iRacing

iRacing, previously iRacing.com, is a subscription-based racing simulation online video game developed and published by iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations in 2008. All races and practice sessions are hosted on the publisher's servers. The game simulates real world cars, tracks, and racing events, and enforcing rules of conduct modeled on real auto racing events.[1][2][3]

iRacing
Developer(s)iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations
Initial releaseAugust 26, 2008
Stable release
2019.09.05 / September 5, 2019 (2019-09-05)
PlatformMicrosoft Windows
TypeRacing simulation
Websiteiracing.com

Gameplay

iRacing only allows the use of a realistic cockpit view in official racing, but will allow for other camera views in test sessions or other sessions if the host or organizer allows. Most users use a force feedback steering wheel with gas, brake, and clutch pedals, as well as H-pattern shifters and/or sequential shifters. The gameplay is developed to mimic auto racing in as much detail as possible.

Competition

When the user account is created, the player starts with a Rookie-level license in all categories. In order to advance onto the "D"-level license and beyond, the user must complete a number of races with little to no accidents, off-track incidents, or losses of control. As the user achieves the higher-level licenses, they qualify to compete in more official series.

For the standard official series managed by iRacing, each calendar year is normally divided into four 12-week seasons, with all driving sessions in a series taking place on one track for each week during the 12-week seasons.[4] Drivers can participate in practice, qualifying, license time trials, and race sessions. The week between each season is referred to as "week thirteen", and has its own set of series which change track each day. During Week 13 drivers cannot complete time-trials, and so cannot add to their licence level.[5] Week 13, in general, has a more relaxed attitude, with an emphasis on fun, rather than competition. Week 13 is often plagued with server issues, as the purpose of the week is for the implementation of software updates. There are also non-standard series, examples of which are the four-week Rookie series, IndyCar, Skip Barber and Grand-Am Premier series, and Pro series.[6] Races that are organized by members do not have to follow any official schedule. The series are divided into two main categories, oval and road, which are further divided into several license level series from Rookie to Pro, and a driver must earn each license to be eligible to participate in official race week sessions at their license level. If not qualified for the correct license for a series, drivers can still participate in practice sessions.[7] Earning a higher license involves both participation in competitions on a driver's current highest license level and achievement of a minimum safety record. The requirements for advancing and the licenses themselves are category-specific — in other words, a driver has a separate license for road and oval categories.[8]

Racing within the service is managed by a sanctioning body called FIRST. The detailed rules for official competition are published in the FIRST Sporting Code, which registered members of the service are expected to read and agree to abide by as part of the games Terms of Service.[9] iRacing run several different official series, but members are also free to organize their own online sessions that are hosted on servers run by iRacing. In 2012, iRacing increased the ability for users to run their own seasons through "Leagues" where, for a fee, users manage their own league, recruit/accept drivers, and have automated scoring. Any member-organized sessions are free from the license level restrictions. In addition to taking part in the different public sessions, a member can use a test mode to drive alone on any track with any car, assuming he has purchased the license to use the content.[10]

Development

The company behind iRacing.com, FIRST, LLC., was established in Bedford, Massachusetts in September 2004 by David Kaemmer and John W. Henry after the demise of Papyrus Design Group, which Kaemmer had also co-founded.[11] The iRacing service has been in development since then, using code from Papyrus' NASCAR Racing 2003 Season as a starting point. According to Kaemmer, iRacing retains the multi-body physics system of NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, as well as some of the track presentation and multi-user packet code, but everything else has been changed, or is completely new like the tire model and graphics engine.[12] The service receives regular updates between 12-week competition seasons.[13]

In May 2009, NASCAR and iRacing.com announced a five-year deal of an online NASCAR-sanctioned racing series and on February 13, 2015, iRacing.com announced a six-year extension of their agreement.[14] iRacing.com also provides the software used in the NASCAR Hall of Fame simulators.[15]

Laser scanning

iRacing copies real-world tracks using LIDAR. This technology makes the track's geometry more accurate.[1][16]

Virtual reality

iRacing has full support for both the Oculus Rift CV1 and HTC Vive.[17]

Content

While the licenses to 18 cars and 18 tracks offering a total of 30 track configurations are provided in the subscription's base content,[18] users must purchase individual licenses for each additional vehicle and track that they wish to drive. The game offers 94 tracks.[19] This total includes two of the tracks on the service that have been rescanned and reproduced (Daytona and Phoenix), because of modifications made to the track since they had originally been produced for iRacing, two Tech Tracks (New Jersey Motorsports Park and Long Beach Street Circuit), available for test driving and hosted sessions while in an incomplete state, as well as iRacing's one fictional track which is a skid pad called "Centripetal Circuit", meant for use in acquiring data about your vehicle's dynamics.

