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iRacing, now you’re talking!! Thank you iRacing for being sensitive to our difficult times in this world. You support us and in turn we’ll support you, because we’re all in it together. Let our racing community grow successfully!

How much would all the content regularly cost?

year subscription is 156. once you ‘buy’ the stuff, you don’t have to pay anymore ever. But it must be well over $400 with everything combined. I spent $160 on content alone. + 156 for year subscription. If you buy a year subscription, you get $60 of credit. so I ‘saved’ money compared to someone who pays monthly.There’s still a few cars and a lot of tracks that i haven’t bought.

Michigan is out now.

20$ for an oval… WOW

Lovin’ Michigan thus far.

I have 9 tracks to buy(ovals) to get that 100%

I just bought Silver C(with 2 tracks), so i already have all cars.

But not bad in only 4 months.

I’d love to buy iRacing and would be happy to pay a monthly sub, I have for MMO’s. But the cost for individual items is just to much for me. $20 for just one of the tracks? As pointed out above to buy the game now and all the content must cost hundreds… I would rather put that money into new hardware. Plus I would like to see a better balance between ovals and road courses.

Hopefully one day the costs will get more realistic and I can race it.

Edit
However having read this;
“iRacing.com is a subscription-based racing simulation service designed as a driver training tool for people who race in the physical world and for those who aspire to do so.”

In that context I guess the costs are not that high for people in those categories. Im tempted to get a one month sub and see what it’s like.

Wow…an oval track for $20.00? Plus monthly payment? Is the pit stall also to be bought? Well I love sim racing but on this one I need a sponsor. Thanks for GTR Evo & rfactor, I can download tons & paid it only once. Some moders are only asking for donations while some don’t even want to accept. I’ll better start looking for sponsors…now

On other hand, cost is not so much if you think other things what ppl spend their money.

I have many friends who spend hundreds of euros on every weekends to party, booze and restaurants. I rather buy something for iRacing.

And after you have bought everything it’s not expensive anymore…

Well I’m about to sub for one month to give this sim a go and see waht all the fuss is about.

Like it says. If your a real race driver. And you want to get some cheap practice time in. On tracks that are made as close to real as possible. This is a bargain. But if you get seduced into the whole competition thing. That they got going on. I think you are a sucker. There are other sims, which are just as real, or at least real enough; and leagues. Which with only a tiny portion of (monthly) support. Offer just as good an experience. Some even offer monetary rewards. So why iRacing for the non-pro?

You DON’T need to buy all of the cars and tracks to have a great time with iRacing. I haven’t. People who do it are those who have lots of time and/or money on their hands, those who really want to support iRacing, or those who just can’t resist the temptation to buy stuff they don’t need.

As for why iRacing for the non-pro… There are lots of reasons but how about these two major ones: 1) You can get relatively clean racing on YOUR schedule, not once a week at a time someone else set for a league race. 2) The cars and tracks feel ALIVE in iRacing. More than any other sim I’ve tried. I won’t go back.

I don’t really care about the competitive aspect of it. I just want to be on the track having fun racing other people who are not just goofing off, and improving my skills. iRacing satisfies this perfectly. I bet there are lots of other people like me on the service.

Well having just spent an hour driving the cars and tracks you get when you subscribe, I must say I’m impressed. Tracks are very accurate, physics are superb and the FFB is probably the best I have felt.

I was just thinking what ral42 said earlier, you don’t really need to buy everything and definitely not all at once. I like stock car and oval racing (despite being from the UK ;) ) but I would rather buy the road course content first as that’s what I really enjoy, then maybe get the oval staff after that. Then I would just buy new cars and tracks as I needed them to progress through the licences (if I understand that part of the sim correctly) or when I want new tracks and cars to drive.
Also the ‘cost of entry’ should ensure a higher standard of driver for the most part.
Finally you have the structure and clear racing of a league but with more frequent races instead of once a week at the same time.

All in all, I can see a very definite appeal to iRacing for both professional and amateur/hobbyist simmers. You can get as much or as little out of as you wish.

