So I've been playing this game since December 2010, and man has it been a ride.
I started because everything i read or heard about the game was positive for so long... but for about a year or so that pretty much went in one ear and out the other. But looking back I would have joined Day 1 of 2008 if I had known this was going to be my new hobby going on years now.
Probably the worst thing about iRacing is they don't let you try or test-drive anything before you buy, luckily its not that expensive to at least give it a try. Its about 9-12 dollars to try a month, some promotions offer a free month for 12 dollars which is how I started. Different packages promote different cars, but generally most of the (included) content is the same.... Start with the intention of spending as little as possible to wet your feet, if you don't know in the first few weeks than make sure not to let them auto-renew anything on your CC... I honestly think you can change this yourself in your account settings but I can't remember.... I knew within a few days just by the level of challenge that I was getting hooked but that might not happen for everyone.
at first you don't or at least shouldn't be spending much money as you adjust to the rookie racing series available to you with the initial included content... its something like 6 cars and 8 tracks.....if your not even a week in to this thing and already looking to buy more cars you need to reassess your priorities... because once you have spend a ton of money buying everything it will be clear how hard it is to stay competitive in even a few cars or even just one depending on your amount of free time. iRacing is so much more about the experience of racing than which particular car your driving anyway. Do yourself a favor and learn to heel toe with a clutch if you can, it will aid you in many ways down the line and its more fun, I would absolutely still play this 2 pedaled with a DFGT if I had no choice but clutch is the best way.
Now the racing as a rookie is tough, mainly because even if you manage to be a safe driver there are plenty of people who aren't willing to be safe or don't know how. I would say about 1/4th of the drivers are good enough in the rookie series (this is being generous) to the point you can pass them or race them without incident... that's just a guess but this ratio gets better as your rank improves and you are placed with better drivers... but this ratio is NEVER going to be everyone on the track... just one out of 24 bad drivers can cause a lot of carnage. The accidents have huge consequences compared to what GT players or even players of just about any other game are used to. Its probably the best and worst thing about iRacing... my personal worst streak is something like 13 DNF's ... It can be frustrating but its also what makes iRacing what it is. Without the consequences the intensity of racing just isn't there.... so what I'm getting at is you really need to take a safety first approach and don't expect to be able to race every driver in the same fashion. Here is where you first start to see how different iRacing is than everything else and how you can start to see the different personalities of the drivers by how they race. You can tell when drivers are confident and resolved, or nervous and intimidated... its brilliant. But the point is, you have to take the other drivers skill level into account when you race them and especially when you decide to pass them... its sometimes harder to safely pass a bad driver than a fast driver. It really seems like you have to adapt to the other drivers and the interaction while racing is what makes iRacing feel completely unlike any other game. Some battles are over quickly with one driver conceding the corner, while others seem to escalate and it becomes a matter of who is willing to risk more ...some drivers are slower than you and 'because of stubborn ego' will never let you by willing.. while others are quite easily intimidated to the point you can scare them into a mistake by racing them hard... its all punctuated by the ever present possibility of death (or at least a broke ass barely drivable car)... this hurts because unless you jump between a bunch of different series you can't race constantly. The races are at scheduled times, you wait... you join, get all worked up and can crash out at any moment. I assumed all of the times I got wrecked it was intentional but more often than not people are just bad drivers so don't go off the handle at everyone as if they did it on purpose (which is rare)
So the rookie series basically stick to those 8 tracks that come with your initial subscription... its a limited schedule that general repeats a few tracks every 4 weeks - but once you move up in skill and plan on running different series (different cars) be prepared for the fact that you need the tracks they race on. This is probably the biggest kick in the nuts once you move past the rookie series the intermediate series run a 12 week season, meaning a different track every week for each series (car).... so unless your willing to shell out for all those tracks or at least some of them your going to be spending some lonely weeks sitting out... YES its worth it and there can be many series that overlap and often use the same tracks but its also clear where iRacing's pricing strategy comes into play to make those dollars....
