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 What is iRacing? iRacing is the absolute best place to race against real people online. iRacing is basically a racing MMO that tracks every single race you run and rates you based on skill and, most importantly, safety. The tracks and cars are laser scanned. A new car and track are generally released every few months. You pay a monthly fee and race with your real name. The payoff is that, if you stick with it past the first 20 or 30 races in rookies, you'll be racing against other people who've done the same thing and that you can trust to control a car and run a relatively clean race. It's incredibly rewarding to run side by side in an F1 car through Eu Rouge at Spa or door to door in a 900 horsepower stock car at Darlington. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7d9Zlj9OH4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vZ4iiRSMWY There are plenty of big names in real world racing that stop by for a race now and then, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., Bobby Labonte, Will Power, Joey Lagano, and Cristiano da Matta. Much more common are guys in the local racing scene. If you run a race in a Legends car, you can bet one or two of the guys in the race are going out to go race the real thing that weekend.  IRCThere are always racing nerds in #racinggoons on irc.synIRC.net. Jump in to ask stupid questions. There are usually people there willing to spot or jump into a practice. Mumble We've been using the Goonrathi Mumble while racing. There's a channel buried in there somewhere that has to do with turning left or Tony Stewart killing people or something. If you get lost, go to IRC. mumble.goonrathi.com 64738 mellon Licenses and Safety Rating The license system and safety rating are what make iRacing work. Every time you are involved in an incident, you get demerits. One point for going off track, two points for spinning by yourself, and four points for crashing into another car. It is a no fault system. This means that, if you you get rear ended by someone whose cat pissed on his brake pedal, you get the same 4x that you'd get for wrecking the entire field on a race start. The system works well for a few reasons.
As you gain safety rating, you'll progress through the licenses from rookie, D, C, B, and A separately in oval and road racing. It's true that the most difficult cars are A class (Williams-Toyota FW31 F1 and NASCAR Sprint Cup cars,) but aiming to fly up through the licenses for the sake of progressing is a mistake. I'm A class in both road and oval, but my most common races are in the Skip Barber D class road series and one of the two C class oval series (IndyCar and NASCAR trucks.) I gained safety rating as a natural part of doing clean races and would do my mandatory races to level up once I already had a high enough safety rating. There are hundreds or words written about exactly how safety rating works, but the gist is that your SR will be a number from 1.0 to 4.99 with a letter. It is calculated based on your incident points per corner. D 4.0 = C 3.0 = B 2.0. Getting to 3.0 makes you eligible to promote to the next level at season's end. 4.0 will promote you immediately. 2.0 at season's end will drop you down. 1.0 will drop you immediately. For the curious, it took me 37 oval races and 60 road races to get up to A, along with probably half as many qualifying sessions and time trials. The difference in number is because I did road first and was much more consistent and comfortable when I finally climbed the oval ladder this year. Cost The truth is that this is a subscription-based game with loads of DLC. The good news is that you can get started for $6 for a month or $15 for three months, and all of the rookie series run free cars and tracks. Extra tracks are $15 and cars $12. Once you get out of rookies, you'll probably want to spend $12 on a car and $30 or $40 on tracks to run most of a full 12 week season. There are bulk purchase deals and occasional game credit deals to save 10-30%. Controls You'll also need a steering wheel. You may be able to run a few races with a gamepad, but realistically you're going to want at least a $100 steering wheel. The best bang for buck would be a Logitech G27 that can usually be found new for $220-$250. Tyler Hudson, the reigning champion of the NASCAR-sponsored pro stock car series, uses that same wheel with a triple monitor setup, so that's the highest you should realistically aim to spend. Crazy people spend a lot more! PC specs required Any Windows, Mac, or Linux computer with 2+ gigs of RAM that can run a four year old game. There are lots of settings to make things as pretty as the above videos, but this game has been around for six years and can be run on almost anything. The Linux client is not officially supported, but goon ColdPie made the port and can and should be hassled about it. What cars/tracks are there? There are currently 42 cars and 69 tracks. Membership comes with seven free cars and ten free tracks. Rookie series The basic rookie cars are the Mazda MX-5 on the road side and the Street Stock on ovals.   