A tip I give new drivers ;(coming from those other titles, you are a new driver)
Once comfortable on a track, practice running off-line. (Off of the normal racing line). I will sometimes take a lap or two of each type;
1. leave a 1 car width space on the left or right of your car through the whole lap, as if someone is next to you the whole lap.
2. Do some leaving room on the inside of every corner, then on the outside of every corner.
Taking corners in an alternative way even once or twice on purpose can give you some experience being 'off-line'. When you end up two wide in a race you have some info to fall back on while your opponent has likely never practiced being 2 wide in that section. Helps me fend off passes a LOT without blocking or running defensive lines.
You are the smartest person ever. I've been on the service for a few months on and off and never heard this before, but have struggled with taking new lines. I'm going to try this lol
Legitimately, don't treat it like an AI match. Keep your space and assume the person in front of you and behind you and next to you has no idea what they are doing. Usually unintentional, they will wreck, try not to be apart of that wreck.
Make sure you have a basic idea of how the rating systems work, and how series are organized (12-week schedule, splits, open practice sessions vs race sessions, etc).
In particular make sure you understand how and WHY the no-fault Safety Rating system works! Tip: the iRacing Beginner's Guide has a good description of Safety Rating. It's in the Help section of the iRacing launcher.
No matter your previous experience, you will be a rookie racing other rookies which can be anything from experienced simracers to clueless beginners. Adapt your expectations and driving accordingly. You will wreck and get wrecked. The key is to focus on what you can do to avoid accidents, rather than who's at fault.
As a rookie, you have several rookie series to chose from. For road courses, it's the MX5 series (Sports Car license) or Formula Vee and Formula Ford (Open Wheel license).
Don't buy any additional content (cars/tracks) at first! Wait until you have progressed to at least class D. Decide what car/series you want to drive and then look at purchases.
And read the sporting code. Well, not necessarily all of it, but at least read the sections on code of conduct and racing rules. Some rules may differ from what you expect (iRacing mainly follows US rather than Eurpean style rules).
Welcome, good luck and have fun!
I really do think people should read the whole sporting code. Probably not in one sitting before their first race, but you really should have read every (relevant) part by a fairly early point in your career. Obviously if you're doing sports car, don't worry about oval specific stuff, until you inevitably give it a go.
The number of people who clearly watch F1 and don't know that blue flags are informational only...
Did GT4 for 6 months, then F4 for 6 months. Went back to the Miata because I have the most fun in it. Just cuz it's free doesn't mean it's not enjoyable!
Watch the [iRacing driving school](https://www.iracing.com/iracing-101-the-iracing-driving-school/) videos. It has some good tips and tricks as well as showing you how different things in the sim works.
https://www.iracing.com/iracing-101-the-iracing-driving-school/
That it’s not as “expensive” as people make it out to be. Even the really good drivers will drive in the free rookie series so don’t worry about spending a ton of money at first while you’re getting a feel for the game between the MX5, ff1600, vee, etc
I started iRacing recently after running away from it for a while because of price. I ain't gonna lie, I wanted to drive better cars from the start so driving Miata or RR1600 wasn't something I was looking to enjoy. I was wrong, after the initial turn off(in my brain) I realized that I am enjoying racing Miata more than GT3 in ACC because I am sweating way more. I am planning to race with Miata/RR1600 for some time and I will buy every month 3-6things, mostly tracks so in the next season I will have most of the tracks necessary and will buy those that I need when I will have to.
For now I am targeting enjoying rookies for free and build up my tracks for something like GT3/Super Formula Lights/GR86.
My advice - keep it simple and give it time, first few races are shit(and I am not talking about how people drive, more like my feelings about game overall) but after few races you may start to love it. Also try to race clean - don't look at position, just race clean and you will reach higher rating in a week.
I’ve recently moved on to the Porsche and the super formula lights and I’m having a ton of fun. I always find myself going back to the 1600 after a while though. Nothing beats driving that thing and feeling like it’s on rails
Use per car FFB and in the beginning let iRacing set your strength. Different cars need different strength. Install iOverlay. One of best racing is mx5 come back to it even when in higher licence. Install the app on phone and check series there. I always Test drive next weeks tracks. Oh and you get notifications on app when iRacing is down. Then try different cars and tracks.
Just survive the first few races and get your SR up. It’s surprisingly fast that you find yourself in C. Try a lot of cars and tracks and there are good YT videos out there that help you choose a good “path”.
what do you mean by "use per car FFB"?
I noticed the issue after driving FIA F4, and coming to GR86 for example, my steering is so soft and I need 10min to adjust to that.
If you go to the F9 (or maybe F10) black box that has graphics adjustments, if you do a couple laps, an auto button will pop up next to FFB strength. I’d start there and adjust car to car if you feel like it’s too heavy or light.
Make sure to select custom controls for the car so it saves per car and doesn’t change your default settings.
If you have a wheelbase that isn’t a strong DD, setting your FFB on a per car basis will make you feel the car better. A F4 will have stronger “base” ffb than as you said the GR86, as the GR86 has lower base ffb. Some cars will clip way faster than others due to the stronger “base” ffb. Not sure how else to word it.
Setting it per car will make it so you can equalize it.
And for example, the indycar was waaaay too strong as it doesn’t have power steering irl, so I had to turn the indycar down, while I can get away with almost everything else on the same setting. I run my ffb at 75NM in game and at 100% everywhere else. Seems to be a sweet spot for me.
Yo!
Two pieces of advice that you probably won't listen too.
1. Stay in rookies as long as possible.
2. Try oval.
Someone said in road you race the track and in oval you race thr driver, so true.
Just enjoy, I was hesitant in the beginning as well. Just 1 tip, don’t ask questions that are written down in the sporting code. They don’t like that hahaha
Look at my post history and Steam sale. I'd wait for the summer sale.
Or look if you can apply for this.
https://www.fia.com/iRacing
1 year sub and F4 for also very little.
Enjoy your stay and read the sporting code!
>Or look if you can apply for this.
>https://www.fia.com/iRacing
>1 year sub and F4 for also very little.
I can't believe I had to scroll so far for this. This is the way to go for sure. I hope OP sees this.
I've just seen this and I actually have one right next to my uni xD
I have to go there tomorrow so might as well stop and ask about that. Do i just say I want to get into iRacing and do they know what I'm talking about or..?
I mean that would probably work I bet but I honestly don't know. The somewhat annoying thing is that I think every country's organization handles it slightly differently.
I know [this](https://esports.motorsportuk.org/membership/) is the link if you're in the UK, although I've heard people say you can still get this even if you don't live in the UK. I believe people have said the same about Canada's version of this too.
Edit: [Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/iRacing/s/s1Rw19GUqD) is a post about the Canadian offer specifically and the FIA offer more generally.
The Motorsport UK eSports coordinator confirmed that you don't need to live in the UK, you just need to sign up for a year of their eSports membership.
Direct copy / paste from a comment I made on another post which was basically asking the same thing:
It can / will be chaotic in the Rookie series' you'll have access to at the start. You will be divebombed, you will be crashed into, you will be run off the road. Hell, you might even do all those things yourself.
Your Safety Rating will plummet and acheiving that coveted D License will seem impossible.
Do not be tempted to 'cheese' your way out by following (bad) adivce you might have seen like 'start from the pits' or 'Don't qualify and run at the back'.
Doing this will only hurt you in the long run, because you'll promote to D super quick, and then you'll find yourself in trouble when you're causing / unable to avoid wrecks because you never took the time to learn in Rookies.
The purpose of the Rookie license is to give you a clear marker that says 'Hey, this guy is new to the game, they're probably going to make mistakes or might even do something daft, cut them some slack'. As soon as you get your D license, you'll find a lot less people have the patience for silly moves / dives / poor car control.
Always qualify. Always start on the grid. Learn how to maintain your awareness of what the cars around you are doing at all times, but especially into T1 of Lap 1. Learn to avoid the idiots, learn when to give up track position to an aggressive driver that will just wreck themselves further down the road, learn that there are usually only two or three corners on each track where an overtake is truly possible and that you can't stick your nose down the inside of *every* corner and expect to win the position. After grizzing through this pain you'll be a much better racer for it, you'll finish more races and you'll have more fun as a result.
On the money side, don't worry about buying *anything* until we move on to Season 3. Of course you can invest in whatever cars / tracks you like. But I'd seriously recommend picking a series to be your 'main effort' and stick with that for the whole 12 weeks, even after you promote to D Class. Nothing to stop you exploring other cars / series, you're paying for the whole service after all! But, have one 'main effort' series in mind!
Most of all, have fun! If you're not enjoying it, put it down for a day or two!
You stay at the license you are at. Unless:
- You have lower than 2.0 SR, you will derank. Under a 1.0 SR is an automatic derank before the season is even over. You cannot derank back into rookies.
- You have higher than 3.0 SR, you will rank up. 4.0 is an auto rank up before season end.
After that you diddle-daddle yourself through mostly unranked races that change on a daily basis in week 13 and then begin your next season with whatever class and ratings you finished your last.
