#24 - Sim Racing Esports needs to learn from professional Sports | Nina Braack

In this episode we're joined by Nina Braack, Manager Esports at Porsche Motorsport and the woman leading the Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team, Porsche’s official Esports works squad in international sim racing. With Porsche Esports, she uses Sim Racing to reach a young, tech‑affine community far beyond traditional motorsports, allowing fans worldwide to race Porsche GT cars digitally and experience the brand in genuinely competitive environments. At the same time, she thinks far beyond pure marketing: for Nina, sim racing and Esports are high‑performance sport, where talent, training, tactics and teamwork decide just as much as in real‑world racing.Nina’s own path into Porsche Esports is deeply shaped by competitive sport. Born in 1993 in Frankfurt am Main, she studied, among other things, sport and event management and spent around ten years playing professional volleyball in the German 1st and 2nd Bundesliga before switching to Porsche Motorsport in 2022. This background in elite sport means she knows first‑hand what it means to train every day, deal with injuries and setbacks, and then at some point make the conscious decision to quit a professional career and reinvent herself, topics we dive into in detail in this conversation. Under her leadership, the Porsche Coanda Esports Racing Team quickly established itself at the top of the field, taking two titles in the Sim Racing top category ESL R1 as early as 2023.Chapters00:00 Intro00:40 Nina Introduction02:20 Rennsport R103:00 Professional Volleyball career07:47 Dealing with setbacks11:50 Quitting Volleyball13:30 Love for motorsport growing up?14:30 Getting involved with Porsche18:40 Porsche Esports22:50 Joshua Rogers going into a real car in British GT27:25 Evaluation process30:10 How Josh reacted to the race weekend33:25 Sim Racing Esports45:00 Where do you see Porsche Esports in 5 years time?🗓️ Mark our SimRacing Expo's in your calendar:SimRacing Expo Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany: 16.-18.Oct 2026SimRacing Expo Charlotte, North Carolina, USA: 21.-23.May 2027Website➡️️ SimRacing Expo Frankfurt: https://www.simracingexpo.de➡️️ SimRacing Expo Charlotte: https://www.simracingexpo.com✅ Get your tickets for SimRacing Expo DE or USA: 🇩🇪: https://ticket.simracingexpo.de🇺🇸: https://ticket.simracingexpo.com🇺🇸📝 Social Mediahttps://www.facebook.com/simracingexpohttps://instagram.com/simracing_expohttps://x.com/SimRacingExpo🎧 Listen to our Podcast:https://link.sim-expo.com/Podcast-YouTubehttps://link.sim-expo.com/Podcast-Spotifyhttps://link.sim-expo.com/Podcast-Applehttps://link.sim-expo.com/Podcast-Deezerhttps://link.sim-expo.com/Podcast-Amazon📍 Our Affiliate PartnersAlpinestars Sim Racing: https://link.sim-expo.com/Alpinestars-SimRacing-GearAsetek Racing Europe: https://link.sim-expo.com/AsetekRacing-EUAsetek Racing USA: https://link.sim-expo.com/AsetekRacing-USAFanatec: https://link.sim-expo.com/FanatecLogitech-G: https://link.sim-expo.com/Logitech-GMOZA Racing: https://link.sim-expo.com/MOZA-RacingPimax: https://link.sim-expo.com/Pimax-VR