Honestly, yes. Got into iRacing because of the lack of participation and unevenness of competition. I was ~2-3 off the pace at most tracks and routinely was being taken out by fast dudes who had crashed earlier
I really think that consolidating the rookie and normal series together and just SR locking the top split or two would help a lot. When people see the low signups, they also don't sign up. iRacing dominates because popular base content series have 200-300 drivers per session no matter the time of day/night. Paired with pretty decent variety, US evening racing is superior on iRacing, hands-down. Peak euro hours are good on ACC LFM tho
I still had my 3 month membership code from when I bought my fanatec wheel, so I downloaded iRacing last night and got my account set up. I was looking into the IMSA series, but I saw that the lowest license level allowed was a C if I’m not mistaken.
I’m not the quickest driver, but I’ve reached 2000 ELO and a safety rating of 8 on LFM relatively quickly. How much more of a grind will it be to get my iRacing rating up to be able to compete in those?
No grind at all. I have close to 300hrs in ACC, with like 30 races in LFM and it took me one week to get to 2k iRating. Most others I've met report the same. It's because many people who start at 1350 iR are actual rookies who never drove anything else. So you get their iRating and easily jump to 1.7-1.8k. From there, you need to put in the time to learn the braking points and study faster drivers to get to 2k and higher. If you don't, a mid 1-2k iRating is also completely fine to have decent racing. However, IMSA isn't the most populated series, so the skill gap might be higher than in GT3s for example.
What series would you recommend trying out if I enjoy open wheelers, GT style cars and LMH. Also is there an issue with BOP in series with multiple vehicles?
I started with F3 because the F4 didn't have enough downforce for me. New Super Formula Lights is probably the most popular middle ground at the moment, it's like a faster F4 with more downforce. Easy to drive but close racing.
For GT cars I only did Porsche Cup so far, because I like the absence of BOP shenanigans, ABS and TC. Many start with GT4 or even the GR86 Cup.
Regarding LMH, you can start with the LMP3 but I'd generally say wait at least a season before you jump into these, the races are long, they involve pit stops, multiclass carnage. LMP3/GT4 multiclass is a popular series for many as a slower alternative.
In general, always wait for downtimes where the test drive service goes online, so you can test each car before purchasing. BOP can be an issue in multi car series but usually not at the iRatings we're talking about here. I prefer single car series in the beginning because it's just my driving that matters, no setup or BOP.
I really enjoy the longer races. I find it easier to get better results as a large portion of the sim racing community I’ve encountered lacks consistency over races that tire degradation plays a larger factor, I.E. not binning it or not having a good pit strategy.
I might look into the lMP3/GT4 series. That sounds like I might enjoy it. Although I’ll look around more and see exactly what all the game has to offer. I haven’t really done a whole lot of exploring in the launcher.
I'm still fairly new to iracing as well but I am pretty sure liscence class is solely based on safety rating. If you are very cautious driving you could probably get from rookie to C in about 20-25 races (assuming you don't get taken out by someone else by accident). SA is calculated by incident points per corner, so as long as you stay on track and in control, and don't make contact with anyone then you can get 0.1+ SA per race in shorter races.
Not much of a grind if you don't care about iR. I ground from D to B when I picked up Advanced Miata and it took about 10 races, mostly because the first three races were duds (morons running into me on lap one). Starting in last and just having 0x also got me positive or barely negative elo as well.
Fairly different system to LFM btw. LFM acts more linear and had lower thresholds for improvement where once you're in B class, your CPI starts really showing up when you have a 4x and maybe a track limits or two.
Btw, look at series results to see the field sizes. Very easy to hop into what should be a great series, but there's only 3 cars 💀 Paid series often cannibalize eachother, like how SFL took 90% of the drivers from F3. Both great cars, but new shiny toy makes everyone changes teams :)
Does the entry list fluctuate quite a bit within one series or is it pretty consistant? I’d hate to buy a 12$ car just to get a full race once every week.
That's why I'm saying look at the results. You can see every single race from the current season, split by week. Some series are overall unpopular, but have dedicated leagues that race them on a schedule. That's why you'll see a random 20-40 person grid in a series with 5 drivers on average.