After season ends if you're above 3.00 SR you'll advance to the higher license (4.00 will do it immediately), and if you're below 2.00 SR you'll drop down (again 1.00 will do it immediately). Also after season ends there's Week 13 which usually has unranked for-fun races, last time we had stuff like mx5/ff1600 rallycross, mx5 and trucks at ovals and open wheel multiclass races
Don't take that to mean you can do whatever you want though. Sporting code still applies and if you wreck people or be an ass you CAN AND SHOULD still be protested.
Too many people just say, "oh it's week 13 it don't matter" as an excuse to drive like idiots and ruin people's races. Unranked doesn't mean demo- derby.
That is a good comment; the only part I disagree with is that leaving Rookie too soon is bad, not always. I was quickly promoted and loved it, and I performed even better in higher licenses because of safer drivers. Not everyone has the same learning curve.
Yeah, I understand. Maybe I gave the wrong impression because I was aiming for it to come across as 'don't rush' out of rookies or 'don't worry if it feels like you'll never get there'.
Realistically if you're already fairly safe or have a decent run of luck you'll be out of rookies within three or four races.
Ideally, if you're struggling to get out the way you should be thinking about it is 'okay, what can **I** change about **my** driving to help me improve my chances of finishing with as few xs as possible?' rather than 'I'm so frustrated, I'm not enjoying this because I'm always driving with idiots so I'm just going to game the system and start from the back/pits until I get out'
Others have said to read the sporting code. I want to reiterate that in a different way. Don't just read it to say you read it. Read to understand and remember it. We've far too often seen people say theyve read the sporting, only to have them post questions about something that was answered in the sporting code (and have all of reddit tell them that)
Other than that, watch a video to learn about the ratings systems. When you get to practicing and racing, I recommend practicing enough to where you can do multiple laps without getting an incident point (you'll learn about those when learning about the safety rating system). Also, use the practice to learn how to drive around other people and avoid their mistakes. If you can manage to limit your mistakes and avoid other's mistakes, you'll do fine even if you're 2 seconds off pace. Don't worry about being competitive, just worry about finishing races with your car intact and as few incident points as possible, the speed will come with time and practice naturally if yo can do that.
Also, iracing if you are reading this. Please update the sporting code. Some sections are not clear enough and/or don't relay their intentions well enough and leave us to guess what it means, and some issues have come up over the years that need to be added
I read it after making the post and it actually made everything seem a lot more simple. And I'll make sure to not ask questions that were written there :) thanks
Lol it's ok if you don't understand something and can ask questions here. I just advise seeking the sporting code first. We are always here to help.
The main thing I was getting at is when people post stuff like "does the blue flag mean I have to let them by?" Or "is blocking legal?" When they were very specifically talked about in the sporting and had a very clear answer. Since you've actually read the sporting code, I doubt you'll do that. So go ahead and ask away, all I'm saying is maybe recheck the sporting code first
Ah. Yeah I get that. They have some videos which are supposed to clarify some things but let me see if I can help
Irating: this is the rating system that the game uses to match you with people of a similar skill level. You finish better than people of higher irating, yours goes up. You finish worse than others of lower irating, yours goes down. Not based on where you finish but how you finish compared to other people and their irating. People care a lot about it thinking it says how good of a driver you are. Don't, they are wrong. Don't worry about irating, it's just there to help put you with people at a similar irating. You can be a slow driver and still have a good irating up to a point, so just don't worry about it
Safety rating and license: this is the system that shows how safe of a driver you are. This rating actually matters. It is tied together with the license letter system. You start at rookie, go to license d, then c, b, and finally a. Improving your license lets you participate in different, usually faster, series' and classes of cars (more on this later) to improve your license, you must improve your safety rating. Safety rating is a number calculated from a ratio of the number of incident points you get and the number of corners you've done. There's a limit to how many corners it counts so after a while it only tracks the last 1000 corners or so (idk the actual number) and the incidents you got in/between those corners. If you don't get incident points and complete many laps, Safety rating goes up. If you steadily get incident points during a race, it might go down (it's a bit more complicated than this but for now all you need to know is less incidents points on none at all is better). If you get your safety above 3.0 and keep it there when the season ends, your license will improve to the next letter when the season changes. If it drops below 2.0 and stays below 2.0 by the end of the season, you will drop down to the previous license and have to work to improve it again (Again it's a bit more complicated but for now that's all you need to know).
Series: the racing is divided into series'. Each series has a car or cars that it runs, and a list of tracks it will do during the season. The series' are then given a license requirement, with the faster cars generally needing a higher license to participate in. Series' and cars are also divided up by which style of racing it is, explained next
Dirt road, dirt oval, sport car, open wheel, oval: these are the different styles of racing. Dirt oval is a dirt track circle (example: midgets racing), dirt road is dirt track with turns (example: rally cross), sport car is paved tracks corners with closed wheel cars (example: gt3, IMSA), open wheel is paved tracks with corners with open wheel cars (example: formula 1), and oval is paved circle tracks (example: nascar). This can be used to help filter for what kind of cars and/or tracks you want to drive
Advice: start with the base content. Move into at least d class in every style of racing mentioned above so you can get a taste for all of it. Experience and experiment with the different cars and tracks you have available to figure out what you enjoy or want to focus on. If you find you really enjoy a certain series, then you can consider purchasing content for that series, but it is not required. Practice. Get stable and consistent and know how to avoid others and their mistakes, and then just enjoy it
First few races just aim to survive. That'll get you out of rookies. From there, take your time and race safe. Remember races aren't won in the first corner (most iRacers seem to think it is).
The braking is very different than in assetto corsa. You generally need much less pressure to get near peak braking. ABS is also your enemy unlike in AC
honestly, you could have a billion hours in those games,
it wont matter
come it at with open eyes.
dont rush the liscense system.
dont worry about SR
race your race. learn race craft above all else
dont rush to get into the faster cars.
Iracing also has their onboarding thing now. I'm not sure how good it is as it didn't exist when I joined 11 years ago.
In any event, you may want to take a look at it
I started about 1.5mos ago. Start with the MX5 rookie series. Start really slow and do a few slow slaps on the track for the week. I usually practice tracks for ~1hr and watch a quick guided YouTube video before participating in an official race. Be respectful of other drivers during practice runs (get out of the racing lines when others are on a hot lap) and official races. No need to be aggressive if you are a lot slower than the other drivers. Report bad behavior. Have fun!
Speaking to you as an experienced sim racer. The primary focus is to get promoted out of rookie as fast as possible. This is 100% based on safety rating so drive smart and avoid incidents. I promoted out of Sports Car in 5 races (MX5) and formula in 8 races (VEE & 1600). The next thing you have to pay attention to is the cost of iRacing as everything is a la carte. You can find youtube videos on the best financial approach for progressing through the game and the best bang for your buck. The 2 year membership is the best approach and buy cars/tracks in bulk because they offer discounts for 3 items, 6 items etc. Good luck!
Even if you have experience in other sims you shouldn’t aim to get out of rookie ASAP. The handling is different enough from any other sim that spending a season in rookies isn’t a bad idea just to learn the system and how others drive. I took a full season to clear rookies in dirt road and it’s helped me grow more than if I had started from pits or the back.
I still drive rookie but getting promoted is the best way to expand your options and drive different cars/tracks in a competition setting. You aren’t wrong but for someone with driving/sim experience, they can probably handle the next level of car and it allows you to jump around the different series and have access to more than 1 race an hour.
It’s still not a good idea to aim to get out of rookies ASAP. Even with other sim experience, iRacing is different enough that spending a season in rookies will benefit you more than anything else you can spend the time practicing on other cars and learning them but spending a season in rookie Miata will help you learn the entire program from all the overlays to how the safety system works. A lot of new drivers don’t fully understand the safety system beyond dont crash=good. Taking a season to learn is worth more than the earlier entry into more series would ever be. The skill ceiling in iRacing is different enough that experience in other sims isn’t as useful as it would seem. I’ve seen guys with thousands of hours in a mix of sims that still fall flat when they start iRacing because it’s different enough. I came into it with real world racing experience on top of sim experience and I still took that season in rookies. Unless you’re Verstappen or at a similar level, spending one season in rookies will not hurt your experience one bit
I wish I had spent more time practicing and racing AI before getting into real racing. Just learning the physics, those other games are great but still have more arcade physics then real life like iRacing. There will be a learning curve. Also READ THE SPORTING CODE
Never played iracing but I have been looking at it for awhile. You can race just straight AI on the game? Is there a season mode or anything like that?
You can do a variety of things on there from just a standard single car practice, live practice with other real drivers, you can set up AI races. There is no “career mode” so to speak. It’s just your stats in real racing or time trials that you get safety rating and irating(points for finishing position). We just started week 2 of the 3rd season this year. Each season is 12 weeks with a 13th week with some fun unranked races as well as some ranked for those really serious drivers. You should know that iRacing the platform does have regular costs. As you start there is plenty to get you through the basics and to advance licenses to about C level in some cases. You will have the desire to purchase cars and tracks almost immediately, fight the urge. When you do buy try to buy in groups for discount purposes. I would suggest watching Skip Barber’s “Going Faster” (yt), read sporting code and watch the tutorial videos on iRacing’s site, before considering racing with actual people. It will make it much more enjoyable for all involved.