The MX-5 cycles through Lime Rock, Summit Point, Okayama, Laguna Seca, and occasionally Charlotte's road course each week. Street Stock bounces between USA International and Charlotte. Rookie success is all about wreck avoidance. If you're going through rookies, either road or oval, the following video series is mandatory viewing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqsKm8irA7U Series popularity The downside of iRacing having as many cars as it does is the lack of participation in some series. If your heart is set on racing the classic Lotus 49 or Silver Crown, both amazingly fun cars, you should be prepared to only find official races on the weekends. There's no lack of racing to be found any time of day on iRacing, but you have to know what series to run if you want 24/7 competition. The smaller series are a lot of fun to race on the weekends with familiar faces, but it's also nice to be able to race at 2 AM on a Tuesday night. Most popular series GT3 - B class - road - Touring cars. Example race. This series features the McLaren MP4-12C, the Ruf Rt 12 (read: 997 Porsche 911 with no Porsche branding $$$), the BMW Z4, and the Ford GT.     Skip Barber - D class - road. Example race. I'll argue that the Skip Barber car is the most important car to buy. The car was designed for the Skip Barber Racing School. It's moderately powered, challenging to control, and has great feedback and predictability. The racing is close and often cleaner than the higher road series. It will teach you to be a better driver more than any other car. It has a handful of setup options that will ease you into configuring a car without being overwhelming (spring perch, tire pressures, roll bar stiffness, and fuel load.) The community is very active and willing to teach newbies. This is my favorite series. MC Fruit Stripe posted:I'm going to be honest - I bought the Skip Barber car on the basis of the OP and discussion in this thread, and I have hated every single moment of driving it. It is a doriftu masterpiece. I have no idea what is happening at any time, and I spend the entire race on the precipice of disaster. MC Fruit Stripe two weeks later posted:God drat I love the Skip motherfucking Barber, that's all I have to say on that subject. Down to 1st for the entry to two, quick blip of throttle on exit, turn in, quick lift, back scoots out a little, full throttle and we're outta here. Ahhhhh, that's the stuff.  NASCAR trucks - C class - oval - fixed setup. Example race. This is the point at oval racing where races still run every hour for most of the day, but going any higher into B or A series means you have to race at one specific time per weeknight or on the weekends. These trucks run a good mix of speedways and short tracks and are the first place you'll see yellow flags and tire pit stops.  IndyCar - C class - oval - fixed setup. Example race. IndyCars on medium and long ovals. Brand new car this summer. What more do you need to know? These races run every two hours. It also has yellow flags and sometimes pit stops for tires. This series has some of the most exciting oval racing I've ever run, but the downside is that the races can turn into caution fests what with the open wheels and generally terrifying cars. I also find it difficult to sleep if I've run one of these races any time late at night.  Ringo Star Get posted:Fear turns to anger when you start getting a few races under your belt. You get mad at making mistakes or someone wrecks you off the track or from a first place finish. Then your anger turns to hate and you start to hate certain people as you see them in more and more races with you. You start to hate how either your wheel is crappy or you hate that a track has some bullshit corner. Your hate turns to suffering as you cry and break poo poo because you get into lovely splits and everyone wrecks you and all you can do is sit in your chair and watch youtube videos of other people racing and winning Fun Money in F1's and COTs and it gets televised on the internet on iRacing. ManicJason fucked around with this message at 00:33 on Jan 31, 2015 |
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May 19, 2014 12:52
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 02:58 |
