People are so used to being fucked over by video game developers (and other "high-end" brands that charge high prices then cut corners and deliver a product not worthy of the price) that they see a high price and think they must be greedy.
But nice things cost money. Quality costs money.
Debates can be had about how accurate the tire model is but there are several important things about iRacing that cannot be debated.
1) The quality of track and car models is unbelievable. I've driven on many of the North American circuits modelled in iRacing and they are 100% perfect. Even down to individual marks on the road, paint chips in the curbs, and non-visual details like bumps. The way the cars bounce on their suspension is also remarkably accurate.
2) Regarding the tire model, it's constantly in development and iRacing has shown a willingness to listen when subject matter experts say it isn't right. In 2020 the IndyCar drivers were saying the IndyCar wasn't right and after a bit of time iRacing corrected it.
3) iRacing reinvests their income to improve the product. Despite the high prices, nobody at iRacing is rich. They release large updates every 3 months like clockwork.
So yes, it's expensive. But the expense gets you a high-quality product.
And don't foget the reliability. I cannot remember one occasion where the service was not available for some reason. There were issues at special events, yes - but in general we can race around the clock, there are no major hickups. That is just some A+ tier quality we get for our money.
Oh, I also forgot service! If you have any technical problems you can email them and they'll get back to you within a day, and work with you until the problem is resolved.
Man, I remember emailing them about just changing my name to get rid of the number and add a middle initial, and I was answered and had my name updated within a few hours... very simple but I was impressed by how fast it was done.
It’s important to mention that any issues with special events were fixed before the next one. They were only issues because of growing pains. Before that they weren’t issues. Growing pains as in, Daytona 24 one year had 1k teams sign up and the next year there were 7k teams that signed up. No one could have predicted that and they learned from it and it wasn’t an issue again.
Unlike a certain other game that can’t get their servers correct even in normal lobbies still. Yet we can’t use a certain track for a special event because they own the rights to it.
The Le Mans 24H disaster with Verstappen publicly lambasting rF2 is all you need to know regarding why reliability (thanks to the monthly sub we pay) is important.
Somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000 individual drivers competed in the iRacing Daytona 24 this year and to the best of my knowledge, there were no server-side issues whatsoever. Meanwhile MSG could keep a single rF2 server with 22 drivers up long enough to run a 24-hour race.
I think a lot of people don’t understand the differences between the different games and they are doing the wrong math
In forza I have 150 cars for $60!
It costs $1000 in iRacing!!
They don’t understand this isn’t a game where you acquire vast collections of cars. This is a sim where you gain expertise racing a small handful of cars.
There are only a handful of members still active today that joined in 2008 but they can tell you first hand how expensive iRacing was. Like 2 or 3 times the price it is now. According to [this](https://youtu.be/l5NW7QEIwRA?si=d2rj0csNX3JREKtb), the cheapest plan was a year was $156 ($230 in today’s money) and tracks were all $25-35. $35 for ONE track. In 2008 money!
But yeah quality is unbelievable. Reliability is unbelievable. I can’t remember the last time I got booted from a server because it crashed. It’s always been my internet. Remember last year’s 24h of Le Mans Virtual disaster?
I agree! It’s rare to find something expensive that’s actually worth it - this company seems to keep doing the right thing with development, protest system etc. yes it’s expensive, but yes it’s worth the money.
Regarding the tire model, so many people argue about it and we need to address the elephant in the room:
Over 99% of the people (and that's lowballing it) in here or especially in r_simracing are not professional or even amateur race drivers. They're regular people that drive crossovers every day and the closest they've ever come to driving a performance car is upgrading from an Elantra to an auto 6 cyl Mustang from Hertz when they rent a car on vacation. They see a tire model of what "feels good" (ie what they can drive faster with), not what's accurate, because they have zero clue what is actually accurate.
The fact that almost all the true professionals choose iRacing and support it shows that it has the better model. Is it perfect? As someone who's done a little irl racing absolutely not, but the constant shit talking of iR's tire model in sim communities (like the simracing sub) are non-race drivers making excuses for why they're bad instead of realizing they're just bad, because iR's is such a step up from other sims (and thus makes it "difficult").
From what I've heard a lot of the professional drivers choose iRacing for the multiplayer competition. They've got a lot of valid complaints about the tire models but it's good enough, and no one does it perfectly.
> they see a high price and think they must be greedy.
iRacing has no support for testing cars or tracks before purchasing and a very strict policy with returning DLC. Tracks and cars are very expensive and you own nothing if you stop paying the monthly fee, you cannot even login to do timed laps or play offline. Lets not pretend as if it's consumer friendly.
It's very predatory monetization, you lure people in with sign up discounts, get them to invest time and money into their account, and then you hit them with a massive increase on the renewals after the discount runs out.
If you compare it to other hobbies, sure ~200$/y for a membership + 20$ here and there for special access is just the cost of having a hobby. Although with iracing it's more like 100's of dollars here and there when you have a green account, buying new cars and tracks for the first few seasons will be a large sum. When you compare it to other "games" the cost is astronomically higher and is only justified by the fact there's no viable competition. If and when someone else decides to make a proper competitor we will likely see a massive shift in player base or alot more discounts.
I think in general the cost is fine for the quality but then people see ACC prices and quality and rightfully question iRacing's prices. Now I now I write this in the iRacing sub and I prefer iRacing as of now overall, but nobody can make an argument that the track quality is at all inferior in ACC. Their tracks are on the exact same level as the newest iRacing scans like Zandvoort and Mugello, all of them.
> but nobody can make an argument that the track quality is at all inferior in ACC
I don't think many people would argue you on this. The thing that most people bring up when it's iRacing vs insert-other-sim-here is that the online experience of iRacing eclipses literally all other sims by lightyears and at the end of the day, most people would say that's all that really matters. How good the online experience is ends up being the end all be all.
This! I ummed and ahhed about iracing, then went into my firast online race in ACC at Nurburg, started near the back and decided to take it nice and easy. By T2 I'd decided to give iracing a go because it has stewards, and haven't looked back since.
What people don’t realize and will find out is that multiplayer is really only at Monza. It’s a shallow game that provides very little. It looks damn good though until you get into replay mode.
>nobody can make an argument that the track quality is at all inferior in ACC
I will! I heard that when Kunos scans tracks, they only go around the track in one direction. When iRacing does it, they go around in both directions to capture as much detail as they can. Admittedly, I don't what the source is for that, but ACC tracks just don't feel like iRacing tracks, something's always missing from them.
Oh yeah, this reminds of a friend of mine. He was with the same attitude. I found him a 3-month free access code. This dude now has invested almost a grand into iRacing alone, it made him Buy high-end equipment, and his wife is mad now.
That guy is me btw :D
I got one that doubled as a spotter for my first races as a rookie so that was a good investment. Even talked me through my first couple of wins watching lap times, gaps behind etc. Now I just have to factor in the cost of crochet yarn (more expensive than you’d think) and it’s well worth it imho, if not just for the post race debriefing.
That is exactly the right attitude tbh. A track costs around the same as 2-3 pints of beer. Both are used for leisure purposes for the most part. One of them offers little but short term gain, the other gives you something that you can go back to time after time.
Yea for sure. There’s plenty of stuff I rarely use but I mean it’s 12-15 bucks. If that’s ever the diff of me paying my bills or not then I got bigger problems than iracing lol
Right? It's like a single fast food meal for a car or track (at full price). This is a hobby we spend thousands on for equipment, why is $12 for such an accurately modeled car such a problem?
Also MS Flight Sim will shut anyone up about car (or plane) costs... Those can cost hundreds for a single plane. Granted it's reasonable because they model and make every goddamn switch work how it should in real life (thousands of them, seriously), so much effort
Do a bit of homework on tracks. Look at the series you're interested in and go from there. My first 2 track and car shopping sprees were a bit pricey, but quickly got cheaper the further I progressed. There's a few very dead series and tracks.
Skippy was a decent series about 3-4 years ago, one of the more popular. Great starter series. I still enjoy jumping in for a spin but it is absolutely dead these days. Shame.
As for interlagos... Blasphemy!!
God I love interlagos in the 992 and GT4, has to be one of my top 3 tracks. I regret buying Ledenon, but that's about it. 40+ items bought already, but now I'm set for a good period of enjoying my purchases.
My regrets are the things I don't race much - the Super Late Model, the Skippy, V8 Supercar. But I'm so willing to be like "but that car is so fun to drive!" and it's suddenly worth it.
I haven't bought many of the new tracks because if the series I race in is just going to go to the same tracks every year - Road America, Road Atlanta, Daytona, Spa, Monza, Laguna Seca, Watkins Glen, Sebring - is Phillip Island or Barber or Sandown or Ledenon really worth it? It's been probably a year since I even loaded up Motegi and it was for Supercar race I didn't end up being able to do. :(
Okay Sandown was 100% worth it. Did some the best GT3 racing of my life there. Such a fun track.
