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The million-dollar experiment you probably missed

Formula E's Las Vegas eRace might not have caught your attention - despite the generous prize fund on offer - but how important a role did it play in bringing sim racing to a mass-motorsport audience?

This was an enormous middle finger to the traditionalists. A computer game being treated like real life, with a grand total of $1million up for grabs just for playing on what was little more than an Xbox on steroids. Twenty professional racing drivers and 10 wannabes all dressed up with nowhere to go except the bucket seat of a glorified toy.

Well, not exactly.

Formula E's Las Vegas eRace, embedded at the heart of the city's massive Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month, was a watershed moment for racing and eSports: a flat-out attempt to showcase what sim racing is about. It flew in the face of convention.

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