Popularity of iRacing vs GT5&Forza

[Eric.]

And for perspective, I pay $20 to get 8-10 autocross runs of 40-90 seconds each, with a 2hr drive one way, and going through a $500 set of tires in about 18 months.

 

[ErikAndre71]

And for perspective, I pay $20 to get 8-10 autocross runs of 40-90 seconds each, with a 2hr drive one way, and going through a $500 set of tires in about 18 months.

Wow, I pay twice that for my tires. Just to put it further into perspective And as I actually drove a lot of "joy rides" before I got iRacing. So I actually save money after iRacing A lot of money, because in Norway we actually pay for the fuel as well....

14 NOK for one liter of fuel. Witch is 2.46USD

For a gallon I would have to pay 53NOK witch is 9,32USD

I just have to drop one gallon and I can almost afford a new car in the sim.

iRacing is cheap!

Our fuel is not!!

 

[iMikeTheKing]

If you think of iRacing as a game then it is expensive.
If you think of iRacing as a sim then it is slightly expensive.
If you compare iRacing to Track Days/ Autocross events then iRacing is cheap.

 

[WedgeX]

Well part of the reason I started this thread was that player participation is becoming a common theme on the iRacing forums and generally the questions is whether there are too many series vs the number of players - and with iRacing constantly adding new cars to the equation its not going to help things unless we get more players... with GT5 there were so many people playing but I had issues with the game not being clean/competative as well as lag and reliability .... with iRacing its just the one issue of feeling kinda out there by myself too much ..

as for the person who mentioned the price - I spend more on coffee than I do on iRacing.... not that I'm bragging, I don't have generally have alot of expendable income to throw around or waste, iRacing just happens to probably but the cheapest hobby I've ever had in my life... most others usually involved sports equipment, clothing, shoes, club fees and gas money to get to those places.

i agree that if you look at it like a game yea its expensive... but as a hobby I definitely get my money's worth ... for instance I bought a 2 year subscription for 99 bucks... and I rarely buy tracks cars, only on occasion - so for the next 2 years I'm basically covered to run races with people just about 24/7

I have friends who are way more into racing than I am, one guy watched every F1 race this season ... I might have caught a few of them but I could care less- I'm too busy with my own racing to bother with that.... but just the idea that there are people out there that are true hardcore race fans and haven't a clue what their missing. I don't' even watch racing and I have a better first hand experience of what its like than they do by only watching on TV... maybe its not exactly the same but I'm still getting a sense of the skill, the risk of being on-edge ...and I get a proper sense of the emotion of a driver.

 

[GUMP07]

Would you guys say iracing would be full of good racing for the driver that prefers road courses?
And I like to race around 8pm to say 1am est.
Is that a good time for iracing?

 

[BRP17]

Would you guys say iracing would be full of good racing for the driver that prefers road courses?
And I like to race around 8pm to say 1am est.
Is that a good time for iracing?

Depends on what series you are racing.
As a rookie, there is always plenty of "Official" races.
I did not do a lot of racing at first. Did tons of Time Trials to up my safety rating, then started racing once I got my B license.

 

[WRP001]

I asked this above, but didn't get a reply. What does iracing offer me for racing (not time trials) if my only available time is 8:30 PM - 10:30 PM pacific on week nights?

 

[iMikeTheKing]

I asked this above, but didn't get a reply. What does iracing offer me for racing (not time trials) if my only available time is 8:30 PM - 10:30 PM pacific on week nights?

You should be able to race rookies and have an official race. I think the Skip Barber Race Series would also go official since a lot of people run it. V8 Supercars may go official. Maybe a few more series but that is it. Most people would be in bed instead of racing at the time you race.

 

[WRP001]

You should be able to race rookies and have an official race. I think the Skip Barber Race Series would also go official since a lot of people run it. V8 Supercars may go official. Maybe a few more series but that is it. Most people would be in bed instead of racing at the time you race.

Well, in that case I will check out iracing when my kids go to college... In 11 years.

 

[BRP17]

I asked this above, but didn't get a reply. What does iracing offer me for racing (not time trials) if my only available time is 8:30 PM - 10:30 PM pacific on week nights?

InRacingNews is very popular, I've never seen a time slot that was no official.
But like I said, doing TT's for a full session and not having any incidents will bump up your SR. Which in turn will give you a higher license.
Then you can race with better drivers. Racing the Rookie series will lower your SR quickly if your not careful.