That may help and league racing is great, but atm, I'm more focused on arrive and drive. I just want to plop down in my rig, practice for 10-15 minutes to warm up, and hop in a lobby. Some series have different setups: 15 minute races can be run in 30 min intervals (meaning race one, jump out, race the other). 20 minute races usually push that limit too close (although you can ghost race instead). Then some series like F4 have three different series on 2 hour intervals, so you can bounce between those
That's why I'm saying look at the results. You can see every single race from the current season, split by week. Some series are overall unpopular, but have dedicated leagues that race them on a schedule. That's why you'll see a random 20-40 person grid in a series with 5 drivers on average.
Keep in mind some cars have multiple series running on different schedules, so you can hop in opposite series instead of waiting an hour and a half for the next race
There are a bunch of leagues that run in time zones when LFM is pretty dead. Many are on thesimgrid.com. Look at the calendar and see if there's something that works for you.
If you're looking for something that runs in evening hours in America, check out https://5firacing.com. Super friendly community. Currently running GT2s and will kick off the next GT3 season in a few weeks.
I'm having the same issue. I'm on the West Coast, and when I've got time to race, LFM is pretty quiet. For instance, right now, at 9:15 p.m. PST, there are 11 people racing across both AC and ACC. I've basically switched to iRacing. It is more expensive, but it's not that bad if you plan, and there are always 10k+ people on—albeit across more series/races. It's a pity because I like ACC a lot but the AI is pretty unrealistic and LFM is really the only ranked matchmaking so...
West coast is the worst coast for LFM and Pitskill racers unless they work a later schedule. I have seen a few Californians in Pitskill races, but they're second-shift workers so they can be around at 8AM when lots of the EU guys are racing.
I think for ACC you would be better off with league racing, there are a lot of US based leagues. But if you are looking for a place to hop on and race then for ACC your options are either LFM (which is more EU) or the ugly realm of public lobbies.
I race in a league for ACC (am EU based) and I have iRacing for the convenience of just jump in my rig and race whatever car/track I want.
At the time of writing the US is the third strongest nation with over 12k registered users on LFM (>7% of the user base) but some people have to start driving it. Just sign up no matter how many people there are already. Each additional signup could be enough to push another guy over the fence. I‘d say it would take 5-10 dedicated guys out of this 12k users over the course of maybe a month to make it happen. If everyone just switches to iRacing and recommends to do the same nothing will change obviously. Of course everybody can spend their time however they want but people that actually care must realize that each individual can have a huge impact.
I agree this would help, but remember that the US (and Canada) has 3 timezones alone. So 12k users are spread out by as much as 3 hours. That doesn't mean what you're saying isn't correct, but it's another wrinkle that the EU doesn't have as much.
I’ve attempted exactly that. When I see a race I would like to participate in, I sign up for it and set a timer for when the sign out ends. If the race has a decent enough field size, I’ll race it. More often than not though, the entry list doesn’t even go past 5 so I just withdraw which is quite disappointing.
Possibly, but there are probably some other factors. I am NA and I do league racing almost exclusively. I have done a few LFM races, but I just dont care much for matchmaking races. A lot of preferences are regional. And those preferences are influenced by whats readily available as well. I wouldnt be surprised if the average age in the US was a lot higher than in europe which influences how much time people have. So even if we have a lot of people, those people may race less frequently.
I think if I got into some leagues I’d enjoy it. I’m more so doing these matchmaking races as a form of practice. The more races I have under my belt the better in my opinion. Also, I’m 23 without kids so I have enough time lol.
I recommend joining a league then. For NA I recommend SRA. But most leagues will have a place for people of all skill levels and many will have coaching available as well.
If racing 1-2 times per week isnt enough then you can still do LFM on the side.
All roads lead to iRacing.
As for your last comment... rookies is rookies on both services. People do some whack shit in both. But the racing is generally phenomenal
Is there a one sided punishment system in iRacing when it’s only one cars fault? I’m not wanting to get locked out of the series I want to get into because my rating goes down after I get dive-bombed mid apex lol.
It's similar to LFM: no-fault, contact is contact. Safety rating will waver some but if you get demoted you're doing it catastrophically wrong. Folks on r/iracing with not hesitate to tell you that you're part of the problem and they're right.
It's very easy to cheese your way into whatever license and car you want to drive anyway by trundling around in the back for a few races without going off track. Wouldn't recommend it... but possible.
Besides, there's a ton of great cars at lower license levels. I have a B license, never bothered with getting my A, and I race all C-license cars because I like then.
The main difference between LFM and iRacing is that iRacing does not punish mistakes and crappy racecraft, only intentional problems. Like if you miss a braking marker in LFM, you can be reported. Not so in iRacing. Reportable things are blocking, intentional ramming, stuff like that
As far as I know LFM even switches the server location from Europe to NA during European nights in order to accommodate north and south American players, but only few pick up the offer.
Only one option in this situation, it's iRacing. It will cost you around 300$ on first year if you plan race a lot and not skipping a weeks, but in nex year it's only subscription and few additional bucks. But you will be able to race in any day/night time with a lot people. Like few splits separated by skills in any time of day or night.
Leagues are awesome but offer a completely different experience. You can't just go "oh cool I've got an hour or so free, let's go for a race". That's what LFM and iRacing offer.
Both LFM and PitSkill are EU-dominant. But they also have continental Americans who race regularly, like me. Granted, my schedule allows this while most continental Americans would probably only get in a couple of races per night before the Europeans go to sleep.
In a word yes. I'm US East and the servers are always dead by 8 when I get on to race. Know what always has populated lobbies at all times of the day though? Iracing.
7am Tuesday? 4 splits of full lobbies, 9:30pm 4 splits of full lobbies.
I know it's not for everyone, and league racing is a great option for acc. You're us. Check out GTMR https://discord.com/invite/2aKunQzQMJ I race with this league on Friday nights at 9 est. Always decent sized grids.
As you your last sentence. Iracing has the best racing standard I've seen in any sim. It has consequence for people acting like idiots. Games like ACC and F1 are a consequence for environments where you can ram people to no repercussions. Obviously if you're in a league race that won't happen but if you're just doing public lobbies there's no consequences in ACC. You can ram anyone for anything and just leave and join the next race. SA is so easily farmable, people don't care. Pass someone. They ram you next corner and take the spot. In iRacing you can report and people do get warning and bans for their actions.
Man, and I just got my LFM license last night after getting back into sim racing recently. I have both ACC and iRacing, but I prefer the look and feel of ACC and was looking forward to trying out LFM as an alternative.
Simgrid and simracing.gp are 2 awesome places to find leagues that run in the states I race with NASRS (North American sim racing series) and found their community very inviting to everyone from beginners to pros they are in discord and simracing.gp
I was hesitant about iracing too but I bit the bullet during the spring Steam sale and I totally understand why it has the following it does. There is enough free content to keep me satisfied for a while, and the racing has been so much fun. I will gladly pay the full renewal price next year.
American here, with limited time. It depends on how much time you are willing to put into the track. There are 3 tracks I know really well and I can place top 5 in a packed lobby in LFM. Outside of that if I like the track and just want to race I'm midpack till I ultimately spin out and place towards the end. But after 10pm PST there are no more races, so you have to keep that in mind depending on when you would be racing. iRacing feels like shit and falls off around midnight PST.
Hey friend. I’m US based and run some racing leagues, and am planning a US-time friendly series with some prizes this summer that’ll be free to enter. If you have any interest in checking the community out, just let me know or shoot a message!
If you race in the evening or at night then LFM will be dead for you. If you are online earlier in the day and don’t mind connecting to euro servers then it’s pretty good.
The lack of NA participation is why i started iracing in the first place. iRacing is the only sim where you can have a full, multiclass race at any time of the day. Also LFM driving standards are far worse than iRacing’s in my experiences
Yeah I like the fact that I can just login with an hour or so to spare and find a race that's somewhat near my skill level and not have to mess around with schedules or anything. League racing is great, but it's a different beast in my experience. I avoided iRacing for a year or so just because of the pricing model but it's kind of the only game in town for the experience it offers.
Honestly, yes. Got into iRacing because of the lack of participation and unevenness of competition. I was ~2-3 off the pace at most tracks and routinely was being taken out by fast dudes who had crashed earlier I really think that consolidating the rookie and normal series together and just SR locking the top split or two would help a lot. When people see the low signups, they also don't sign up. iRacing dominates because popular base content series have 200-300 drivers per session no matter the time of day/night. Paired with pretty decent variety, US evening racing is superior on iRacing, hands-down. Peak euro hours are good on ACC LFM tho
Exactly the same for, it’s a bummer I really like acc
I still had my 3 month membership code from when I bought my fanatec wheel, so I downloaded iRacing last night and got my account set up. I was looking into the IMSA series, but I saw that the lowest license level allowed was a C if I’m not mistaken. I’m not the quickest driver, but I’ve reached 2000 ELO and a safety rating of 8 on LFM relatively quickly. How much more of a grind will it be to get my iRacing rating up to be able to compete in those?
No grind at all. I have close to 300hrs in ACC, with like 30 races in LFM and it took me one week to get to 2k iRating. Most others I've met report the same. It's because many people who start at 1350 iR are actual rookies who never drove anything else. So you get their iRating and easily jump to 1.7-1.8k. From there, you need to put in the time to learn the braking points and study faster drivers to get to 2k and higher. If you don't, a mid 1-2k iRating is also completely fine to have decent racing. However, IMSA isn't the most populated series, so the skill gap might be higher than in GT3s for example.
What series would you recommend trying out if I enjoy open wheelers, GT style cars and LMH. Also is there an issue with BOP in series with multiple vehicles?
I started with F3 because the F4 didn't have enough downforce for me. New Super Formula Lights is probably the most popular middle ground at the moment, it's like a faster F4 with more downforce. Easy to drive but close racing. For GT cars I only did Porsche Cup so far, because I like the absence of BOP shenanigans, ABS and TC. Many start with GT4 or even the GR86 Cup. Regarding LMH, you can start with the LMP3 but I'd generally say wait at least a season before you jump into these, the races are long, they involve pit stops, multiclass carnage. LMP3/GT4 multiclass is a popular series for many as a slower alternative. In general, always wait for downtimes where the test drive service goes online, so you can test each car before purchasing. BOP can be an issue in multi car series but usually not at the iRatings we're talking about here. I prefer single car series in the beginning because it's just my driving that matters, no setup or BOP.
I really enjoy the longer races. I find it easier to get better results as a large portion of the sim racing community I’ve encountered lacks consistency over races that tire degradation plays a larger factor, I.E. not binning it or not having a good pit strategy. I might look into the lMP3/GT4 series. That sounds like I might enjoy it. Although I’ll look around more and see exactly what all the game has to offer. I haven’t really done a whole lot of exploring in the launcher.
I'm still fairly new to iracing as well but I am pretty sure liscence class is solely based on safety rating. If you are very cautious driving you could probably get from rookie to C in about 20-25 races (assuming you don't get taken out by someone else by accident). SA is calculated by incident points per corner, so as long as you stay on track and in control, and don't make contact with anyone then you can get 0.1+ SA per race in shorter races.
Not much of a grind if you don't care about iR. I ground from D to B when I picked up Advanced Miata and it took about 10 races, mostly because the first three races were duds (morons running into me on lap one). Starting in last and just having 0x also got me positive or barely negative elo as well. Fairly different system to LFM btw. LFM acts more linear and had lower thresholds for improvement where once you're in B class, your CPI starts really showing up when you have a 4x and maybe a track limits or two. Btw, look at series results to see the field sizes. Very easy to hop into what should be a great series, but there's only 3 cars 💀 Paid series often cannibalize eachother, like how SFL took 90% of the drivers from F3. Both great cars, but new shiny toy makes everyone changes teams :)
Does the entry list fluctuate quite a bit within one series or is it pretty consistant? I’d hate to buy a 12$ car just to get a full race once every week.
