Corsair Acquires Trak Racer, Adding Cockpits to Fanatec Lineup

Corsair Rounds Out the Sim Racing Stack

Corsair announced on August 5 that it has acquired the assets of Trak Racer, a global designer and manufacturer of sim racing and flight simulation cockpits, seats, monitor stands, motion systems, and accessories. The deal brings Trak Racer under the same roof as Fanatec, Corsair’s established sim racing electronics brand, with the stated goal of offering enthusiasts a more complete, end-to-end simulator platform.

The logic here is fairly clean. Fanatec has long owned the electronics layer of sim racing: wheelbases, steering wheels, pedals, shifters. What it has never made is the rig you bolt all of that hardware onto. Trak Racer makes exactly that, with a catalog spanning entry-level aluminium cockpits all the way up to professional-grade rigs with motion and haptic systems. According to Corsair’s announcement, the combined lineup is expected to support a turnkey sim racing setup for buyers at multiple price points.

Trak Racer was founded in 2008 by Matt Sten, who has now joined Corsair as Chief Technology Officer for Sim Solutions. “Joining Corsair and Fanatec gives Trak Racer the platform to reach far more sim racing enthusiasts faster than we could on our own,” Sten said in the announcement. “Corsair’s global distribution and retail infrastructure, paired with Fanatec’s engineering strength and product portfolio, will let us bring Trak Racer products to a much larger audience while staying true to the community that helped build this brand.”

Corsair CEO Thi La framed the deal similarly, describing Trak Racer as meaningfully expanding Fanatec’s lineup and welcoming its “passionate, loyal community” to the Fanatec family.

Wider Distribution Is a Big Part of the Story

Trak Racer has built its reputation primarily through direct-to-consumer online sales, which works well for a niche audience that knows exactly what it wants. But it also puts a ceiling on growth. Corsair’s existing retail and distribution relationships could push Trak Racer products onto store shelves and into markets the brand has not previously reached, according to the announcement.

Sim racing has been growing fast enough that major retailers have started paying attention, and a physical rig is the kind of product that benefits from being seen in person. Having Corsair’s logistics behind it should accelerate that visibility.

Both Fanatec and Trak Racer also maintain long-standing ties to Formula 1, and the announcement notes the two brands will continue building on those connections together. Fanatec announced a licensing partnership with Nissan for sim racing steering wheels as recently as July 7, so the motorsport angle remains active on multiple fronts.

A First Step Into Flight Simulation

Perhaps the most interesting wrinkle in this acquisition is what it means beyond sim racing. Trak Racer’s TR550 Flight Simulator hands Corsair its first real entry point into flight simulation, a category Fanatec has never addressed. As the announcement points out, the engineering principles that make a great racing rig, precise controls, a rigid frame, ergonomics, display mounts, motion, and haptics, transfer directly to flight sim hardware. Corsair now has a foundation to build from rather than starting from scratch.

For sim racing and flight sim fans, the practical question is whether this acquisition translates into better products at better prices, or simply a bigger brand on the box. Corsair has generally kept its acquired brands running with their own identities, and Sten staying on as CTO for Sim Solutions suggests the engineering continuity is intentional. Whether the Fanatec community, which went through a turbulent period before Corsair stabilized the brand, warms to further expansion remains to be seen. What is clear is that Corsair is treating the full physical simulator as a serious product category, not just an accessory afterthought.