Judging from my 3 years (overall) I never really felt slighted beyond the (having to buy tracks) realization, just by the amount of improvements they've made over the years mainly the the physics model, but also the sounds, graphics etc. and the free content from time to time. Plus it always seems like they are trying to promote or offer discounts quite often... so if anything I've spent less and less as time goes on. Discounts like 2 years for the price of 1.... and recently I get 25% off all content for being a long time customer.... so all in all my experience has been positive. The only gripe I have is a lot of recent website outages... frequent unannounced downtime or website maintenance comes at a surprise right when I've been waiting all day to get online and bam... the website is down. Other than this recent hiccup its been outstanding.
Getting back to the racing....
Its outstanding! its continued to surprise and keep me interested for the last 3 years...
Road racing for me is where its at, the fun comes from the intensity of the racing. But the racing isn't intense if you can't hold your own and your getting passed by everyone or getting left in the dust. It does take quite a bit of investment in learning the tracks and getting your lap times down. Time trials suck but they are the best way to improve because your trying to minimize incidents while improving your speeds... its also a good idea to practice driving off-line because one of the first things you'll notice when racing real people is how much time you spend on parts of the track you never used when your alone and trying to put in a good time. Its extremely awkward to be suddenly squeezed or forced to the unfamiliar side of the track while taking it at full speed.
Oval VS Road.... unless you are already a NASCAR fan, please stay out of oval racing because its addicting has hell, the most fun you'll have with iRacing and worst of all... you gotta buy a bunch of circles to compete... some of the tracks are practically identical but you still gotta buy them.... but
It is without a doubt the most fun racing on the service. Is it the most challenging? No. Is it the most intense? No. But it is difficult, way more difficult than any NASCAR hater could imagine... and definitely your average uninitiated person is going to put a lot of cars into the wall or just generally be too slow to keep up until they get it right. It might even be more difficult to actually win an oval race than a road race, but in general participating is easier as there is less to get up to speed with than a road course. You race the other drivers more-so than the track and usually has a more social atmosphere than road racing.... in the heat of competition people tend to get quiet..whereas road racing they're almost always quite unless something bad happens - but there are many breaks in the action in Ovals and pace laps to mop up after accidents so there is tons of time to be social and its so much fun its hard to really care if you win or not... if you get top 5 its quite satisfying finish all those laps, survive accidents and get the car safely to the finish line. I didn't get into iRacing for the NASCAR nor am I a fan, I never liked it... for me its a guilty pleasure... its all the fun of racing people without the misery of time and work road courses take to learn.... you start to really get the oval bug and its so easy to leave road racing behind.
SO.....
if you want realistic competitive multiplayer racing this isn't the best, its really is honestly ALL THERE IS... and so far, even other games on PC that are starting to get the message and incorporate laser scanned tracks and realism don't have anywhere near the player base... you'll find great offline or single player track lapping in those games and some laggy-ass multiplayer but nothing like iRacing which offers about 2500-4000 players on average online daily... some of the series are less popular, meaning there are a few un-loved cars in iRacing that you should probably be aware of that are hard to get races in.... but there are also incredibly popular series that get hundreds of people for a each race....
I honestly would buy a computer to play this... I'll keep my old ass computer going as long as I can to keep playing it.
But in the end who should play this?....If you play video games more for competition than entertainment GET THIS - if you want the (in the moment) adrenaline rush of competition and to learn genuine racing skills.... if your not easily discouraged, and poor race results only motivate your more to be driving on track. This is the only game for you period.
but if your into gaming more for entertainment than competition than stick to games that offer better presentation, graphics and aren't this focused. Say what you will about Gran Turismo or Forza .. or even NFS... they offer the graphics arms race ... the hundreds of cars to test and try...and alot of laid back social online play and entertainment. GT5 and GT6 have Karting, Rally driving, drifting, time trials, online play, driving on the moon, etc... if you were stuck on an island with NO INTERNET you'd want GT6.... not iRacing...
but for ONLINE - iRacing only offers racing.... the best racing and nothing more or less.
Practice, Qualify, Race ... nothing else.
I started because everything i read or heard about the game was positive for so long... but for about a year or so that pretty much went in one ear and out the other. But looking back I would have joined Day 1 of 2008 if I had known this was going to be my new hobby going on years now.
