You are correct. An ARM image will not run on a different CPU architecture, like x86, even in a virtual machine. The compiled binary code executes CPU architecture specific commands.
There are emulators that allow this to be done. That is how people run Nintendo 64 games on their x86 PC, for example. This usually results in a massive performance penalty versus running on the native CPU architecture, though.
Perhaps this would help?
How to Emulate Raspberry Pi on Windows.
From the above link, this is interesting...
