You may not realize it, but the skills you've been cultivating while playing World of Warcraft and Call of Duty may serve you well in the future. Those irretrievable hours you've spent camping with the sniper rifle in Counter-Strike could eventually land you a job with an actual counter-insurgency unit.

Well...not really. But if Lucas Ordoñez has proven anything, it's that video game skills have the potential to translate into real world talent. Pictured below with Kazunori Yamauchi, creator and producer of the Gran Turismo series, Ordoñez used to be an ordinary kid wasting time playing racing games. However, after entering a competition hosted by Sony Europe, the young gamer's life took a turn for the surreal [via DailyTech]:

Beating nearly 25,000 other contestants, Lucas Ordoñez was invited to represent Spain at the Playstation GT academy, where he learned to develop his console gaming skills into real world driving skills. Needless to say, he quickly ascended through the ranks of international drivers, finally claiming the first place prize at the European GTA Cup.

So the next time someone tells you to stop playing a racing game, tell them that you're training for an inevitably successful life in professional racing!