Staying true to their focus on remaining a motorsports simulation, the vehicles on iRacing.com are almost exclusively digital models of purpose built race cars as opposed to street legal sports cars or supercars and all of the content is produced using a combination of laser scan data, CAD data, live audio samples, and thousands of photographs to be as faithful a digital reproduction as possible within their means.[20]

Since December 4, 2018, iRacing offers a day-night-cycle, offering more dynamic racing due to e.g. temperature impacts and limited sight at night.[21]

On October 18, 2016, a partnership with Ferrari was announced. The first car to be released will be the 2016 Ferrari 488 GTE.[22]

The developers have established numerous partnerships with real-world racing organizations and series, including NASCAR, IndyCar, Supercars Championship, the SCCA, the Skip Barber Racing School, the Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup, the new Formula Renault 2.0, the Star Mazda Championship, the Blancpain Endurance Series and McLaren F1.[23] Categories of vehicles available include open wheel cars such as Formula 1 cars like the McLaren-Honda MP4-30, many American stock cars such as those used in NASCAR series, Australian V8 Supercars, several GT3 cars used in the Blancpain series such as the Audi R8 LMS GT3, trainers such as the Skip Barber or Legends Ford, sports cars such as Ford Mustang FR500 and prototypes such as the Corvette Daytona Prototype.[24]

A variety of tracks of are available in the service to support competitions for the diverse selection of cars such as classic grand prix tracks like the Autódromo José Carlos Pace and Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, the whole complement of major NASCAR ovals such as Daytona International Speedway and a variety of short-track ovals such as Lanier and Indianapolis Raceway Park.[25]

Dirt track racing

On April 1, 2016, the developers released an update for the game that introduced dirt track racing.[26][27] The patch included new vehicles such as Dirt Super Late Model, Dirt Sprint and Dirt Street racing cars. Moreover, the developers acquired licenses of Eldora Speedway, Volusia Speedway Park, and Williams Grove Speedway. These three tracks, along with a revised, dirt version of USA International Speedway became the four dirt tracks on iRacing.[28][29] Later, the dirt version of Lanier Raceplex and Knoxville Raceway became available.

Also in early 2017, iRacing announced partnerships with the United States Auto Club and World of Outlaws, two of the major North American dirt track racing sanctioning bodies.[30][31]

Subscription and operation

iRacing can only be played online on servers run by iRacing.com, and participation requires a subscription to the service. Additional cars and tracks are subject to additional one-time charges. As of May 2020, the subscription package includes a set of 18 race courses with 30 available configurations, a fictional skid pad (named Centripetal Circuit in the game), and over 18 cars with which to practice and race.[32]

Reception
Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
Metacritic79/100[33]
Review scores
PublicationScore
PC Gamer (UK)80%[34]
GameStar68%[35]

iRacing.com was launched to the public on August 26, 2008.[36] By July 2009 more than 16,000 individuals had subscribed to the service.[37] The company said there were 50,000 members as of December 2013.[38]

iRacing.com has received favorable reviews from automobile, racing and gaming magazines as well as websites dedicated to racing simulators.[39][40][41][42] The service has also been criticized for not yet including features often found on other racing simulators, such as rain and more advanced visual damage modeling.[43] PC Gamer stated that the game was "not one that will be to everyone's taste", while GameStar back in 2009 concluded "The graphics give the impression of an unfinished beta, but at least the atmosphere between the players is always friendly."[34][35]

gollark: Food is, broadly speaking, necessary to live. But while I could probably *survive* on cheaper, less resource-intensive-to-produce food than I do, or less food by caloric content and stuff, I like to have more/better food than is strictly necessary. Same with water - I won't die of dehydration on some small amount per day, but on the whole I'll be worse off if I don't have as much to drink as I want, or enough water for showering and washing stuff.
gollark: I'm typing.
gollark: You totally did.
gollark: * Markdown
gollark: * around a word means "italicize it" in Markdwon.

