make sure your older controller is not attached. The console window of Dosbox should tell you whether the controller got recognized and is being used.

Ok, dosbox recognized it. But the commands are all messed up. EG: I accelerate and brake pressing two buttons on the wheel, and not using the pedals. Pushing the gas pedal turns my wheels left. Apparently no command turns the wheels right....
If the game has a joystick setup, I still can't teach the controller all the commands.... maybe I should change something in the dosbox config script?

Yes, look at the config there are a few joystick settings that you will need to test.

No way.... 🙁

the dosbox config just asks me the kind of joystick (2 or 4 axis) and if I'd like to swap axis 3 and 4....
The only change I can make, swapping the axis, is that the pedal that turns the wheels left is now the brake! 😁
Apparently it works fine with dropbox, I should just remap the commands,.... But I have no idea how. The logitech profiler doesn't seem to help.
Anyone who did it before?

Old-fashioned analog gameport controllers supported up to 4 analog axes, and Dosbox can emulate those. The emulated game must also have built-in support for analog joysticks/wheels with more than 2 axes.

First you need to set joysticktype=4axis (I think 4axis_2 is needed if you have 2 physical controllers plugged in and you want Dosbox to use the other "second" controller). Then within Dosbox, start the mapper with CTRL+F1 and rebind your controller axes.

See those axis 1/2 and axis 3/4 boxes? You should (probably) bind the wheel to axis 1/2 X+/X-, throttle to axis 1/2 Y+/Y-, brake to axis 3/4 X+/X-, and clutch to axis 3/4 Y+/Y-. Then within the game you should be able to calibrate all axes as long as the game supports gameport controllers.

Remember to save the binds and not just Exit the mapper, because otherwise you will lose the bindings when you quit Dosbox. It will create a text file which you can later edit manually.

I think this COULD definitely be the solution.I'll try tomorrow and let you know. Thank u in advance.

So... I've tried it. Very strange behavior, indeed.

I tried the configuration you suggested first. No way.

I'm able to bind the wheel to X axis, and it seems to work in indy 500.
But no way of binding correctly accelerator and brake. I've tried to bind the controls to ANY axis, but the result is always the same:

Pressing brakes pedal makes the car accelerate;
Releasing brakes pedal makes the car brake;
Pressing accelerator pedal makes the car decelerate;
Releasing accelerator pedal doesn't make any apparent result;

At the first configuration I thought: Ok it should be easy.... I just have to invert some axis and voilà.
But I can change axis as I like, NOTHING happens.
So I tried to cross-check: I UNbinded every command.
The result is the following: the wheels of the car obviously are no longer turning right and left according to the wheel. The strange thing is that the car still accelerates pressing brake, and so still there are those strange behaviours releasing and presing pedals.
How could it be possible?
I tried Indycar racing, same thing happens, but with different behavior: even if i UNbind the X axis for the wheel, the game continues to receive an impulse as if I were turning my wheel in a direction: this makes impossible not only drive, but even navigate through the menus....

BY THE WAY:
after all these changes, how could I reset the mapper.txt to its default?

Anyway, I'll make some other tests today.... I'm ill, so I've plenty of time 😀

Reset by deleting the mapper file. Are you sure you tried all config settings? It's not just 2/4 buttons but also timed not timed...

You could also post the contents of the mapper file here and we might see if there's some obvious problem in it.