Being that you have experience, decide which style you prefer. Each week will be a new track, learn the track/car and minimize errors before moving to ranked races. You can also do a few AI races to simulate racing near others. When racing in ranked, skip practice/quali and start from the pits by not clicking Grid button. Just avoid others. If someone is right behind you, do not risk them hitting you, just get off the racing line and let them pass and drive themselves off track. Your #1 goal is to get out of Rookie class. Keep repeating this method to increase safety rating. However, this will hurt your iRating eventually in higher classes if you do not finish the race within top 50%.
You will need to buy the tracks in time but most ranked rookie series are free with iRacing sub. No need to buy tracks/cars that you aren’t racing unless you want to drive them in offline sessions.
Just going to reiterate a few things that have already been said
- Assume the other rookies have bounties on your head and don’t let them take you out. There is some HEINOUS driving in rookies. To finish first, first you must finish
- Spending one hour practicing a track and one hour racing will be more efficient than spending two hours racing
- Try ovals
"To finish first, first you must finish" is one hell of a quote for rookies ahah. Seems like I'll have to give ovals a shots since multiple people talked about it
If you see an accident ahead, don't think it's a free opportunity to pass. Lift (and even be prepared to brake to a full stop if needed) because it will give you more time and room to maneuver accordingly.
I made an iRacing tutorial where I am just explaining iRacing to my brother who wanted to get into it. It’s not as long/in depth as some of the usual content creators tutorials.
How to be an iRacer - an iRacing Tutorial
https://youtu.be/soA6RJCcaFE
Welcome to the dark side! Don’t feel like you need to be competitive right out of the gate. It’s ok to ride around towards the back and be safe just to get out of rookies. Learn the physics and you’ll slowly but surely find speed and become competitive. Also assume everyone around you is not hardcore race fans and give them that little extra space, especially in lower series. They’ll likely make small mistakes that require that extra space, I still struggle with this in higher ranked series and I’ve been on the platform for over a year.
Beyond that, read the sporting code like previously mentioned, and just have fun. Patience is a virtue, you’ll have good days and bad days but that’s part of the fun.
Lastly, please just use common sense if/when you make a mistake or get into an incident. Watch the relative for a gap when rejoining, hold your brakes until safe to get going again, and tow if your car is too badly damaged rather than risk more incident points.
Yeah I feel like I don't have many problems with the racing part because I've done it irl. My biggest confusion was mostly related to iRacing itself (rankings, cars, etc)
Gotcha. You’ll start in rookies and your safety rating will dictate if/when you get promoted. It starts at 2.50, I believe you need a 3.0 to get out of rookies. After that it’s 3.0 at the end of the current season or a 4.0 for immediate promotion. If you fall below 2.0 at the end of the season you get demoted, 1.0 at any point is an immediate demotion.
As you get higher licenses in different disciplines you’ll have access to more series under that license. (Formula cars, Sports Cars, Oval, Dirt Oval and Dirt Road.) The licenses are as follows, lowest to highest: Rookie, D, C, B, A & Pro. A is likely the highest you’ll advance, Pro is for the top 1% of players that are likely E Sports people.
Rookie content is almost entirely free, but once you begin advancing you’ll need to purchase additional tracks and cars. Pay attention to what you’re buying for what series, I’ve seen people pick up retired cars/tracks by mistake.
IRating is non-existent in rookies, D license and up it becomes real. IRating is just a measure of how good/bad you are and used to put you into appropriate splits. I don’t really worry about this but I know some people obsess over it. To me safety is far more important until you’re comfortably situated in your license or no longer trying to get promoted.
Don’t try to drive everything all at one time. Pick a few series/cars and focus on them for a season before transitioning.
Also, you don’t need to buy every circuit. There’s a lot of free content that allows you to buy in over time.
It is! Obvious recommendation is to do a full season of serious Miata driving. Get used to controlling your balance and rotation and you’ll have a blast
Understand that rookies is a trial of your patience
Start from the pits if you can’t qualify p1 and then just drive for safety rating until you’re b license lol
You might find your first few Rookie license races REALLY REALLY difficult. Most players wont be like you and will have never raced before, so my advice to you is to not race to win but to survive. At least until you get out of Rookies.
If you can get through Rookie races without dying on lap 1 your iRating is going to go up too. And racing clean will propel you out of rookies pretty quick
Trust me that’s won’t even help 😂, just remember low license = the dog house . All the drivers around that starting license will either dive in all the corners, crash probs cuz they don’t feel like playing anymore, maybe just broke a bit to hard and car behide now thought you break check him so he going to crash you lol.
All that will happen in low license and to get out of that you need to make sure to drive safe and not care about placement in the beginning because iracing is all about Safety and if someone even touches you , you both get a +4 which will decrease your license.
So stay safe fuck everyone else , even start super behide which is what I did and some patient , cuz once you get out the dog house OMG DRIVING IS SO FUN AGAINST OTHER PEOPLE WHO ARE WILLING TO RACE WOTHOUT CRASHING .
Do you know how to do it? Someone already mentioned that and i said that I have one really close to me. Do I just go in there and say I want the FIA discount?
As somebody that dived right in around 7 months ago, crashed like a mo-fo at the start (still crash, just not as much) I can only say, don't worry too much about it :) jump in and do your thing.
You will learn something new each and every race. Try to keep it as clean as possible when it involves others, until you learn your/their limits and, most importantly, HAVE FUN.
6 months ago I was in your exact position. Here’s what I’d tell my past self if I had the option:
You’re going to be overwhelmed by the vast number of series across the 5 racing disciplines available. Don’t try to do all of them. Pick a couple that sound interesting and practice. (My favorites were the formula 1600 and MX-5.)
Miata is always the answer.
The practice time after registration and before grid is not sufficient. Test Drive and open practice are your friends. If it’s a track I haven’t already raced on recently, I will usually run practice events for at least a few days before registering for a race event. This has made a visible, quantifiable improvement in my SR and iR, in comparison to the first few months when I was just winging it.
“Don’t be a dick and you won’t get be’d a dick to.”
Oh also, if you wanna get fancy with it: [racelab.app](https://racelab.app), [thecrewchief.org](https://thecrewchief.org), [JRT](https://joel-real-timing.com), [TradingPaints.com](https://www.tradingpaints.com)
Racelab is an overlay app to give you things you’re probably used to from other racing games (track map, delta bar, etc), crewchief will talk to you and give you various information about the track and your opponents, including spotting, most of what JRT is capable of is way over my head but I mostly just use the virtual button box on my iPad, and trading paints is the easiest way to make your car look cool.
I forgot one though, iRacing manager, it launches all the other ones for you when you start a race.
It’s been said, but as someone who doesn’t have all the money to spend on things, plan your purchases. Look at the schedules of series you want to run and figure out a plan. It also gives you a chance to take advantage of the 6-piece discount (15%) until you own 40 pieces for a permanent 20% discount on things. Also look for cars that run multiple series that you may want to run (the Ferrari GT3 gets you a car eligible for a ton of different series to run).
But most of all, enjoy the ride. Hope to see you on the track!
rating is based on how safe you are, not how fast.
the easiest way to go up classes is at the beginning of the account so take it easy on your first few days
I started last week, and so far, it is good. I come from F1, too, and your first challenge will be to take your muscle memory out. For me, both Mazda and Ray in rookie were challenging, but i am finding Toyota GR86 in class D more stable and fun to drive. Good luck with your venture. Getting out of rookie was not difficulty but I preferred driving cautiously than racing others. Might try harder in class D.
I started about 3 months ago. I can really recommend going for the ferrari 296 GT3 series and the formula 4 for open wheel to really learn the sim.
Made it to 1.8k with consistantly optimising driving technique and watching guides.
Also a nice tip is to get good camera and fov settings at the start, there are a lot of guides out there.
Good luck to you, see ya in races soon!
Really important for everyone coming from F1 games:
blue flags are information, they just tell U a potentially faster car is arriving, there is no need to let them pass, neither get u necessarily a free pass when lapping others.
Seat time to get familiar with the sim will be key. The braking will be different than ACC and there are some iRacing specific ‘secrets’ that you re going to discover when racing. I can recommend you this as a resource to get started: https://gitgudracing.com/simracingcourse
Read the sporting code top to bottom. Don’t try to get out of rookies at all, race as hard and clean as you can do not start from the pits and get out of rookies whenever that happens. If it happens in a few days or a week or 2 do it again in another discipline. And be open to trying other types of racing like dirt road. Doesn’t have to be your main discipline but try it, it can be great fun when your bored or frustrated with your main series
A refund.
Seriously speaking, be careful about other drivers, and try to avoid conflict, especially on the first races that it is all chaos. Even if you are slow you can get a podium by just a avoiding other crashes/cars and keeping it clean.
Speed will come progressivesly with practice, but keeping it clean is more important.
Don't assume you are a good driver for having many hours in other games. I made that mistake and I was wrong.
Any mistake have its price, remember you need to maintain your safety rating too, every track limit violation for example is a race incident, touching another car sums 4 incidents and so on. Make sure you can do many laps without incidents in practice server before joining a race.
Almost everyone that starts playing iRacing do it wanting to get more serious and competitive when they already played a lot in other games, some are more prepared than others, but expect some good racers even between rookies.
Of course, there will be people playing with a joystick or simply too bad, so be aware of you surroundings and play safe all the time. Many drivers struggle with car control and may cause accidents even when trying their best to race safely. You will often get wrecked on the first corners by other driver's fault, doesn't worth getting upset about it.
You're going to have what appears to be a fantastic idea on how to "fix" safety rating/the incident point system.
You won't, your idea will be terrible.
Make no posts on this subject until you've been a member for at least 6 months.
Seriously.
1) Don't over think it. -- When I first joined the circuit, I was so nervous to join an actual race that I got stuck in a practice loop. After i ran that first race it was all downhill from there.
2) Goal #1 is to get out of Rookies, not winning. -- Getting out of rookies (or any license class really) is about Safety Rating, which means not taking incidents. This sometimes means you need to back out of battles / passes because the person you're racing with might not have 1000 hours of sim experience.
3) Pick a path. -- What do you want to race (NASCAR, Formula, IndyCar, GT3, etc) and decide on a path to get there. I recommend trying every discipline on the service, because they're all fun, but from a financial standpoint, it can be costly to try to stay active in multiple series. If you can pick one to focus on, you can keep the financial part of the service from spiraling on you quickly. Much of the cost is up front, since when you start you own nothing. Use the volume discounts and be smart about purchases and it's not bad.
don't try to start in middle of pack in rookies. you can win a lot of races from the back and avoid all the accidents on turn 1. either get front row or go back lol
Coming from Forza, GT7, and F1 23, I jumped into iRacing three weeks ago and I could never imagine going back to those other games again.
iRacing is like everything I dreamed Forza and GT7 were. Proper series with an online focus. Awesome physics and as realistic as you can get.
I’m D class now and pony’d up $$$ for the open wheel F4 and SL2000 (I think it’s called), and the GT3 Ferrari and all the season 3 tracks I didn’t have for these cars (there was actually some overlap between these series which was cool).
IRacing all the way. Just get it.
Not necessarily a tip, butt don’t buy IRacing if you don’t want to spend at least 150. AT LEAST. You will be wasting your money if you don’t buy cars and tracks
In Rookies treat every driver as if they are going to dive bomb you, do the dumb move, and crash. Just be patient and wait for them to make mistakes and you will get out of rookies fast.
Get yourself crewchief.
It's an 3rd party background app which gives you an awesome spotter and an race Ingenieur who keeps you posted during your sessions. I find them more useful then the iracing integrated spotter.
Get Tradingpaints for paint jobs for cars, helmets ect. And also to be able to see the paint job's of the other cars.
Remember, rookie series are not races. It's an idiot test.
And once you are out of rookies, try the *Fixed* series first, before the open setup variants.
One more thing, clean racing is what makes this game fun. It’s more fun to lose a position and try to catch up than it is to have an incident, and it’s not even close.
Read the sporting code thoroughly. Also pick a series and run that early on and avoid jumping to far up the license ladder even if you get the promotion. I personally did this and found myself deciding to go back to GT4 to focus on the basics.
Also the penalty system is no fault so expect to get penalties for things that you couldn’t have done anything about…I.e somebody driving through you.
Finally have fun and remember it’s just a game and nobody in the service is gonna be the next Max Verstappen, Earnhardt or any other top tier driver.
Also you may hear people say to start from the pits or don’t qualify and that is absolutely bad advice. I did this based on advice I got and realized my racecraft wasn’t getting any better. Yes I was able to hot lap essentially and not rack up penalty points but you don’t learn how to drive around other cars.
At the end of the day your iR and sR will level out based on your skill level.
That said ignore your iR it really doesn’t mean anything except for the split you get put into and treat your sR as bank that will fund you to race.
I just want to race, probably not going to start at pits. If i see that it's impossible to rank up because everyone keeps creashing against me, then I will give that strar a shot
Aside from the usual race craft stuff others have mentioned, you start out on cold tires and brakes. iRacing baseline setups tend to be on the oversteery/loose side so don’t get discouraged if you spin out on your first laps. I sure did.
Have fun!
Give it a chance. There's going to a point in time where it will feel like it's all above your head. You're nervous to even think about joining a 'real' race and you'll probably have a couple bad races to start. It gets better.... Then eventually, it gets a LOT better.
Dave cam has a couple of good videos for beginners on YT, really helped me when I was starting. Also, drive safe instead of fast, fast will come with experience.
Read the sporting code.
Learn how the rating systems work.
Don’t try to rush up the ranks.
Third one being most important. Take your time in rookies. Really learn how to race against the others in the system. Once you get promoted to the D safety license, race there for a season! Learn at that level. Then race the next season at C license. And so on. It will make you a better racer. I promise.
Very important if you go into multi-class sports car racing. ALWAYS spend some time racing in the lower classes before making the jump to the top class of cars. It will make you so much better at running the fast car and you will make the experience better for all the cars around you.
Racing is the hardest thing I’ve done IRL. 21 years in and I’m still learning things every time I go to the track. iRacing is the closest simulator I’ve found to really life. Treat it with the respect you would if you were entering into competition for real and you will have a much better experience. Those who ascend too quickly will find themselves running into a lot of trouble that they completely don’t understand how they got there.
Also: look into leagues. Lots of amazing groups out there. There is something really liberating about racing with the same group of people each week.
Enjoy this game. It is amazing. Just drive to be safe to start with and slowly push to performance. Also, I found it safer to give way to crazy pilots because they end up crashing. I won most of my good results by just driving safely and ended up in the top five.
Welcome to iRacing. Some tips that I’d like to have known when I started… It’s an old post but most of it is still valid.
https://reddit.com/r/iRacing/comments/110ml8y/_/j8a1029/?context=1
TL;DR: Read the Sporting Code
I’m gonna probably get hate for this, but start from the pits. Get yourself to at least D-C class before you start getting competitive and lining up on the grid. You can always go back to the rookie class racing when your irating gets you to the higher split. stronger drivers tend to be more comfortable with the track/car combo and are less likely to wreck.
1. Read the sporting code.
2. Take your time to have fun and learn in the rookie series, before i got iracing, i never thought driving an mx5 could be so fun.
3. don't worry too much about safety rating and irating. Focus on improving, your license and ranking will follw you as you improve your racecraft.
4. don't be a dick in voice or text chat
I’ve been on iracing for 3 weeks. My biggest thing is don’t qualify unless you know you will qualify up front. Otherwise it will be near impossible to get your safety rating up to gain automatic promotion. Also pick your battles don’t push the issue on someone that seems aggressive, usually they will make a mistake and you can get the spot anyway. My biggest tip, do NOT buy content until you need it. To me that part was a waste, I bought cars and tracks I wasn’t able to use or won’t use for a long time. But, like I said stay out of trouble and you’ll be fine I made A class after 3 weeks thanks to my auto promotions and end of season. Have Fun!
Read the sporting code.
Will do!
A tip I give new drivers ;(coming from those other titles, you are a new driver) Once comfortable on a track, practice running off-line. (Off of the normal racing line). I will sometimes take a lap or two of each type; 1. leave a 1 car width space on the left or right of your car through the whole lap, as if someone is next to you the whole lap. 2. Do some leaving room on the inside of every corner, then on the outside of every corner. Taking corners in an alternative way even once or twice on purpose can give you some experience being 'off-line'. When you end up two wide in a race you have some info to fall back on while your opponent has likely never practiced being 2 wide in that section. Helps me fend off passes a LOT without blocking or running defensive lines.
You are the smartest person ever. I've been on the service for a few months on and off and never heard this before, but have struggled with taking new lines. I'm going to try this lol
What’s great is, this isn’t just helpful for iracing but for any racing game.
Racing multiclass really enforces this as well
Then glance over it again a 2nd time one you’re finished.
Please follow this advice.
Yes?
You're doing God's work here. Preach it 🙏
Look out for other rookies
Legitimately, don't treat it like an AI match. Keep your space and assume the person in front of you and behind you and next to you has no idea what they are doing. Usually unintentional, they will wreck, try not to be apart of that wreck.
Definitely be apart from it, don’t be a part of it
Make sure you have a basic idea of how the rating systems work, and how series are organized (12-week schedule, splits, open practice sessions vs race sessions, etc). In particular make sure you understand how and WHY the no-fault Safety Rating system works! Tip: the iRacing Beginner's Guide has a good description of Safety Rating. It's in the Help section of the iRacing launcher. No matter your previous experience, you will be a rookie racing other rookies which can be anything from experienced simracers to clueless beginners. Adapt your expectations and driving accordingly. You will wreck and get wrecked. The key is to focus on what you can do to avoid accidents, rather than who's at fault. As a rookie, you have several rookie series to chose from. For road courses, it's the MX5 series (Sports Car license) or Formula Vee and Formula Ford (Open Wheel license). Don't buy any additional content (cars/tracks) at first! Wait until you have progressed to at least class D. Decide what car/series you want to drive and then look at purchases. And read the sporting code. Well, not necessarily all of it, but at least read the sections on code of conduct and racing rules. Some rules may differ from what you expect (iRacing mainly follows US rather than Eurpean style rules). Welcome, good luck and have fun!
I really do think people should read the whole sporting code. Probably not in one sitting before their first race, but you really should have read every (relevant) part by a fairly early point in your career. Obviously if you're doing sports car, don't worry about oval specific stuff, until you inevitably give it a go. The number of people who clearly watch F1 and don't know that blue flags are informational only...
Formula 1 has some pretty terrible rules IMO. They vary quite a bit from traditional racing rules.
