I enjoy fast responsive movement games. So, I am attracted to racing games because of the fast movement. However, I'm really bad at them because they are so unresponsive, slip and slide all over the place. But I want that speed!

I mentioned that to a racing game fan and he remarked something about the need ot downshift when taking corners. That's not a lot to go on, but, apparently, there is a method to the madness.

The problem I havenow, besides, actually getting good, is that there are so many racing games and I still really do not know what the hell I'm doing. I can't tell the difference between one game and the next except the graphics. I don't understand the mechanism.

So, will anyone familiar with racing games help me make sense out of them?

Not familiar with racing games, but in real life driving downshifting increases torque (thus better handling in turns) and RPMs (thus acceleration) but can also ruin your engine and/or transmission if you're not careful with it.

That might be a problem, since different racing games have wildly different kinds of physics model. Some are more simulator-like where you indeed have to slow down for corners and try to find the correct angle, while some are more arcade action racers where you can pretty much keep the pedal down all the time, even in corners (IIRC, POD Gold on GOG is this kind of racing game, or Powerslide).

Also in a game like Gran Turismo, while the physics were quite realistic otherwise, the fact that all cars were indestructible meant that sometimes it made sense to go to corners at full speed and bump into another car in front of you, instead of trying to take the corner correctly.

Different racing games handle so differently that it is hard to give an universal answer to your question. BTW do you drive a car in real life?

If the question is specifically about how to handle corners, some racing simulators have an aid which shows you the optimal driving line on the track, giving you an idea in which angle to approach the corners. There's no big magic to it, you should try to drive the corners in as gently curved (flat) line as possible, by driving on the outer edge when you approach the corner, drive in the inner edge in the corner itself, and continue towards the outer edge again after the corner, hence being able to drive through the corner as fast as possible without sliding.

I used to be big into racing games (early Need for Speed games, Grand Prix Legends, Gran Turismo and such), but over the time I've just mostly lost interest to the genre, and find other genres considerably more interesting.

I'll try to teach you all I know about racing games.. Vroom Vroom
That is all.

My first advice: Play in 1st person perspective.

If you play in 3rd person perspective and makes a turn, the camera movement will be about 1 second delayed compared to the movement of the car. And having a 1 second delay is a LOT in a fast paced game. It is like a really bad case of mouse smoothing. So in 3rd person you have to try to ignore the angle of the camera, and be aware that the true direction you are facing is that of the car. Which you can't, causing you to keep turning for too long, and then you crash.

My second advice: Get a steering wheel!

If you can get it buy Richard Burns Rally, the drivingschool really is Sun Tzu of driving, not hoopscourses like in most other games.

What's probably the most important thing about driving a car fast is figuring out what is oversteer and what is understeer and how to deal with it.

When a car accellerates the weight of the car will shift to the rear which will make the front tires less responsive to steering (which is understeer).
When a car brakes the weight will transfer to the front tires and makes the car more responsive to steering input, so when going into a corner make use of this.

Oversteer is when the rear tires lose grip and the rear of the car wants to swing around the front, this can happen when taking a corner too fast where it can be useful as long as it is controlled, or it can happen when applying too much throttle coming out of a corner which is generally a situation you want to avoid.

All this is very basic information and there are a lot more things that come into play, like road surface, drivetrain (RWD, FWD,AWD), weight distribution (FF, FR, MR), etc.
And this is more for simulation type games, for the more relaxed type of racing games most if not all this information goes out of the window and those play by their own rules.

Yeah but what good is that if you can't see how sharp you need to make the turn? Without 3rd person I have no clue how much room I have to work with turning or passing; I hit EVERYTHING! :P

Most important thing, use the blue shell every chance you get. Also, watch out for the blue shell.

One more thing, Rainbow Road is teh worst track evar!

That's exactly why I drive riding the roof of my car!!!

I like my racing games realistic but not too realistic.

In general though, yes, downshifting in games translates to more control almost to the point of "the car does more of what I want, for less speed", rather than a more realistic representation of the forces of the wheels on the ground combined with the weight of the car and the force of the ground on the wheels in a lower-gear scenario.

I had a lot of fun with the Flatout series and Monster Truck Madness 2.

I hated Dirt 3. The fact that there isn't anybody else there, you race lame cars, and those god awful menus that took forever to get through, combined with the brogamer sensibilities all over the thing just killed it for me.

If you like the feeling of speed but dislike automotive physics representations then I'd highly recommend Episode 1 Racer. can't recommend it enough.

I love racing in FPP but I get funny looks when I do. everyone I know IRL likes the "chasecam" 3rdPP

i prefer the more "dubious" racing (NFS underground games)

If I remember correctly, the game Grid has this. A line that you can follow. It'd be green if you're going the right speed and turn yellow to red if you're going too fast into a corner. Forza Motorsport for the 360 also this (haven't played the others in the series, but I'm sure they have it too).

And like someone mentioned above, a wheel helps. Or at least a controller.

What I forgot and maybe is even more important than what I first mentioned is how you control the game wheter its by keyboard, gamepad or steering wheel. You should take some the time to configure the controls so they're responsive but not nervously twitchy.

Also, before reaching a turn on the road, steer the car so that you begin the turn in the outer edge. This makes the angle more smooth, allowing for higher speed: