IRacing

Last updated
iRacing
IRacing Logo, 2021.svg
Developer(s) iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations, LLC
Publisher(s) iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations, LLC
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
ReleaseAugust 26, 2008;15 years ago (2008-08-26)
Genre(s) Racing simulation
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer

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

Contents

Gameplay

Players using a sim-racing rig, demoing iRacing at E3 2011. E3 2011 - Playseat racing seats (5831894364).jpg
Players using a sim-racing rig, demoing iRacing at E3 2011.

iRacing primarily focuses on creating an environment in game that will mimic real-life driving as closely as possible, including the use of LIDAR-scanned cars and tracks. [1] [4] Without special settings either set in a custom session or by administrators, players are confined to a cockpit-only view when driving, in contrast to other popular sim racing games like Gran Turismo or Assetto Corsa.

iRacing offers a day-night-cycle, offering more dynamic racing due to temperature variation and limited sight at night. [5]

It provides support for racing wheels and gamepads alike, but it is generally recommended to use a racing wheel, support for adaptive controls used by players with physical challenges is also included. [6] iRacing also supports the use of VR headsets. [7]

iRacing.com released AI capable driving in late 2019, [8] which continues to see more tracks and cars added to AI capability as the releases of the game go on. [9]

Online play

Racing series and seasons

iRacing.com sanctions many different race series on its service, some of which are meant to correspond to race series held in real life. There are four disciplines of auto racing available for players: road, oval, dirt road (composed of rallycross and trophy truck racing), and dirt oval. Each series has three session types for the given week: Open practice, Qualifying, or Time Trial. [10] Each series has its own seasonal championship for Race and Time Trial, and also a separate, non-series based Time Attack mode. [11] Users are allowed to create their own race or practice sessions and their own full series and seasons using iRacing's Hosted Sessions and Leagues features, respectively. [12]

License classes

After the "Rookie" license, which all players start at, iRacing uses a letter-grade licensing system, with grades of D, C, B, and A, from lowest to highest. There is also a Pro license, which is reserved for drivers who qualify for the premier eSports series hosted by iRacing.com, such as the eNASCAR iRacing Series and the Porsche eSports Supercup.

Advancement of a license class is determined by a player's participation in sessions that have a minimum required license that isn't lower than the player's current license (called a Minimum Participation Requirement), and advancement of safety rating.

Safety rating system

The safety rating system in iRacing is a rudimentary, no-blame system for determining how "safe" a player is on the track by penalizing a player for "incident points" by deducting from their safety rating. Examples of things that would incur incident points would be going off the track, losing control of the car, and contact with an object (usually a barrier or wall) or another car. Players can be penalized in-game or disqualified from a session for incurring too many incident points. [13]

Driver rating system

iRacing also includes an ELO-type driver skill rating system called iRating, used to split drivers into different race sessions and championship divisions for better competition. iRating and safety rating are only impacted in iRacing.com-sanctioned official races. [14]

Content

While the access to 23 cars and 29 tracks are provided in the subscription's base content, users must purchase individual licenses for each additional vehicle and track that they wish to drive. All of the content included in the subscription is enough to get the player out of the Rookie license class in every discipline. [15] The track and vehicle catalogue in iRacing is subject to additions of new content with each season update. Currently, according to iRacing.com themselves, their catalogue consists of more than 100 cars and tracks. Cars on the service include stock cars, sprint cars, touring cars, open-wheel cars, and prototype cars. [16]

Development

iRacing began to be developed in 2004, when Dave Kaemmer, co-founder of the Papyrus Design Group, partnered with John W. Henry to create FIRST.net LLC, which then acquired the code to NASCAR Racing 2003 Season . Kaemmer then worked this source code into what would become iRacing, released four years later in 2008. [17] iRacing retains the multi-body physics system of NR2003, 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. [18] The service receives regular updates between 12-week competition seasons. [19]

Over a two-month period in December 2021 and January 2022, iRacing.com acquired a pair of racing game companies, Orontes Games and Monster Games; the former developed the Orontes game engine used in its 2020 off-road racing game Drag, while the latter has created multiple racing games including NASCAR Heat . The two remained independent from their new parent, though iRacing's development team absorbed assets like Orontes' lead developers Christian Folkers and Thorsten Folkers and Monster's owner Rich Garcia. [20] [21]

Partnerships

NASCAR

iRacing.com has been a long time partner of NASCAR. Their first partnership was announced in 2010, renewed once, and is now looking forward at a decade or more of future partnership, announced in a further renewal agreement in 2021. [22] On November 2, 2020 NASCAR Hall of Fame member Dale Earnhardt Jr. was named as executive director at iRacing.com. [23] NASCAR is involved in several series present on iRacing, including the premier eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series and its respective, iRacing.com-sanctioned series: the NASCAR iRacing Series classes A B and C, and the eNASCAR Road to Pro Qualifying Series.

IMSA

IMSA first partnered with iRacing.com in 2020 with the debut of the IMSA iRacing Pro Series, which put professional racing drivers from IMSA and other series against each other in the iRacing simulation software. IMSA also sponsors several iRacing.com-sanctioned series designed to reflect real series that IMSA holds: the IMSA Hagerty iRacing Series, iRacing IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, and the IMSA iRacing Endurance Series. [24]

World of Outlaws

World of Outlaws began partnering with iRacing.com in 2018 to provide two eSports World Championship Series, one for late models, the other for sprint cars. [25] On April 5, 2022, along with the announcement of the extension of their partnership, WoO announced they would be developing a new World of Outlaws console game with iRacing.com and Monster Games, the first new World of Outlaws game in more than 10 years. [26]

Porsche

German automobile manufacturer Porsche has worked together with iRacing.com since 2017, announcing the first iteration of the Porsche eSports Supercup in 2018. iRacing.com has many of Porsche's vehicles in its catalogue due to the connection between the two. [27]

FOX Sports

In March 2020, FOX Sports aired the inaugural event of the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series, due to real-life auto racing events being hindered due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This endeavor proved to be successful, with the broadcast on FS1 watched by almost a million viewers. FOX subsequently decided to air the rest of the series would continue to be broadcast on FS1. [28] The series continued until 2021, when drivers returned to normal driving at real-life events.

Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)

On May 30, 2023, iRacing announced [29] an official partnership with the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). As part of the agreement, the car known as the iRacing Formula iR-04 will be relaunched as the FIA F4 with iRacing’s 2023 Season 3 update release in June.

Other partnerships

iRacing.com has many other partnerships with other racing organizations like the USAC, and licensing deals with major automotive manufacturers like Audi and Mercedes. A full list of iRacing.com's partners can be found on their website. [30]

Reception

iRacing was launched to the public on August 26, 2008. [34] By July 2009 more than 16,000 individuals had subscribed to the service. [35] The company said there were 50,000 members as of December 2013. [36] By April of 2020, iRacing.com president and CFO Anthony Gardner claimed the service had over 160,000 active subscribers. [37]

iRacing has received favorable reviews from automobile, racing and gaming magazines as well as websites dedicated to racing simulators. [38] [39] [40] [41] 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. [42] 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." [32] [33]

Related Research Articles

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in the world and is one of the largest spectator sports in America. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and his son, Jim France, has been the CEO since August 2018. The company is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida. Each year, NASCAR sanctions over 1,500 races at over 100 tracks in 48 US states, as well as in Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daytona International Speedway</span> Motorsport track in the United States

Daytona International Speedway is a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States, about 50 mi (80 km) north of Orlando. Since opening in 1959, it has been the home of the Daytona 500, the most prestigious race in NASCAR as well as its season opening event. The venue also hosts the 24 Hours of Daytona, the most prestigious IMSA race and one of the three events that make up the Triple Crown of endurance racing. In addition to NASCAR and IMSA, the track also hosts races of ARCA, AMA Superbike, SCCA, and AMA Supercross. The track features multiple layouts including the primary 2.500 mi (4.023 km) high-speed tri-oval, a 3.560 mi (5.729 km) sports car course, a 2.950 mi (4.748 km) motorcycle course, and a 1,320 ft (400 m) karting and motorcycle flat-track. The track's 180-acre (73 ha) infield includes the 29-acre (12 ha) Lake Lloyd, which has hosted powerboat racing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Watkins Glen International</span> U.S. motorsport track

Watkins Glen International, nicknamed "The Glen", is an automobile race track located in the town of Dix just southwest of the village of Watkins Glen, New York, at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. It was long known around the world as the home of the Formula One United States Grand Prix, which it hosted for twenty consecutive years (1961–1980). In addition, the site has also been home to road racing of nearly every class, including the World Sportscar Championship, Trans-Am, Can-Am, NASCAR Cup Series, the International Motor Sports Association and the IndyCar Series. The facility is currently owned by NASCAR.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonoma Raceway</span> Motorsport track in California, United States

Sonoma Raceway is a road course and dragstrip located at Sears Point in the southern Sonoma Mountains of Sonoma County, California. The road course features 12 turns on a hilly course with 160 ft (49 m) of total elevation change. It is host to one of the few NASCAR Cup Series races each year that are run on road courses. It has also played host to the IndyCar Series, the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, and several other auto races and motorcycle races such as the American Federation of Motorcyclists series. Sonoma Raceway continues to host amateur, or club racing events with some open to the public. The largest such car club is the Sports Car Club of America. The track is 30 mi (48 km) north of San Francisco and Oakland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sim racing</span> Video game genre

Simulated racing or racing simulation, commonly known as simply sim racing, are the collective terms for racing game software that attempts to accurately simulate auto racing, complete with real-world variables such as fuel usage, damage, tire wear and grip, and suspension settings. To be competitive in sim racing, a driver must understand all aspects of car handling that make real-world racing so difficult, such as threshold braking, how to maintain control of a car as the tires lose traction, and how properly to enter and exit a turn without sacrificing speed. It is this level of difficulty that distinguishes sim racing from arcade racing-style driving games where real-world variables are taken out of the equation and the principal objective is to create a sense of speed as opposed to a sense of realism.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Campbell (racing driver)</span> Australian race car driver

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References

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  9. ↑ Vasile, Cosmin (Sep 12, 2021). "iRacing Season 4 Kicks Off with New Cars, New Circuits, Hosted AI, More". Auto Evolution. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
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  11. ↑ "5.4 Divisions". iRacing Official Sporting Code v2021.04.23 (PDF). May 4, 2021. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
  12. ↑ iRacing Official Sporting Code v2021.04.23 (PDF). May 4, 2021. pp. 14–15. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
  13. ↑ "3 License Class". iRacing Official Sporting Code v2021.04.23 (PDF). May 4, 2021. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
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  16. ↑ "iRacing Cars Archive". iRacing.com. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
    "iRacing Tracks Archive". iRacing.com. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
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  21. ↑ "iRacing Acquires Monster Games". iRacing. January 4, 2022. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
  22. ↑ "NASCAR, iRacing.com announce new official partnership". NASCAR.com. June 29, 2021. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
  23. ↑ "Dale Earnhardt Jr. Named iRacing Executive Director". November 2, 2020. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
  24. ↑ "IMSA, iRacing extend partnership through 2023". IMSA.com. October 21, 2021.
  25. ↑ "iRacing announces two World of Outlaws eSport World Championship Series". World of Outlaws. March 16, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
  26. ↑ "World of Outlaws, DIRTcar extend iRacing partnership, plan console game". World of Outlaws. April 5, 2022. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
  27. ↑ "Porsche partners with iRacing for new World Championship Series". Porsche Newsroom. December 15, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
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  29. ↑ KevinB (2023-05-30). "iRacing to Partner with FIA for Authentic Formula 4 Experience". iRacing.com. Retrieved 2023-05-31.
  30. ↑ "iRacing Partners Archive". iRacing.com. Retrieved 2023-06-10.
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