 

[Maxitsu]

InRacingNews is very popular, I've never seen a time slot that was no official.
But like I said, doing TT's for a full session and not having any incidents will bump up your SR. Which in turn will give you a higher license.
Then you can race with better drivers. Racing the Rookie series will lower your SR quickly if your not careful.

yeah its insane, last season it hadn't much members. now alot! clean and good drivers. But at the short course of summit point there are much bad drivers also. I almost got hitted from behind every race. Its a track whitout any chance to overtake. When a car is faster then you, they get impatience whit you at lap 19 of 20. they hit you from behind. You drop down untill you have last position. Got 4x car contact and twice a 2xloss of controll becaus the damaged car. So i have 8 Inc.points. Result= a 100+ irating drop and a -63(or so) SR drop. On top of that they blame you for blocking. Some drivers don't know the diffrence between driving defensive or blocking. I am not waving, I drive straight and normal. only at some corner i could take a slieghtly more inside line. Notting more. I experience that in alot of championships. At the front they are usually clean, but in the midfield or back you have those drivers. Its pretty annoying if you are a very average driver, if it comes to speed.

 

[Eric.]

Running TT's purely to boost your license isn't going to help you on the track. You have to learn to drive around the idiots and pick when you can stay on their bumper and when you should just keep your distance and let them wreck themselves.

 

[magic_town]

Running TT's purely to boost your license isn't going to help you on the track. You have to learn to drive around the idiots and pick when you can stay on their bumper and when you should just keep your distance and let them wreck themselves.

I've never understood people doing TT's to get their license right up before they actually do a race. What's the point of an A license if you have no idea how to actually race? If you can't get there doing races normally, maybe you shouldn't be there

 

[carracerptp]

GT5 has more "players" I'm sure. I'm not sure how many take the game (GT5) as seriously as some of us do. Still, so far my dirty to clean ratio of races have been about the same in both.
I always feel like iRacing is hit or miss when it comes to racing. I have had great races, and met many idiots. Way over 50% of my races have been dirty. I'm a class D driver (I didn't want to buy the other cars) but my SR high so I'm racing many class B drivers. With a few class A drivers. Even they still crash like rookies. The "SR" only seems to make some drivers drive clean. Better than nothing but I wish if I get hit from a divebomb coming from 3 cars lengths back it didn't hurt me.

After racing in series on GTP in GT5. We are normally smaller so we can keep out any really dirty drivers. But in the past few months our grid size has reduced.

Physics are my favorite think about iRacing. The cars feel real and alive. A good close race with iRacings physics feels almost perfect. The tuning and setups make much more sense than in GT5. For me making non-fixed setup / non-tuning prohibited races feel good and not "silly".

 

[Jav]

I have had great races, and met many idiots. Way over 50% of my races have been dirty. I'm a class D driver (I didn't want to buy the other cars) but my SR high so I'm racing many class B drivers. With a few class A drivers.

You're at a point where you should start paying more attention to iRating rather than SR. There will always be idiots in all levels but the higher the iRating and SOF you'll have a cleaner more enjoyable racing experience where good solid racecraft is the most important tool of all.

 

[carracerptp]

You're at a point where you should start paying more attention to iRating rather than SR. There will always be idiots in all levels but the higher the iRating and SOF you'll have a cleaner more enjoyable racing experience where good solid racecraft is the most important tool of all.

OK, I think it's around 1800 or 1900. It would have been better but I had a two really nasty lap 1s thanks to some guys behind me.

 

[swiftwilly]

Just throwing it out there, 2 threads last week in the Star Mazda forum warning drivers not to do stupid things due to the sheer amount of incidents on track

Neither started by me!

You're at a point where you should start paying more attention to iRating rather than SR. There will always be idiots in all levels but the higher the iRating and SOF you'll have a cleaner more enjoyable racing experience where good solid racecraft is the most important tool of all.

Jav you say it as if it was easy and why should I be trying to get higher SOF just to race in cleaner races?

I am not a good driver, about 1500 IR i would say, why should I suffer poor drivers just because of that?

I am class B, my races are 50% clean 50%unclean too.
1st race Zolder last night, I started from the back, I saw about 7 incidents. 2nd lap, another incident so bad that the cars flipped into the pitt lane! haha...
2nd race, lap 19/25, I get hit by a lapped car who was so damaged it shouldn't of been on track!

Theres some really good drivers though who are nice and drive safe, so I have to say its really random. Its surely better than GT5 and other games where no safety system exists, but is it worth the money? I am starting to think not....

GT5 = one off payment = not very safe races. No safety rating system at all.
iRacing = yearly subscription, tracks and cars also cost money = Safety system = 50/50 safe/unsafe races?

Open for discussion really. The better racers here in high SOF's I am sure would love it, but for the rest of us average driving folk, we're stuck with poor unsafe drives I guess.

 

[Wilbur]

I'm sure I've been labelled as agreesive or unsafe by some folks in iracing because I tend to push and try a line or stick my nose under someone if a gap is there ( usually on exit or straights) but very rarely do I ever intend to get into someone and will wreck myself before using them as a buffer.

 

[Jav]

My comment was meant as an advice not to trust so much the license or SR level, but rather get to know who you race with and how they race. By simply looking at the car's number you will automatically know how high or how lo that person's iRating is.
I do this every race as soon as I enter, if my own number is outside the top 10(2567iR ATM here) I'm very confident on that field. But if my number is top 5 I'm very carefull on the way I race and will put as much distance as I can between me and the guy behind in the oppening laps! Of course there will always be excellent racers ot there with lower iRating but you won't be sure till you race and observe them.