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FAQ Is it worth trying iRacing without a wheel? If you have a game pad and the three month free deal in the top of the OP is still live, go for it! You're going to buy a wheel soon, I promise. How do you see other people's paint schemes? Install Trading Paints and run it whenever you race. That's it. Yes, everyone uses this same third party tool. It's effectively an official part of the game at this point. How do I get out of rookies? Stay clean until your safety rating gets to 3.0. You will instantly un-rookie-ify. What should I do in D ovals? Personally, I stayed in Street Stock until I got up to D 4.0. Once you're D 4.0+, you can race C cars like the Indycar and the NASCAR truck. Only buy the Late Model if you love short ovals and want to run Late Models no matter what. (There's nothing wrong with that!) How bad is the graphical racing line? Pretty bad. Turn it off ASAP and learn to find other marks around the track. Watch this video to see how a good driver learns a new track. Hint: He doesn't use the racing line. Do I need to use the clutch for X car? Unless it's the Spec Racer Ford, you probably don't need to clutch on upshifts. Downshifts depend. Here's a list of all transmission types in iRacing Why does it take so long to get my free car in the pits? By default, the game gives you new tires and fuel every pit stop, even if it's a pit stop that gave you a brand new car. Put the following into your app.ini to make iRacing default to no pit service. You'll have to manually select tires/fuel on the rare times you actually want them: code:  Random iRacing blooper playlist
ManicJason fucked around with this message at 22:57 on Feb 23, 2016 |
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May 19, 2014 12:54
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Surprised there wasn't anything about Colby Vance in the OP.
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May 19, 2014 13:18
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 I wanna paint this car in addition to my SA themed car:  Edit: Site is back up, give them all your money! KingShibby fucked around with this message at 13:44 on May 19, 2014 |
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May 19, 2014 13:27
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iRacing is great fun, and I recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in auto racing. If you can get a free trial, it's too good to not try.
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May 19, 2014 14:58
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Speaking of free, I have a free three month code for whomever wants it (new accounts only)
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May 19, 2014 16:03
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Slickdrac posted:Speaking of free, I have a free three month code for whomever wants it (new accounts only) redacted Chaotic Neutral fucked around with this message at 12:00 on May 24, 2014 |
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May 19, 2014 16:14
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YES! DW12! no! my debit card's $1 short!
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May 19, 2014 16:17
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Hmm I don't know if I will get the dw12 All the videos people are posting for it are at Indy. Come on. Longpig Bard fucked around with this message at 17:06 on May 19, 2014 |
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May 19, 2014 16:53
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Chaotic Neutral posted:I just scraped up enough for a Driving Force GT as a birthday present to myself, and I've been thinking about trying to scrape up enough for iRacing too, so this would be mega rad if you've still got it. I'll toss it to you when I get home.
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May 19, 2014 17:13
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Bumming Your Scene posted:Hmm I don't know if I will get the dw12 They sped up the development to release it before the 500, so Indy is the only setup that works atm.
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May 19, 2014 17:35
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Bumming Your Scene posted:Hmm I don't know if I will get the dw12 Buying it will give you all 3 configurations (Speedway, Short Oval/Road, and Street) once they release the other 2 for Season 3. I ran a couple laps in it on my lunch break, and it's beautiful.
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May 19, 2014 18:02
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ManicJason posted:I also find it difficult to sleep if I've run one of these races any time late at night. I don't even drive the (now old) Indycar that much and it's really easy to get this feeling out of iRacing. It's kinda awesome. Thoroughly tempted to get the DW12, though I might just wait until the end of the season and see what else I should bundle with it.
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May 19, 2014 20:33
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I have the same problem with running trucks. The adrenaline from hanging on to a plastic wheel and turning left a bunch is pretty surprising. I've had some late night cool down gaming after running a fewer different tracks.
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May 19, 2014 20:41
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I wasnt gonna resub for Indy this year like I normally do... then i saw the DW12 came out. Hmmm. I watched a vid and the cars had custom skins, is that support built into the game now? Do I need a work around or somethin?
