Positives vs Negatives

[440Music]

My racing career started on Motor Cycles running club races and a few friends cars doing a few practice laps but in 1994 I got my first racing game, F1 which wasn't great graphics even for the time but it played great and the update had drivers for FF wheels. I have NASCAR by Papyrus and EA Sports, GT Legions, GTR, GTR2, Project Cars, Assetto Corsa, Dirt4, American Truck, and iRacing so as you can see I've put in a few laps.

Positives:
Wheel response is excellent, you feel the small bumps and the bouncing over rumble strips. You feel the white line and the lack of grip and then the catch moving back to unpainted surface.

The rating system seems to be fair and allows you to see the class of driver you're on the track with and what you can expect from them. A new rookie I'm giving them width and a half lane but a Class D or above I can trust and won't hesitate driving on there rear bumper.

Support from fellow driver is better than expected, you ask a question you'll have an answer almost as fast as the click of the submit button. The forum is very active and often very spirited but never mean. I've never meet a single driver who didn't want to have a good race and finish and iRacing isn't any different what is differnt is the additude starting the race. Positive comments from fellow drivers both text and voice.

The vocal communications system allows you to talk with fellow drivers and when you spit off to race you are automatically switched to the channel with the fellow drivers. Voice communications helps the over all driving experience by allowing you to make friends, form teams and get to know who you're driving with.

Negatives:
The cost of membership is fair and I don't mind paying the driving experience but the additional cost is less than acceptable. I like road racing and I had to drive a Madza MX5 so I could advance to drive other road racing series. I don't like the Mazda it's a piece of crap car that is slow, misses shifts and is extremely unpredictable in the corner. Once you move beyond you are offered a Cadillac and Kia not bad V8 power and a sedan that is easily thrown in to a corner and tracks you have to purchase it you want to drive the car.

No Options, what I mean is that there is only 1 membership you get the base cars and tracks and if you want to drive the Mazda, Sprint Car, Truck and turn left you're fine you can race every day turning left how much fun is that? If you're on on the pole and lead out of the first corner you should be OK till it's time to past the lapped cars. I've seen leaders taken out by lappers. Start at the back to avoid the wreck and you've got no chance of a win and at Daytona or Tellidaga you've lost the pack and you're on your own.

Web site is confusing and old technology and offering any constructive suggestion is taken as an attack.

iRacing support is slow and unresponsive, I've been waiting for an answer to a question and gave up thinking I'd get an answer.

Friday night drunks, OK they're on most night but I call them Friday night drunks loud obnoxious drivers who think they're doing fine and bouce you in to the wall and claim you drove i to them and go on for 5 minutes babbling with profanity. iRacing seems to do nothing about the language which is one of the conditions in the "Code of Conduct" COC why if you don't enforce it, it's useless.

Over-all I rate iRacing a 9 for the driving experience and 1 on cost.
If you can afford to spend $300 to $500 a year for a game great iRacing won't disappoint you and after a few years you should own all the tracks I just wonder though once you buy the track is there unlimited upgrades for that track or will I have to purchase the upgrade in a year because the paint on the wall changed? If you don't have limited funds, on a budget and you want to do anything more than the basic game forget it you should really think seriously about this game. Buy a membership for a few months and drive hard to move beyond Rookie class. Watch the videos, read the FAQs and forums make friends with an iRacer they will be the greatest asset to you as a new member.

If you are like me you buy a game to have fun and yes there are those who use games to learn track layout and then the game becomes a simulator. From the stories I've heard from fellow drivers and the forum stories those drivers are on iRacing from time to time which I guess makes it exciting to say you've raced with a name driver, a real pro and what if you beat them oh god what a thrill that would be, not... it's a game for me and who I race against isn't as important as the fun.

[Collywobbles]

An interesing article, however, please don't make misleading claims about the cost. If you take iRacing seriously, you certainly need to invest in a collection of tracks and cars over time for your preferred type of racing which can cost around $300 - $400, but you certainly do not have to pay that every year. Once you have them, you only need to pay for your subscription.

Also, why are you still using the website when there is a very nice UI for launching iRacing now? The website is only really useful for the forums.

iRacing is an online racing simulator, used by pro and amateur drivers as a backup and alternative to expensive real racing, and by others who just enjoy more serious online sim-racing.

If I want to play a relaxing racing game I fire up Assetto Corsa or Project Cars. When I want to to do some serious online sim-racing, I log into iRacing. They are not the same thing.

[Langowski]

Originally posted by Collywobbles:

An interesing article, however, please don't make misleading claims about the cost. If you take iRacing seriously, you certainly need to invest in a collection of tracks and cars over time for your preferred type of racing which can cost around $300 - $400, but you certainly do not have to pay that every year. Once you have them, you only need to pay for your subscription.

Also, why are you still using the website when there is a very nice UI for launching iRacing now? The website is only really useful for the forums.

iRacing is an online racing simulator, used by pro and amateur drivers as a backup and alternative to expensive real racing, and by others who just enjoy more serious online sim-racing.

If I want to play a relaxing racing game I fire up Assetto Corsa or Project Cars. When I want to to do some serious online sim-racing, I log into iRacing. They are not the same thing.

I feel like I have to point at OP recently complained about cost while mentioning he is on a fixed income and can barely pay the bills as is.

[Sighman]

Re the cost, if a series has 7 different cars in it you only have to buy one. Just make sure you keep the others updated, or the race won't load.

If I were forced to pick the absolute minimum number of cars I'd choose the RUF GT3 (fixed setup races) and the Mustang (production car challenge). Both run frequently with plenty of competition.