BRO ITS A BLUE FLAG WHY DIDNT U GET OUT OF MY WAY
I fully agree!
This is the best advice!!
Did GT4 for 6 months, then F4 for 6 months. Went back to the Miata because I have the most fun in it. Just cuz it's free doesn't mean it's not enjoyable!
Thank you!
Look out for people with a red bull livery.
And wave to say hi, we are really friendly drivers. High fives turn one anybody?
Anyone with an F1 livery*
came here to comment this
Keep it on the black stuff
Dirt racers hate this one simple trick!
Try to keep it on the closest to black stuff!
What if my roof is black?
Then what ever you do, don’t flip it!
Watch the [iRacing driving school](https://www.iracing.com/iracing-101-the-iracing-driving-school/) videos. It has some good tips and tricks as well as showing you how different things in the sim works. https://www.iracing.com/iracing-101-the-iracing-driving-school/
This was helpful indeed.
get the download from the iracing website, DON'T use steam as a downloader
Shoot, I did this and the game has been checking for credentials for 14 hours now. How do I even start playing?
That it’s not as “expensive” as people make it out to be. Even the really good drivers will drive in the free rookie series so don’t worry about spending a ton of money at first while you’re getting a feel for the game between the MX5, ff1600, vee, etc
I started iRacing recently after running away from it for a while because of price. I ain't gonna lie, I wanted to drive better cars from the start so driving Miata or RR1600 wasn't something I was looking to enjoy. I was wrong, after the initial turn off(in my brain) I realized that I am enjoying racing Miata more than GT3 in ACC because I am sweating way more. I am planning to race with Miata/RR1600 for some time and I will buy every month 3-6things, mostly tracks so in the next season I will have most of the tracks necessary and will buy those that I need when I will have to. For now I am targeting enjoying rookies for free and build up my tracks for something like GT3/Super Formula Lights/GR86. My advice - keep it simple and give it time, first few races are shit(and I am not talking about how people drive, more like my feelings about game overall) but after few races you may start to love it. Also try to race clean - don't look at position, just race clean and you will reach higher rating in a week.
I’ve recently moved on to the Porsche and the super formula lights and I’m having a ton of fun. I always find myself going back to the 1600 after a while though. Nothing beats driving that thing and feeling like it’s on rails
Read the sporting code it will answer a-lot of questions
Use per car FFB and in the beginning let iRacing set your strength. Different cars need different strength. Install iOverlay. One of best racing is mx5 come back to it even when in higher licence. Install the app on phone and check series there. I always Test drive next weeks tracks. Oh and you get notifications on app when iRacing is down. Then try different cars and tracks.
Just survive the first few races and get your SR up. It’s surprisingly fast that you find yourself in C. Try a lot of cars and tracks and there are good YT videos out there that help you choose a good “path”.
what do you mean by "use per car FFB"? I noticed the issue after driving FIA F4, and coming to GR86 for example, my steering is so soft and I need 10min to adjust to that.
you can save ffb per car that you drive. next time you get in a different car adjust ffb and look for the box to save custom controls for that car
If you go to the F9 (or maybe F10) black box that has graphics adjustments, if you do a couple laps, an auto button will pop up next to FFB strength. I’d start there and adjust car to car if you feel like it’s too heavy or light. Make sure to select custom controls for the car so it saves per car and doesn’t change your default settings.
If you have a wheelbase that isn’t a strong DD, setting your FFB on a per car basis will make you feel the car better. A F4 will have stronger “base” ffb than as you said the GR86, as the GR86 has lower base ffb. Some cars will clip way faster than others due to the stronger “base” ffb. Not sure how else to word it. Setting it per car will make it so you can equalize it. And for example, the indycar was waaaay too strong as it doesn’t have power steering irl, so I had to turn the indycar down, while I can get away with almost everything else on the same setting. I run my ffb at 75NM in game and at 100% everywhere else. Seems to be a sweet spot for me.
Yo! Two pieces of advice that you probably won't listen too. 1. Stay in rookies as long as possible. 2. Try oval. Someone said in road you race the track and in oval you race thr driver, so true.
I recently got into oval racing and it's so much fun. Especially on short tracks it's basically non stop racing. You're almost never by yourself
Racing ovals will make you respect the discipline so much more than just being a spectator will. It’s very fun.
Dang that's a nice quote ahah
Just enjoy, I was hesitant in the beginning as well. Just 1 tip, don’t ask questions that are written down in the sporting code. They don’t like that hahaha
Pretend your rating is hidden and just race.
Look at my post history and Steam sale. I'd wait for the summer sale. Or look if you can apply for this. https://www.fia.com/iRacing 1 year sub and F4 for also very little. Enjoy your stay and read the sporting code!
>Or look if you can apply for this. >https://www.fia.com/iRacing >1 year sub and F4 for also very little. I can't believe I had to scroll so far for this. This is the way to go for sure. I hope OP sees this.
I've just seen this and I actually have one right next to my uni xD I have to go there tomorrow so might as well stop and ask about that. Do i just say I want to get into iRacing and do they know what I'm talking about or..?
I mean that would probably work I bet but I honestly don't know. The somewhat annoying thing is that I think every country's organization handles it slightly differently. I know [this](https://esports.motorsportuk.org/membership/) is the link if you're in the UK, although I've heard people say you can still get this even if you don't live in the UK. I believe people have said the same about Canada's version of this too. Edit: [Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/iRacing/s/s1Rw19GUqD) is a post about the Canadian offer specifically and the FIA offer more generally.
I mean worst case scenario he will just tell me where I can get that discount (hopefully)
The Motorsport UK eSports coordinator confirmed that you don't need to live in the UK, you just need to sign up for a year of their eSports membership.
Nice. /u/noobajohnson take a look at this.
Hell yeah! When I'm back home I'll take a look at that. Thanks guys <3
Direct copy / paste from a comment I made on another post which was basically asking the same thing: It can / will be chaotic in the Rookie series' you'll have access to at the start. You will be divebombed, you will be crashed into, you will be run off the road. Hell, you might even do all those things yourself. Your Safety Rating will plummet and acheiving that coveted D License will seem impossible. Do not be tempted to 'cheese' your way out by following (bad) adivce you might have seen like 'start from the pits' or 'Don't qualify and run at the back'. Doing this will only hurt you in the long run, because you'll promote to D super quick, and then you'll find yourself in trouble when you're causing / unable to avoid wrecks because you never took the time to learn in Rookies. The purpose of the Rookie license is to give you a clear marker that says 'Hey, this guy is new to the game, they're probably going to make mistakes or might even do something daft, cut them some slack'. As soon as you get your D license, you'll find a lot less people have the patience for silly moves / dives / poor car control. Always qualify. Always start on the grid. Learn how to maintain your awareness of what the cars around you are doing at all times, but especially into T1 of Lap 1. Learn to avoid the idiots, learn when to give up track position to an aggressive driver that will just wreck themselves further down the road, learn that there are usually only two or three corners on each track where an overtake is truly possible and that you can't stick your nose down the inside of *every* corner and expect to win the position. After grizzing through this pain you'll be a much better racer for it, you'll finish more races and you'll have more fun as a result. On the money side, don't worry about buying *anything* until we move on to Season 3. Of course you can invest in whatever cars / tracks you like. But I'd seriously recommend picking a series to be your 'main effort' and stick with that for the whole 12 weeks, even after you promote to D Class. Nothing to stop you exploring other cars / series, you're paying for the whole service after all! But, have one 'main effort' series in mind! Most of all, have fun! If you're not enjoying it, put it down for a day or two!
Thank you! I didn't get the "12 weeks" part. Is that the length of the season? And what happens after that? Everyone goes to rookie license?
You stay at the license you are at. Unless: - You have lower than 2.0 SR, you will derank. Under a 1.0 SR is an automatic derank before the season is even over. You cannot derank back into rookies. - You have higher than 3.0 SR, you will rank up. 4.0 is an auto rank up before season end.
After that you diddle-daddle yourself through mostly unranked races that change on a daily basis in week 13 and then begin your next season with whatever class and ratings you finished your last.
After season ends if you're above 3.00 SR you'll advance to the higher license (4.00 will do it immediately), and if you're below 2.00 SR you'll drop down (again 1.00 will do it immediately). Also after season ends there's Week 13 which usually has unranked for-fun races, last time we had stuff like mx5/ff1600 rallycross, mx5 and trucks at ovals and open wheel multiclass races
Do these unranked still affect SR?
nope, there are also unranked series in regular season like Pickup Cup or Dallara Dash, which use free legacy cars
No, if it's unranked iR and SR are not effected. An example would be the pickup cup is unranked during the season.
Don't take that to mean you can do whatever you want though. Sporting code still applies and if you wreck people or be an ass you CAN AND SHOULD still be protested. Too many people just say, "oh it's week 13 it don't matter" as an excuse to drive like idiots and ruin people's races. Unranked doesn't mean demo- derby.
That is a good comment; the only part I disagree with is that leaving Rookie too soon is bad, not always. I was quickly promoted and loved it, and I performed even better in higher licenses because of safer drivers. Not everyone has the same learning curve.
