iRacing - your thoughts?

2 Sweet

2 Sweet

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I've never played, but I recently started watching videos of some online nascar races on youtube (mostly on DLBTV's channel) and it looks like an absolute blast. It reminds me of my high school days when I would play Nascar Racing 4 and NR2003 on my computer with a cheap force feedback wheel and an outdated graphics card. Fun times, although online racing wasn't really a thing at the time.

iRacing is something I've always thought about trying, but never bothered with any research whatsoever because I knew I wouldn't have the time or money to commit to it. I know a few of you guys on here are well versed in it, and I would love to pick your brains......

1. Generally speaking, if I needed to buy/build a desktop with the goods to support it, how much would it cost? I have no idea what a decent graphics card and whatever else costs. And how much would an entry level wheel/pedal combo cost, and how much would a decent monitor cost? Ballpark figures are fine.

2. Do you need to mess with your setups like crazy to be competitive? I'm not interested in spending hours dicking around with setup adjustments. My only experience racing online is Forza on Xbox, and my lap times on Forza 6 are decent enough to score in the top 1% in the world at Watkins Glen, but that's with minimal tuning. Looking at the top lap times on the leaderboard, the fastest cars/setups always seem a little unrealistic to me, but I'm certainly not an engineer or race car builder.

Life is busy enough as it is, so I don't know if I'll ever bite the bullet and give iRacing a shot, but I would like to at least get an idea in my head of the costs up front and take it from there. Any feedback is welcome and appreciated. :)
 
If you want to be competitive, then yes, you are gonna need to dick around with those settings.

To be honest, it sounds like you might be better off at just sticking with console racing games, iRacing is for people that are 100% serious about racing, all parts of it( including dicking around with setups)

Just my thoughts, carry on
 
jws926 said:
If you want to be competitive, then yes, you are gonna need to dick around with those settings.

To be honest, it sounds like you might be better off at just sticking with console racing games, iRacing is for people that are 100% serious about racing, all parts of it( including dicking around with setups)

Just my thoughts, carry on
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I don't mind spending an hour in practice at each track and adjusting this or that to try and gain a couple tenths and get the car set up to my liking, but I'm not going to do it 6 hours a day just to be competitive in a 45 minute race. That's what I was getting at. I'm not sure how elaborate the setups are in this game compared to Forza (I'm assuming it's very deep), and I'm not sure how much tinkering is involved to see any gains as far as a "time involved" standpoint.
 
I'll elaborate on that.....in Forza 6, I spent a lot of time at Watkins Glen trying to improve my lap times, but wasn't working my way any further up the ladder. I looked at the leaderboards, and some people let you download their setups if you have the same car. I found someone in the top 100 or whatever that had a Trans Am GTA with a free setup, so I gave it a shot since I owned the same car. It won't let you look at a downloaded setup to see what the specifics are as far as tech details or modifications, but the car had freakin 20" wheels on the front which leads me to believe that whatever setup the guy used is a bunch of BS. It also felt like I was driving a speedboat on corner entry which made it unrealistically difficult to drive, yet it was still (kind of) fast. It was fine for time trials, but wouldn't have worked when dealing with race traffic.

I'm assuming that iRacing is a lot more realistic than Forza, which is why I brought it up for reference.
 
I don't have a ton of free time to spend on video games, so when I played Forza I spent most of my time in the game on Watkins Glen and getting my cars as quick as I could at that track, since I was already familiar with it. I understand the general stuff about setting up a car, I know how to play around with tire pressures and suspension settings and brake bias and all that so I can loosen up the car and "point" it into the corner, hitting the apex just right and trying to keep momentum rolling off the corner. It was a lot of fun tweaking with the setups and seeing what gains could be had and getting the right "feel" for the car. I also really liked modding the car, trying to figure the right power/weight ratio, getting the gearing just right for the track, etc. But I would get to a point where I would "hit a wall" and couldn't get any faster.

I guess I'm just trying to figure out how much time and effort it takes in iRacing to hit that wall or break past it. Hopefully that makes sense.
 
2 Sweet said:
I've never played, but I recently started watching videos of some online nascar races on youtube (mostly on DLBTV's channel) and it looks like an absolute blast. It reminds me of my high school days when I would play Nascar Racing 4 and NR2003 on my computer with a cheap force feedback wheel and an outdated graphics card. Fun times, although online racing wasn't really a thing at the time.
Click to expand...

