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this is very tempting offer I must admit. Especially because I was thinking about trying iRacing. But than, there is possibility that I will be going to police academy in few months time, so I wouldn’t really have time to drive. Well, I have almost a month to decide

Life time membership Game Stock Car only $20
:P Just joking guys. Good prices.

I often wonder if a general lowering of prices would lead to greater membership. They seem to be doing quite well, though, and there are always people to race against, which certainly contrasts with most other sim racing options. At the end of the day it’s being pitched as a premium service and it isn’t bad value for money, until you contemplate the cost of a season. Recently, I’ve been half seriously working at my Class rankings, but for most of the time am happy to drive in the open superspeedway lobbies – there’s almost always something to participate in. Would also be nice if the whole visual experience didn’t make me think “Nascar Racing 2003″ – that’s still how it basically looks and, to some extent, feels.  Maybe they should acquire ISI and use the rFactor2 engine – not that would be something!

They’ve dropped prices in the past, I assume they will do so in the future again. Not sure how soon, though. They’ve recently mentioned they aren’t currently profitable, still depending on funding from John W Henry to pay the bills. That said, seems a lot of their price reductions come from special deals, stuff like 33% off credit and $50 for a year. Perhaps fewer deals and cheaper subscriptions for everyone would help get more in the door and sticking around, instead of sticker shock higher than what most members actually pay.

If you are only going to do a few months, to the 3-for-1 deal, better deal for a short term sub. This deal is best for those who want a full year.

I haven’t used iracing in over a year, if I join again am I considered a new member?

They don’t seem to try and entice people with lapsed subscriptions, such as myself, to come back.

Only if you make a new account, which would mean losing any previous purchases.

I’ve heard many members say they get quite nice ‘please come back’ deals, 3-for-1 or better. Some guys have even let their subs lapse purely to race at the reduced rate.

The GPL phsyics engine is really starting to show it’s age now.  The failed ntm is laughable compared to rF2, netkar or even GSC. 

iRacing has been struggling lately to attract new members if you take out the free 1 month trial subscriptions are down over 50% year on year. I don’t think iRacing will ever going to the old prices again for new members not in 2012 content price also should drop to min 7USD and max 10USD. It’s amazing how many subscribers have got less than 20% of the total content available. But the worse thing I see is that iRacing’s agenda does not matches their subscribers wishes so you end up with a lot of junk content like the new British tracks the two most wanted were left out! Bathurst is a great aquisition but it won’t bring too many new members I’ve hardcore racing fan and had never heard of that track before mainly because it’s only an Australian V8 track and common let’s be series very few people outside the commonwealth know the series even exist. iRacing has to stop their little personal agenda or at least know that most of us will not back this kind of content.

 Ahh that is what I figured, thanks for the info.

What keeps iRacing alive is the laser scanned tracks and that’s 100% laser scanned tracks. If it wasn’t for the laser scanned tracks I was long gone. They don’t seem to have the best engineers when it comes to car physics it’s laughable the bugs some cars were released and they even went on as far sometimes as blaming the people who sent them the data because the data was outdated lol that happened to the Ford GT. I’ll continue to support iRacing because I have no choice when it comes to laser scanned tracks and once you get into that going to tracks made with less reliable techniques is not an option. Asseto Corsa seems like they’ll have some tracks scanned but I don’t think they’ll continue to release new laser scanned tracks so that’s not an option to me.

 well I was thinking about one or even two years. rFactor is great, but lately I had a bit of trouble to arrange for some online racing, as I don’t like public servers very much. So I was thinking about trying iRacing and I would like to stick with it than.

its xbox on steroids. money money and more money. and only get what your given. eg: aussie and kiwis 2nd biggest users of IRACING but how long till they get the NZ AND AUSSIE TRACKS AND THE HOLDEN, when they decide to give it to you.