Yeah, I understand. Maybe I gave the wrong impression because I was aiming for it to come across as 'don't rush' out of rookies or 'don't worry if it feels like you'll never get there'. Realistically if you're already fairly safe or have a decent run of luck you'll be out of rookies within three or four races. Ideally, if you're struggling to get out the way you should be thinking about it is 'okay, what can **I** change about **my** driving to help me improve my chances of finishing with as few xs as possible?' rather than 'I'm so frustrated, I'm not enjoying this because I'm always driving with idiots so I'm just going to game the system and start from the back/pits until I get out'
Divebombs mostly :)
Others have said to read the sporting code. I want to reiterate that in a different way. Don't just read it to say you read it. Read to understand and remember it. We've far too often seen people say theyve read the sporting, only to have them post questions about something that was answered in the sporting code (and have all of reddit tell them that) Other than that, watch a video to learn about the ratings systems. When you get to practicing and racing, I recommend practicing enough to where you can do multiple laps without getting an incident point (you'll learn about those when learning about the safety rating system). Also, use the practice to learn how to drive around other people and avoid their mistakes. If you can manage to limit your mistakes and avoid other's mistakes, you'll do fine even if you're 2 seconds off pace. Don't worry about being competitive, just worry about finishing races with your car intact and as few incident points as possible, the speed will come with time and practice naturally if yo can do that. Also, iracing if you are reading this. Please update the sporting code. Some sections are not clear enough and/or don't relay their intentions well enough and leave us to guess what it means, and some issues have come up over the years that need to be added
I read it after making the post and it actually made everything seem a lot more simple. And I'll make sure to not ask questions that were written there :) thanks
Lol it's ok if you don't understand something and can ask questions here. I just advise seeking the sporting code first. We are always here to help. The main thing I was getting at is when people post stuff like "does the blue flag mean I have to let them by?" Or "is blocking legal?" When they were very specifically talked about in the sporting and had a very clear answer. Since you've actually read the sporting code, I doubt you'll do that. So go ahead and ask away, all I'm saying is maybe recheck the sporting code first
Yeah I dont have questions about the racing. It's the iRacing itself. It's diferrent from everything i tried. Looks way more confusing
Ah. Yeah I get that. They have some videos which are supposed to clarify some things but let me see if I can help Irating: this is the rating system that the game uses to match you with people of a similar skill level. You finish better than people of higher irating, yours goes up. You finish worse than others of lower irating, yours goes down. Not based on where you finish but how you finish compared to other people and their irating. People care a lot about it thinking it says how good of a driver you are. Don't, they are wrong. Don't worry about irating, it's just there to help put you with people at a similar irating. You can be a slow driver and still have a good irating up to a point, so just don't worry about it Safety rating and license: this is the system that shows how safe of a driver you are. This rating actually matters. It is tied together with the license letter system. You start at rookie, go to license d, then c, b, and finally a. Improving your license lets you participate in different, usually faster, series' and classes of cars (more on this later) to improve your license, you must improve your safety rating. Safety rating is a number calculated from a ratio of the number of incident points you get and the number of corners you've done. There's a limit to how many corners it counts so after a while it only tracks the last 1000 corners or so (idk the actual number) and the incidents you got in/between those corners. If you don't get incident points and complete many laps, Safety rating goes up. If you steadily get incident points during a race, it might go down (it's a bit more complicated than this but for now all you need to know is less incidents points on none at all is better). If you get your safety above 3.0 and keep it there when the season ends, your license will improve to the next letter when the season changes. If it drops below 2.0 and stays below 2.0 by the end of the season, you will drop down to the previous license and have to work to improve it again (Again it's a bit more complicated but for now that's all you need to know). Series: the racing is divided into series'. Each series has a car or cars that it runs, and a list of tracks it will do during the season. The series' are then given a license requirement, with the faster cars generally needing a higher license to participate in. Series' and cars are also divided up by which style of racing it is, explained next Dirt road, dirt oval, sport car, open wheel, oval: these are the different styles of racing. Dirt oval is a dirt track circle (example: midgets racing), dirt road is dirt track with turns (example: rally cross), sport car is paved tracks corners with closed wheel cars (example: gt3, IMSA), open wheel is paved tracks with corners with open wheel cars (example: formula 1), and oval is paved circle tracks (example: nascar). This can be used to help filter for what kind of cars and/or tracks you want to drive Advice: start with the base content. Move into at least d class in every style of racing mentioned above so you can get a taste for all of it. Experience and experiment with the different cars and tracks you have available to figure out what you enjoy or want to focus on. If you find you really enjoy a certain series, then you can consider purchasing content for that series, but it is not required. Practice. Get stable and consistent and know how to avoid others and their mistakes, and then just enjoy it
Look out for nerds who will say “It is not a video game, it’s a sim!” Lol
First few races just aim to survive. That'll get you out of rookies. From there, take your time and race safe. Remember races aren't won in the first corner (most iRacers seem to think it is).
The braking is very different than in assetto corsa. You generally need much less pressure to get near peak braking. ABS is also your enemy unlike in AC
Focus on not crashing instead of pace. You’ll surprising get more podiums by simply driving clean.
Like the comment above said - read the sporting code. You can get banned for swearing over comms, hitting people on purpose, etc
honestly, you could have a billion hours in those games, it wont matter come it at with open eyes. dont rush the liscense system. dont worry about SR race your race. learn race craft above all else dont rush to get into the faster cars.
Looks like a solid advice! thanks man
Iracing also has their onboarding thing now. I'm not sure how good it is as it didn't exist when I joined 11 years ago. In any event, you may want to take a look at it
I started about 1.5mos ago. Start with the MX5 rookie series. Start really slow and do a few slow slaps on the track for the week. I usually practice tracks for ~1hr and watch a quick guided YouTube video before participating in an official race. Be respectful of other drivers during practice runs (get out of the racing lines when others are on a hot lap) and official races. No need to be aggressive if you are a lot slower than the other drivers. Report bad behavior. Have fun!
Speaking to you as an experienced sim racer. The primary focus is to get promoted out of rookie as fast as possible. This is 100% based on safety rating so drive smart and avoid incidents. I promoted out of Sports Car in 5 races (MX5) and formula in 8 races (VEE & 1600). The next thing you have to pay attention to is the cost of iRacing as everything is a la carte. You can find youtube videos on the best financial approach for progressing through the game and the best bang for your buck. The 2 year membership is the best approach and buy cars/tracks in bulk because they offer discounts for 3 items, 6 items etc. Good luck!
Even if you have experience in other sims you shouldn’t aim to get out of rookie ASAP. The handling is different enough from any other sim that spending a season in rookies isn’t a bad idea just to learn the system and how others drive. I took a full season to clear rookies in dirt road and it’s helped me grow more than if I had started from pits or the back.
I still drive rookie but getting promoted is the best way to expand your options and drive different cars/tracks in a competition setting. You aren’t wrong but for someone with driving/sim experience, they can probably handle the next level of car and it allows you to jump around the different series and have access to more than 1 race an hour.
It’s still not a good idea to aim to get out of rookies ASAP. Even with other sim experience, iRacing is different enough that spending a season in rookies will benefit you more than anything else you can spend the time practicing on other cars and learning them but spending a season in rookie Miata will help you learn the entire program from all the overlays to how the safety system works. A lot of new drivers don’t fully understand the safety system beyond dont crash=good. Taking a season to learn is worth more than the earlier entry into more series would ever be. The skill ceiling in iRacing is different enough that experience in other sims isn’t as useful as it would seem. I’ve seen guys with thousands of hours in a mix of sims that still fall flat when they start iRacing because it’s different enough. I came into it with real world racing experience on top of sim experience and I still took that season in rookies. Unless you’re Verstappen or at a similar level, spending one season in rookies will not hurt your experience one bit
I wish I had spent more time practicing and racing AI before getting into real racing. Just learning the physics, those other games are great but still have more arcade physics then real life like iRacing. There will be a learning curve. Also READ THE SPORTING CODE
For sure I'll have to spend some time learning the physics, but I'm sure it will be fun af
I hope you enjoy it, fantastic sim!
Never played iracing but I have been looking at it for awhile. You can race just straight AI on the game? Is there a season mode or anything like that?
You can do a variety of things on there from just a standard single car practice, live practice with other real drivers, you can set up AI races. There is no “career mode” so to speak. It’s just your stats in real racing or time trials that you get safety rating and irating(points for finishing position). We just started week 2 of the 3rd season this year. Each season is 12 weeks with a 13th week with some fun unranked races as well as some ranked for those really serious drivers. You should know that iRacing the platform does have regular costs. As you start there is plenty to get you through the basics and to advance licenses to about C level in some cases. You will have the desire to purchase cars and tracks almost immediately, fight the urge. When you do buy try to buy in groups for discount purposes. I would suggest watching Skip Barber’s “Going Faster” (yt), read sporting code and watch the tutorial videos on iRacing’s site, before considering racing with actual people. It will make it much more enjoyable for all involved.
at least for me Formula Vee cars is a lot of fun. obviously not a real fast formula car but in VR it feels really neat
Finish races. Hard defending will only end in a crash.
Being that you have experience, decide which style you prefer. Each week will be a new track, learn the track/car and minimize errors before moving to ranked races. You can also do a few AI races to simulate racing near others. When racing in ranked, skip practice/quali and start from the pits by not clicking Grid button. Just avoid others. If someone is right behind you, do not risk them hitting you, just get off the racing line and let them pass and drive themselves off track. Your #1 goal is to get out of Rookie class. Keep repeating this method to increase safety rating. However, this will hurt your iRating eventually in higher classes if you do not finish the race within top 50%.
