Intriguing. A friend of mine just learnt how to drive very recently. He told me he was able to pick up driving much faster than an average person as he was able to apply the skill he developed in many years of playing Counter-Strike Global Offensive in driving: Instead of looking everywhere he would focus his attention on things that likely to matter and react to it like he was playing the first person shooter game. He once managed to reach top 1000 in the country for the game and he took roughly half the number of lessons an average person here needed to get his license. But I wonder how many of what he believed are true. Have there been any studies done on things like this?
He may have picked up driving quickly not because of Counter Strike, but for the same reason he was capable of becoming a skilled Counter Strike player- some genetic or psychological advantage that is independent of anything else. He may just be better than the rest of us at filtering and focusing!
In contrast, I played a bit of counter strike in high school but I never got even remotely good at it. I just didn't have any knack for it. And while I am now a fairly skilled driver (no accidents in 16 years on the road!) I suspect those early years it was a matter of very good luck that I didn't get myself killed behind the wheel.
Will have to source it but there is a video game where you can play to win a chance to be a race car driver. One of the guys won the contest and then won the actual race with a real car. The skills apparently do translate [1].
Note that GT Academy winners get extensive race driver training as part of their prize. I agree that the skills translate (somewhat), but people should be aware that he (the guy in the article) didn't go from playing Gran Turismo directly to racing an actual car and even then it took a while before he started to be competitive.