 NO WAY you got the first engine and if  IRACING is so good make there fuggin own

 when and where has iracing updated any track with a new laser scan it hasn’t happened as 1 of my m8′s is a top driver on iracing and a world champ. said he has seen no evidence that iracing does this like they say……………………. proof please if this has happened

Maybe I would subscribe if content was included. Any way with GSC, rFactor 2, Project CARS, Simraceway, I have already not enough time… without even thinking about Assetto Corsa and GTR 3. And all those games together will cost me less than iRacing with 50% content…

Oops, hit ‘Like’ instead of ‘Reply’.

Anyway, I let my sub lapse about four times in the early years, and on at least two of those occasions, after 3 months away I got a “3 months for $10″ deal. I used that to rejoin near the start of the season, do 8 weeks in a few series, and get $10 in participation credits (of course you need to have bought the content first). So in theory you might be able to have a ’3 months on, three months off’ strategy, and only spend money on content. 

However since then I’ve got credits for participating in the movie competition, so I haven’t let my sub lapse for about 18 months years, and things might have changed. But there’s no doubt that you can race relatively cheaply on iRacing if you’re patient and time your purchases well via the almost perpetual marketing jiggery-pokery. That can soften the blow of what is — when all’s said and done — still a pretty expensive gaming habit.

I have never been one to compare this to real world hobbies. I draw a distinct line between my virtual and real activities. :-)

Which numbers make you think that? There might be some retention difficulties, but signups are as strong as ever. At least as high as last year even ignoring the free deals. Down 50% is a blatant fabrication, the real number is closer to 5% up. Here are the numbers to prove you flat wrong.
http://drivercount.webuda.com/Driver%20Count/drivercount.png

I dunno about the track issues you mention. Did anyone honestly ask for Magione or Ruapuna? Sure, they’re good tracks, but if you think iRacing is the only sim which licenses content based on what is convenient you’re either fooling yourself or a bigger fanboy than we already though.

By the way, Bathurst is not just a V8SC track, the 12h race has mostly GT3 cars, including the McLaren MP4-12C in 2013, which coincidentally is coming to iRacing soon.
http://www.bathurst12hour.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/13-b12-veh-eligibility-list-01.05.12.pdf

They rescanned and rebuilt Daytona after the repave.
http://www.virtualr.net/iracing-com-daytona-reality-check-video

Lime Rock and Silverstone are being rescanned this summer. They’ve made minor updates to other tracks, such as changing advertisements and wall colors when the track surface itself didn’t change noticably.

Press like again to unlike.

Limerock and Silverstone have been outdated for years. Spa doesn’t have the correct color of curbing.   ;)     Michigan, Pocono, Phoenix are NASCAR tracks that are currently outdated.

Spa has the correct curbing for the date it was scanned. They repainted the curbing when they paved some runoff, so without rescanning that runoff repainting the curbs would be an anachronism.

They’ll go free by next year…trust me

I guess I’ll give it a shot, the 3-month subscription seems like the best way to try it out.  Even if I hate it, I’m still out less than the cost of a 12-pack.

pfff….f that.  Go here and you can get 6 months free.

https://www.cadillaccupracing.com/ 

then put the code you get here.
http://www.iracing.com/cadillac/ 

The problem is the combination of monthly fee with the cost of content ontop. 

If i racing was still comparitevely expensive each month but at least you got access to all the content I think more people would play it.

or if you paid for the content but there was no monthly fee.

A new user on the road side probably has to spend around $250-$300 + whatever the sub is to get access to the content and garentee they can jump into a race , that’s not on the 4 basic tracks with mind numbingly slow cars. 

I know a couple of people and myself that have spent more than $250 on i racing but don’t play any more , primerly because of the pricing structure which fragments the community. Maybe more so on the road side and for European users. 

No problem for 36,414 members as of may 2012 and I don’t know anyone that’s had to spend $250-$300 on content straight after joining to race as you have start in the slower cars.
I think people make this stuff up! 
As a European user that’s been a member since 2008 I have never once had trouble finding a race in the Skip Barber series. Nor have I felt the need to move to faster cars or buy tracks I don’t need. 
I haven’t spent a penny on iRacing since a $10.95 transaction for content dated 03 March 2011 because I took advantage of Subscription deals which means  I am subbed until 01 April 2013. 

