iRacing.com Motorsport simulation now open to the public

[Kevin69RTvert]

Some of you may be familiar with the NASCAR racing simulations such as Nascar Racing 2003 which was the last version of an evolving list of racing sims from Papyrus software. These weren't like the EA Sports games that you can play on the Xbox or Playstation, but were simulations of real racing with the physics and ability to set up car and race the car against full fields of actual people, and not just against the computer.

iRacing.com, which is the next step in online racing simulations is now open to the public. A group of us have been beta testing this service and I have to say after almost 15 years of online racing, this is the most accurate, exciting and competitive racing I've ever done.

This is actually a community where you start in the lower tiered cars and learn how to race, keep out of incidents and gain a rating which will enable you to move up to faster and more exciting cars. Unlike most sims where you get only one car, with iRacing, you have the ability to purchase more powerful and better handling cars.

There is a full list of cars and tracks which are currently available at the website, but to give you an idea of how it worked in beta testing, for ovals, we started out in Legends cars. When your rating got high enough, then came the Late Models, after that there is the Silver Crown pavement cars. They currently also have Modifieds. For road racing, they have the Solstice to start out, then the Skip Barber F2000, the Formula Mazda, and Radical SR8. More will be added as we go along.

Now...this does cost money. It is a subscription service and then you have to purchase each car and each track, separately, but you only need to purchase what you need for the series of car you are currently driving. It is not for everyone, but for someone who can't afford the real track time but wants to get into racing it is well worth it. For what I used to spend on the software, then server rental for my leagues, this is actually cheaper.

Even though it is on the computer, the setting up of the cars springs, shocks, tires, everything that can be set up on a real car works just as it does in real life. The racing is just as competitive as it is in real life, and the way the rating system works, as we go along, you will be racing against people with the same skill as yourself to make the fields even and competitive.

There are many real life race car drivers that were involved with the beta testing and are still involved now. While there are some things that are not totally accurate, this is an evolving service which is constantly being improved with input from the members. The tracks that are available have been laser scanned to show the smallest bump. Even the off track areas have been simulated and screenshots comparing the real vs the simulation are sometimes hard to tell apart.

****Disclaimer**** I am posting this because of how much I really do enjoy sim racing and now that iRacing is open to the public, I can actually say something. But also, if any of you do happen to join up, please put my email address in the referral box, I will get a credit on my account. kevin at kdebello.com (replace the at with @).

Check out the website, www.iracing.com. If you do join up, let me know. If you have any questions or comments, good or bad, email me. Other than a credit for signing people up, I don't get anything out of this, but I really believe in this service and have had the blast racing many different cars and tracks.

Thanks,
Kevin

[pettyfan43]

That looks really neat. I like that. Looks like it would be a lot of fun.

[BigBlackDodge]

I'm also a long time online racer. I race mainly the GN70 mod to the n2003...............I like the old cars! I started out with Nascar3 then onto Legends (I loved Legends)...and now I try race every week or so.

My ride on the big tracks.   

http://www.delta-simracing.com/images/Delta_Images/GN1970v25_Images/19dsc2008wing.jpg

Our league website.

http://delta-simracing.com/

Racing online is a bit addictive.........it's nothing like racing predictable computer cars.......they lack the human element.

iracing's graphics look awesome!

BBD (aka Chargin #19)

[WingCharger]

Are there any online racing websites that you can customize your car engine and powertrain, and stuff like that, but also includes old Mopars like 69 Charger's and Super Bees?

[Troy]

Are there any online racing websites that you can customize your car engine and powertrain, and stuff like that, but also includes old Mopars like 69 Charger's and Super Bees?

Look up one post above yours and check out the link....

Troy

[Kevin69RTvert]

I'm also a long time online racer. I race mainly the GN70 mod to the n2003...............I like the old cars! I started out with Nascar3 then onto Legends (I loved Legends)...and now I try race every week or so.

Before I had kids, I raced in about 4 or 5 different leagues each week. I also ran in the LikeReal LAN tournements at different locations around the country. This was mostly with N2003 although I was in one league with Nascar Legends.

I was involved with the iRacing beta testing very early on but had to drop it when every day life just took too much time. I got invited back into the testing towards the end and I got hooked again.

I really like the rating system that puts you against drivers of your skill without having to be in a scheduled league each week. You can race when you want.

