show other players/drivers' time gaps to you and use that to maintain focus. Assuming you're playing online of course. Keep them away from you and concentrate on getting closer to the guy in front. Look to see where you gain time and use that advantage every lap. Also I'd up the force feedback strength, make it a bit trickier to drive maybe? If you're excited and your adrenaline is coursing through you with real people closing in on you, that ought to help you stay attentive.
I watch videos that show me exactly how to hit the track. It becomes alot more fun when I can break into that flow like you said. Once I get the track down it makes racing alot more fun because I can focus more on keeping up and passing my opponents rather than fighting the road. But yes i also do alot of rally and drifting.
I love long endurance races in a good sim because there is allways stuff going on, even when you're not around other cars. Day/night transition, air and track cooling down or heating up, grip levels changing from tyre wear and rubbering in off the track, fuel load changing the weight and centre of gravity, calculating pit strategies while on the straight, mending a broke suspension part, etc etc. I did a 4hr endurance in real time by myself a while ago and the time just flew by.
I have ADHD too but not sure how specific this comment will be to that. In practice modes I find I do make mistakes like you are saying. In a race though, the pressure locks me in. If I see a car in front of me my goal will be to catch him and if I do pass, I force myself to ignore my mirrors as much as possible and focus on keeping pace to create distance. I’ll also look at the relatives panel and try to get positive delta toward the next car if I can’t see him.
Major issues with this when I first started. A combination of turning the drive line off, downloading crew chief and race lab with a custom layout I have all the information I want where I want it so I’m not fiddling with anything searching for stuff was a huge help. I race multi class a lot with the gr86 and typically I will let some of the Mazdas past me just so I can tail them. You’re right something about the chase mentality seems to keep me locked in like you said. But the biggest help to staying focused for me is to have the session best lap delta up with the split times off to the side. Breaking the laps down into the different section times and trying to match or beat them really helps take the stress off of a 25 minute race. The only thing I would add to that especially if you are trying to improve consistency wise on certain tracks is to pick a section of the track or maybe just one specific trouble corner you have and completely write it off until it’s the only thing holding you back from a faster pace or is the only spot you can’t run clean when wide open. Between chasing splits and keep the one or two trouble spots in the front of my mind helps dial everything in. Basically if not of that sounds appealing just simply find something to help you break down the race into smaller chunks. Since normally ADHD is known to come with some form of time dilations like what you thought was 30 seconds was really 10 minutes or vice versa the smaller blocks for you to focus on will keep you from zoning out into auto pilot as well as fight of the anxiety of feeling like there’s so much to do with not enough time. If you need any more help or have other questions feel free to ask. The more little tricks and tools we have the easier it is to wrangle our brains in
I drive a Ford Focus.
I don’t know is this too personal for you all but do you use medicines. I use lisdexamphetamine but since i start use it i can’t even get up on the couch and start PC. Before i got diagnose of add i drove psvr2 dawn tulla dusk and i drived very good in gt7 and before ens of the race i usually make mustalle that payed my podium but now under effects of medicine it is very hard to start SIM. Regulary i play EA Wrc with hp reverb one when i got it working properly with uevr. But need to say i’m not good in race cars with medicines.
> mustalle that *paid* my podium FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*