It works. And it's worked for many years.
About 15 years ago I got my license. I had never driven a car before in my life. Three days later I was out with my wife driving her car (we'd been to the mall and out to eat) and on the way home it was a bit foggy. Well, all of a sudden this large deer was just standing there. Somehow (I know how) I managed to react and not only missed the deer but missed any other cars on the road and managed to stop without hitting anything at all.
How did I manage that with only two days of driving experience? NFSU. I bought a steering wheel from 2004. Some Nascar thing. It also had a manual stick and I learned to play the game using it (which was really tough at first, especially with a full manual trans). Well, if you've played the game you'll know how much crap it throws at you when you are leading the race. That was where I honed my swerving/control skills.
I originally only bought the wheel for the shifter for drag races, given I got all "Fingers and thumbs" with the controls in a race. I was not experienced with shoulder buttons as I had not had a console for a while.
So yeah, I'm living (could easily have been dead) proof that you definitely pick up real world skills playing racing games. Even before I played NFSU I used to play Midtown Madness 2, get on the expressway and hammer along it dodging cars. I'm certain now that it definitely teaches you something.
They should make it mandatory to spend so many hours learning how to drive virtually before you even go for your test. I'm certain it would save a lot of accidents, and a lot of lives.
The world always wants to hate on video games though and demonise them, when in reality they could be used for something far more positive.
No but for real, virtual racing has helped me as well, though I did most of my racing in something as arcadey as trackmania.
