If you are going to do online sims, you definitely should get a wheel and pedals. Unless you drive your car with a keyboard.

I've got a Logitech WingMan wheel/pedals and I really like it. Force feedback on the wheel is a must IMO.

iRacing is $20 a month for two kinds of cars and seven tracks. You can get more cars/tracks for an extra fee. That seems like a lot.

rfactor is an open source kind of model for the addons/mods. It's an extremely flexible and powerful base sim.

Buy the base sim from here for $29 once... http://www.rfactor.net

Get all the tracks and cars for almost free (small donation) from here... http://www.rfactorcentral.com/

I've done Laguna Seca, Infineon and Thunderhill in real life, and rFactor feels pretty close to me. Yes, someone has done a Thunderhill for rFactor.