Gran Turismo has a pro gamer message.
Gran Turismo has a pro gamer message.
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Gran Turismo film delves into whether video game car racers are real racers | The DeanBeat

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 5 min

To some, the premise of the Gran Turismo film is either the dumbest or best idea ever. Can a racing gamer become a pro race car driver?

It’s an absurd notion for a lot of people and pro race car drivers laughed at the idea that someone who raced using a game controller could ever learn how to drive. For the father of a real-world race car driver, the notion was so absurd that he couldn’t bring himself to support his teen-age son’s dream to become a race car driver by being a gamer first. (Beware of spoilers in this story).

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.