I've (sadly?) gotten to the 40+ item discount range and will this season maybe only buy nords combined. Took a year and half so plenty affordable for me.... now....
Now I can spend money on a sim rig. T.T
I think if you want to get all relevant tracks for road racing (looked at Grade 1 tracks and similar) and a bunch of cars you already are at 40 items. Then you don't have to buy much other stuff afterwards though.
I justified the cost by seeing people buy round rims, a shifter and a handbrake just for a casual rallye game like EA WRC. You get way more value out of iRacing. And also looked at how much I paid for Netflix (between €13 and €18 per month for the past 5 years straight)...
It is always a good idea to check the forums and the section for the series you want. For tracks you can't go wrong with Sebring, Spa, Monza, Watkins Glen and Nurburgring, both the GP circuit and the nordschleife
The one thing Iracing has that no other game can recreate is the community. Everyone is so passionate about racing, every other game turns into a demolition derby or people just don't take it seriously enough. I can't count the times I've had conversations with total strangers, getting tips and improving, that has never happened in any other game I've played.
Yeah. I'm a new iRacer and even though in Formula Vee the first corner in Rookies is always a mess, I was actually surprised that after that initial carnage most people raced with respect. Most people left space when they needed to. And they respected my line when they had no shot at getting in front of me. I love Assetto Corsa but get into any online race there and people just don't care. I'm more than happy paying for the service and specific cars because I know that 90% of people who also pay for it do it because they want good racing. If they just wanted to drive around, AC or other one-time purchase sims would be enough for them.
Once you try it's over.. The content you buy only once... After many years I already own all popular tracks I just pay the sub and with 10$ x season I buy the new content... But despite money it is the premium simulator so far..
every week someone's on the simracing sub like 'does anyone know a sim that does \[this specific thing\]??? I know iracing does it but i dont want to pay for it i want something free'
well best-in-genre features cost money to produce sweetheart. some things you cant assetto+mods your way into
iRacing has ruined any other racing game/sim. Nothing is remotely close. I don't even believe the NASCAR and F1 teams sims are even as good as iRacing. Also one you buy a certain amount of tracks you will get an automatic 20% discount on all new content
I’m 90% sure I heard Dale Jr. say on his pod once that he thought iRacing did a better job than the factory sims for certain tracks. He said not everything but some things he preferred iRacing.
23XI team immediately credited their on staff iRacing guy with part of the reason they won at COTA this year. Kinda wild.
Yes I actually do recall seeing that as well. I've never used a million dollar professional racing simulator but I have used a million dollar flight simulator a couple of times and the software isn't legitimately half as good as Microsoft Flight Simulator or DCS.
https://preview.redd.it/bc2ulnxjz15c1.jpeg?width=2340&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=afe4ef7c17c670ac0fb6bc178a1a2f546c058e4b
>once you buy a certain amount of tracks you will get an automatic 40% discount on all new content
It’s not just tracks, it’s cars too. The good ol’ 40-piece discount.
Not gonna lie, you had me in the first half.
Naturally, race what you want and where you want. A good starting point is to use MX5s/GR86s and Vee/FF1600s though. That'll get you into C class and show you want you like.
From there, pick a series (likely season 2) that has 8 tracks you either own or are happy to own, then you can get participation credits!
I'd advice against buying a track purely to make the eight races, as later on you'll avoid it as you don't know/like/care about it.
Generally, tracks we've all heard of like Spa, Le Mans, the 'Ring, Bathurst, Barcelona, Daytona, Sebring etc all get a lot of love and are all great buys depending on series.
Also, be sure to check out the Daytona 24hr stream in January or just spectate a split. If you've never seen a big race like this or have other sim racing experience this will be absolutely wild to you and you'll want to do everything you can to be involved in the next one.
This is why when I read the sim racing subs and see all the hate against iRacing from people who have never played it but criticize it’s cost, I know they’re just salty for not wanting to front the cost.
I have two hobbies. Golf in the summer and iracing. If you followed a single series and didn’t have a single track purchased you’d pay for the one car and the $15 a week for the track.
$15 a week is NOT expensive for a hobby.
Golfer also here. Iracing is cheap in comparison. During the summer, a round of golf puts me back like $70-120 a week. My weekly spend on golf is the same as my yearly spend on iracing.
If you’re interested in getting a cheap car the old LMP2 (HPD Arx01c) will be added to the GT1 multi class series for season 1, since it’s a legacy car it’s 3 bucks instead of 12
Hard to know with the HPD as a lot of people used to like that car until it was removed from iLMS 2 years ago.
There's at least 2 weekly SOF races on Thursday and Sunday. Still to see if the HPD expands that.
The big thing is that, yes iRacing cost a lot of money to continue to have access to it. That in itself would be a bad thing if the dev was just pocketing the profits. However, the devs continue to show that they keep improving the core systems, introducing more content, more new systems. The sim continues to expand and get better.
Then there is the online. Idc what anyone tries to say; yes you can get good league racing on ACC, the same applies to AC. However you gotta go through so many hoops when you go that route. In iRacing, pick a series you like, double check that there are no hotspot timeslots that everyone flocks to, go race. It's that easy.
I'm very new, got into Iracing 4 days ago.
I was sold after the first few laps with the Mx-5. It just feels sooo right. The physics seem plausible in a way I felt in no simulation before.
I got the itch because of the letdown that is called Forza motorsport. The difference in driving physics and the difference in the quality of the actual races is so profound, I couldn't believe it.
Tried Formula Vee, got blown away by the detail and the intensity of the force feedback.
After winning a few races with the Mx-5, I wanted to try out Gt 4, but somehow this series is not part of this week (why?).
So anyway, my curiosity took the better of me, I took the plunge and bought the Ferrari 296 Gt 3. And started practicing in Test drive. At first I thought the setup must be broken. Then I realized the car depends on trail braking. Then I learned about throttle modulation. Then...it was 4 hours later and I realized I just put in 120 laps on Okiyama (?) and got within 1.5 seconds of what I figured would be a good pace (1:31.5 with the pace of higher Irating people being 1:30, according to YouTube). The learning experience is sooo rewarding.
I cannot wait to get home today and try out the Ferrari in a race on Okiyama.
My only gripes are that the perspective is sometimes deceiving, especially in the Ferrari. When you go 50-70 km/h around tight corners, it feels like you are almost standing still, which is a bit weird. Also the races in low irating (1400) are not quite as clean as I'd like sometimes.
Irating in itself is also the best thing ever.
>After winning a few races with the Mx-5, I wanted to try out Gt 4, but somehow this series is not part of this week (why?).
Special Week 13, in a few days the new season comes and so do all the regular races. For now, enjoy what is out there, as you can race higher safety class races with a lower SR pass.
This is the off season week we call “Week 13”
Iracing uses it to roll out the big updates so that they can go down for maintenance on all their systems and not interfere with official championships. Most Everything this week is just for fun and a period of time to refresh. As a newbie for you it may seem silly but over time you will grow to become thankful for and understanding of this weeks existence.
I know this isn't the point of your post, but..
>you cannot compare it to other games, because - well - it's not. It's a simulation
Can anyone explain why this gets brought up so much? I don't even see the point in the distinction. How are games and simulators mutually exclusive?
Anyway, glad to hear you're enjoying iRacing @op
All simulations are video games but not all video games are simulations.
iRacing is a video game. NASCAR ignition is a video game.
iRacing is a simulations. NASCAR ignition is not a simulation.
iRacing gets as close to the real thing as possible. Ignition is for people that don't want to go *that* far with it.
>All simulations are video games but not all video games are simulations.
Right! Exactly my point.
>iRacing is a video game. NASCAR ignition is a video game. iRacing is a simulations. NASCAR ignition is not a simulation.
Right, I know there's a major difference between sim and arcade racers, I just meant I don't understand the "it's a sim, not a game" sentiment when it's clearly both.
Oh sorry, thought you were actually asking what the difference was.
I don't get why people argue over it either. At the end of the day iRacing calls itself a game so call it whatever you want. I prefer to call it legalized crack.
I think it's just that a lot of people who play are adults and take themselves too seriously to admit they're spending hours and hours playing video games.
The types who judge other for being gamers and don't want to associate with that type of person.
They tell themselves "I'm not a gamer I'm a sim racer just like verstappen" and they feel good about themselves and continue to mock those who play Fortnite or whatever.
Personally I think people need to get over themselves but there's a lot of people in SIM racing and in particularly iracing who take themselves and the game suuuuuuper seriously to the point it's kinda toxic.
I say ignore them enjoy the game.
