iRacing Accelerator – Part 2

If you are wondering about signing up to iRacing or just getting started over there and are perhaps a little overwhelmed, confused, looking for hints and tips or simply trying to get to terms with everything faster, then read on ... 

As the 2nd post in this series, this follows on from iRacing Accelerator – Part 1. If you are new to iRacing then I would highly recommend also checking that out.

Hint: as with all these articles, you can either read this post from beginning to end (especially useful if you are new to iRacing), or simply skim to just the bits that you are interested in.

Signing-up and buying content

As mentioned in the previous post, iRacing is a “pay to play” subscription service which can become rather costly.

Fear not though, once you decide to go down this particular rabbit hole, taking advantage of discounts and “shopping clever” will help maximise your investment and reduce your outlay … which is especially helpful in the first weeks and months as you explore and build the available content in your virtual iRacing garage or track access.

Subscription Discounts
  • New member discounts – one time, new member sign up discounts. You choose how long you sign up for, and get a big discount.
  • How long should I sign up for?
    • If you are unsure about iRacing then perhaps just go for a short subscription duration.
    • However, if you already have online sim-racing experience and7or are convinced that you will stick with iRacing and drive on a regular basis, then consider a longer subscription duration – despite the higher initial outlay, you will save more in the long run.
  • Be realistic about your budget and plan ahead, including purchasing access to at least one more car and several tracks in the initial few weeks and months.
  • Existing member discounts – iRacing has previously offered “Black Friday” deals to existing members giving them subscription extensions at a discounted rate.
    • if you are undecided then if you are also close to Black Friday time then you might plan with this in mind.
    • In 2021, 12 and 24 month extensions saw 25% discounts

Sign up to iRacing here

If you appreciate the information and help, then please support Sim72 and sign up to iRacing with this link
Doing this will give me a small referrer’s credit at iRacing (at no cost to you!) which in turn will help me bring even more useful content to you via Sim72.

Content
  • Once signed up, you will have access to a bunch of free content to get you started and give you regular racing – for example in the “Road” category you get popular content and tracks such as the Mazda MX-5, Formula Vee, Laguna Seca, Oulton Park plus a lot more with races that run every 30 minutes.
  • Whilst these free cars may sound a little underwhelming at first, the racing is fun and real, and to get properly fast in them still takes a lot of skill and talent. These series always see regular, competitive racing.
  • Similar to real world racing, you need to find your feet on the platform and prove both your safety and worthiness to race faster cars by driving clean and increasing your Safety Rating.
  • The free content will get you through Rookie class and in to some fun D Class racing.
  • To progress further though you will most likely soon be eager to pay for more content to race bigger, badder, rougher, tougher cars and tracks, offering you the ability to prove your phenomenal racing talents … or perhaps just learn how (not) to crash in a bunch of new and inventive ways!?!
    • Realistically you don’t own content when you pay for it, you buy access to cars and tracks whilst you maintain an active subscription to iRacing.
    • If your subscription lapses you cannot drive any of the cars or tracks any more, however it is not lost.
    • Renew your subscription and the content you have previously paid for will be waiting for you to drive again.

For the intended purposes of this article I will use varying terms such as purchase or buy to imply “buy access to” and am not going to argue the merits of this system or concept … you can probably find enough trolling on reddit about this without much help.

Content Discounts
  • iRacing has long running offers for purchasing 3x or more cars or tracks at once to give you varying levels of discount depending on volume you buy.
  • These discounts can be seen and will automatically be applied in your iRacing basket at checkout.
  • The more cars and tracks you add to your basket, the bigger the discount. So currently buying 3-5 items gives you 10%, 6+ gives you 15%, 40+ items offers 20% discount and by adding all cars and tracks to your basket in one go you will get a hefty 30% discount.
  • Smart shopping and a bit of planning ahead can save you money
    • Instead of buying one car and track this week, then another next week, and another the week after, consider buying 3, 4 or more items at once to get access to these discounts and save money over the course of your iRacing career.
Planning ahead
  • As mentioned in the previous article, iRacing runs official seasons and race series, and to progress to the next license you need to run a set number of MPR events in each license class.
    • License progression after Rookies does require paid content.
    • Be aware of this, it is your choice however and you can race the free content as long as you have a subscription.
    • Alternatively you can choose to buy more content and progress your license.
    • If you can’t afford or accept this “pay to play” concept, then it would probably be better to find another racing sim that operates a more traditional licensing method.
  • Think about the cars and tracks you would enjoy driving the most and check out the upcoming season’s schedule for those cars.
  • Look a bit further down the line and get the most bang for your buck. Buying content which runs in multiple series and license classes will help you do that.
    • A Ferrari GT3 Evo gets you access to a very popular D license Ferrari racing series, which also runs some free tracks.
    • Once you progress to a C license or B you will be able to drive the same Ferrari in different (MPR) racing series.
  • See how often the tracks you wish to buy are used in different racing series, especially those series you are interested in driving, both in your current and hopefully future license classes and racing series.
  • Consider the “staple” tracks which run regularly each season across all classes … some examples of this might be Spa, Monza, Interlagos, Hockenheimring, Watkins Glen, Barcelona, Imola, Red Bull Ring, Suzuka, Mount Panorama …
  • Choose tracks and cars that you enjoy driving and expect to race. Certain tracks are amazing to drive but may not be the best for racing or perhaps are magnets for accidents, and so perhaps make you nervous to drive as they are potential for big Safety Rating losses?
  • Use 3rd party websites to help you plan your purchases. iRacing provides a pdf of the current season’s racing for registered members, however its not the easiest tool to help you plan. A quick search will produce a bunch of handy websites showing upcoming races for each track and car. A couple of sites I use and have found helpful are: https://www.irbg.net/ and https://iracing-week-planner.tmo.lol/ (note: I have no affiliation to either of these sites)
  • You can race cars you own below your license level but not race in series above your current license class.
    • You can however jump in on some practice servers in a higher license class than yours’ if you wish to “test the waters” (more info on that and “test driving” during races in a future post)

Sign up to iRacing here

If you appreciate the information and help, then please support Sim72 and sign up to iRacing with this link
Doing this will give me a small referrer’s credit at iRacing (at no cost to you!) which in turn will help me bring even more useful content to you via Sim72.

Other Sim72 posts will cover topics such as getting set up and running in iRacing, handy 3rd party tools and overlays, system tweaks and setup including force feedback, graphics and sound options, plus lots of other useful stuff to ease the learning curve and get you running safe and fast in as short a time as possible.