Want to be a race car driver? Start playing video games
The Nissan GT Academy is a racing competition that sees winning drivers transition from Gran Turismo's digital realm to an honest-to-goodness race car. Lucas Ordóñez was the very first GT Academy winner and he not only went on to race outside the virtual realm, but grabbed some podium finishes, too. Fast forward five competitions (and as many years) and Road & Track reports that four Academy grads will be racing at Le Mans for 2014, proving that this feeder route is the real deal. Nissan's own entry in the famous 24-hour event, the hybrid electric ZEOD RC, will be driven by Ordóñez and 2012 winner Wolfgang Riep with Satoshi Motoyama as the third in the team. The Lotus entry in the gruelling full-day race will see 2011's victor Jann Mardenborough -- now actually racing in GT3 -- and 2012's Mark Shulzhitskiy competing with F1 commentator and ex-driver Martin Brundle's son Alex Brundle. So next time your mom gives you grief for wasting all your time and rotting your brain playing video games, let her know you're training for your future career as a professional race car driver.
[Image credit: Nissan]
