PSVR2 + GT7: The Easiest Way Into VR Sim Racing

There's one thing that's a genuine ball ache in this hobby, and it's the frustration and complexity of trying to sim race in VR. The tuning, the settings, the OpenXR, and a graphics card that can sometimes cost more than the average family car — and they ain't getting any cheaper.

But there's one way to do it that's basically switch on and race, and the experience-to-cost ratio is borderline mind-blowing. I'm talking about the PSVR2, a PlayStation 5, and Gran Turismo 7.

In my last piece I made the case for high-end PC VR — the Pimax, the clarity, the whole GPU tax. This is the exact opposite. This is the other way. And the question I want to answer is simple: why does a four-year-old game and a budget headset still compete today, and why can I still not get enough of GT7 when there are so many other amazing sim racing titles around?

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The honest downsides of the PSVR2 for sim racing

Let me get the bad news out of the way first, because we can't pretend the PSVR2 isn't a bit dog crap in a few areas. The resolution is soft — in terms of PPD, the PSVR2 sits right at the bottom at around 18. Distant objects and braking boards can be harder to pick out. There are some reprojection issues that can make fast-moving stuff warp or smear a little. And the sweet spot on the lenses is very small (I'll share a cheap fix for that further down).

But two things combat all of that. One: you get used to it surprisingly fast — and I swap back and forth between the Pimax headsets, the Meta Quest and the PSVR2 regularly. Two: if this is your first VR headset, you won't even know what you're missing, because you've nothing to compare it to. I put my dad in the PSVR2 a few months ago and it blew his mind.

So yes — you're giving a few things up here, and they're big things.

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What the PSVR2's OLED screen gives you back

Now let me tell you what you actually get back, because it's not obvious, and some of it is certainly not on a spec sheet. The PSVR2 screen is OLED, and that one fact changes how the whole thing feels: deep, proper blacks and real HDR.

I get the sun coming up over the horizon and I swear I can feel it on my face. That should actually be a metric, because some headsets have it and some just don't — and the PSVR2 has it. Racing at night, racing into the low sun, this cheap headset genuinely out-punches my $900 Pimax on contrast and black levels. That's not something I expected to be saying, and it's the one area where the PSVR2 option actually wins on pure contrast and colour.

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Why simplicity is the real selling point

This is the whole point, and it's a big one: simplicity. I can be racing in GT7 in about two minutes. No drivers, no OpenXR, no config files, no tinkering. And when I'm done, I just take the headset off and I'm back on a monitor. It's absolutely seamless.

I've done the PC thing for years, and some days I just don't want to be my own IT department just to go for a drive. I want to sit down and race with no fuss — and PSVR2 in Gran Turismo 7 lets me do exactly that.

Even the wheel is plug and play. I'm running the Logitech RS50, a proper direct drive wheel. You plug it into the PS5 and it just works — no software to wrestle, and a genuinely great feel straight out of the box. That's the whole ecosystem in one example: everything just works together, because it's all one system.

The cockpit matters too, but only in the sense that any sturdy cockpit is enough. You just want all the feedback from your wheel reaching your hands, not getting lost in a wobbly frame. And because sound is a massive part of immersion, I plug my own headphones straight in — I'm using the PlayStation version of the Black Shark V2. Like everything on this setup, it's plug and play, and nothing on this rig ever misses a beat.

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The one upgrade to buy alongside a PSVR2

That tiny lens sweet spot I mentioned? About 50 bucks kind of fixes it. There's a comfort mod called Globular Cluster. It clips on with no tools, and the top strap locks the headset in place so you actually stay in the sweet spot of the lenses. It's the first thing I'd buy alongside the headset. To be clear, it doesn't make the sweet spot bigger — it just makes it easier to find and stay put.

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Is Gran Turismo 7 a "real" sim? Why it doesn't matter

People love to tell you GT7 isn't a real sim — that it's a "simcade" — and they like to look down on it. But that completely misses the point. What it gives up in hardcore realism, it hands straight back in fun and simplicity. It's friction removed at every level.

Take the daily races: you qualify once and you're set for the week. No warm-up laps, no lobby hunting — straight into racing. The simplified daily races also throw you into cars you'd never normally pick, which is actually pretty refreshing. And here's one nobody talks about: navigating menus inside VR with a controller. On PC that can be a real pain in the arse; on PS5 you just pick up the control pad and navigate that way. Much easier, and way less frustrating.

It's also gorgeous. Polyphony do world scale better than anyone, and some of these tracks and environments are genuinely breathtaking in VR — there's a much better sense of scale and elevation in Gran Turismo with the PSVR2.

For the record, I run iRacing, Le Mans Ultimate, RaceRoom, AMS2 and Assetto Corsa — and I still come back to GT7. Why I can't leave it is a whole other story for another day.

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What a PSVR2 sim racing setup actually costs

Now let's talk money, because this is where it really lands. The PS5 Pro isn't cheap anymore — well, it never really was, but Sony pushed it up to around $900 this year, driven by the same silicon shortage that's making graphics cards a nightmare.

So this isn't dirt cheap, but let's add it up: a PS5 Pro, a PSVR2, the Logitech RS50 wheel and pedals, GT7, and let's throw in an extra $500 for a rig. You're roughly looking at $2,700 all in for a complete VR sim racing setup.

For the record, I only recommend the PS5 Pro for PSVR2, not the base PS5 — it makes a real difference to the VR experience in GT7.

There are two other things that tip it toward the console side. First, if you're already on a PS5 Pro — and a lot of you will be — your entire VR entry is basically just the headset, the wheel, the pedals and the rig. And even from scratch, it's a one-time cost: no upgrade treadmill, no chasing the next GPU every 18 months just to hold your frame rate. You buy it and that's it. Second, you don't even need a screen or a monitor — just the PSVR2 connected to your PS5, and that's it.

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So is the PSVR2 the best VR sim racing setup?

Was it the sharpest? No. But it is the easiest, fastest, most frictionless and most fun way into VR sim racing — for a fraction of the cost and none of the headache of full PC VR. On those terms, nothing comes close. You just sit down, switch it on, and race.