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May 19, 2014 21:15
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Cygni posted:I watched a vid and the cars had custom skins, is that support built into the game now? Do I need a work around or somethin? You use tradingpaints.com for custom paint schemes like mine for the old IndyCar 
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May 19, 2014 21:19
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ManicJason posted:The Linux client is not officially supported, but goon ColdPie made the port and can and should be hassled about it. The best place to hassle me is the official Mac or Linux forums at iRacing.com, or on IRC if you're a special flower. Also buy the Skippy and go join GoonCar.
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May 19, 2014 21:27
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Hey just curious, they have any intentions of introducing a rally series to this game?
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May 19, 2014 21:34
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iRacing is my favorite racing sim. I've tried other popular racing sims on the PC and none of them work and play anywhere close to as good as iRacing. I've always been able to just plug in my wheel and start playing and everything just works perfectly. That alone is worth the price of admission for me. I wish the subscription was dropped though, I would think iRacing would make just as much money if the barrier to entry was slightly lower. I usually just wait though for the 3 month or 12 month special deals that make subscriptions really cheap.
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May 19, 2014 21:47
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JG Wentworth posted:Hey just curious, they have any intentions of introducing a rally series to this game? No.
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May 19, 2014 21:51
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To expand on this - they have at least expressed interest in dirt oval racing, since some of the cars they already have in game also run on dirt tracks. The reality is that the complexity of the simulation (at least, to simulate it at the level the iRacing crew considers acceptable) goes through the roof when you have to model a much more dynamic track surface, so it's something that while they'd like to do it, I don't expect to see it, ever. Considering that doing such for a 1/4 mile oval seems to be much easier than for a multiple-mile rally course... yeah, not going to happen.
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May 19, 2014 21:55
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The whole "bought the old indycar within the last 90 days" thing is dumb. I might pick up the DW12 sometime.
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May 20, 2014 00:42
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I said come in! posted:iRacing is my favorite racing sim. I've tried other popular racing sims on the PC and none of them work and play anywhere close to as good as iRacing. I've always been able to just plug in my wheel and start playing and everything just works perfectly. That alone is worth the price of admission for me. I wish the subscription was dropped though, I would think iRacing would make just as much money if the barrier to entry was slightly lower. I usually just wait though for the 3 month or 12 month special deals that make subscriptions really cheap. Honestly, I love driving in iRacing but I've never felt as ripped off by a game before. Subscription fee plus outrageous prices for content, none of which is playable offline, no mods are possible, etc. Basically it has all the properties of games I normally refuse to buy due to anti-consumer practices, but I got sucked in after playing it a bunch at my friend's place and really enjoying it. Now that my wheel (which I got given for free from a generous friend) mysteriously broke and I can't afford to replace it, the oval content I bought is essentially useless, and I'm having some pretty severe buyer's remorse here. I still have fun tooling around in practice sessions with a PS3 controller, but when my sub runs out I probably won't re-sub. Turns out I really can't afford this hobby, and I wish I'd thought things through a little more before giving iRacing a bunch of money. For that reason I don't generally recommend iRacing to people interested in sim racing, but direct them to Assetto Corsa or Game Stock Car instead, because then they can see how they get on with the general idea of the genre without spending a lot of money.
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May 20, 2014 01:27
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If Truck races fire, then Nationwide races normally fire. Unless the Nationwide cars are at some stupid track and the C class are at a 1.5 miler. ManicJason posted:
It should be also said that if you like NASCAR this is the best NASCAR game around. The other most popular series is the iRacing NASCAR series which runs in sync with the real-life schedule offering 50% races normally a half a dozen times a week. If you wanna sit down and race stock cars against 29 other dudes for two hours on a Saturday night this is the place to do it. Upside is if you can keep it clean you'll probably run caution free after all the idiots wreck on lap 2.
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May 20, 2014 01:35
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Cojawfee posted:The whole "bought the old indycar within the last 90 days" thing is dumb. I might pick up the DW12 sometime. Agreed. There was no such length of ownership clause when they upgraded from the old NASCAR to the COT, was there? Or am I thinking COT to Gen6? I don't know, I can't keep track of all the ways the France family are ruining things.