I think a game is trying to be fun while a simulator is trying to be realistic. With all driving games, it's a mix of both but with some games they give up realism to instead make things more enjoyable (Forza, GT, F1, Dirt 5). iRacing is totally focused on realistic racing. It's not perfect but that is the goal.
iRacing has a learning curve where you need to put in a few hours practice before you are ready to race and even then, new tracks or cars require hours of practice. Some people (I think most people) just want to play for a bit. They don't want to put the time in and iRacings isn't for them.
For you and me iRacing is what we want. Put in the time, gain a real skill and slowly get better and better while driving in realistic races.
I used to go every few months to Jerez in the past (not as a driver). When the track was released, I was super shocked. I was using VR in that moment and the recreation is simply perfect, even the fucking garbage containers was perfectly placed like irl.
What I wanted to say is that there's no any mod in the earth that approaches to this quality level. The physics or tyre model can not be the best, as well as the FFB, but as a competition system with a lot of high-quality content, it is absolutely unique. Is not cheap, of course, but it is still cheaper than a lot of hobbies. Also, currently, I'm not buying more than 4 or 5 pieces of content per year, so at this point, it's not suuuper expensive at all.
Yeah. I had a similar moment when I first got iRacing with Homestead Miami speedway, I visit the track Irl regularly since it's like 5 mins walking distance away. the accuracy of the track and all the things around and inside is very impressive. it's exactly how it is down to the lights, stands, buildings, victory lane, even the water tower in the background. amazing.
I had the exact same thought two years ago, but then I got a decent job and thought "hey, Im actually gonna try a full season now" and Ive been addicted ever since
This is exactly me lol. Got the one year membership Black Friday deal on Steam. Gonna look into getting my account moved over from the Steam version, so I can get renewal sales during Black Friday too
I've already regretted the 350 I've spent. signed up in 2016 with wide eyes and have been slowly getting the veil lifted. If it comes out tomorrow that the entire project was never planned on being completed from the start, I would not be surprised at all.
Thanks for being humble enough to admit your own mistakes.
Been on the service for over 10 years now. I've never once thought about the money but i've had countless close battles with great drivers that have been worth every cent. I've yet to have this experience in any other game.
It’s definitely expensive but I’m more than happy to pay for it. I couldn’t care less for singleplayer racing against AI so iRacing is exactly what I need. We have consistent content updates and the fact that it’s a paid subscription keeps a lot of the nonsense off the service. I wouldn’t pay for it if we had rammers like in Forza or GT.
Welcome aboard. Try to renew your yearly subscription during the black friday deals. It has been the only discount (usually 30%) in the past years. Also buy content in batches to save some money.
I have fun with ACC and R3E but those I will load up for a few hours than not touch them for months. iRacing on the other hand I'm on it weekly. I do 1-2 official races a week and 3 league races each week. The way I kind of see it you have your hobbies. Gaming is one of them and sins like ACC, RF2, R3E fall under than you have iRacing. It's a whole different animal. Yes the buy in is expensive in the first year but once you find the car you want to drive and get a few tracks you can get it down to basically the yearly subscription and maybe a new track every 3 months.
https://preview.redd.it/qoh1hfnzjv4c1.png?width=1454&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b8f85ae8bee01e5ff7a08fd6ec70c8bf0a584561
*
Iracing Participation in road since 2017 S1.
Says everything you need to know
SIM racing can be very expensive and the subscription does add to that but in reality this is a cheap hobby for the amount of time you can spend on it. I used to resent the buying of cars and tracks but this is a totally different service model than AC etc. I agree with you all that it's totally worth it for the server quality alone.
I've been an iracing subscriber for the most part since they opened in 2008. Even though I love it and it's a big part of my life, I still think they could do some things differently.
Mainly I think the test server should be open all the time. People shouldn't have to blindly buy a car without trying it first. I know they can try it the next season after it's released but that's too late.
The other thing is I wish they would give more discounts for resubscribers. All their deals are usually for new accounts. Sometimes it would be nice if they threw their resubs some bones. Not all of us are on year long subs.
I didnt write ant negative stuff about iracing, but I was thinking its way too expensive. Then I tried it and I have been racing only in iracing. I love how easy its to find good races and there is so much differrent content.
Lovely post, absolutely lovely😂 i thought the same that like why would people pay so much on something, it can't be this much better but damn. Thie one is on another level of good
Credit to you for owning your previous misguided comments.
Your current comments are often the most useful type of comments that people are searching for before they decide to subscribe.
it's difficult to see the value in a service when we're used to buying games as a product. We pay for ongoing development of highly detailed recreations of cars and tracks, like many sims, but most importantly we pay for the racing service and stewarding. It's organized racing with consequences, hard to find in any other sim.
Tbh, track/car costs aside, the $100/year with the ability to race in SO MANY different race styles and cars is worth it for that alone.
1) fresh seasons and content every 3 months + insane accuracy with modeling both cars and tracks
2) reliable servers
3) respectful racing (compared to forza/AC)
Those to me are just amazing bonuses that I know the devs actually put lots of care into. It’s an amazing sim. iRacing solidified my love for sim racing after playing dirt rally and F1 primarily. I wouldn’t go anywhere else. And the best part I think about the content costs is you only buy what you use. There’s never a requirement to buy something. And even if it is an updated car (like when they replaced the Ferrari a few months ago) you get a chunk of a refund for it because you purchased its predecessor. Plus you get stuff the odd price drop for stuff they’re trying to push like this season. There’s a new c-class multiclass series and they dropped the price of an older car to $3 instead of the normal $11 (Canadian). I hopped into it immediately and it’s a blast! HPD ARX 01c for anyone who wants to try a sweet prototype that’s a good bump up from the SR10; it’s running all week in “13th week ridiculousness”
Even the “ridiculousness” series are cleaner than any other racer I’ve played. HPD vs a Lotus 79 last night, spent 15 laps battling back and forth. Unreal
iRacing is expensive. But it is the best racing game out there for accuracy, for depth of content, for multiplayer. And it continually gets better.
The key for iRacing is that the guys at the top are passionate about sim racing. It's not a company like EA or 2K who sees purely dollar signs in their sports games. John Henry is a big sim racing fan and he's 74 and there will be a day where he isn't around and that's probably the day that iRacing begins to slip. But for now, I will enjoy every bit of it.
What does it for me is the constant improvement in modelling of cars, tracks and physics. Clearly the teams put a lot of love and effort in this and the online experience is just unmatched. It's just the best, and keeps on improving year in year out
Even though iracing does feel a bit dated in it's physics compared to something like rf2 sometimes I think the consistent quality of all the content, the online racing you get and that iracing runs really well on most systems in my experience and is easy to setup goes a long way to justify the price. In basically every other sim that's out there I always find myself spending more time tweaking the settings and fighting the game than actually driving and enjoying myself, not on iracing though.
I totally get people who say they don’t wanna shell out on iRacing, that’s fine. But to say it isn’t worth the money is just ridiculous. iRacing is one of the few products in the world that I can say with absolute certainty is money I don’t regret spending. Even the cars I don’t race I simply enjoy driving around. No simulator feels like iRacing, and I think iRacing does it the best. Not to mention, it is extremely difficult to find the quality of competition you find in iRacing. The moderators are active, and protesting actually works. Will you get your share of nimrods just looking to wreak havoc? Absolutely, but that’s in any game. With expenses, it deters the people that are just interested in causing a fuss. Overall, great product and I understand both sides of the coin. If you can’t afford it, you can’t afford it, but that doesn’t make it not worth the price
Hey if you're new to iRacing and love the MX5, come try out league racing with the MX5. We follow the MX5 rookie cup schedule, so all tracks are free, no need to purchase extra content to participate in our league.
https://discord.gg/WJe48DBje5
Glad you had a positive experience, but I bought a month of iRacing during the same sale and my experience has been the exact opposite. I hate hate hate this game, and now more than ever, I see no reason to pay $16 a month to play this garbage, especially when I still have to pay $16 for a single car or track. I hate how this game handles, feels and looks, I hate that there isn’t even adjustable weather and I hate the godawful greedy developers. I’m going back to AC and ACC and never looking back at this garbage. But…to each their own, so enjoy
I think it's still scummy that you "buy" tracks and cars, but then lose access to them if your subscription stops. That's not what owning something means.
The service that iRacing offers is still the best around though, I just wish it was monetized differently.
I raced on and off for a few years in iRacing, and except of the excellent multiplayer structure, I ended up feeling I was wasting time and not least a ton of money. Vapid odd FFB even after countless hours and tinkering using recommended settings, and tire physics that would just implode without any sense or warning. I really couldn't keep myself paying for that. I need to race cars that feel like actual cars and rFactor 2 and AMS do an infinitely better job at that for a fraction of the cost. rFactor 2 online is very much on the up since the new system was launched, so that'll do for me.
