The iRacing Question Thread

I'm contemplating wasting a bunch of time playing .... er I mean... investing the time required to hone my driving skills with iracing.

I've searched here and elsewhere but I can't find answers to some pretty basic questions. So if any of you iracing geeks want to help out a newbie, it would be appreciated.

1) So I have to buy every car and every track? How much are we talking to just buy every car and every track and be done with it? I really hate being nickled and dimed and I certainly don't want to be paying monthly for cars/tracks I never drive. Are we talking $100 or $1000? One time or monthly? What's the pricing model?

2) Can I just buy every car and track or do I have to qualify some way for higher performance cars?

3) Do I have to drive against others and join a league here? I looking to learn/play (in that order) I don't need a commitment. I just want to hop in the car of my choice on the track of my choice and thrash on it. I'm more interested in competing against myself than others.

4) What about guest drivers? I am looking to spend probably ~$5000 on a Sim. (unless I win the powerball in which case, Chris gets a visit ;-) I want to be able to throw a guest in an FW31 and put them on a track without it "going against my score" or similar.

In short I'm looking for the freedom of a video game, the experience/challenge of a simulator without breaking the bank or petty annoyances. Somehow I'm not sure iRacing fits this bill.

I probably have other newbie questions but I'll stop at these. If anyone else has questions, thread-jack away.

 

yes, you have to buy each car/track separately (some do come as standard, but not many). It's a one-time deal. I went nuts and bought almost everything and spent ~$350. now I just have to pay the subscription fee, or buy new cars/tracks as they come out, if I want them.

You can do test sessions and join/start hosted races with any car at any track, however they do not count towards your license. If you want to do the racing series (starting as a rookie and progressing through the ranks) you need to start with the slow cars and build your way up. there are no shortcuts through the licensing process, at least not that I know of.

you can let anyone drive on your account in test sessions/hosted races with no penalties, but I wouldn't let somebody else drive under my account in a race unless I thought they'd do better than I would

hope that helps! it's loads of fun. hopefully we'll see you out there

 

You could always lease a Motion Pro II Hehe, sorry couldn't help myself!

Chas hit it right on the nail. You won't be disappointed with iRacing.

 

Heh, $350 is crazy high if you compare it to rFactor et al... but if they did not exist I'd say it was cheap. ;-) I'll probably never crack $100 as what I want is limited.

Thanks guys

And Chris... Don't tempt me. I have 3 kids that need an education more than I need a toy that large. (it sucks being old and responsible)

 

Thanks for the thread. I was actually starting to look into iracing as well.

Recently bought a Fanatec steering wheel/pedals/mount to play GT5, and was potentially looking into iRacing as a way to get a little more use out of my wheel.

Unfortunately it looks like the price/value ratio is not in the positive for me currently. Can't justify spending >$300 + however much for the subscription to be able to take part in iRacing right now.

I would love to be able to go simulation driving at all the tracks I've done TT on, as well as all the tracks I wanted to go to, but never got the chance.

Life sucks being a grad student...

 

Well you can get 6 cars and 8 tracks for about 8 bucks a month. Really that's a bargain. Ya don't have to go crazy and buy every car. ;-)

 

for the quality you get both in terms of the service itself, which runs circles around anything else I've seen and the people on iracing (I routinely bump into professional racing drivers), it is a bargain. especially if you are content with the basic stuff, or only buy new cars/tracks as you need them for your license.

 

Actually... yeah... i would. It would bug me not having the complete set.

For sure I will continue to monitor iRacing casually until a time when it might make more sense for me to take the plunge.


Another question... what kind of hardware specs are people using to run iRacing? Right now I only have a laptop that does not have a dedicated graphics card, so I do not know if it would even run properly...

 

You are certainly going to want to run a desktop with a dedicated gfx card.

As for price, the entire rookie season of tracks/cars (in both road and oval series) are included in the base membership. This should keep you very busy for 6 months as you "try out" iRacing. They are having a promo right now for 3 months for only $12.