Haha, I remember those days as well, the public lobby was a wreckfest! Well you're in luck because iRacing base is the NR2003 program, but they have extensively built upon it since it's release in 2008.

iRacing is something I've always thought about trying, but never bothered with any research whatsoever because I knew I wouldn't have the time or money to commit to it. I know a few of you guys on here are well versed in it, and I would love to pick your brains......

1. Generally speaking, if I needed to buy/build a desktop with the goods to support it, how much would it cost? I have no idea what a decent graphics card and whatever else costs. And how much would an entry level wheel/pedal combo cost, and how much would a decent monitor cost? Ballpark figures are fine.
Click to expand...

For the computer and monitor (keep in mind I have triple monitors set up), I spent I'd say around $1,000 for the computer and one monitor and when I added in the other two monitors, I'd say about $500 for that. Now I have the super ultra steering wheel and pedals, but I've seen PRO iRacing drivers (yes, people who get paid to race on iRacing) be very competitive with Logitech wheels and pedals. I'd recommend the G29 set.

2. Do you need to mess with your setups like crazy to be competitive? I'm not interested in spending hours dicking around with setup adjustments. My only experience racing online is Forza on Xbox, and my lap times on Forza 6 are decent enough to score in the top 1% in the world at Watkins Glen, but that's with minimal tuning. Looking at the top lap times on the leaderboard, the fastest cars/setups always seem a little unrealistic to me, but I'm certainly not an engineer or race car builder.
Click to expand...

One of the great things about iRacing is that it does offer Fixed set-up racing series. iRacing provides the same set-up to everyone and it's all about the driver. Right now I'm racing in dirt oval, and I'm in the Fixed Late Model series. Trust me, in iRacing consistent is more important than putting down one or two hot laps. You're going to want to work on being consistent on the track for the duration of the race.

Life is busy enough as it is, so I don't know if I'll ever bite the bullet and give iRacing a shot, but I would like to at least get an idea in my head of the costs up front and take it from there. Any feedback is welcome and appreciated. :)
Click to expand...

I hope my answers has helped and if you have any more questions, let me know!
 
I feel like this might be a relevant time to bump this thread, in case anyone else is interested in taking the plunge.

I haven't joined iRacing yet, but I've continued to do a little research from time to time. Last year I joined a facebook group "iRacing flea market" and have been keeping my eyes peeled for a good deal on some equipment. At this point, I'm mostly just undecided on a monitor setup. I'm leaning towards an ultrawide curved monitor, or possibly a triple monitor setup. Lots of folks are switching to VR headsets, but I don't think I would like that. So I'm hoping to score a good deal on a used monitor or three and go from there.
 
2 Sweet said:
I feel like this might be a relevant time to bump this thread, in case anyone else is interested in taking the plunge.

I haven't joined iRacing yet, but I've continued to do a little research from time to time. Last year I joined a facebook group "iRacing flea market" and have been keeping my eyes peeled for a good deal on some equipment. At this point, I'm mostly just undecided on a monitor setup. I'm leaning towards an ultrawide curved monitor, or possibly a triple monitor setup. Lots of folks are switching to VR headsets, but I don't think I would like that. So I'm hoping to score a good deal on a used monitor or three and go from there.
Click to expand...
How much are those curved monitors I saw today?
 
iRacing is the way to go if you are willing to spend $5k on your computer, monitors, wheel, pedals, subscription, and above-average internet service. Also if you are willing to dedicate hundreds of hours just on fine-tuning your setups if you want to be competitive with most players.

Otherwise, just go with the NASCAR Racing 2003 Season for PC (they have mods with realistic physics and up-to-date drivers and paint schemes). Or NASCAR Heat 4 for PC or console if you are on a tight budget. Even with those games you will be required to spend a great deal of time fine-tuning your setups to be competitive online, not even factoring in the practice required to learn the fastest driving lines at every track. Online racing is a fierce beast and the best players dedicate the most amount of time to it just like any real-life sport.
 
I went ahead and got a 3 month subscription, couldn’t pass it up for 16 dollars. Will probably spend some money on some cars and tracks. Wish I would have gotten iRacing sooner, having so fun so far
 
Wish I had a place to put it, besides buying a monitor, pc, seat, subscription etc, I just don't have a dedicated space to put a permanent rig for iRacing. I have a Logitech g920 wheel and pedals that I can setup into a makeshift rig in my TV room in 20 minutes for the Xbox, it works quite well since I'm able to clamp the wheel onto a tray table and pin the whole thing down with weights. Forza 7 and Heat 4. It fits my convenience and level of commitment, for now.
 
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