Playing racing games for a while, it seems that you can rarely see those hotly dressed beautiful women.
Once upon a time, the sexy girls in those racing games used to make me linger. They wore short skirts and short-sleeved jackets with racing logos on them, and the roar of sports cars hit my male hormones. One of the most impressive to me is still the beautiful heroine in Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005), who is still one of my game goddesses.
This is it
At the end of the day, "fragrant cars with beautiful women" has become my basic understanding of racing culture. When it comes to racing, there are bound to be racing girls in sexy costumes who start the race with flags on the track, which has become almost my "stereotype" of all racing genres.
However, in recent years, under the siege of political correctness in Europe and the United States, the profession of racing girl is likely to enter history. Since the start of the F1 championship in previous years, other races have also begun to reduce the number of racing girls in their own races. Nowadays, I rarely find their shadows in mainstream racing.
The sexy racing girls are gradually leaving the race, and I miss them.
One
At the end of the sixties, motorsport gradually emerged around the world, and Japan, as a major automobile country, began to appear some car and motorcycle events during this period, and the promotion of the event naturally became one of the priorities of the organizers of the major events.
At this time, Japanese advertising model Rosa Ogawa became popular all over Japan for imitating Marilyn Monroe's classic look in advertisements, and the organizer of a motorcycle event took the opportunity to invite Rosa Ogawa to attend the award ceremony and let her promote the competition as a hostess at the ceremony.
It should be said that the effect of this move is extremely obvious.
As the "national idol" of the Japanese advertising industry at that time, the appearance of Rosa Ogawa immediately caused a sensation, and a beautiful shadow on the field aroused the enthusiasm of everyone present, and this motorcycle race was a big success.
But the audience at that time may not have realized that Rosa Ogawa lit not only this motorcycle race, but also a fire in the entire racing sport.
Other Japanese racing organizers took the success of the event seriously, and they found that if the event had some energetic young beauties, the live effect was much better than just watching a few rough old men step on the gas pedal on the track, which also coincided with the gender equality movement of the last century, and some car manufacturers found that inviting these female models to advertise would attract more female customers for their products.
Women have officially entered the automotive field, car manufacturers have begun to add more female images to product promotions, and the organizers of various racing events have begun to hire young beautiful models to add glory to the award ceremony. In order to call these beautiful women, the Japanese media at that time specially coined the term "racing girls" for them.
However, the early days of racing girls are different from what we have today. At that time, they had not yet stood on the field holding a sign to announce the start of the competition, but more as a ceremonial role at the award ceremony, a vase that attracted attention when the contestants went on stage to receive their prizes.
The racing girls of that time also dressed very differently from today's style: they usually wore T-shirts and hot pants, ceremonial shoulder straps, and some wore the "crowns" that were popular at the time. Compared with today's sexy and hot image, they may have looked more like cheerleaders or hostesses back then, and they did not appear in the arena as often.
But when the time came to the eighties, the situation changed.
At that time, the West experienced the baptism of hippies, sexual liberation and other trends, women began to pursue a more open dress style, swimsuits, bikinis began to gradually appear on the cover of fashion magazines that year, and the popularity of aerobic aerobics also led to the fire of tights, high-fork swimsuits and other clothing that highlighted the curves of women's bodies.
Soon, this fashion trend also affected the racing world.
In 1983, a French sunscreen company invited a team of blondes to the opening ceremony of the 24 Hours of Le Mans that year, wearing swimsuits and hanging banners, which immediately attracted the attention of countless people present and caused a huge sensation. Soon, the Japanese with a sensitive sense of business (and they again) also began to let their racing girls wear sexier clothes such as high-fork swimsuits, and since then, racing girls have gradually become the "sexy" appearance in many people's impressions, and the image of girls in this period has also become the public's first impression of this profession.
As for what effect it wears, you can find it yourself
Since this period, racing girls have ceased to be mere post-race hostesses. Some of them took to the track and became the "starting girls" we are familiar with today, while others also began to be commissioned by teams, car dealers and event organizers to promote them, and gradually became the main role in undertaking the promotion tasks of racing and car manufacturers, and racing girls gradually became the standard in motorsports, gradually becoming professional and professional.
The picture shows the racing girl of the well-known motorcycle manufacturer Ducati's galloping horse racing team participating in the 2018 motorcycle racing event
As a sports event with a low viewing threshold but a fairly high degree of excitement, motorsport has also entered a period of rapid development at this time. In addition to professional racing, the young people of the hot car culture have also begun to stage a "fast and furious" show on the city streets, and many entertainment works have also focused on this theme with huge market potential. Soon, movies and anime with related themes appeared one after another, and racing-themed works became more and more popular in the market.