Any money I have spent has been worth it as it’s by far the easiest and best place to race online. 

I hope your right! i’m signed up to 2014 cause i extended when it was cheap, but i think it would be great for them to go free…even if they raised the price of the content marginally to balance there profits…

“Hardcore racing fan since birth” and “never heard of Bathurst until 2 years ago” in the same sentence. The internet delivers again.

 Trux, suposse i paid the 49.50 for one year, is that ready to race? or how much more money i must put to race?

if you want to race skippy on all the tracks it races on its going to cost you what

$40-70 ontop of the sub price  and that’s still a woefully slow car ( good fun to drive though) 

If you want to race something like the radical you are looking at $50-$80 
Star mazda $80-$100Thats the point , sure if you just want to race low end trainers or the cars that come with the sub on the 4 or so tracks then sure its not so bad. 

If you like to race some or more of the higher spec cars you have a sudden price jump from having to buy all the tracks for each series and then the cars making it around 250-300 for a year of i-racing.

If you only want to race the slower cars on the 4-5 tracks then that’s fine but you will probably start to get annoyed with the bad driving and get board of the basic tracks though Laguna seca and lime rock are very good tracks. 

If you want to race faster cars you will find that the races are far more spread out with far fewer users if you don’t already have content you have to pay quite a significant amount for all the tracks. 

If you know you are going to spend the time on it and are prepared to spend 200-300 a year on it then i-racing is not so bad.  

Thanks jw, i get the idea, some years ago i try some laps and indeed its a really good sim, maybe i give a try. Thanks again!

Yes. You will get Charlotte, Laguna Seca, South Boston, Okayama, Oxford, Summit Point, Lanier, Lime Rock, Thompson Int and USA Int as free tracks and The Legends Ford, Solstice, Ford spec racer, Street Stock, Mazda MX5 cup & roadster and the Cadillac CTS-V as free cars. 

If you choose to start in either the MX5 Road or Legends oval rookie series you will not need to buy any additional content. If you quickly find your feet after just one season (rookie seasons last 4 weeks) and your license allows you to move to D Class you can then choose a D class series that will likely require additional content. 
However D class series tend to incorporate several of the free tracks in their seasons (12 weeks). 
For example the current D Class Skip Barber season uses 4 of the free tracks.
Also only your 8 best point scoring weeks count towards your season total so you could theoretically just race 8 weeks out of the 12 and would only need to buy 4 tracks + the car. Buy them together and get a discount. 

Or just race without completing a season and keep the cost down that way. Your not forced to race every week and if the series your running has content you don’t have and you don’t want to purchase then you can always race in the rookie series for that week. I still occasionally race in rookie now as do many others.  
Chances are it will take a couple of months to get out of rookie anyway therefore you can plan your route up the ladder including what additional content you want to purchase. 
I raced my entire original 3 month sub in the rookie series without spending another penny. 

Don’t forget the Cadillac CTS-V is free content, right around GT3 speed.

It’s not bad if you make smart decisions about your purchases and spread them out while taking advantage of their deals. Six pieces of content every 6 months for around $60, for me it just replaced two boxed retail titles. I didn’t need every single track when I started, so I got the ones I knew first. Also, remember that once you own most of the road tracks, if you want to race a new series you just buy the car.

For an estimate on cost, I have all road tracks, 3 rovals, and 9 road cars (6 of which I don’t even drive). That plus 2 years and 3 months of subscription cost me $425. If you’re smart, you can get everything you want for $200/year, less if you race enough to get participation credits (I usually don’t).

Still the best value for money IMO. i always regarded iRacing as a Virtual Sport.
Its not about the details, or things we usually discuss on most sims, but the overall system.

For me nothing feels more competitive then iRacing. While i love virtually all sim related products, and use most of them, iRacing has raised the bar when it comes to being a online racing system.  The fact that every series, and race has competitors, and its just a matter of registering for a race to actually know it will be there, and there will be skill selected competitors, makes it into a no hassle racing experience. If i compare the Price / Time i spend on it, its still the best value for money. 