Just last night I ran a 10 lap time trial in a Silver Crown sprint car at Richmond, later a race in a Late Model at Martinsville and then some pratice in the Skip Barber car at Lime Rock. Currently, all the races are pretty short, rotating between road courses and ovals every hour for race times. Practice and Time Trials for each are run every few minutes. Quals are run, I think 15 minutes before race time. It's a system that does need some work, but it's constantly evolving and getting better.

-Kevin

[dodgecharger-fan]

I used to race on EA's Motor City Online.

I was mad when I got the game home and found out that after paying $50 for the game, I had to pay a subscription fee to play it.
But, I did and I was hooked.

Then, I was maddened again when they decided they didn't want to run the service anymore.
All that money and time and it's all gone.

But damn, it was fun. 

This iracing looks pretty cool. Is there a way to try it out first? Maybe a demo track of sorts?
I've purchased a few racing games over the years and have found that the handling and response of the cars is not the greatest and that takes away from the fun to the point where I just stop playing the game. (I have a Viper racing game that I've played 3 times....)
I'd want to see how things work before subscribing... and pulling my wheel and pedals out of storage...

[BigBlackDodge]

Are there any online racing websites that you can customize your car engine and powertrain, and stuff like that, but also includes old Mopars like 69 Charger's and Super Bees?

At Delta we have most of the late 60's early 70's stock cars..........Roadrunners/Bee's/Chargers/Daytonas........even the Fords and GM cars too. Most of the online racing sims only allow you to change the cars setups......tire pressure, springs, gears, camber, ride height ...etc. I don't know of any myself that allow engine changes/upgrades.


BBD

[Kevin69RTvert]

This iracing looks pretty cool. Is there a way to try it out first? Maybe a demo track of sorts?
I've purchased a few racing games over the years and have found that the handling and response of the cars is not the greatest and that takes away from the fun to the point where I just stop playing the game. (I have a Viper racing game that I've played 3 times....)
I'd want to see how things work before subscribing... and pulling my wheel and pedals out of storage...

At this time, there is no demo to try out. That has been a discussion on the iRacing member forums. The debate has gone both ways. I personally think a short trial would be nice. To give you a little background on iRacing, it is being developed by Dave Kaemmer, who is the creator of the Papyrus Racing sims. The financial backing is from John Henry, the owner of the Red Sox. Reportedly, $18 million has been put into this sim

What this sim is supposed to be is the ultimate in realism. To be honest, I'm not sure how this will eventually be marketed. The person who likes racing "games" might get frustrated at the learning curve. The real racer who wants more track time will really benefit from the training aspect. Learning a new track or just getting more laps. The person who would love to get into real racing but just can't afford it will now have another avenue to go down.

The starter cars have what they call a fixed setup. Easier to drive, but you can't change anything. After that the cars are definitely harder to drive, and what you can change on the setup is exactly what you can change on the real car. One thing that was added to iRacing is that changes to one part of the suspension can change something else. Stagger changes ride height. Caster and camber change height and wedge and the steering is turned. The Late Model car can change, shocks, springs, sway bar size, sway bar link size, preload, track bar, caster, camber, toe, brake bias, gearing, shock collar height, tire psi, stagger.

-Kevin

[BigBlackDodge]

I read some where that you can only race online..............you can not practice on a track offline. This true?

BBD

[Kevin69RTvert]

I read some where that you can only race online..............you can not practice on a track offline. This true?

BBD

All of the content is stored on their servers, so you have to be logged in to iRacing to do anything. This helps them control the content and hopefully avoid all the cheating that went on in N2003. When you log on, you are notified if there are any updates.

Instead of running an application on your computer, you are just logging into a web page where you can control everything you want to do. You can practice any car that you have purchased on any track that you have purchased, regardless of what they are running that week. For quals, Time trials and racing, you are limited to what you have purchased and what you are qualified to run and can only run what ever track that series is running that week.

The debate is what happens if they go belly up or some people want to actually hold in their hand the content they purchased. To me it doesn't matter that I don't have an actual CD. As for being able to practice offline, Since you are totally open to run anything you want in a "Test session", it doesn't matter if I am connected to a server or if all of the track data is stored on my own computer. The way it works you wouldn't notice the difference unless their servers went down or if your internet connection  went out. Their interface is that seamless.

One thing I have noticed is that running the iRacing software, my frame rates are much higher than what I had with N2003 even though the graphics and physics engine are much more intensive on iRacing than N2003.

-Keivn