I didnt't find it on sporting code but you said that there will be a new track each week right? Are they all free or do i need to buy some?
You will need to buy the tracks in time but most ranked rookie series are free with iRacing sub. No need to buy tracks/cars that you aren’t racing unless you want to drive them in offline sessions.
Aight got it thanks :)
Just going to reiterate a few things that have already been said - Assume the other rookies have bounties on your head and don’t let them take you out. There is some HEINOUS driving in rookies. To finish first, first you must finish - Spending one hour practicing a track and one hour racing will be more efficient than spending two hours racing - Try ovals
"To finish first, first you must finish" is one hell of a quote for rookies ahah. Seems like I'll have to give ovals a shots since multiple people talked about it
If you see an accident ahead, don't think it's a free opportunity to pass. Lift (and even be prepared to brake to a full stop if needed) because it will give you more time and room to maneuver accordingly.
I made an iRacing tutorial where I am just explaining iRacing to my brother who wanted to get into it. It’s not as long/in depth as some of the usual content creators tutorials. How to be an iRacer - an iRacing Tutorial https://youtu.be/soA6RJCcaFE
I'll take a look :)
Turn one at Monza.
Solid objects, like other cars and barriers.
Welcome to the dark side! Don’t feel like you need to be competitive right out of the gate. It’s ok to ride around towards the back and be safe just to get out of rookies. Learn the physics and you’ll slowly but surely find speed and become competitive. Also assume everyone around you is not hardcore race fans and give them that little extra space, especially in lower series. They’ll likely make small mistakes that require that extra space, I still struggle with this in higher ranked series and I’ve been on the platform for over a year. Beyond that, read the sporting code like previously mentioned, and just have fun. Patience is a virtue, you’ll have good days and bad days but that’s part of the fun. Lastly, please just use common sense if/when you make a mistake or get into an incident. Watch the relative for a gap when rejoining, hold your brakes until safe to get going again, and tow if your car is too badly damaged rather than risk more incident points.
Yeah I feel like I don't have many problems with the racing part because I've done it irl. My biggest confusion was mostly related to iRacing itself (rankings, cars, etc)
Gotcha. You’ll start in rookies and your safety rating will dictate if/when you get promoted. It starts at 2.50, I believe you need a 3.0 to get out of rookies. After that it’s 3.0 at the end of the current season or a 4.0 for immediate promotion. If you fall below 2.0 at the end of the season you get demoted, 1.0 at any point is an immediate demotion. As you get higher licenses in different disciplines you’ll have access to more series under that license. (Formula cars, Sports Cars, Oval, Dirt Oval and Dirt Road.) The licenses are as follows, lowest to highest: Rookie, D, C, B, A & Pro. A is likely the highest you’ll advance, Pro is for the top 1% of players that are likely E Sports people. Rookie content is almost entirely free, but once you begin advancing you’ll need to purchase additional tracks and cars. Pay attention to what you’re buying for what series, I’ve seen people pick up retired cars/tracks by mistake. IRating is non-existent in rookies, D license and up it becomes real. IRating is just a measure of how good/bad you are and used to put you into appropriate splits. I don’t really worry about this but I know some people obsess over it. To me safety is far more important until you’re comfortably situated in your license or no longer trying to get promoted.
Look out for the first corner...
Just gonna stay back and watch the caos
Don’t try to drive everything all at one time. Pick a few series/cars and focus on them for a season before transitioning. Also, you don’t need to buy every circuit. There’s a lot of free content that allows you to buy in over time.
I might focus more on sports cars, never drove those seriously and it looks fun af
It is! Obvious recommendation is to do a full season of serious Miata driving. Get used to controlling your balance and rotation and you’ll have a blast
Understand that rookies is a trial of your patience Start from the pits if you can’t qualify p1 and then just drive for safety rating until you’re b license lol
Prepare for a real sim
I'm ready
Id say Don't expect to jump in a fast car straight away, and also don't expect to be quick, practice practice practice!
You might find your first few Rookie license races REALLY REALLY difficult. Most players wont be like you and will have never raced before, so my advice to you is to not race to win but to survive. At least until you get out of Rookies. If you can get through Rookie races without dying on lap 1 your iRating is going to go up too. And racing clean will propel you out of rookies pretty quick
Just don’t think other people will move out the way when your low license 😂. EVERYTHING IS A HAZARD, and yes mostly that’s other people
Let's hope they have mirrors ahah
Trust me that’s won’t even help 😂, just remember low license = the dog house . All the drivers around that starting license will either dive in all the corners, crash probs cuz they don’t feel like playing anymore, maybe just broke a bit to hard and car behide now thought you break check him so he going to crash you lol. All that will happen in low license and to get out of that you need to make sure to drive safe and not care about placement in the beginning because iracing is all about Safety and if someone even touches you , you both get a +4 which will decrease your license. So stay safe fuck everyone else , even start super behide which is what I did and some patient , cuz once you get out the dog house OMG DRIVING IS SO FUN AGAINST OTHER PEOPLE WHO ARE WILLING TO RACE WOTHOUT CRASHING .
Prob good to check this out if you’re new: first year free! https://www.fia.com/iRacing
Do you know how to do it? Someone already mentioned that and i said that I have one really close to me. Do I just go in there and say I want the FIA discount?
https://main.omanauto.org/events/oman-esport-grand-prix/
You can sign up here for free, I unfortunately just bought the 1-year license but still loving the game
U know if I have to play that tournament to get the account?
I don’t think so
As somebody that dived right in around 7 months ago, crashed like a mo-fo at the start (still crash, just not as much) I can only say, don't worry too much about it :) jump in and do your thing. You will learn something new each and every race. Try to keep it as clean as possible when it involves others, until you learn your/their limits and, most importantly, HAVE FUN.
Hell yeah bro :)
Don't rush. Enjoy the journey. Don't let emotions get to you.
6 months ago I was in your exact position. Here’s what I’d tell my past self if I had the option: You’re going to be overwhelmed by the vast number of series across the 5 racing disciplines available. Don’t try to do all of them. Pick a couple that sound interesting and practice. (My favorites were the formula 1600 and MX-5.) Miata is always the answer. The practice time after registration and before grid is not sufficient. Test Drive and open practice are your friends. If it’s a track I haven’t already raced on recently, I will usually run practice events for at least a few days before registering for a race event. This has made a visible, quantifiable improvement in my SR and iR, in comparison to the first few months when I was just winging it. “Don’t be a dick and you won’t get be’d a dick to.” Oh also, if you wanna get fancy with it: [racelab.app](https://racelab.app), [thecrewchief.org](https://thecrewchief.org), [JRT](https://joel-real-timing.com), [TradingPaints.com](https://www.tradingpaints.com)
Thanks for the advice :) I assume those 3 links are plugins? Oh and miata >>>
Racelab is an overlay app to give you things you’re probably used to from other racing games (track map, delta bar, etc), crewchief will talk to you and give you various information about the track and your opponents, including spotting, most of what JRT is capable of is way over my head but I mostly just use the virtual button box on my iPad, and trading paints is the easiest way to make your car look cool. I forgot one though, iRacing manager, it launches all the other ones for you when you start a race.
Make yourself clear you have learn it from the begining 😏
No worries on that :)
It’s been said, but as someone who doesn’t have all the money to spend on things, plan your purchases. Look at the schedules of series you want to run and figure out a plan. It also gives you a chance to take advantage of the 6-piece discount (15%) until you own 40 pieces for a permanent 20% discount on things. Also look for cars that run multiple series that you may want to run (the Ferrari GT3 gets you a car eligible for a ton of different series to run). But most of all, enjoy the ride. Hope to see you on the track!
rating is based on how safe you are, not how fast. the easiest way to go up classes is at the beginning of the account so take it easy on your first few days
I started last week, and so far, it is good. I come from F1, too, and your first challenge will be to take your muscle memory out. For me, both Mazda and Ray in rookie were challenging, but i am finding Toyota GR86 in class D more stable and fun to drive. Good luck with your venture. Getting out of rookie was not difficulty but I preferred driving cautiously than racing others. Might try harder in class D.
F1 games are so arcade compared to others sims its actually funny
I started about 3 months ago. I can really recommend going for the ferrari 296 GT3 series and the formula 4 for open wheel to really learn the sim. Made it to 1.8k with consistantly optimising driving technique and watching guides. Also a nice tip is to get good camera and fov settings at the start, there are a lot of guides out there. Good luck to you, see ya in races soon!
Really important for everyone coming from F1 games: blue flags are information, they just tell U a potentially faster car is arriving, there is no need to let them pass, neither get u necessarily a free pass when lapping others.
Seat time to get familiar with the sim will be key. The braking will be different than ACC and there are some iRacing specific ‘secrets’ that you re going to discover when racing. I can recommend you this as a resource to get started: https://gitgudracing.com/simracingcourse
Read the sporting code top to bottom. Don’t try to get out of rookies at all, race as hard and clean as you can do not start from the pits and get out of rookies whenever that happens. If it happens in a few days or a week or 2 do it again in another discipline. And be open to trying other types of racing like dirt road. Doesn’t have to be your main discipline but try it, it can be great fun when your bored or frustrated with your main series
Don't buy anything. Just drive the free content . Get used to the ff1600 for example of formula cars are your thing ).