I usually purchase all Racing/Sim related software, and things like Shift 2 i probably used 10 minutes. ( no regrets ) so as far as the money goes, for me those tittles are even more expensive. 

I would not want to miss my GTR2 and rFactor, but iRacing has deserved its spot on my like list.

cool story bro.

 My best value for money by far was LFS, I did 250 000 km with it. :)

Australia is an inland in the middle of nowhere and Aussie V8 is a local racing series in a world full of local series and many worldwide series and few top series. if Aussie V8 NOW is trying to become a worldwide brand it doesn’t change the fact outside Australia their V8 series still isn’t well-known and people when hear of it for the first time think of it as just another local series with questionable competition like it or not stereotypes like this is very very common outside Australia.

The cost issue with iRacing really takes a hold once you begin to move up in Class and contemplate a complete season. That’s all on top of your subscription. 

I’ve come back to it on a limited basis. Tend to do superspeedway spot races in the Impala or the Silverado, which can be huge fun and, as others have observed, there never seems to be an empty lobby!

The composition of these seasons sometimes makes me suspicious about iRacing’s business model. For example, the current Nascar iRacing National Series doesn’t even include a superspeedway race, presumably helping them to sell less popular short/medium track fodder?

They are clearly too successful to want to consider what I guess we’d all welcome – a flat subscription rate that allows you to race in anything and drive anywhere, assuming your class rating is OK.

Okay, that is a really weird comparison. What in the world has BSC have to do with knowing about Bathurst? As Bakkster says, V8`s are not the only cars that run on Bathurst. Thats like saying – adding to your logic – you have to know about VLN to know about the Nordschleife. Bathurst is one of the best known tracks in the world, I find it amazing that you hadnt seen anything about it for years. Games/sims dont try their hardest to put it in their software just to drag in aussie V8 fans.

“For example, the current Nascar iRacing National Series doesn’t even
include a superspeedway race, presumably helping them to sell less
popular short/medium track fodder?”

No, because that series is modeled off the K&N series, which doesn’t run super speedways. There are actually a lot of people complaining that Charlotte is on the schedule because it’s 1.5mi and they think that the series should be all 1mi tracks or less.

Simraceway, really?

I’m an iRacing member. And a NetKar, PCARS, rF2 member.

There’s no need to choose just one sim.

But the majority of my sim time is spent in iRacing because it has an organized online environment with protestable offenses, dedicated servers, simple software set-up, and organized practice/qual/race servers. Other games have more enjoyable graphics and/or more enjoyable physics, but the sum of the multiplayer experience is highest for me with iRacing at the moment. I pay the $ because iRacing is worth it.

Sorry. Is this a joke? 

ok, date is 7th July 2012, time is 23:39 GMT+1 – not exactly peak gaming time but still I’d consider it not particularly late, on a saturday. 

(road series only….i mean…why would you want to drive around in literal circles, unless youre a brain dead american)

A class – iracing f1 car grand prix series – 3 people in qualifying.
grand am series – 0 playing. Classic lotus grand prix – 0 people registered for any current session
Indycar series road – 0  people registered for any current session
prototype and GT challenge – 0 people registered for any current session.

so …………….what are you guys on about? 
and you can’t just jump in and play – they removed the very useful ticker tape, which showed upcoming races, so you can’t quickly see what races are coming up at what times, you have to go into every single series banner you fancy trying, then click on sessions, to see if anyone is playing. the whole thing is a joke, not to mention the initial 350 dollars + investment you have to make, if you want to play in a major A or B series and do the full championship, because you have to buy all the tracks. none of that would matter, if there were Plenty of people, playing it during peak times in the evenings, and especially at weekends, where you could jump in, find a race with at least 8 people or more, and drive. but you can’t. 

On top of that, the damage model is ridiculous, a very slight gentle touch results in completely bent steering, or if someone lightly touches you it completely takes you out – compare that to real racing where, primarily in tin-top GT car racing, rubbing paint is very common and Ok mid corner. again….it wouldnt matter if there was plenty of people playing, but there aren’t. so… please tell me – when are you playing, what times of day are you playing, what series are you playing, and how many people do you end up playing with in a normal weekend?