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May 20, 2014 04:19
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thorsilver posted:Honestly, I love driving in iRacing but I've never felt as ripped off by a game before. Subscription fee plus outrageous prices for content, none of which is playable offline, no mods are possible, etc. Basically it has all the properties of games I normally refuse to buy due to anti-consumer practices, but I got sucked in after playing it a bunch at my friend's place and really enjoying it. Iracing pretty much get's away with all it's poo poo because there isn't really an alternative to a good online sim, or a good oval sim for that matter.
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May 20, 2014 08:02
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If a player could -- without paying the purchase price -- test drive other cars and tracks or watch races with those unowned cars/tracks, I think it would solve a number of gripes and improve revenue.
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May 20, 2014 08:18
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I'm already having fun with the DW12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwcid2L6Ko4
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May 20, 2014 09:47
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I was wondering if anyone knew the solution to this problem since I haven't gotten a solution from the iRacing forums: For a few specific cars (namely the skippy, although now the DW12) my wheel shakes violently all the time... and while there is some useful feedback/ground feel, it's so bad that when I hit a wall there is no noticeable feedback from the impact. I have an older wheel (Logitech DFP) but it works great on all the other cars including the other open-wheeler (Star Mazda). Any feedback? lol feedback I love the skippy and want to race in GoonCar but I stopped driving it because a single race fucks up my wrists for days. I can turn down/off the FFB but that's crappy too.
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May 20, 2014 10:15
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What are you FFB settings in Logitech Profiler?
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May 20, 2014 11:53
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ManicJason posted:I'm already having fun with the DW12. I thought this was real world indy racing footage the first time I watched it. 
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May 20, 2014 14:58
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LordPants posted:What are you FFB settings in Logitech Profiler? 
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May 20, 2014 16:38
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AgentCow007 posted:I was wondering if anyone knew the solution to this problem since I haven't gotten a solution from the iRacing forums: 1) Download this program: http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/downloadAttach/2216014.page 2) Run the program and choose the "Min Force" option for "Spring Force." 3) Look for the result on the bottom left "Your maximum value" and a number. 4) Set the resulting number as a percentage in the FFB section for the in-game options. 5) Adjust the in-game FFB strength to the global average for the car, or to the track average: http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/2023748.page#4695380 Full thread: http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/2023748.page
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May 20, 2014 17:04
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Bentai posted:If a player could -- without paying the purchase price -- test drive other cars and tracks or watch races with those unowned cars/tracks, I think it would solve a number of gripes and improve revenue. You can at least compete in any race as long as you own one of the cars in it, and have downloaded the other cars, and own the track. I don't know if you can watch races you don't own any of the cars for (you can download any car from the service without owning it). Tracks, yeah, you can't watch / test / anything unless you own the track.
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May 20, 2014 17:34
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Yeah I should have specified that I meant watching races for series where you don't own any of the content, or you have the cars but not the tracks. 
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May 20, 2014 17:55
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I am currently the quickest McLaren in qualifying!  Only 1.5s slower than the quickest BMW.
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May 20, 2014 18:27
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This video perfectly sums up iracing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6drOAvwl5E
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May 20, 2014 20:23
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Largepotato posted:This video perfectly sums up iracing. Yeah nothing to really disagree with here. That is very accurate.
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May 20, 2014 20:53
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Largepotato posted:This video perfectly sums up iracing. Precisely the reason why I start 90% of my road races from the pits
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May 20, 2014 20:56
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Great job on the new thread, as for newbies; if you like hyper realistic fun times get in on this. It's a blast and it's seriously the most adrenaline I've gotten out of a video game ever. I might come back one of these days as I have a DF-GT and Playseat just collecting dust, perhaps when I move into a house in August with more room I might try to get back in on it.
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May 20, 2014 22:00
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