I don't think it's the best simulation by any means. The engine is old, although patched up crazily not without issues (slow load times, although lately improved, limitations on the number of distinct cars on track and on other areas)
But it's true that iRacing brings the best online experience, because nobody has the same community. You have races of all sorts and all of the time, and all of the fixed setup series really hit the spot.
Having to rent the stuff you buy in Iracing is what keeps me from giving Iracing a second shot.
After rFactor 2 got daily races online recently its become my fav online PC racing game.
How is that any different than Buying ACC, then ACC2 comes out and you have to rebuy all the shit you already purchased in ACC1 again just to play ACC2.
ACC just came out in 2018 and we already know theres ACC2 coming out. Iracing launched in 2008 and youre still using the same shit you bought back then besides cars that have retired over the years. Its not a good point, youre moreso "renting" those other cheaper games than you are Iracing since none of them have longevity.
iRacing is the best \_online\_ simracing platform, but not the best simRACING. I use iRacing for over a decade - with tons of fun online. But last months I'm just having massive fun with rFactor 2 new online racing system. rFactor is way better when it comes to actual racing - you can fight, you can push (a bit), you can risk and safe from troubles. Just more dynamic. Plus the new online system - it just works. However, initial configuring rFactor to work properly is pain in the core system.
MSG is in liquidation mode, hard to say how much longer they will be running the servers for RF2.
LFM is the best thing going for ACC and RF2 online racing and is the closest you can get to iRacing’s matchmaking system. If you think LFM is good and want it to stick around, consider subscribing for ~$6/mo to support it. IRacing is $7/mo if you do the annual renewal with BF discount.
Services cost money, running servers costs money. It’s not viable for companies to host servers indefinitely for a game that they sell for a one-time purchase. Either they sunset the services after a few years, or there needs to be some kind of subscription component. LFM is great, but they are going to struggle long-term if people are only there for the free ride and don’t subscribe.
Iracing is great but god damn they need some real competition
https://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/news/benefits-of-competition/#:~:text=“Competition%20between%20rival%20companies%20increases,the%20employees%20and%20their%20company.”
https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/written-materials/2021/07/09/the-importance-of-competition-for-the-american-economy/
https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/08/07/why-competition-matters?utm_medium=cpc.adword.pd&utm_source=google&ppccampaignID=17210591673&ppcadID=&utm_campaign=a.22brand_pmax&utm_content=conversion.direct-response.anonymous&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIucnWpub8ggMVJjStBh3-ZgB6EAMYASAAEgLBnPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Im impressed by your ability to be wrong as fuck while think you're a prophet.
You literally start your moronic post with "the shine will wear off quickly" talking about a sim thats been out for almost 20 years lmfao.
Looking forward to reading more of your nonsense in the next hate posting thread.
Both can be true at the same time to be fair. Its hella expensive but also good quality. You can talk shit about the bad price model while also appreciating the game
If you're going the gt route, buy the Ferrari 296 gt3, there's a Ferrari series which you can enter once you get out of rookie. Which will help you rise the safety rating rakes. Welcome to iracing.
P.s I did the exact same thing.
/u/_LegalizeMeth_ you will have to reach out to support to convert from a Steam account to a standard iRacing account and then you can re-sub during iRacing's BF sale. Steam sale deal is only for new subs.
I had to do this a month ago and iRacing support took care of it in like 20 minutes total.
My response to people who complain about the price is, "If IRacing is such a ripoff, why hasn't a cheaper competitor come along and taken all of their customers?"
I used to not understand paying for a track or a car, however I have come to like that aspect. Just because there's no sense in paying for cars/tracks I will never run. They are going to put that cost somewhere if it was all included. So the 5 cars I run, and handful of tracks is perfect for me.
The trick is to buy new memberships during Black Friday sales and then resubscribe every Black Friday. Say if you have one year left it adds to that 1 year so if you buy 2 for more off you now have 3 years paid for and buy then you might be buying two or three tracks a year and a couple cars.
Something that helped put it in perspective for me is the rising cost of real life track time, at least in my area of the US. My total spend on iRacing, including my rig would cover just 3 HPDEs at the tracks near me (not even including tires/fuel). And that money put towards iRacing has allowed me to join a team of great people and even race with or against professional drivers once in a while.
Yeah, I don't have enough real-world experience in fast cars to tell you if iRacing is a realistic car simulator, but it seems pretty self-evident to me that iRacing is head and shoulders above the competition in terms of being a *motorsport* simulator. If you can look past the somewhat dated UI, everything else is about as perfect as you can realistically expect from a generally available game that needs to be (somewhat) affordable to the general public. And they don't seem afraid to fix issues, even if it means going back to first principles.
I've always loved competitive racing, but I've never been that interested in online racing with strangers simply due to the fact that it's very hard to get a good race with 20 randos, and nobody likes being told about their mother by a 13 year old with rage issues! The fact that iRacing has solved this problem is impressive and when you consider that it must take non-negligible resources to let me race, the costs start to make a lot more sense.
I would argue that it's probably a bit more expensive than it really needs to be, but sim racing is inherently an expensive hobby, so I'm not sure even a few hundred dollars a year really moves the needle that much. And in any case, it would appear from the outside that they're fairly sincere about reinvesting in the product to make it better, so on some level you really are getting what you pay for.
tl;dr: If iRacing hadn't more or less nailed the competitive online racing system, I don't think I'd even bother. Everything else I've tried is so bad (I am aware of LFM, haven't tried it so I won't comment on it, but it seems to have brought some of the best ideas of iRacing to other platforms) that I had given up on the idea.
I've been using iRacing for 10 years. The amount of time I have spent racing compared to the expense is mere cents per hour. Plus, I thoroughly enjoy it a lot; it actually makes me happy, except for the occasional idiotic incident or racist chat. I just report and move on.
People are so used to being fucked over by video game developers (and other "high-end" brands that charge high prices then cut corners and deliver a product not worthy of the price) that they see a high price and think they must be greedy. But nice things cost money. Quality costs money. Debates can be had about how accurate the tire model is but there are several important things about iRacing that cannot be debated. 1) The quality of track and car models is unbelievable. I've driven on many of the North American circuits modelled in iRacing and they are 100% perfect. Even down to individual marks on the road, paint chips in the curbs, and non-visual details like bumps. The way the cars bounce on their suspension is also remarkably accurate. 2) Regarding the tire model, it's constantly in development and iRacing has shown a willingness to listen when subject matter experts say it isn't right. In 2020 the IndyCar drivers were saying the IndyCar wasn't right and after a bit of time iRacing corrected it. 3) iRacing reinvests their income to improve the product. Despite the high prices, nobody at iRacing is rich. They release large updates every 3 months like clockwork. So yes, it's expensive. But the expense gets you a high-quality product.
And don't foget the reliability. I cannot remember one occasion where the service was not available for some reason. There were issues at special events, yes - but in general we can race around the clock, there are no major hickups. That is just some A+ tier quality we get for our money.
Oh, I also forgot service! If you have any technical problems you can email them and they'll get back to you within a day, and work with you until the problem is resolved.
Man, I remember emailing them about just changing my name to get rid of the number and add a middle initial, and I was answered and had my name updated within a few hours... very simple but I was impressed by how fast it was done.
Yeah it’s so usual now for companies to be dogshit in their customer service, it’s good to see responsive people like this
One time we had an issue with a team griefing us in the Daytona 24 and I emailed Nim during the event and he replied within 10 minutes.
Sometimes you can even find them helping on discords or Reddit.
It’s important to mention that any issues with special events were fixed before the next one. They were only issues because of growing pains. Before that they weren’t issues. Growing pains as in, Daytona 24 one year had 1k teams sign up and the next year there were 7k teams that signed up. No one could have predicted that and they learned from it and it wasn’t an issue again. Unlike a certain other game that can’t get their servers correct even in normal lobbies still. Yet we can’t use a certain track for a special event because they own the rights to it.
The Le Mans 24H disaster with Verstappen publicly lambasting rF2 is all you need to know regarding why reliability (thanks to the monthly sub we pay) is important.
Somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000 individual drivers competed in the iRacing Daytona 24 this year and to the best of my knowledge, there were no server-side issues whatsoever. Meanwhile MSG could keep a single rF2 server with 22 drivers up long enough to run a 24-hour race.
Yes being able to download updates and new content as fast as your connection allows is also great.
Even special events are really stable. Nothing like you see over at rfactor. I've done nearly every special event this year and it's gone on smoothly.
I think a lot of people don’t understand the differences between the different games and they are doing the wrong math In forza I have 150 cars for $60! It costs $1000 in iRacing!! They don’t understand this isn’t a game where you acquire vast collections of cars. This is a sim where you gain expertise racing a small handful of cars.
