iRacing Review

  • Thread starter 440Music
  • 10 comments
  • 3,663 views
1
United States
Chicago
First Rating the game then I'll give a personal review on the Fun Factor and cost.

Game Play - 9
Fun Factor - 4
Cost - 1

iRacing is the most expensive game I own and in a few months if I want to continue I'll pay $100 for another year. If you can afford to spend $200 a year for a racing game please adopt me I can't. I committed to 1 year membership and after 3 months finally drove the stinking Mazda MX 5 and graduated to the Cadillac and Kia. The first week I was able to drive a decent car the track was one that came with the game but the next 6 weeks if I want to drive I have to purchase a track. I pickup Seabring and the next week was Brands Hatch and I love the track so no question I purchased a second track so now I spend my extra money for the next 2 months not so bad I would recover but then the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th weeks tracks that don't come with the basic membership.

I honestly can't find anything good about iRacing plus I still have NASCAR Racing Season and tons of mods and tracks. NASCAR Racing Season also has a server where I can run the tracks I want and drive cars I like and the game play is just as good as iRacing or maybe I should call them iThiefing they seem to take, take , take and support is less then helpful.
 
Thread says review .... Really just a pricing rant .... Just be honest, all you wanted to do was moan about pricing, you don't need to try and disguise it as a 'review'.

Be thankful you are not in NZ ... After exchange rates and credit card fees etc, a single car will cost over $20 NZD (and that's after my 40+ Pieces 20% discount too).
 
Yes, iRacing is expensive. I thought that was understood already.

Did you not know that going in? Not trying to be a jerk or anything - I'm new to iRacing as well but I knew the costs involved before I decided to jump in. I feel you get a lot with that cost though, and it seems you don't feel it's worth it.

Totally understand.

I like the fact that I can run a car or series I like at anytime and there are always people to race with, plus, I joined a league awhile back and run GT4s on Monday night. Next season we're moving to the GT3 cars - so I will have to either run one of the two I have or buy the car (and subsequent tracks I don't have) I want to race in the next season. I don't much care for the pricing either, truth be told, but I also haven't bought a game since I joined back in March, I usually averaged a new game (for PS4 or Xbox) a month on consoles.

I bought GTSport and have maybe an hour in the game, maybe... If you want to try another sim possibly ACC or Automobilista 2 would be more to your liking.

Maybe give one of the iRacing leagues a shot - they're a lot of fun. I'm pretty much towards the back but I'm also one of only like three C license drivers in the series. Have had a few mistakes, but also had a few top 15 finishes (in a 45 min race with pit stop mandatory) and that feels pretty good. Our last race for this season is this Monday night at Belle Isle Detroit - should be interesting. :lol:
 
Give me an example of first season costs outside of the initial membership? If I really get into it and start consistently racing what will I spend?

Personally I just want to know and didn't see anything on the iRacing site but haven't looked deeply. I'm looking at the whole sim racing thing as way cheaper than doing real track days and auto racing. It's something I would have loved to have done in life but never really got the chance as my parents were highly opposed and then by the time I could do it on my own I realized what a money sink cars and track days/racing in general are. Now at 44 I have the money to do it in real life but would rather go ride my mountain bike so won't pursue but being able to do it on high quality sim without any of the maintenance time and work, trailering or driving to and from tracks sounds great to me.

I bought a Logitech G920 to just get started but really that just gives me time to research my cockpit and equipment choices. Also will need to get a new PC. I realize I'm looking at probably at least $4k to get a decent setup. Still way cheaper than any real racing.
 
Give me an example of first season costs outside of the initial membership? If I really get into it and start consistently racing what will I spend?

So let's say you get through the rookie content and you want to race, say, GT4 (IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge) based on 2020 Season 3 (the current season).

You'll need a car, and either the BMW or the Porsche will be able to be used in other series. Cars are generally $12.

There are 13 weeks of racing, two of the weeks are run on free tracks. However, scoring is only done on your best 9 I believe, so you can choose whether you want to buy anywhere from 7 to 11 tracks. If you do your research with what other series you want to run in the future and what tracks are most popular, you'll definitely get to run these in extra series. Tracks are between $12 and $15.

So:
Car = $12
Tracks = Somewhere between $84 and $165
You also get a 15% discount for buying 6 or more pieces of content at once.
Total = Somewhere between $81.60 and $152.25.

It is expensive, but the first time you'll probably spend an entire season running just that one series. If you want variety, you can still run MX5s or rookie oval content and not feel out of place because everyone does it. MX5s especially, they're fun and competitive even when you've been racing for years, and I believe next season they're also making some more tracks and cars free so that will help.