Yeah, if you like unpopular game types, it’s the same as for any other online game and you’re going to have to wait for someone else to be online and wanting to play.

Here’s the list of upcoming sessions now that the ticker is gone, look for ‘What’s Hot’:
http://members.iracing.com/membersite/member/Home.do?page=dash

ok well i stand corrected on the ticker tape: 

point still stands tho – time now, 00:37 gmt+1 – there are 2 races. 2 races with people in. One is a skip barber race, with 11 people, and a mazda race with 6 people. Thats it. 

And those are the cars that are free with the game. 

Look, i know you won’t find much better in any other simgame, but the point is, this is a service people are paying for, for RACING, and there are supposedly thousands of people who have joined, so where the hell are they? 

im going to keep checking back at peak times for the next 7 days to confirm this. 

The fact is……..Netkar pro is just as strong, physics wise. It has a nice selection of cars, theres about 30 free tracks now, it has a SUPERB stats database, and its Jump in and play via netkarpro online website run by radiator springs. 

and no one plays it. I just dont get it. There seem to be plenty of people that chat on virtual r, and yet netkar pro is empty, even tho its probably the easiest sim to jump in and play, and there are excellent servers set up for nice 5 or 10 lap races. 

its so much better than iracing for multiplayer, potentially. 
oh thats right, iracing is a premium service – so that takes me back to my original question then – where is everyone racing?

Unfortunately most people think if they know the thing everyone in the world also knows lol. Have you ever heard of the World Series? And I mean baseball! Yes it’s a world series which decides the world champs but only american baseball teams take part in it and fans really think they are the “world champs”! I see the same symptom on you because you are making an assumption on pure speculation and nothing to back that. I’m not sure which part of the world you’re from but clearly haven’t been to many countries. I hope you aren’t some Aussie die hard V8 fan who’s just trolling and I’m falling for it. Because if you come to any Indy race ALMS and ask fans what’s Bathurst they’ll ask you if it’s some bathroom gear. I’ve asked this question over and over again and most have no clue what it is 
9/10 times and in many online leagues and the answer is always the same they’ve heard only after starting simracing.

Not every series has a race happening at every moment, they’re running every two hours. Mustang went official 10/12 races today, Star Mazda and Cadillac are official right now. Also, Skip Barber isn’t free.

This is week 9 of the season, though, participation usually drops after week 8, between championship drivers banking their points and people waiting for the next build.

Don’t bother digging around looking for participation numbers, this site already has the population of every race slot for you:
http://statmonkey.is-a-geek.net/ilom/whatWhen

Every racing sim fans owes it to him or herself to take 6 bucks and give iRacing a go.  How many titles have some of us bought for 50 bucks only to say, “meh”…or worse!  If you don’t like it, it’s six bucks.  I think some are afraid they will like it too much ;) 

The basic content is good, and it would be a challenge to master all of the cars and tracks in the basic content in a month.  I say give it a go.

Nobody races the F1 car.  hahaha.  Most of the members race ovals.  Most of the road racing is done in the rookie series. 

Pretty sure that will change soon enough. I think the proper ‘hardcore’ fans of more than just one series already know about Bathurst by now, but with Shift 2, pCARS, iRacing, Forza, and Gran Turismo all adding the track I suspect even the more casual fans will begin to recognize it.

”
Pretty sure that will change soon enough.” well put!

This season if you wanted to race the skippy it would cost you $105 plus your sub fees.  

You’ve got me thinking now, I wonder if with the new series schedules they will reduce the cost of the D class schedules. They’ve mentioned before that if it was solely up to them, all D class series would be half base content. Well, if they did that, plus used the same 4 purchased tracks for each, you’ve got 10/12 tracks for four D class road series, plus the two rookie series for an initial purchase of roughly the same as a boxed retail title, about $60 for 4 tracks and two cars.