I liked Assetto Corsa, and think that the physics are pretty good for a few of the cars. It's VR support is awkward though, with no good in-game VR menus (at least last I checked), which is why I switched to Project Cars, where I can access everything with the controls on my wheel.
I want to make sure that we're talking about
Competizione, which is a sequel of sorts to the original Assetto Corsa although it focuses only on SRO GT3 series. The original Assetto Corsa is also pretty good, but ACC feels next level to me. That said, I use a triple-monitor setup and haven't tried VR. I've seen some complaints about VR in the ACC forums that make it seem that it works well for some folks and not others.
If you haven't tried it lately, I'd give it another shot. They put out a big update about a month ago that was supposed to improve the physics and force feedback quite a bit. I can't speak to the changes as I only tried the software starting a few weeks ago and was very impressed out of the box.
Depending on the car and track, I could argue AC or PC as better. A lot also depends on tweaking the setup, such as properly adjusting force feedback, which can be a nightmare to get right in either (especially PC).
It sounds like I'll need to try PC. I hadn't bothered yet because I wanted to focus more on the sim side and my understanding was that PC is a bit more toward the arcade end.
In terms of force feedback wheel setup in ACC, one slider that was a bit confusing to me is called "Dynamic Damping". Having a direct drive wheel, I had set that to zero initially but it turns out that it is poorly named and should be set mid-range (I use 50; they recommend 100). It represents an actual tire force. Road effects should be low (< 10% or so) and minimum force should be 0 for direct drive. I set the gain fairly high but low enough to easily avoid any FFB clipping.
I have been hesitant to try iRacing because it seems like you can't just monkey around and try out lots of cars on open tracks without first working your way up the ranks. It seems more focused on being competitive against other players and simulating a career, which I really don't care about. I'm also not a fan of subscription based anything, though I could change my mind if I knew the game would deliver to my needs.
With iRacing you are free to run a test session on whatever track you own with whatever car you own. In that sense you can monkey around, but you'll be by yourself and you can't even add AI opponents to at least provide some traffic. There isn't really a career mode as they have in some sims or games. Instead you find a race or league and try to join in as you wish. They do have a notion of safety rating and licenses, so unless you doing a private league you have to work your way up a bit.
I agree that the subscription part is annoying, and on top of that you have to purchase tracks and cars individually (aside from the initial set they give you). It does have a lot of tracks and variety.
I initially purchased my sim setup thinking that it would be mainly for iRacing, but after it was all set up I started to worry that it was all a waste because I didn't seem to enjoy iRacing all that much. I couldn't get in to the feel of the cars. It seemed useful for learning the tracks a bit, but I didn't feel that it was very good practice, which is what I was hoping for. That's probably why I'm ranting/enthusing about ACC since it made me knock the dust off my sim and really start getting into it. That lead me back to iRacing a bit since there is a league that I want to participate in, and as I set it up better I'm starting to appreciate it a bit more. I'm starting to think that it can help improve some of my skills and habits, but I still feel that it is inaccurate enough that it may regress others. I'd still prefer to be on ACC.
My perfect sim would be one where you drive mountain roads with super realistic supercars, and have to look out for the occasional other bit of traffic, deer, potholes, and the like, but where if you mess up, you don't pay much of a price. Something where I could use the game itself to confidently determine which car to buy in real life next.
I have yet to be on any simulator that really behaves like a real car, though. Fundamentally, without a full motion platform, I don't see that happening, and the full motion platforms I have tried all seemed wonky as well - arcade physics, though I continue to search...
My sim is a bit of a motion platform. It used D-Box actuators, and I'm happy to describe more if you are interested. My main takeaway is that motion (at home) won't ever really work. I can set it to focus on pitching and rolling the chassis, but it just doesn't really give a sensation of the forces since it is too far off what you'd feel in a car. Where it does work well is if you have it focus on the suspension and road feel aspects. It can really feel like you are going over a curb or cracks in the track surface. The motion works a bit when it is subtle, such as when you are on a banking and the rig tilts a bit or when it is not so subtle when you crash, but you'll never feel proper acceleration/deceleration from the mere tilt of the thing.
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