Realistically, you'll spend about $100 on your first series. The next one you go into you'll probably find you already own half the tracks so it'll be more like $50-60. Eventually you own 40 pieces of content and you get a permanent 20% discount (no, it doesn't stack). And you end up like me where I've probably spent $500 on content but over like 8 years, and now when I want to run a new series I basically only need to buy a car and maybe a track or two.

It's worth mentioning also that you can earn "credits" from racing. If you race in 9 of the 13 weeks of a season you will get credits, $4 for a lower level series and $7 for a higher level series, to a cap of $10 per season. Four seasons per year, so technically you can "earn" $40 of content per year just from racing, which you were going to do anyway. I've done enough to get my $10 for this season, so I'll probably be getting the USF2000 because I want to start moving up in open wheelers.

I bought a Logitech G920 to just get started but really that just gives me time to research my cockpit and equipment choices. Also will need to get a new PC. I realize I'm looking at probably at least $4k to get a decent setup. Still way cheaper than any real racing.

Depends what you call decent. If you want a built cockpit, direct drive wheel and triple screens/VR with ultra settings, you could easily spend that or more. But I'd say you can get a perfectly decent PC for $1000-1500, a cockpit for <$500 (or knock something together out of wood like I did), and just use your G920 which is a perfectly good wheel. I reckon you could be in the door with a solid setup and a good amount of content on iRacing for well less than $2000, if you wished. And if you find yourself addicted, it much easier to then justify further spending a bit at a time.
 
So let's say you get through the rookie content and you want to race, say, GT4 (IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge) based on 2020 Season 3 (the current season).

You'll need a car, and either the BMW or the Porsche will be able to be used in other series. Cars are generally $12.

There are 13 weeks of racing, two of the weeks are run on free tracks. However, scoring is only done on your best 9 I believe, so you can choose whether you want to buy anywhere from 7 to 11 tracks. If you do your research with what other series you want to run in the future and what tracks are most popular, you'll definitely get to run these in extra series. Tracks are between $12 and $15.

So:
Car = $12
Tracks = Somewhere between $84 and $165
You also get a 15% discount for buying 6 or more pieces of content at once.
Total = Somewhere between $81.60 and $152.25.

It is expensive, but the first time you'll probably spend an entire season running just that one series. If you want variety, you can still run MX5s or rookie oval content and not feel out of place because everyone does it. MX5s especially, they're fun and competitive even when you've been racing for years, and I believe next season they're also making some more tracks and cars free so that will help.

Realistically, you'll spend about $100 on your first series. The next one you go into you'll probably find you already own half the tracks so it'll be more like $50-60. Eventually you own 40 pieces of content and you get a permanent 20% discount (no, it doesn't stack). And you end up like me where I've probably spent $500 on content but over like 8 years, and now when I want to run a new series I basically only need to buy a car and maybe a track or two.

It's worth mentioning also that you can earn "credits" from racing. If you race in 9 of the 13 weeks of a season you will get credits, $4 for a lower level series and $7 for a higher level series, to a cap of $10 per season. Four seasons per year, so technically you can "earn" $40 of content per year just from racing, which you were going to do anyway. I've done enough to get my $10 for this season, so I'll probably be getting the USF2000 because I want to start moving up in open wheelers.



Depends what you call decent. If you want a built cockpit, direct drive wheel and triple screens/VR with ultra settings, you could easily spend that or more. But I'd say you can get a perfectly decent PC for $1000-1500, a cockpit for <$500 (or knock something together out of wood like I did), and just use your G920 which is a perfectly good wheel. I reckon you could be in the door with a solid setup and a good amount of content on iRacing for well less than $2000, if you wished. And if you find yourself addicted, it much easier to then justify further spending a bit at a time.


This is "sorta" accurate... again, it is expensive - but you have to remember that you get quite a bit of content when you sign up.
You could race a lot with what you get when you sign up and pay the initial yearly or two-year deal.

For instance, in the example above, about running the GT4 season, you get the Porsche Caymen 718 GT4 car when you sign up - so you technically wouldn't have to buy a car, you already have one. Plus, I think I had 4 or 5 tracks so you would only buy the ones you don't have... not all of them. And you don't have to buy them all at once, you can spread it out over however many weeks, because iRacing only runs the one track a week.

And again, you really only "have" to buy what you don't have and WANT to race. There is quite a bit of content with sign-up. And here is the discount breakdown...