Including the Mazda and Cadillac, that gives you six road series you can drive in (one rookie, four d-class, one c-class)

Re the mazda, my closest races are in this car, hands down. It's a great little car which is best on short, twisty tracks. E.g. Summit Jefferson, Tsukuba, Lime Rock, etc. When used on long, F1-style tracks like Monza or Imola it can be a snoozefest though. (That tends to be in the Advanced Mazda C-class series)

For B-class races I like the McLaren.

I'm off the pace in open wheelers and only run them now and then. You'll always find a Skip Barber race with multiple splits, but several of the high-end series tends to have everyone in the same race (bad for irating!).

Re upgrades, I bought the Pro Mazda earlier this year, and when it was retired I got the PM-18 free. I think you had to have bought it within the last 4-6 months.

Every track upgrade I've received has been free.

I own a road car for every series and drive most of them regularly, so if you want to ask which are worth having, go ahead.

I've never regretted buying a track, only certain cars.

(I know 'buying' is the wrong term, and 'licensing' or 'unlocking' would be more appropriate. But buy is nice and short.)

[Sighman]

PS my first 'sim' experience was Chequered Flag on the Sinclair Spectrum. 1982?

When Need for Speed (the original) came out, I built my own wooden steering wheel out of the guts from an old joystick. This was in the joystick port PC days. I moved on to RAC Q rally championship, where I fell in love with Colin McRae's 1994 Subaru WRX.

I spent 4 or 5 years saving and lusting after the WRX, and finally bought my own brand new in 1998. It's still my daily driver 22 years later.

But sim racing... my all time fave was Grand Prix Legends from Papyrus, which later turned into iRacing via Nascar (2003?). In iRacing, they even use the logo from the GP legends game for the class C Lotus 49 series (1967 F1 races).

[banger705]

has a person who tried iracing for a few months,i can say only one thing the games is superb......but the racing drivers commication to people who don't drive in real life is rubbish, trolls from supposely professional drivers,attacks and accusations of damaging other players for trying to racing is terrible (even if the supposed to be pro-drivers in a supposely novice sessions).

the tracks and cars are good and fun.it just a shame that some pro drivers tried to force people of the novice sessions servers, because they want to race there mates for there ratings

that why i gave it up.

[Collywobbles]

What are you talking about. You don't get to choose who you race against. You are put in a race split based on your iRating and it isn't possible to kick anybody else off. Unless you're talking about a user created race, in which case they can make it private if they don't want anyone else there.

[banger705]

i mean the troll you until you quit the session, by constantly trolling you over voip

[Collywobbles]

So turn voice off lol. I never have voice on for a race, far too distracting.

[Sighman]

Start from the pits and overtake people as they spin out, crash into each other, etc. Every time I start from the back I end the race around my quali spot, except I get to enjoy tracking down and overtaking people along the way.

Plus any aggro between drivers that lasts all race is often caused by a first corner incident.

[Internet Janitor]

my cost for iracing over the past 4 years = 500$

My cost for racing equipment (wheel, pedals shifter(s) and rig) for the past 4 years = over 2000$
That does not include upgrades for PC, Monitors, and other smaller hardware. If that is included that will exceed the 5000$ mark quicker than you might think. That is the whole content of iRacing AND, now hold your breath, subscribtion for at least 20 years.

iRacing is not that expensive. Its the Hobby that is expensive. Racing in general is the most expensive Hobby/job in the world beside maybe some billionaires hobbys which is apprehanded to a handful of people.

Just try to buy a car and race with it for a couple of weekends, you will thank iRacing for the oppurtinty to race for as cheap as you can with them!

Have fun :)

[Skidrow]

Feels "cheap" that they charge monthly fee bt for that you get nothing, you have to pay extra for 95% off all cars, pay extra for 90% off all tracks, what do you then pay a monthly fee for?

[Collywobbles]

Access to the 24 hours a day servers so that you can race every day hourly against global opposition. It has 60000+ active members so nearly all races have full entry fields and several splits to ensure you are racing against drivers of a similar standard. It also tracks your rating and career progress like an MMO. No other racing game offers this service (though ACC is trying, but it's only for GT3/4 and not as comprehensive). Since 24/7 servers need to be paid for monthly there is a subscription.

If you just want casual online racing then there's no point paying for the iRacing service, just join a league with AC, rFactor or some other racing game. If you want a progressive, online racing career that has some meaning then iRacing is what you want.

Hope that helps.

[Skidrow]

All games have that and dont take a montly fee, take a game like ED for one example. But what i ment is you take monthly fee or 1 payment + updates not like they do were they take monthly fee + update payment.

[Collywobbles]

If it was that simple all racing games that came out would offer a service like iRacing, but they don't. They just throw in the option of p2p online racing which is a terrible experience and that's why serious online racers all flock to iRacing.

It has been running this model for 12 years and is still going strong. Until another online racing system comes along and offers the same comprehensive 24/7 online system without a subscription it will continue to dominate.

Like I said, ACC is starting to enter this area of racing but it still only offers GT3/4 servers and doesn't operate 24/7 races.

I'm not saying it's the best model for consumers, but it is the only one currently available for this type of online racing. If there were free alternatives iRacing simply wouldn't survive.

[440Music]

Collywobbles, what are you talking about I could find anyone racing Cadillac and there was maybe 1 race every 3 hours how is that a 24/7 race experience? I can run a server for $86 a month and have up to 1500 racers with AC. I can set up a server to run the old Papyrus NASCAR Racing Season which was the base of iRacing and still feels the same.

I can say this about iRacing members, you can fool some of the people all the time!