ABSTRACT
The worldwide Covid-19-induced shutdown of all motor racing events has driven many professional motor racing drivers to esports and online sim racing. Despite this surge in popularity, the illegitimacy of esports and online sim (simulation) racing as “more than a game” has long been facilitated via a range of negative media representations. This chapter applies a qualitative inductive framing analysis to study how, and to what extent, the recent rise in popularity of esports challenges existing representations in American and British newspapers. On the one hand, media frames suggest an increased validity of online sim racing through the influx of real-world professionalism and e-spectatorship. On the other hand, a lack of physicality and the presence of technological mastery suggest a continuation of existing stereotypes.