3 pieces of content = 10% discount (so 3-5 pieces)

6 pieces of content = 15% discount

Buy every piece of content = 30% discount on the whole package (expensive...)

If you own 40 pieces of content (so, once you've purchased 40 items) you will always get 20% on any following purchase, even if you buy just 1 item.

Hope that helps! 👍
 
For instance, in the example above, about running the GT4 season, you get the Porsche Caymen 718 GT4 car when you sign up - so you technically wouldn't have to buy a car, you already have one.

Really? Is that a sign up bonus with a code? Because I had to buy it at the start of the season and it's not on the list on the website.

https://www.iracing.com/membership/

Plus, I think I had 4 or 5 tracks so you would only buy the ones you don't have... not all of them.

The Season 3 series for GT4 only used Charlotte and Lime Rock. If you had more than those two already then you bought them or got them as part of a specific sign up deal.

https://www.irbg.net/Home/Series/2832
 
Really? Is that a sign up bonus with a code? Because I had to buy it at the start of the season and it's not on the list on the website.

https://www.iracing.com/membership/



The Season 3 series for GT4 only used Charlotte and Lime Rock. If you had more than those two already then you bought them or got them as part of a specific sign up deal.

https://www.irbg.net/Home/Series/2832

Probably did... I don't remember specifically - I did sign and pay for the two-year deal. That may have been it, but I know I had the GT4 Porsche, I wanted to drive the BMW and had to buy that one, but already had the Cayman. :lol: Weird. I dunno. I did have a code, don't remember what or where I got it. And maybe didn't have it - sometimes you buy a random car or track because you need one more item for the discount.

I wasn't trying to prove you wrong - just that you didn't have to spend the amount you stated all at once. A person could buy things over the course of the entire season if needed, which would be about 3 months, using the multi-piece discount to make it more reasonable.
Not to mention I was buying at least a game a month for the consoles, at least. Now I haven't bought but one game since I got two games for my PC... they are just so much better. I got iRacing, ACC, and MotoGP 20.

btw, sorry if you thought I was trying to make it sound like you didn't know what you were talking about - your assessment is pretty much spot on. 👍
 
Great replies, thanks guys! I received my G920 last night along with a GT Omega wheel stand. I set up everything with a nice armchair (not recliner) and started up Assetto Corsa which I had downloaded the previous night. Wow the wheel makes such a difference and really lets one practice actual driving instead of the imprecise chaos that is driving with a controller. Unfortunately the wheel came at 7pm so I only got 30 minutes or so of driving. My kids at 5 and 8 also were incredibly excited and both got to try. My 5 year son old actually proceeded with more caution on the throttle than my 8 yo daughter which I thought was surprising. They didn't not want to stop which is telling. Anyway I can't wait to dig in more. I'll probably check out iRacing after I get some time in on AC, Wreckfest and maybe Forza 7 if I decide to buy it. I can buy some more ram to get at least 16gb for my 7 yr old pc to get iRacing going which I might try. According to their requirements it just needs some more ram.

Depends what you call decent. If you want a built cockpit, direct drive wheel and triple screens/VR with ultra settings, you could easily spend that or more. But I'd say you can get a perfectly decent PC for $1000-1500, a cockpit for <$500 (or knock something together out of wood like I did), and just use your G920 which is a perfectly good wheel. I reckon you could be in the door with a solid setup and a good amount of content on iRacing for well less than $2000, if you wished. And if you find yourself addicted, it much easier to then justify further spending a bit at a time.

Yeah, I am starting to realize that I could definitely do it and do it well for much less than that 4k figure. The G920 is nice and I'm surprised based off what I've read but I do feel the gear lash. It's not offputting but I can see how there are definitely wheels out there that are markedly nicer. Always other things to spend money on so I'm not just searching to blow a lot right away but do appreciate quality. What I have now is 80% of the way for 20% of the cost.

So far this is all on a Samsung 65" QLED tv with 240hz refresh. Reminds me that I need to try the gaming mode.
 
A little late to this thread but I agree with some of you. Yes iRacing is expensive if you buy all the content. I have 9 1/2 years in the service and I am one of the many 100% content owners. It does two things owning all the content, first, even though I am strictly a road racer. It's fun to drive a NASCAR 800 HP car, even if it's only to turn left. lol. I can jump in one of the many cars that are fun to drive and perhaps I am not ready to race yet,

Secondly it helps to support the service, iRacing is heads and tails above any racing platform available out there. With a 12 week schedule and on week 13 the engineers update the software, so every 12 weeks you get an updated game. That's better then anything on the market, period.
 
Last edited:
Back