While sims like rFactor and Live for Speed are excellent, when it comes to realism and authenticity iRacing is a little further ahead.

ral42:
You DON’T need to buy all of the cars and tracks to have a great time with iRacing. I haven’t.

I bet there are lots of other people like me on the service.

Bingo. I have no purchased oval content and that’s not likely to change… In fact, since I’m not driving the upper classes due to lack of available times (to suit me…got other things to do), I don’t even own all the *road* based content.

You just buy what works for you. I haven’t made a single purchase since October, and I can race every week across 4 different classes. Personally – I will only buy in 3s to get discounts anyway. Typically, buying a track as soon as it’s released means you have a track that you can’t race until the next season anyway – it’s kinda silly but some have to be *first* on the block :shrug:

Howie47:
Like it says. If your a real race driver. And you want to get some cheap practice time in. On tracks that are made as close to real as possible. This is a bargain. But if you get seduced into the whole competition thing. That they got going on. I think you are a sucker. There are other sims, which are just as real, or at least real enough; and leagues. Which with only a tiny portion of (monthly) support. Offer just as good an experience. Some even offer monetary rewards. So why iRacing for the non-pro?

I was an early, persistent skeptic of iRacing. Tried it in November with a closed mind, and unsurprisingly wasn’t impressed.

But I have become bored with LFS (racing FBMW’s on Blackwood GP EVERY race online gets dull) and rFactor (horrific racecraft on public servers), so I gave iRacing another try. I’m very glad I did.

This is a pretty abstract statement, but iRacing seems to do a heck of a lot more things right than any other sim if you’re into online racing.

A few specifics. As many others have mentioned, the track modeling is superb, much better than any other sim. You can feel every bump, every dip, every ripple. Excellent force feedback also helps you feel all of the imperfections that are captured in each track.

Combine that with iRacing’s superb physics, and the game creates more of a “seat of the pants” feel than any other PC racing sim. When you start clicking off laps in this game, you can really get into the zone and become so focused on braking markers, acceleration points at apexes, steering input, etc. This game plunges you into the rhythm of driving a race car better than any other I’ve tried, even GPL.

Some castigate iRacing for the lack of modding. I see it as a strength. When iRacing releases a track and a car, you know it’s done right and done to a consistent set of VERY high standards. rFactor’s mods and tracks are so hit-and-miss; you never know whether you’re going to get gold or crap.

iRacing’s online racing structure is MUCH less limiting than it appears on the surface. At first, I bought into the idea that sitting around and waiting to race on iRacing’s schedule was a bad idea.

Not so.

iRacing conducts racing in classes every hour in the evenings. Every hour. Plus you can jump in practice sessions with other racers while waiting for the race and have almost as much fun as in a race. Some of the most breathtaking sim racing I’ve ever enjoyed has been in Legends practice sessions at the Lanier Speedway oval.

Plus you can turn hot laps in ANY car you own on ANY track you own — regardless of your license status — at ANY time. Even if your license status forbids you from racing that car, you can still get seat time in it, have fun with it, lower your lap times and become a better driver.

One of the main reasons that the racing is so good in iRacing is the quality of opponents. Every racer is there because they’re serious about the hobby and about doing well. The racecraft and give-and-take is FAR BETTER in iRacing than any other public online racing community. It’s not even close.

I have read posts where some have criticized the iRacing community as elitist, unwilling to help newbies or share advice. Nonsense. I have found the vast majority of iRacers to be tolerant and helpful. Are veterans giving away long-toiled setups? No. But are they offering tips and being patient with occasional mistakes? You bet.

If you’re into offline racing with AI, then iRacing isn’t for you. There is no AI offline racing! But if you’re into online racing, iRacing is the best available game/service right now, and it’s worth the coin if you’re serious about the hobby of sim racing and having fun with it.

I still don’t understand how can anyone ‘practice real racing in a sim’. Last thing I do when I race for real is think ‘yeah, I did it in a sim, so I’ll try it now!’. For me, simracing still can’t hold a candle to the real thing. I’d compare it to FPS shooter games, you might make the same motions and use the same tactics, observe similar effects but in the end there are so many differences it’s nothing like the real thing.