Booting up the PlayStation to race my 12-year-old son in Gran Turismo 7 is a treat. Especially when I win, which is almost never. But really, the fact that he wants to play together, is what makes me happy. Plus, it’s quite the fun game. Even if I can only handle about 15 minutes before my vision blurs and I need a break.
Of course, the endless discussions around screen time are ever-present in our household — as they are in most families with kids — and Gran Turismo is no exception. Which got me thinking about how to translate this mutual love of racing video games into something that involves getting off the couch and seeing the world IRL, as the young fellow says.
Enter Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, a world-class 2.5-mile racecourse winding through the Georgia countryside about an hour north of Atlanta. As an automotive journalist, a setting like this falls into my “Happy Places” bucket. So, I was excited to spend a recent weekend there taking in a 10-hour endurance race and learning about Michelin’s sustainability efforts.
Quick sidebar: The work Michelin is doing on this front should make any parent with concerns about environmental stewardship happy. Not only is the French tire company dramatically reducing the volume of tires it creates for motorsports, but the tires are also being made with more than 30% renewable and recycled content, as in discarded rice husks and repurposed steel.
It’s impressive science and engineering that any STEM-friendly families would likely find interesting.
Which got me thinking, visiting Road Atlanta with your kids to watch a race would be an ideal weekend outing, especially for those who get a kick out of car racing video games. Admission is free for kids 12 and under, and the scene is likely to leave any Gran Turismo fans, like my son and I, amazed. Mainly because the cars they get to drive on PlayStation may well be sitting in a paddock at Road Atlanta.
Like the Aston Martin Valkyrie, an absolute automotive masterpiece. In Le Mans Prototype 2 spec, it looks the hypercar part, and the aural symphony of its 11,000-rpm naturally aspirated V12 was unlike anything else on the grid. It’s a radical car that my son and I have drooled over online, so to connect the dots in real life would be an incredible experience for him, and maybe give his brain a little break from the on-screen stimulation. Not only that, the chance to bond with my son – or my daughters – over something we both enjoy, is worth pursuing and this definitely checks those boxes.
On the science and engineering front, any kid who leans into the STEM world would have a blast during race weekend. Before the race starts, you can walk the grid — on the track — to get up close and personal with cutting-edge racecars, and the drivers. The paddocks are always open to onlookers who can watch as the engineers, drivers, and support crew work on the cars in full view.
As a car-obsessed adult, it was tough to maintain my “professional” demeanor in the face of so much automotive wonder. For the car-obsessed kiddo, it’s easy to imagine how thrilling an experience like this would be. A trip to Road Atlanta, with your videogame-loving kids, is an ideal way to not only get them off their screens, but in this case, learn how they might engage with the racing scene in real life.
For me, as a dad, it’s super-important that I pay attention to what my kids are up to, into, and just doing on a day-to-day basis.
I want to know what they’re into. And I’ll be honest, the K-Pop Demon Hunters soundtrack didn’t sound, um, great to me. At first. But the kids loved it, so I gave it a shot, and was soon singing (screaming?) along with them. So just being aware and willing ended up being pretty meaningful.
All 3 of my kiddos —14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old boy-girl twins — are involved in sports all year on top of the usual daily life craziness. So, finding time to engage with them on the things they like can be challenging, simply from a time perspective.
Of course, as a car guy, discovering my kids dig them the same way I do is as good as it gets.
Making a weekend excursion to Georgia for a race at Road Atlanta is not necessarily easy to pull off — financially and logistically – but in my mind, the opportunity to spend that kind of time with my son, disconnected from screens, nerding out on IRL experiences that we both love is absolutely worth the effort. And that can apply to so many family adventures.
And though I didn’t make it on this trip, Andretti Indoor Karting, which is right around the corner from the track, looks like an ideal way to maximize that effort. Between the two, you can grab some amateur seat time to go along with the excitement of professional racing. Who knows? Maybe your young Gran Turismo fanatic will be the next great racer.
It really got me curious about other ways to engage with my kids off-screen and expose them to all the interesting and IRL activities that connect to their interests — and our shared interests — without it feeling forced or like I’m making them do something they don’t really have any interest in. There are literally countless opportunities out in their in the world. It might take a little effort to connect the dots and find experiences suited to each kid, but it’s undoubtedly worth the effort.
