A method and system for computer-implemented simulation of radar raw data, where the radar raw data are generated for a synthetic MIMO radar system including a transmitter array of several transmitters for transmitting radar signals and a receiver array of several receivers for receiving radar echoes of the radar signals. In this method, ray tracing of a radar signal sent from a preset transmitting position within the transmitter array and received at a preset receiving position within the receiver array is performed based on a 3D model of a virtual area adjacent to the MIMO radar system, where the ray tracing determines propagations of a plurality of rays within the radar signal from the preset transmitting position to the preset receiving position. The propagation of each ray is dependent on a first angle and a second angle describing the direction of a respective ray at the preset transmitting position. By using first-order derivatives with respect to the first angle and the second angle, propagations of a plurality of modified rays originating from a respective transmitter and received at a respective receiver are determined based on a linear approximation. The modified rays are processed in order to determine the radar raw data.