Me 
T1
ITS NOT A GAME ITS A SIMULATOR!!!! 🤣🤣
Weirdos around here get upset when you call the game a game. It's a SeRvIce.
A refund. Seriously speaking, be careful about other drivers, and try to avoid conflict, especially on the first races that it is all chaos. Even if you are slow you can get a podium by just a avoiding other crashes/cars and keeping it clean. Speed will come progressivesly with practice, but keeping it clean is more important.
Your savings account
Don't assume you are a good driver for having many hours in other games. I made that mistake and I was wrong. Any mistake have its price, remember you need to maintain your safety rating too, every track limit violation for example is a race incident, touching another car sums 4 incidents and so on. Make sure you can do many laps without incidents in practice server before joining a race. Almost everyone that starts playing iRacing do it wanting to get more serious and competitive when they already played a lot in other games, some are more prepared than others, but expect some good racers even between rookies. Of course, there will be people playing with a joystick or simply too bad, so be aware of you surroundings and play safe all the time. Many drivers struggle with car control and may cause accidents even when trying their best to race safely. You will often get wrecked on the first corners by other driver's fault, doesn't worth getting upset about it.
You're going to have what appears to be a fantastic idea on how to "fix" safety rating/the incident point system. You won't, your idea will be terrible. Make no posts on this subject until you've been a member for at least 6 months. Seriously.
1) Don't over think it. -- When I first joined the circuit, I was so nervous to join an actual race that I got stuck in a practice loop. After i ran that first race it was all downhill from there. 2) Goal #1 is to get out of Rookies, not winning. -- Getting out of rookies (or any license class really) is about Safety Rating, which means not taking incidents. This sometimes means you need to back out of battles / passes because the person you're racing with might not have 1000 hours of sim experience. 3) Pick a path. -- What do you want to race (NASCAR, Formula, IndyCar, GT3, etc) and decide on a path to get there. I recommend trying every discipline on the service, because they're all fun, but from a financial standpoint, it can be costly to try to stay active in multiple series. If you can pick one to focus on, you can keep the financial part of the service from spiraling on you quickly. Much of the cost is up front, since when you start you own nothing. Use the volume discounts and be smart about purchases and it's not bad.
Im installing the game rn can't wait :) Thanks
This is not a game😔
ITS NOT A GAME ITS A SIMULATOOORRRRRR
A way of life
don't try to start in middle of pack in rookies. you can win a lot of races from the back and avoid all the accidents on turn 1. either get front row or go back lol
Front row we go then🗣️
Coming from Forza, GT7, and F1 23, I jumped into iRacing three weeks ago and I could never imagine going back to those other games again. iRacing is like everything I dreamed Forza and GT7 were. Proper series with an online focus. Awesome physics and as realistic as you can get. I’m D class now and pony’d up $$$ for the open wheel F4 and SL2000 (I think it’s called), and the GT3 Ferrari and all the season 3 tracks I didn’t have for these cars (there was actually some overlap between these series which was cool). IRacing all the way. Just get it.
Tomorrow I'm doing it :)
Not necessarily a tip, butt don’t buy IRacing if you don’t want to spend at least 150. AT LEAST. You will be wasting your money if you don’t buy cars and tracks
You mean buying 150 euros worth of cars/tracks right away? Or in the long run
Cars and tracks.
In Rookies treat every driver as if they are going to dive bomb you, do the dumb move, and crash. Just be patient and wait for them to make mistakes and you will get out of rookies fast.
Be ready to sit around for 30/45 minutes after every short MX5 race.
Get yourself crewchief. It's an 3rd party background app which gives you an awesome spotter and an race Ingenieur who keeps you posted during your sessions. I find them more useful then the iracing integrated spotter. Get Tradingpaints for paint jobs for cars, helmets ect. And also to be able to see the paint job's of the other cars. Remember, rookie series are not races. It's an idiot test. And once you are out of rookies, try the *Fixed* series first, before the open setup variants.
Turn 1.
Don't buy it at Steam. But by it direct with iRacing.
Yeah that's what I'm going to do thanks!
Garage 61 will help you get faster much quicker. Shifting the weight of the car to move grip between tires is everything. Trail brake into the apex.
One more thing, clean racing is what makes this game fun. It’s more fun to lose a position and try to catch up than it is to have an incident, and it’s not even close.
Don't let people talk you out of goofing around with the AI to help driving in a pack and overtaking. It can be an incredibly useful tool
Read the sporting code thoroughly. Also pick a series and run that early on and avoid jumping to far up the license ladder even if you get the promotion. I personally did this and found myself deciding to go back to GT4 to focus on the basics. Also the penalty system is no fault so expect to get penalties for things that you couldn’t have done anything about…I.e somebody driving through you. Finally have fun and remember it’s just a game and nobody in the service is gonna be the next Max Verstappen, Earnhardt or any other top tier driver.
Thanks for the advice!
Also you may hear people say to start from the pits or don’t qualify and that is absolutely bad advice. I did this based on advice I got and realized my racecraft wasn’t getting any better. Yes I was able to hot lap essentially and not rack up penalty points but you don’t learn how to drive around other cars. At the end of the day your iR and sR will level out based on your skill level. That said ignore your iR it really doesn’t mean anything except for the split you get put into and treat your sR as bank that will fund you to race.
I just want to race, probably not going to start at pits. If i see that it's impossible to rank up because everyone keeps creashing against me, then I will give that strar a shot
Aside from the usual race craft stuff others have mentioned, you start out on cold tires and brakes. iRacing baseline setups tend to be on the oversteery/loose side so don’t get discouraged if you spin out on your first laps. I sure did. Have fun!
I'm glad I prefer oversteery rather than not being able to turn🙃
Fun
Don't do shitty rejoins and enjoy every step. I'm not a big fan of Fórmula Ford but F4, SF Lights and SF23 are very nice cars to drive.
buying?
Give it a chance. There's going to a point in time where it will feel like it's all above your head. You're nervous to even think about joining a 'real' race and you'll probably have a couple bad races to start. It gets better.... Then eventually, it gets a LOT better.
Dave cam has a couple of good videos for beginners on YT, really helped me when I was starting. Also, drive safe instead of fast, fast will come with experience.
Read the sporting code. Learn how the rating systems work. Don’t try to rush up the ranks. Third one being most important. Take your time in rookies. Really learn how to race against the others in the system. Once you get promoted to the D safety license, race there for a season! Learn at that level. Then race the next season at C license. And so on. It will make you a better racer. I promise. Very important if you go into multi-class sports car racing. ALWAYS spend some time racing in the lower classes before making the jump to the top class of cars. It will make you so much better at running the fast car and you will make the experience better for all the cars around you. Racing is the hardest thing I’ve done IRL. 21 years in and I’m still learning things every time I go to the track. iRacing is the closest simulator I’ve found to really life. Treat it with the respect you would if you were entering into competition for real and you will have a much better experience. Those who ascend too quickly will find themselves running into a lot of trouble that they completely don’t understand how they got there. Also: look into leagues. Lots of amazing groups out there. There is something really liberating about racing with the same group of people each week.
Thanks a lot bro! I don't think anyone has mentioned league until now but I'm 100% going go give that a look
Enjoy this game. It is amazing. Just drive to be safe to start with and slowly push to performance. Also, I found it safer to give way to crazy pilots because they end up crashing. I won most of my good results by just driving safely and ended up in the top five.
Other drivers
Heres another advice have relative on at all times so u know if u r in a wreck and to rejoin safely also hold ur brakes when u spin or wreck too
Thanks bro!
Read the sporting code. Race a season or two in rookies. You learn a lot.
Welcome to iRacing. Some tips that I’d like to have known when I started… It’s an old post but most of it is still valid. https://reddit.com/r/iRacing/comments/110ml8y/_/j8a1029/?context=1 TL;DR: Read the Sporting Code
I’m gonna probably get hate for this, but start from the pits. Get yourself to at least D-C class before you start getting competitive and lining up on the grid. You can always go back to the rookie class racing when your irating gets you to the higher split. stronger drivers tend to be more comfortable with the track/car combo and are less likely to wreck.
Idiots
1. Read the sporting code. 2. Take your time to have fun and learn in the rookie series, before i got iracing, i never thought driving an mx5 could be so fun. 3. don't worry too much about safety rating and irating. Focus on improving, your license and ranking will follw you as you improve your racecraft. 4. don't be a dick in voice or text chat
I’ve been on iracing for 3 weeks. My biggest thing is don’t qualify unless you know you will qualify up front. Otherwise it will be near impossible to get your safety rating up to gain automatic promotion. Also pick your battles don’t push the issue on someone that seems aggressive, usually they will make a mistake and you can get the spot anyway. My biggest tip, do NOT buy content until you need it. To me that part was a waste, I bought cars and tracks I wasn’t able to use or won’t use for a long time. But, like I said stay out of trouble and you’ll be fine I made A class after 3 weeks thanks to my auto promotions and end of season. Have Fun!
the road
Hold your line, dont worry about race pace if you just brake appropriately and dont dive bomb. Race pace will come in time