 

[Wilbur]

My comment was meant as an advice not to trust so much the license or SR level, but rather get to know who you race with and how they race. By simply looking at the car's number you will automatically know how high or how lo that person's iRating is.
I do this every race as soon as I enter, if my own number is outside the top 10(2567iR ATM here) I'm very confident on that field. But if my number is top 5 I'm very carefull on the way I race and will put as much distance as I can between me and the guy behind in the oppening laps! Of course there will always be excellent racers ot there with lower iRating but you won't be sure till you race and observe them.

This might be a dumb question then as I never pay attention to certain numbers outside irating/SR as far as people. Are you saying when you enter a race that the number your car is refers to your irating in the race? Sorry I might not read right ether.

 

[MadRR]

This might be a dumb question then as I never pay attention to certain numbers outside irating/SR as far as people. Are you saying when you enter a race that the number your car is refers to your irating in the race? Sorry I might not read right ether.

Yep that's correct. The #1 car in the race has the highest irating and the highest number car has the lowest irating.

 

[Wilbur]

Yep that's correct. The #1 car in the race has the highest irating and the highest number car has the lowest irating.

I guess that makes sense, scary thought is I've been number one a few times with a low irating. I've been at 1200 +/- for months. I always thought it was based on who entered the server first.

 

[Roush_fan_99]

^ i thought the same thing, you learn something new every day I guess

 

[MadRR]

I guess that makes sense, scary thought is I've been number one a few times with a low irating. I've been at 1200 +/- for months. I always thought it was based on who entered the server first.

Yeah if you have a lower irating and are #1 in the room then you are in a lower split if there is a split. On your last 10 races if you hover your mouse over the results icon it shows how many splits there were with a star beside the split you were in.

 

[Wilbur]

Yeah if you have a lower irating and are #1 in the room then you are in a lower split if there is a split. On your last 10 races if you hover your mouse over the results icon it shows how many splits there were with a star beside the split you were in.

Now I did know that, just had no idea about the numbers. I've usually ended up in one of last 2 splits which is fine. I need to learn to probably avoid the wreckers while possible not being one.

 

[GUMP07]

Well the curiosity got to me last night and I signed up for the 2 year iracing deal for $89.00.

I've been racing GT5 and I was curious if my computer would run iracing.

Well it does and my first impression is WOW the feel of the cars is very realistic.

Make a mistake and you crash. I like it.

Don't flame me but.......

I was testing my new cars and tracks with a PS2 controller.

I plan to buy a wheel tomorrow.

As I was expecting,I needed iracing to force me to buy a wheel.

If your into car gaming and simming,
Have Gran Turismo and iRacing.

 

[BRP17]

I've never understood people doing TT's to get their license right up before they actually do a race. What's the point of an A license if you have no idea how to actually race? If you can't get there doing races normally, maybe you shouldn't be there

If you know how to do steady laps in TT without indecent, why would this not improve your skills in a race? You learn how to drive clean laps.
The rest will fall into place.
I'm usually 3-5 second slower than the top of the field.
Yet I constantly finish better than many of them because I don't overdrive and crash.
You do TT's to bring your SR up, then as a rookie, you get promoted.
Then you can race better drivers and cars. What's not to understand?

 

[Mahnegold]

If you know how to do steady laps in TT without indecent, why would this not improve your skills in a race? You learn how to drive clean laps.
The rest will fall into place.
I'm usually 3-5 second slower than the top of the field.
Yet I constantly finish better than many of them because I don't overdrive and crash.
You do TT's to bring your SR up, then as a rookie, you get promoted.
Then you can race better drivers and cars. What's not to understand?

I also can not understand tbh. If I have a clean race, I normally gain ~0.15 SR. For a TT I only get 0.01 or sometimes zero (without any incident).

I couldn't imagine something more boring, than reaching B-Licence only with TT. It's like grinding in a MMORPG ;-)

And driving with opponents teach you a lot more than driving alone. Native speaker may explain better. The point is, you need different skills to "survive" in a close wheel-to-wheel fight. A good mixture of practice/TT's and races is most probably the best.

Just my 2 cents

 

[fatkrakr]

I think the problem (if you want to call it that) with only running TT is you dont learn to race off of Your optimal line. Alot of corners in iracing the car handels completely different when your off speed or a few feet off the line your use to. Atleast thats the issue I had when I first started joining races after only doing test runs to practice.

 

[BRP17]

If you do the full session w/o incidents you can gain .9
I have A licenses. Have not run a single oval race.
But I had a gas doing 80 laps at full throttle around Texas.
Trying to find the fasted line.
I do the same thing every time I TT.
My thought, is why not get paid to test.
When I really want to push it, I do open practices.