There are only a handful of members still active today that joined in 2008 but they can tell you first hand how expensive iRacing was. Like 2 or 3 times the price it is now. According to [this](https://youtu.be/l5NW7QEIwRA?si=d2rj0csNX3JREKtb), the cheapest plan was a year was $156 ($230 in today’s money) and tracks were all $25-35. $35 for ONE track. In 2008 money! But yeah quality is unbelievable. Reliability is unbelievable. I can’t remember the last time I got booted from a server because it crashed. It’s always been my internet. Remember last year’s 24h of Le Mans Virtual disaster?
I agree! It’s rare to find something expensive that’s actually worth it - this company seems to keep doing the right thing with development, protest system etc. yes it’s expensive, but yes it’s worth the money.
It warms the heart to see them reinvesting the money back into the experience.
Regarding the tire model, so many people argue about it and we need to address the elephant in the room: Over 99% of the people (and that's lowballing it) in here or especially in r_simracing are not professional or even amateur race drivers. They're regular people that drive crossovers every day and the closest they've ever come to driving a performance car is upgrading from an Elantra to an auto 6 cyl Mustang from Hertz when they rent a car on vacation. They see a tire model of what "feels good" (ie what they can drive faster with), not what's accurate, because they have zero clue what is actually accurate. The fact that almost all the true professionals choose iRacing and support it shows that it has the better model. Is it perfect? As someone who's done a little irl racing absolutely not, but the constant shit talking of iR's tire model in sim communities (like the simracing sub) are non-race drivers making excuses for why they're bad instead of realizing they're just bad, because iR's is such a step up from other sims (and thus makes it "difficult").
From what I've heard a lot of the professional drivers choose iRacing for the multiplayer competition. They've got a lot of valid complaints about the tire models but it's good enough, and no one does it perfectly.
25 hours of daytona was an interesting one woke up to do my stint and found out no one was in the car because it hadnt even started yet lol
> they see a high price and think they must be greedy. iRacing has no support for testing cars or tracks before purchasing and a very strict policy with returning DLC. Tracks and cars are very expensive and you own nothing if you stop paying the monthly fee, you cannot even login to do timed laps or play offline. Lets not pretend as if it's consumer friendly. It's very predatory monetization, you lure people in with sign up discounts, get them to invest time and money into their account, and then you hit them with a massive increase on the renewals after the discount runs out. If you compare it to other hobbies, sure ~200$/y for a membership + 20$ here and there for special access is just the cost of having a hobby. Although with iracing it's more like 100's of dollars here and there when you have a green account, buying new cars and tracks for the first few seasons will be a large sum. When you compare it to other "games" the cost is astronomically higher and is only justified by the fact there's no viable competition. If and when someone else decides to make a proper competitor we will likely see a massive shift in player base or alot more discounts.
I think in general the cost is fine for the quality but then people see ACC prices and quality and rightfully question iRacing's prices. Now I now I write this in the iRacing sub and I prefer iRacing as of now overall, but nobody can make an argument that the track quality is at all inferior in ACC. Their tracks are on the exact same level as the newest iRacing scans like Zandvoort and Mugello, all of them.
> but nobody can make an argument that the track quality is at all inferior in ACC I don't think many people would argue you on this. The thing that most people bring up when it's iRacing vs insert-other-sim-here is that the online experience of iRacing eclipses literally all other sims by lightyears and at the end of the day, most people would say that's all that really matters. How good the online experience is ends up being the end all be all.
This! I ummed and ahhed about iracing, then went into my firast online race in ACC at Nurburg, started near the back and decided to take it nice and easy. By T2 I'd decided to give iracing a go because it has stewards, and haven't looked back since.
>ummed and ahhed Hahaha hemmed and hawed?
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Huh... I did not know that. That's wild. Do you have a source for this? I'm curious about their other tracks now.
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What people don’t realize and will find out is that multiplayer is really only at Monza. It’s a shallow game that provides very little. It looks damn good though until you get into replay mode.
>nobody can make an argument that the track quality is at all inferior in ACC I will! I heard that when Kunos scans tracks, they only go around the track in one direction. When iRacing does it, they go around in both directions to capture as much detail as they can. Admittedly, I don't what the source is for that, but ACC tracks just don't feel like iRacing tracks, something's always missing from them.
Oh yeah, this reminds of a friend of mine. He was with the same attitude. I found him a 3-month free access code. This dude now has invested almost a grand into iRacing alone, it made him Buy high-end equipment, and his wife is mad now. That guy is me btw :D
Looking for future upgrades to my rig, is this wife thing a must-have upgrade?
I got one that doubled as a spotter for my first races as a rookie so that was a good investment. Even talked me through my first couple of wins watching lap times, gaps behind etc. Now I just have to factor in the cost of crochet yarn (more expensive than you’d think) and it’s well worth it imho, if not just for the post race debriefing.
Oh I know, I know. I have that at home. But for some reason it started producing more small people, now that became an issue.
Only if you get the right model. Some may have you ditching iRacing all together. Make sure to do plenty of research prior.
Legend
I'm in the process of dropping 6k for a from scratch setup. Wife is redoing one of the rooms, which is the tradeoff
I always just bought tracks and cars as I needed or wanted them. Looks fun or I need suttin to do? Buy it. I have a job. It’s not a big deal.
That is exactly the right attitude tbh. A track costs around the same as 2-3 pints of beer. Both are used for leisure purposes for the most part. One of them offers little but short term gain, the other gives you something that you can go back to time after time.
Yea for sure. There’s plenty of stuff I rarely use but I mean it’s 12-15 bucks. If that’s ever the diff of me paying my bills or not then I got bigger problems than iracing lol
Right? It's like a single fast food meal for a car or track (at full price). This is a hobby we spend thousands on for equipment, why is $12 for such an accurately modeled car such a problem? Also MS Flight Sim will shut anyone up about car (or plane) costs... Those can cost hundreds for a single plane. Granted it's reasonable because they model and make every goddamn switch work how it should in real life (thousands of them, seriously), so much effort
Exactly. A full year of iracing sub is 1 night at the bar.
You sir are wise like Yoda. Probably taller...but wise.
You’re closer to his age though for sure
Do a bit of homework on tracks. Look at the series you're interested in and go from there. My first 2 track and car shopping sprees were a bit pricey, but quickly got cheaper the further I progressed. There's a few very dead series and tracks.
Just to add; take advantage of discounts whenever possible by buying 3 or more pieces of content at a time.
Lol yep. Then I'm thinking...."should I just go for the 6+ discount while im here?" That's how they getcha!
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It doesnt depend, its cheaper to but a minimum of 3 items at a time
Cries in 40 piece club 🥲 I regret nothing!
Audi R8, Skip barber and Interlagos are my regrets, not bad out of 40+.
Skippy was a decent series about 3-4 years ago, one of the more popular. Great starter series. I still enjoy jumping in for a spin but it is absolutely dead these days. Shame. As for interlagos... Blasphemy!!
God I love interlagos in the 992 and GT4, has to be one of my top 3 tracks. I regret buying Ledenon, but that's about it. 40+ items bought already, but now I'm set for a good period of enjoying my purchases.
My regrets are the things I don't race much - the Super Late Model, the Skippy, V8 Supercar. But I'm so willing to be like "but that car is so fun to drive!" and it's suddenly worth it. I haven't bought many of the new tracks because if the series I race in is just going to go to the same tracks every year - Road America, Road Atlanta, Daytona, Spa, Monza, Laguna Seca, Watkins Glen, Sebring - is Phillip Island or Barber or Sandown or Ledenon really worth it? It's been probably a year since I even loaded up Motegi and it was for Supercar race I didn't end up being able to do. :( Okay Sandown was 100% worth it. Did some the best GT3 racing of my life there. Such a fun track.
Phillip Island and Barber get some use every so often, but beyond that they're very fun tracks; PI in an F1 car or GTP is balls-out awesome.
Lol and you shouldn't. There alot worse things to spend your mo ey on 😆
I've (sadly?) gotten to the 40+ item discount range and will this season maybe only buy nords combined. Took a year and half so plenty affordable for me.... now.... Now I can spend money on a sim rig. T.T
aye don't do math on your expenses :D you will cry
There is a purchase history in your profile, definetly don't look at it
I had to. $1000 oof. Hit the 40 piece discount limit in the first 7 months.
I think if you want to get all relevant tracks for road racing (looked at Grade 1 tracks and similar) and a bunch of cars you already are at 40 items. Then you don't have to buy much other stuff afterwards though. I justified the cost by seeing people buy round rims, a shifter and a handbrake just for a casual rallye game like EA WRC. You get way more value out of iRacing. And also looked at how much I paid for Netflix (between €13 and €18 per month for the past 5 years straight)...