Probably the worst thing about iRacing is they don't let you try or test-drive anything before you buy, luckily its not that expensive to at least give it a try. Its about 9-12 dollars to try a month, some promotions offer a free month for 12 dollars which is how I started. Different packages promote different cars, but generally most of the (included) content is the same.... Start with the intention of spending as little as possible to wet your feet, if you don't know in the first few weeks than make sure not to let them auto-renew anything on your CC... I honestly think you can change this yourself in your account settings but I can't remember.... I knew within a few days just by the level of challenge that I was getting hooked but that might not happen for everyone.
at first you don't or at least shouldn't be spending much money as you adjust to the rookie racing series available to you with the initial included content... its something like 6 cars and 8 tracks.....if your not even a week in to this thing and already looking to buy more cars you need to reassess your priorities... because once you have spend a ton of money buying everything it will be clear how hard it is to stay competitive in even a few cars or even just one depending on your amount of free time. iRacing is so much more about the experience of racing than which particular car your driving anyway. Do yourself a favor and learn to heel toe with a clutch if you can, it will aid you in many ways down the line and its more fun, I would absolutely still play this 2 pedaled with a DFGT if I had no choice but clutch is the best way.
Now the racing as a rookie is tough, mainly because even if you manage to be a safe driver there are plenty of people who aren't willing to be safe or don't know how. I would say about 1/4th of the drivers are good enough in the rookie series (this is being generous) to the point you can pass them or race them without incident... that's just a guess but this ratio gets better as your rank improves and you are placed with better drivers... but this ratio is NEVER going to be everyone on the track... just one out of 24 bad drivers can cause a lot of carnage. The accidents have huge consequences compared to what GT players or even players of just about any other game are used to. Its probably the best and worst thing about iRacing... my personal worst streak is something like 13 DNF's ... It can be frustrating but its also what makes iRacing what it is. Without the consequences the intensity of racing just isn't there.... so what I'm getting at is you really need to take a safety first approach and don't expect to be able to race every driver in the same fashion. Here is where you first start to see how different iRacing is than everything else and how you can start to see the different personalities of the drivers by how they race. You can tell when drivers are confident and resolved, or nervous and intimidated... its brilliant. But the point is, you have to take the other drivers skill level into account when you race them and especially when you decide to pass them... its sometimes harder to safely pass a bad driver than a fast driver. It really seems like you have to adapt to the other drivers and the interaction while racing is what makes iRacing feel completely unlike any other game. Some battles are over quickly with one driver conceding the corner, while others seem to escalate and it becomes a matter of who is willing to risk more ...some drivers are slower than you and 'because of stubborn ego' will never let you by willing.. while others are quite easily intimidated to the point you can scare them into a mistake by racing them hard... its all punctuated by the ever present possibility of death (or at least a broke ass barely drivable car)... this hurts because unless you jump between a bunch of different series you can't race constantly. The races are at scheduled times, you wait... you join, get all worked up and can crash out at any moment. I assumed all of the times I got wrecked it was intentional but more often than not people are just bad drivers so don't go off the handle at everyone as if they did it on purpose (which is rare)
So the rookie series basically stick to those 8 tracks that come with your initial subscription... its a limited schedule that general repeats a few tracks every 4 weeks - but once you move up in skill and plan on running different series (different cars) be prepared for the fact that you need the tracks they race on. This is probably the biggest kick in the nuts once you move past the rookie series the intermediate series run a 12 week season, meaning a different track every week for each series (car).... so unless your willing to shell out for all those tracks or at least some of them your going to be spending some lonely weeks sitting out... YES its worth it and there can be many series that overlap and often use the same tracks but its also clear where iRacing's pricing strategy comes into play to make those dollars....
Judging from my 3 years (overall) I never really felt slighted beyond the (having to buy tracks) realization, just by the amount of improvements they've made over the years mainly the the physics model, but also the sounds, graphics etc. and the free content from time to time. Plus it always seems like they are trying to promote or offer discounts quite often... so if anything I've spent less and less as time goes on. Discounts like 2 years for the price of 1.... and recently I get 25% off all content for being a long time customer.... so all in all my experience has been positive. The only gripe I have is a lot of recent website outages... frequent unannounced downtime or website maintenance comes at a surprise right when I've been waiting all day to get online and bam... the website is down. Other than this recent hiccup its been outstanding.