References
  1. Brown, Jordan (December 2008). "iRacing.com Racing Simulator". Car and Driver. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
  2. "iRacing Build Review – Season 2, 2016". pretendracecars.net. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
  3. Passingham, Michael. "Best PC sim racing games 2015 - Project CARS and more". www.expertreviews.co.uk. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  4. "4.2. Sanctioning". FIRST Official Sporting Code (PDF). iRacing.com. 7 August 2009. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
  5. "4.5. Sessions". FIRST Official Sporting Code.
  6. "4.2.5. Rookie Series". FIRST Official Sporting Code.
  7. "2.9. Series Eligibility". FIRST Official Sporting Code.
  8. "2.2. Earning a FIRST License". FIRST Official Sporting Code.
  9. FIRST Official Sporting Code.
  10. Cole, Shaun (Director) (5 June 2008). iRacing Full Preview by SRT's Shaun Cole (Flash video). Inside Sim Racing. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
  11. "History". iRacing.com. Retrieved 15 October 2009.
  12. Denton, Jon (August 2008). "The Masters of Mass". AutoSimSport. 4 (4): 21–34. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-23. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
  13. Denton, Jon (February 15, 2008). "iRacing.com Announce: Revolution". AutoSimSport. 4 (1): 19–30. Archived from the original (Flash) on January 16, 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
  14. "NASCAR, iRacing.com Announce Six Year Licensing Extension". iRacing.com. 13 February 2015. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  15. Bob Pockrass (May 19, 2009). "NASCAR inks deal with iRacing.com to develop online racing series". SceneDaily.com. Archived from the original on May 22, 2009. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
  16. Swinbanks, James. "iRacing - not just for sim-racing junkies". www.pcauthority.com.au. Retrieved 7 October 2016.
  17. "iRacing: Oculus Rift/HTC Vive".
  18. "Membership". iRacing.com. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  19. "iRacings Track Archive". iRacing.com. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  20. "Car Technology". iRacing.com. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
  21. "Patch Note, December 4th Season 1 Build". iracing.com. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  22. "iRacing Partners with Ferrari – 488 GTE coming". bsimracing.com. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  23. "Partners". iRacing.com. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
  24. "Cars". iRacing.com. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  25. "Tracks". iRacing.com. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  26. "(Almost) Everything You Wanted to Know About iRacing's Dirt Sim Racing Plans". iracing.com. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  27. "Dirt coming to iRacing – Not a joke Afterall (Rallycross Teaser)". bsimracing.com. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  28. "iRacing Development Update – Dirt, Le Mans, VR and more". iracing.com. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  29. "iRacing – New DIRT Racing Preview Screenshots". bsimracing.com. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  30. iRacing Partners With World Of Outlaws - Speed Sport, 3 March 2017
  31. iRacing teams up with USAC - Speed Sport, 20 April 2017
  32. "Cars&Tracks". iRacing.com. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  33. "iRacing for PC Reviews - Metacritic:". Metacritic. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  34. Channell, Mike (3 August 2010). "IRACING REVIEW". PC Gamer. PC Gamer. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  35. Plass-Fleßenkämper, Benedikt (29 April 2009). "IRACING TEST (PC) - MIT ULTRA-REALISMUS AUF DEN THRON?" [IRACING TEST (PC) - ON THE THRONE THANKS TO ULTRA-REALISM?]. GameStar (in German). GameStar. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  36. "iRacing Launches Advanced Motorsport Simulation and Internet Racing Service: Driver Development Tool Now Available to Auto Racing Community and General Public". iRacing.com. 26 August 2008. Archived from the original on 9 September 2008. Retrieved 9 April 2009.
  37. Eric Fisher (27 July 2009). "Taking aim online". SportsBusiness Journal. Retrieved 28 July 2009.
  38. "iRacing.com adds Monza". iRacing.com. 19 December 2013. Archived from the original on 11 March 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
  39. Lerner, Preston (23 December 2008). "Virtual Car Racing - iRacing". Automobile Magazine. Retrieved 9 January 2009.
  40. Lear, Scott R. (November 2008). iRacing Demo. Grassroots Motorsports Magazine. Archived from the original (Flash video) on 2008-08-17. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
  41. Toivonen, Ismo (February 2009). "iRacing.com: Kumartakaa uutta mestaria". Pelit (in Finnish). 2009 (2): 36–39. Archived from the original on 2011-06-16. Retrieved 2009-04-13.
  42. Lindblad, Jens (June 9, 2008). "iRacing". SimHQ.com. Archived from the original on June 10, 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-09.
  43. Vasilakos, Aristotelis (June 2008). "iRacing: The Physics". AutoSimSport. 4 (3): 33–38. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-23. Retrieved 2009-04-12.

Further reading
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