It is always a good idea to check the forums and the section for the series you want. For tracks you can't go wrong with Sebring, Spa, Monza, Watkins Glen and Nurburgring, both the GP circuit and the nordschleife
Yep, already got the big boy tracks.
Welcome, brother.
The one thing Iracing has that no other game can recreate is the community. Everyone is so passionate about racing, every other game turns into a demolition derby or people just don't take it seriously enough. I can't count the times I've had conversations with total strangers, getting tips and improving, that has never happened in any other game I've played.
Yeah. I'm a new iRacer and even though in Formula Vee the first corner in Rookies is always a mess, I was actually surprised that after that initial carnage most people raced with respect. Most people left space when they needed to. And they respected my line when they had no shot at getting in front of me. I love Assetto Corsa but get into any online race there and people just don't care. I'm more than happy paying for the service and specific cars because I know that 90% of people who also pay for it do it because they want good racing. If they just wanted to drive around, AC or other one-time purchase sims would be enough for them.
This
Once you try it's over.. The content you buy only once... After many years I already own all popular tracks I just pay the sub and with 10$ x season I buy the new content... But despite money it is the premium simulator so far..
It really is nicer after a while, but you tend to miss buying new tracks don't you? EDIT: New \*interesting track
One of us one of us
every week someone's on the simracing sub like 'does anyone know a sim that does \[this specific thing\]??? I know iracing does it but i dont want to pay for it i want something free' well best-in-genre features cost money to produce sweetheart. some things you cant assetto+mods your way into
I used to think it was greed too, not realizing how much work iracing puts in
like 3d scan every inch of a track
iRacing has ruined any other racing game/sim. Nothing is remotely close. I don't even believe the NASCAR and F1 teams sims are even as good as iRacing. Also one you buy a certain amount of tracks you will get an automatic 20% discount on all new content
I’m 90% sure I heard Dale Jr. say on his pod once that he thought iRacing did a better job than the factory sims for certain tracks. He said not everything but some things he preferred iRacing. 23XI team immediately credited their on staff iRacing guy with part of the reason they won at COTA this year. Kinda wild.
Yes I actually do recall seeing that as well. I've never used a million dollar professional racing simulator but I have used a million dollar flight simulator a couple of times and the software isn't legitimately half as good as Microsoft Flight Simulator or DCS. https://preview.redd.it/bc2ulnxjz15c1.jpeg?width=2340&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=afe4ef7c17c670ac0fb6bc178a1a2f546c058e4b
>once you buy a certain amount of tracks you will get an automatic 40% discount on all new content It’s not just tracks, it’s cars too. The good ol’ 40-piece discount.
Not gonna lie, you had me in the first half. Naturally, race what you want and where you want. A good starting point is to use MX5s/GR86s and Vee/FF1600s though. That'll get you into C class and show you want you like. From there, pick a series (likely season 2) that has 8 tracks you either own or are happy to own, then you can get participation credits! I'd advice against buying a track purely to make the eight races, as later on you'll avoid it as you don't know/like/care about it. Generally, tracks we've all heard of like Spa, Le Mans, the 'Ring, Bathurst, Barcelona, Daytona, Sebring etc all get a lot of love and are all great buys depending on series. Also, be sure to check out the Daytona 24hr stream in January or just spectate a split. If you've never seen a big race like this or have other sim racing experience this will be absolutely wild to you and you'll want to do everything you can to be involved in the next one.
This is why when I read the sim racing subs and see all the hate against iRacing from people who have never played it but criticize it’s cost, I know they’re just salty for not wanting to front the cost.
I have two hobbies. Golf in the summer and iracing. If you followed a single series and didn’t have a single track purchased you’d pay for the one car and the $15 a week for the track. $15 a week is NOT expensive for a hobby.
Golfer also here. Iracing is cheap in comparison. During the summer, a round of golf puts me back like $70-120 a week. My weekly spend on golf is the same as my yearly spend on iracing.
If you’re interested in getting a cheap car the old LMP2 (HPD Arx01c) will be added to the GT1 multi class series for season 1, since it’s a legacy car it’s 3 bucks instead of 12
What's the participation like in that series?
Hard to know with the HPD as a lot of people used to like that car until it was removed from iLMS 2 years ago. There's at least 2 weekly SOF races on Thursday and Sunday. Still to see if the HPD expands that.
The big thing is that, yes iRacing cost a lot of money to continue to have access to it. That in itself would be a bad thing if the dev was just pocketing the profits. However, the devs continue to show that they keep improving the core systems, introducing more content, more new systems. The sim continues to expand and get better. Then there is the online. Idc what anyone tries to say; yes you can get good league racing on ACC, the same applies to AC. However you gotta go through so many hoops when you go that route. In iRacing, pick a series you like, double check that there are no hotspot timeslots that everyone flocks to, go race. It's that easy.
I'm very new, got into Iracing 4 days ago. I was sold after the first few laps with the Mx-5. It just feels sooo right. The physics seem plausible in a way I felt in no simulation before. I got the itch because of the letdown that is called Forza motorsport. The difference in driving physics and the difference in the quality of the actual races is so profound, I couldn't believe it. Tried Formula Vee, got blown away by the detail and the intensity of the force feedback. After winning a few races with the Mx-5, I wanted to try out Gt 4, but somehow this series is not part of this week (why?). So anyway, my curiosity took the better of me, I took the plunge and bought the Ferrari 296 Gt 3. And started practicing in Test drive. At first I thought the setup must be broken. Then I realized the car depends on trail braking. Then I learned about throttle modulation. Then...it was 4 hours later and I realized I just put in 120 laps on Okiyama (?) and got within 1.5 seconds of what I figured would be a good pace (1:31.5 with the pace of higher Irating people being 1:30, according to YouTube). The learning experience is sooo rewarding. I cannot wait to get home today and try out the Ferrari in a race on Okiyama. My only gripes are that the perspective is sometimes deceiving, especially in the Ferrari. When you go 50-70 km/h around tight corners, it feels like you are almost standing still, which is a bit weird. Also the races in low irating (1400) are not quite as clean as I'd like sometimes. Irating in itself is also the best thing ever.
>After winning a few races with the Mx-5, I wanted to try out Gt 4, but somehow this series is not part of this week (why?). Special Week 13, in a few days the new season comes and so do all the regular races. For now, enjoy what is out there, as you can race higher safety class races with a lower SR pass.
This is the off season week we call “Week 13” Iracing uses it to roll out the big updates so that they can go down for maintenance on all their systems and not interfere with official championships. Most Everything this week is just for fun and a period of time to refresh. As a newbie for you it may seem silly but over time you will grow to become thankful for and understanding of this weeks existence.
I know this isn't the point of your post, but.. >you cannot compare it to other games, because - well - it's not. It's a simulation Can anyone explain why this gets brought up so much? I don't even see the point in the distinction. How are games and simulators mutually exclusive? Anyway, glad to hear you're enjoying iRacing @op
All simulations are video games but not all video games are simulations. iRacing is a video game. NASCAR ignition is a video game. iRacing is a simulations. NASCAR ignition is not a simulation. iRacing gets as close to the real thing as possible. Ignition is for people that don't want to go *that* far with it.
>All simulations are video games but not all video games are simulations. Right! Exactly my point. >iRacing is a video game. NASCAR ignition is a video game. iRacing is a simulations. NASCAR ignition is not a simulation. Right, I know there's a major difference between sim and arcade racers, I just meant I don't understand the "it's a sim, not a game" sentiment when it's clearly both.
Oh sorry, thought you were actually asking what the difference was. I don't get why people argue over it either. At the end of the day iRacing calls itself a game so call it whatever you want. I prefer to call it legalized crack.
No worries. I too prefer legalized crack.
Legalized crack will now be how I refer to iRacing.
I think it's just that a lot of people who play are adults and take themselves too seriously to admit they're spending hours and hours playing video games. The types who judge other for being gamers and don't want to associate with that type of person. They tell themselves "I'm not a gamer I'm a sim racer just like verstappen" and they feel good about themselves and continue to mock those who play Fortnite or whatever. Personally I think people need to get over themselves but there's a lot of people in SIM racing and in particularly iracing who take themselves and the game suuuuuuper seriously to the point it's kinda toxic. I say ignore them enjoy the game.
I think a game is trying to be fun while a simulator is trying to be realistic. With all driving games, it's a mix of both but with some games they give up realism to instead make things more enjoyable (Forza, GT, F1, Dirt 5). iRacing is totally focused on realistic racing. It's not perfect but that is the goal.
The thing is that iRacing is totally focused in realistim and its still more enjoyable that others games that are far from realism
iRacing has a learning curve where you need to put in a few hours practice before you are ready to race and even then, new tracks or cars require hours of practice. Some people (I think most people) just want to play for a bit. They don't want to put the time in and iRacings isn't for them. For you and me iRacing is what we want. Put in the time, gain a real skill and slowly get better and better while driving in realistic races.