And this heat naturally spread to the game industry that was just emerging at that time.
Two
Racing games have been around since the eighties, and have flourished in the late nineties and continue to be popular today. As an important role in racing culture, racing girls naturally appear in some racing games, and even become an important symbol of some racing game series, such as Namco's well-known racing series "Ridge Racing", whose series Kanban girl Reiko Nagase's voice and smile have attracted many players to pay for the game, and "Ridge Racing" has also become one of the most popular racing game series of that era.
The picture is the promotional image of "Ridge Racing 4", and the OP of the OP is Riko Nagase, which is deeply remembered by countless players
However, due to the technical limitations of that year, the picture expression of early racing games was not high, and in the era when 64MB could be called high capacity, there were several cars that could run on the track, and the audience next to them had already burst the game cartridge, which made the racing girls of that year only appear on the game cover or promotional animation at most, acting more as the background board or vase of the game.
But soon, as technology advanced and game production ideas continued to be enriched, racing games were able to move away from professional racing and "racing simulators" to embrace the masses and street racing, and open worlds and richer story shows began to appear in racing games.
In this process, these racing beauties also gradually got rid of the identity of the vase and began to play a more important role in the game, among which the more typical ones are those female characters in Need for Speed.
The picture shows the cover girl in Need for Speed: Underground 2
Since the eighth generation of the series, Need for Speed began to invite live-action beautiful models as the heroines of the game, but the production team invited these models not just to let them act as vases for the game platform, but to create a rich character background for them, giving them various identities in the game, and allowing them to play a pivotal role in the plot, especially in the plot reversal in the later part of the game, these heroines play a role that should not be underestimated.
The picture comes from the watermark, which is the heroine of "Need for Speed: Infinity"
With the explosion of racing games, movies and anime, racing culture has gradually become a "manifest science" in the mainstream entertainment theme, and racing girls, as a piece of racing culture, are more well-known with the spread of racing culture, and even become a fashion style, such as EVA, Hatsune Miku and other ACG works have launched the character peripherals of racing girl style clothing, and Cosers have also launched a lot of racing girl style cosplay works; In the modeling world, more and more people are wearing the clothes of racing girls, and thus taking their first steps towards the entertainment industry.
Hatsune figure in racing girl style
It can be said that outside the arena, racing girls have become a trend, a fashion trend.
But inside the arena, the future of the profession of racing girl has become increasingly bleak.
Three
Racing girls are always part of motorsport, so when motorsport ceased to be as glorious as it once was, the profession of racing girls also declined.
But what really hit the racing girls hard is the trend of political correctness that has intensified in Europe and the United States in recent years.
In recent years, the dress style of racing girls has begun to be criticized by some feminists, and some racing wives also believe that racing girls will "abduct" their husbands, so they are also dissatisfied with the industry.
When the tide of political correctness hits, no one is immune. In 2018, the world's largest racing event, the F1 World Championship, issued an official statement banning the appearance of racing girls, and other major races have also reduced the number of racing girls on the track under this trend.
A racing girl expressed strong dissatisfaction with F1 Championship officials and some women's rights activists, and said that she would try to keep her profession
The decline of racing girls in the real world naturally affects racing games as well. In view of the pressure of political correctness, recreational racing games such as Need for Speed have also abandoned the classic combination of "car beauty" and began to pursue diversified female images in the game; At the same time, the rapid advancement of graphics technology has once again made "realistic" the pursuit of racing games, "rainy scenes" and ever-watery roads have become the standard in racing games, and beauty has become more irrelevant in the game.
The gradual disappearance of racing girls, like other things that have faded over time, is the inevitable end of this era.
But their gradual absence from the field still makes me feel a little lonely.
After all, they were also an integral part of racing culture, leaving a deep imprint on the sport, their youthful and beautiful posture once added a bit of tenderness to the highly competitive sport of racing, and the track became less monotonous because of them.
What's more, who wouldn't love a beautiful woman?
Just a while ago, rumors appeared on the Internet about the upcoming remake of Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Rumors, naturally, there is nothing to believe, but I do look forward to it in my heart, hoping that one day EA will really remake this game.
If nothing else, just to see the smile of the sexy girl at the beginning again on the next-generation 4K screen.