Getting back to the racing....
Its outstanding! its continued to surprise and keep me interested for the last 3 years...
Road racing for me is where its at, the fun comes from the intensity of the racing. But the racing isn't intense if you can't hold your own and your getting passed by everyone or getting left in the dust. It does take quite a bit of investment in learning the tracks and getting your lap times down. Time trials suck but they are the best way to improve because your trying to minimize incidents while improving your speeds... its also a good idea to practice driving off-line because one of the first things you'll notice when racing real people is how much time you spend on parts of the track you never used when your alone and trying to put in a good time. Its extremely awkward to be suddenly squeezed or forced to the unfamiliar side of the track while taking it at full speed.
Oval VS Road.... unless you are already a NASCAR fan, please stay out of oval racing because its addicting has hell, the most fun you'll have with iRacing and worst of all... you gotta buy a bunch of circles to compete... some of the tracks are practically identical but you still gotta buy them.... but
It is without a doubt the most fun racing on the service. Is it the most challenging? No. Is it the most intense? No. But it is difficult, way more difficult than any NASCAR hater could imagine... and definitely your average uninitiated person is going to put a lot of cars into the wall or just generally be too slow to keep up until they get it right. It might even be more difficult to actually win an oval race than a road race, but in general participating is easier as there is less to get up to speed with than a road course. You race the other drivers more-so than the track and usually has a more social atmosphere than road racing.... in the heat of competition people tend to get quiet..whereas road racing they're almost always quite unless something bad happens - but there are many breaks in the action in Ovals and pace laps to mop up after accidents so there is tons of time to be social and its so much fun its hard to really care if you win or not... if you get top 5 its quite satisfying finish all those laps, survive accidents and get the car safely to the finish line. I didn't get into iRacing for the NASCAR nor am I a fan, I never liked it... for me its a guilty pleasure... its all the fun of racing people without the misery of time and work road courses take to learn.... you start to really get the oval bug and its so easy to leave road racing behind.
SO.....
if you want realistic competitive multiplayer racing this isn't the best, its really is honestly ALL THERE IS... and so far, even other games on PC that are starting to get the message and incorporate laser scanned tracks and realism don't have anywhere near the player base... you'll find great offline or single player track lapping in those games and some laggy-ass multiplayer but nothing like iRacing which offers about 2500-4000 players on average online daily... some of the series are less popular, meaning there are a few un-loved cars in iRacing that you should probably be aware of that are hard to get races in.... but there are also incredibly popular series that get hundreds of people for a each race....
I honestly would buy a computer to play this... I'll keep my old ass computer going as long as I can to keep playing it.
But in the end who should play this?....If you play video games more for competition than entertainment GET THIS - if you want the (in the moment) adrenaline rush of competition and to learn genuine racing skills.... if your not easily discouraged, and poor race results only motivate your more to be driving on track. This is the only game for you period.
but if your into gaming more for entertainment than competition than stick to games that offer better presentation, graphics and aren't this focused. Say what you will about Gran Turismo or Forza .. or even NFS... they offer the graphics arms race ... the hundreds of cars to test and try...and alot of laid back social online play and entertainment. GT5 and GT6 have Karting, Rally driving, drifting, time trials, online play, driving on the moon, etc... if you were stuck on an island with NO INTERNET you'd want GT6.... not iRacing...
but for ONLINE - iRacing only offers racing.... the best racing and nothing more or less.
Practice, Qualify, Race ... nothing else.
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I'm an addict.
👍👍👍 Anyways when I first started out, I remember 1 race were I ended up passing a guy "in the rookie mazda cup car" on the corner as clean as possible, put me in first place on the last lap and he decided he was going to take his anger out on me and rammed me off the track. Now I know rubbin is racing but this guy did it outta spite. You see yes it is a gamble going into a race and you hope for the best, but there were only 2 races were I was taken out deliberately. You can report them and I'm pretty sure the mods go over the footage and stuff. I still love the racing, it gets your adrenalin going and it feels like no other. Plus you get to meet some really cool people who will help you and give you great advise.