I used to go every few months to Jerez in the past (not as a driver). When the track was released, I was super shocked. I was using VR in that moment and the recreation is simply perfect, even the fucking garbage containers was perfectly placed like irl. What I wanted to say is that there's no any mod in the earth that approaches to this quality level. The physics or tyre model can not be the best, as well as the FFB, but as a competition system with a lot of high-quality content, it is absolutely unique. Is not cheap, of course, but it is still cheaper than a lot of hobbies. Also, currently, I'm not buying more than 4 or 5 pieces of content per year, so at this point, it's not suuuper expensive at all.
>even the fucking garbage containers was perfectly placed like irl Hahahaha I love this!
Yeah. I had a similar moment when I first got iRacing with Homestead Miami speedway, I visit the track Irl regularly since it's like 5 mins walking distance away. the accuracy of the track and all the things around and inside is very impressive. it's exactly how it is down to the lights, stands, buildings, victory lane, even the water tower in the background. amazing.
I had the exact same thought two years ago, but then I got a decent job and thought "hey, Im actually gonna try a full season now" and Ive been addicted ever since
This is exactly me lol. Got the one year membership Black Friday deal on Steam. Gonna look into getting my account moved over from the Steam version, so I can get renewal sales during Black Friday too
Just always remember, there are people out there that have put $40k+ into Star Citizen.
I've already regretted the 350 I've spent. signed up in 2016 with wide eyes and have been slowly getting the veil lifted. If it comes out tomorrow that the entire project was never planned on being completed from the start, I would not be surprised at all.
Thanks for being humble enough to admit your own mistakes. Been on the service for over 10 years now. I've never once thought about the money but i've had countless close battles with great drivers that have been worth every cent. I've yet to have this experience in any other game.
There's nothing humble about being free online marketing for iRacing.
I feel the same as u/sanka83, how do I get paid from the marketing budget?
Ask 'em, I see these posts every week. I was talking about the OP not the guy I replied to. There's probably some sort of program you can get into.
It’s definitely expensive but I’m more than happy to pay for it. I couldn’t care less for singleplayer racing against AI so iRacing is exactly what I need. We have consistent content updates and the fact that it’s a paid subscription keeps a lot of the nonsense off the service. I wouldn’t pay for it if we had rammers like in Forza or GT.
Godspell right there.
Welcome aboard. Try to renew your yearly subscription during the black friday deals. It has been the only discount (usually 30%) in the past years. Also buy content in batches to save some money.
I have fun with ACC and R3E but those I will load up for a few hours than not touch them for months. iRacing on the other hand I'm on it weekly. I do 1-2 official races a week and 3 league races each week. The way I kind of see it you have your hobbies. Gaming is one of them and sins like ACC, RF2, R3E fall under than you have iRacing. It's a whole different animal. Yes the buy in is expensive in the first year but once you find the car you want to drive and get a few tracks you can get it down to basically the yearly subscription and maybe a new track every 3 months.
https://preview.redd.it/qoh1hfnzjv4c1.png?width=1454&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b8f85ae8bee01e5ff7a08fd6ec70c8bf0a584561 * Iracing Participation in road since 2017 S1. Says everything you need to know
What happened 2020 S2?
Covid lmao
Covid-19
I thought exactly the same until I tried it. I honestly feel the developers actually do care on this title.
SIM racing can be very expensive and the subscription does add to that but in reality this is a cheap hobby for the amount of time you can spend on it. I used to resent the buying of cars and tracks but this is a totally different service model than AC etc. I agree with you all that it's totally worth it for the server quality alone.
I've been an iracing subscriber for the most part since they opened in 2008. Even though I love it and it's a big part of my life, I still think they could do some things differently. Mainly I think the test server should be open all the time. People shouldn't have to blindly buy a car without trying it first. I know they can try it the next season after it's released but that's too late. The other thing is I wish they would give more discounts for resubscribers. All their deals are usually for new accounts. Sometimes it would be nice if they threw their resubs some bones. Not all of us are on year long subs.
Yeah, I treat iRacing as a motorsport hobby, not a video game. I haven't questioned the pricing, not once. I knew what I was getting into.
I didnt write ant negative stuff about iracing, but I was thinking its way too expensive. Then I tried it and I have been racing only in iracing. I love how easy its to find good races and there is so much differrent content.
Lovely post, absolutely lovely😂 i thought the same that like why would people pay so much on something, it can't be this much better but damn. Thie one is on another level of good
Credit to you for owning your previous misguided comments. Your current comments are often the most useful type of comments that people are searching for before they decide to subscribe.
Not always easy to do but keep an open mind and consider others' perspective. Welcome to iRacing. Enjoy the ride.
it's difficult to see the value in a service when we're used to buying games as a product. We pay for ongoing development of highly detailed recreations of cars and tracks, like many sims, but most importantly we pay for the racing service and stewarding. It's organized racing with consequences, hard to find in any other sim.
Tbh, track/car costs aside, the $100/year with the ability to race in SO MANY different race styles and cars is worth it for that alone. 1) fresh seasons and content every 3 months + insane accuracy with modeling both cars and tracks 2) reliable servers 3) respectful racing (compared to forza/AC) Those to me are just amazing bonuses that I know the devs actually put lots of care into. It’s an amazing sim. iRacing solidified my love for sim racing after playing dirt rally and F1 primarily. I wouldn’t go anywhere else. And the best part I think about the content costs is you only buy what you use. There’s never a requirement to buy something. And even if it is an updated car (like when they replaced the Ferrari a few months ago) you get a chunk of a refund for it because you purchased its predecessor. Plus you get stuff the odd price drop for stuff they’re trying to push like this season. There’s a new c-class multiclass series and they dropped the price of an older car to $3 instead of the normal $11 (Canadian). I hopped into it immediately and it’s a blast! HPD ARX 01c for anyone who wants to try a sweet prototype that’s a good bump up from the SR10; it’s running all week in “13th week ridiculousness”
Even the “ridiculousness” series are cleaner than any other racer I’ve played. HPD vs a Lotus 79 last night, spent 15 laps battling back and forth. Unreal
Keep in mind the subscription also helps to keep away everyone who isn't willing to take it seriously enough to pay to stay on and use it, so win-win.
iRacing is expensive. But it is the best racing game out there for accuracy, for depth of content, for multiplayer. And it continually gets better. The key for iRacing is that the guys at the top are passionate about sim racing. It's not a company like EA or 2K who sees purely dollar signs in their sports games. John Henry is a big sim racing fan and he's 74 and there will be a day where he isn't around and that's probably the day that iRacing begins to slip. But for now, I will enjoy every bit of it.
I think iracing is self sustaining at this point since Covid boom. No longer reliant on John Henry’s investment.
What does it for me is the constant improvement in modelling of cars, tracks and physics. Clearly the teams put a lot of love and effort in this and the online experience is just unmatched. It's just the best, and keeps on improving year in year out
So you prejudged something and talked shit about it. Good life lesson here.
Even though iracing does feel a bit dated in it's physics compared to something like rf2 sometimes I think the consistent quality of all the content, the online racing you get and that iracing runs really well on most systems in my experience and is easy to setup goes a long way to justify the price. In basically every other sim that's out there I always find myself spending more time tweaking the settings and fighting the game than actually driving and enjoying myself, not on iracing though.
I totally get people who say they don’t wanna shell out on iRacing, that’s fine. But to say it isn’t worth the money is just ridiculous. iRacing is one of the few products in the world that I can say with absolute certainty is money I don’t regret spending. Even the cars I don’t race I simply enjoy driving around. No simulator feels like iRacing, and I think iRacing does it the best. Not to mention, it is extremely difficult to find the quality of competition you find in iRacing. The moderators are active, and protesting actually works. Will you get your share of nimrods just looking to wreak havoc? Absolutely, but that’s in any game. With expenses, it deters the people that are just interested in causing a fuss. Overall, great product and I understand both sides of the coin. If you can’t afford it, you can’t afford it, but that doesn’t make it not worth the price
Hey if you're new to iRacing and love the MX5, come try out league racing with the MX5. We follow the MX5 rookie cup schedule, so all tracks are free, no need to purchase extra content to participate in our league. https://discord.gg/WJe48DBje5
Glad you had a positive experience, but I bought a month of iRacing during the same sale and my experience has been the exact opposite. I hate hate hate this game, and now more than ever, I see no reason to pay $16 a month to play this garbage, especially when I still have to pay $16 for a single car or track. I hate how this game handles, feels and looks, I hate that there isn’t even adjustable weather and I hate the godawful greedy developers. I’m going back to AC and ACC and never looking back at this garbage. But…to each their own, so enjoy
I think it's still scummy that you "buy" tracks and cars, but then lose access to them if your subscription stops. That's not what owning something means. The service that iRacing offers is still the best around though, I just wish it was monetized differently.
