Steering airplanes (on the ground) is done thru rudder pedals. What i sometimes do is couple the "twist" axis on my joystick to the rudders. That will at least get you into the air.
I can't remember if collision detection can be turned on, but there are a number of different realism settings that can be turned on. Such as instrument failure, blacking out or structural failure from hi-g, etc.
X-plane is not really a game but some people join "virtual airlines" where they perform jobs as pilots. There was also an "Ultimate glacial pilot" package created, with scenery and missions.
Another cool feature is that x-plane can output live data, and there are some mobile apps that can read it. So for example, you can have a mobile map or an instrument cluster running on your tablet.