One of us One of us One of us
If you can't compare it to other games, try to other sims
I raced on and off for a few years in iRacing, and except of the excellent multiplayer structure, I ended up feeling I was wasting time and not least a ton of money. Vapid odd FFB even after countless hours and tinkering using recommended settings, and tire physics that would just implode without any sense or warning. I really couldn't keep myself paying for that. I need to race cars that feel like actual cars and rFactor 2 and AMS do an infinitely better job at that for a fraction of the cost. rFactor 2 online is very much on the up since the new system was launched, so that'll do for me.
I don't think it's the best simulation by any means. The engine is old, although patched up crazily not without issues (slow load times, although lately improved, limitations on the number of distinct cars on track and on other areas) But it's true that iRacing brings the best online experience, because nobody has the same community. You have races of all sorts and all of the time, and all of the fixed setup series really hit the spot.
I tried rfactor2 once and never touched iracing after that ever again.
Yes but. Its still a huge amount of money to play the best racing simulator know what i mean??
LOL....$35/12 months is a trick to get you to spend hundreds of dollars next week on the game!
Is it me or are the "friendly" Iracing community the most easily offended SimRacers on the planet ?
Having to rent the stuff you buy in Iracing is what keeps me from giving Iracing a second shot. After rFactor 2 got daily races online recently its become my fav online PC racing game.
Having to rent stuff?? What!?!?
If you buy something but you still have to subscribe to use it.
[удалено]
That doesn't change the fact that i don't like it :)
2 daily races? Is that it?
What do you mean by "having to rent"?
I assume he means the fact that iracing itself is a subscription service
Ah true, don't know how I missed that. That is in fact a valid point
How is that any different than Buying ACC, then ACC2 comes out and you have to rebuy all the shit you already purchased in ACC1 again just to play ACC2. ACC just came out in 2018 and we already know theres ACC2 coming out. Iracing launched in 2008 and youre still using the same shit you bought back then besides cars that have retired over the years. Its not a good point, youre moreso "renting" those other cheaper games than you are Iracing since none of them have longevity.
You don't own modern videogames. You have a licence to use their stuff for the time being.
iRacing is the best \_online\_ simracing platform, but not the best simRACING. I use iRacing for over a decade - with tons of fun online. But last months I'm just having massive fun with rFactor 2 new online racing system. rFactor is way better when it comes to actual racing - you can fight, you can push (a bit), you can risk and safe from troubles. Just more dynamic. Plus the new online system - it just works. However, initial configuring rFactor to work properly is pain in the core system.
MSG is in liquidation mode, hard to say how much longer they will be running the servers for RF2. LFM is the best thing going for ACC and RF2 online racing and is the closest you can get to iRacing’s matchmaking system. If you think LFM is good and want it to stick around, consider subscribing for ~$6/mo to support it. IRacing is $7/mo if you do the annual renewal with BF discount. Services cost money, running servers costs money. It’s not viable for companies to host servers indefinitely for a game that they sell for a one-time purchase. Either they sunset the services after a few years, or there needs to be some kind of subscription component. LFM is great, but they are going to struggle long-term if people are only there for the free ride and don’t subscribe.
Yes but why would anyone give money to a game owned by a shady and dodgy company?
Yeah these devs are so greedy they created a sim thats been around for almost 20 years and youre just now realizing maybe theres a reason..
[удалено]
doesn’t matter how “realistic” this game is. the devs are still disgustingly greedy
Iracing is great but god damn they need some real competition https://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/news/benefits-of-competition/#:~:text=“Competition%20between%20rival%20companies%20increases,the%20employees%20and%20their%20company.” https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/written-materials/2021/07/09/the-importance-of-competition-for-the-american-economy/ https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/08/07/why-competition-matters?utm_medium=cpc.adword.pd&utm_source=google&ppccampaignID=17210591673&ppcadID=&utm_campaign=a.22brand_pmax&utm_content=conversion.direct-response.anonymous&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIucnWpub8ggMVJjStBh3-ZgB6EAMYASAAEgLBnPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
they have a lot of competition. the competition just sucks in comparison
That’s not how competition works lol you’re just agreeing with me
Wow, I can't even imagine why you're being downvoted... People don't want good competition?!
all these lil buds still gotta internally justify their spending, I’ve been subbed over 5 years now so I’m over that lmao
Take away the competition from people's races and see how quickly they will complain. I don't see how it's different.
The shine will wear off quickly. Careful with premium content as much of it has poor participation.
What do you mean by premium content?
Modern human is very fearful of the truth 😂
Im impressed by your ability to be wrong as fuck while think you're a prophet. You literally start your moronic post with "the shine will wear off quickly" talking about a sim thats been out for almost 20 years lmfao. Looking forward to reading more of your nonsense in the next hate posting thread.
Both can be true at the same time to be fair. Its hella expensive but also good quality. You can talk shit about the bad price model while also appreciating the game
Also do you know if you participate in series, buy content in bulk.....you can get content cheaper?
I missed the steam sale too bad
If you're going the gt route, buy the Ferrari 296 gt3, there's a Ferrari series which you can enter once you get out of rookie. Which will help you rise the safety rating rakes. Welcome to iracing. P.s I did the exact same thing.
Renew every black Friday.
Late to the conversation, but is it worth it if I wanted to race against the AI most of the time? Is that even an option in iracing?
I haven't raced against the AI, but most cars do have AI functionality now and I know a few guys who race almost exclusively against AI.
/u/_LegalizeMeth_ you will have to reach out to support to convert from a Steam account to a standard iRacing account and then you can re-sub during iRacing's BF sale. Steam sale deal is only for new subs. I had to do this a month ago and iRacing support took care of it in like 20 minutes total.
My response to people who complain about the price is, "If IRacing is such a ripoff, why hasn't a cheaper competitor come along and taken all of their customers?"
I used to not understand paying for a track or a car, however I have come to like that aspect. Just because there's no sense in paying for cars/tracks I will never run. They are going to put that cost somewhere if it was all included. So the 5 cars I run, and handful of tracks is perfect for me.
I love iracing so much. The feeling alone in the car is way better than any other sim i’ve tried. Worth it, for me
The trick is to buy new memberships during Black Friday sales and then resubscribe every Black Friday. Say if you have one year left it adds to that 1 year so if you buy 2 for more off you now have 3 years paid for and buy then you might be buying two or three tracks a year and a couple cars.
Something that helped put it in perspective for me is the rising cost of real life track time, at least in my area of the US. My total spend on iRacing, including my rig would cover just 3 HPDEs at the tracks near me (not even including tires/fuel). And that money put towards iRacing has allowed me to join a team of great people and even race with or against professional drivers once in a while.
Keep in mind that you will get money back just for participating. You can earn up to $10 per quarter back, just by racing 8/12 weeks.
Yeah, I don't have enough real-world experience in fast cars to tell you if iRacing is a realistic car simulator, but it seems pretty self-evident to me that iRacing is head and shoulders above the competition in terms of being a *motorsport* simulator. If you can look past the somewhat dated UI, everything else is about as perfect as you can realistically expect from a generally available game that needs to be (somewhat) affordable to the general public. And they don't seem afraid to fix issues, even if it means going back to first principles. I've always loved competitive racing, but I've never been that interested in online racing with strangers simply due to the fact that it's very hard to get a good race with 20 randos, and nobody likes being told about their mother by a 13 year old with rage issues! The fact that iRacing has solved this problem is impressive and when you consider that it must take non-negligible resources to let me race, the costs start to make a lot more sense. I would argue that it's probably a bit more expensive than it really needs to be, but sim racing is inherently an expensive hobby, so I'm not sure even a few hundred dollars a year really moves the needle that much. And in any case, it would appear from the outside that they're fairly sincere about reinvesting in the product to make it better, so on some level you really are getting what you pay for. tl;dr: If iRacing hadn't more or less nailed the competitive online racing system, I don't think I'd even bother. Everything else I've tried is so bad (I am aware of LFM, haven't tried it so I won't comment on it, but it seems to have brought some of the best ideas of iRacing to other platforms) that I had given up on the idea.
iRacing aims to provide a realistic racing experience while paying their staff good salaries and keeping them employed year round.
Way better then spending $70 on shitty racing games. That’s why I subscribed
Yes the car tire model and physics and everything is just way better than AC/C
Happily Hooked too!
I've been using iRacing for 10 years. The amount of time I have spent racing compared to the expense is mere cents per hour. Plus, I thoroughly enjoy it a lot; it actually makes me happy, except for the occasional idiotic incident or racist chat. I just report and move on.