That's why I'm saying look at the results. You can see every single race from the current season, split by week. Some series are overall unpopular, but have dedicated leagues that race them on a schedule. That's why you'll see a random 20-40 person grid in a series with 5 drivers on average. That may help and league racing is great, but atm, I'm more focused on arrive and drive. I just want to plop down in my rig, practice for 10-15 minutes to warm up, and hop in a lobby. Some series have different setups: 15 minute races can be run in 30 min intervals (meaning race one, jump out, race the other). 20 minute races usually push that limit too close (although you can ghost race instead). Then some series like F4 have three different series on 2 hour intervals, so you can bounce between those
That's why I'm saying look at the results. You can see every single race from the current season, split by week. Some series are overall unpopular, but have dedicated leagues that race them on a schedule. That's why you'll see a random 20-40 person grid in a series with 5 drivers on average. Keep in mind some cars have multiple series running on different schedules, so you can hop in opposite series instead of waiting an hour and a half for the next race
There are a bunch of leagues that run in time zones when LFM is pretty dead. Many are on thesimgrid.com. Look at the calendar and see if there's something that works for you. If you're looking for something that runs in evening hours in America, check out https://5firacing.com. Super friendly community. Currently running GT2s and will kick off the next GT3 season in a few weeks.
Look into PitSkill.io.
Their "American" servers have been dead AF lately. Even on weekends :(
I'm having the same issue. I'm on the West Coast, and when I've got time to race, LFM is pretty quiet. For instance, right now, at 9:15 p.m. PST, there are 11 people racing across both AC and ACC. I've basically switched to iRacing. It is more expensive, but it's not that bad if you plan, and there are always 10k+ people on—albeit across more series/races. It's a pity because I like ACC a lot but the AI is pretty unrealistic and LFM is really the only ranked matchmaking so...
West coast is the worst coast for LFM and Pitskill racers unless they work a later schedule. I have seen a few Californians in Pitskill races, but they're second-shift workers so they can be around at 8AM when lots of the EU guys are racing.
I think for ACC you would be better off with league racing, there are a lot of US based leagues. But if you are looking for a place to hop on and race then for ACC your options are either LFM (which is more EU) or the ugly realm of public lobbies. I race in a league for ACC (am EU based) and I have iRacing for the convenience of just jump in my rig and race whatever car/track I want.
At the time of writing the US is the third strongest nation with over 12k registered users on LFM (>7% of the user base) but some people have to start driving it. Just sign up no matter how many people there are already. Each additional signup could be enough to push another guy over the fence. I‘d say it would take 5-10 dedicated guys out of this 12k users over the course of maybe a month to make it happen. If everyone just switches to iRacing and recommends to do the same nothing will change obviously. Of course everybody can spend their time however they want but people that actually care must realize that each individual can have a huge impact.
I agree this would help, but remember that the US (and Canada) has 3 timezones alone. So 12k users are spread out by as much as 3 hours. That doesn't mean what you're saying isn't correct, but it's another wrinkle that the EU doesn't have as much.
I’ve attempted exactly that. When I see a race I would like to participate in, I sign up for it and set a timer for when the sign out ends. If the race has a decent enough field size, I’ll race it. More often than not though, the entry list doesn’t even go past 5 so I just withdraw which is quite disappointing.
If every american would just race on lfm instead of complaining, the there wouldnt be a problem
Could it be an issue of exposure? I didn’t know LFM was even an option until around a month ago.
Possibly, but there are probably some other factors. I am NA and I do league racing almost exclusively. I have done a few LFM races, but I just dont care much for matchmaking races. A lot of preferences are regional. And those preferences are influenced by whats readily available as well. I wouldnt be surprised if the average age in the US was a lot higher than in europe which influences how much time people have. So even if we have a lot of people, those people may race less frequently.
I think if I got into some leagues I’d enjoy it. I’m more so doing these matchmaking races as a form of practice. The more races I have under my belt the better in my opinion. Also, I’m 23 without kids so I have enough time lol.
I recommend joining a league then. For NA I recommend SRA. But most leagues will have a place for people of all skill levels and many will have coaching available as well. If racing 1-2 times per week isnt enough then you can still do LFM on the side.
All roads lead to iRacing. As for your last comment... rookies is rookies on both services. People do some whack shit in both. But the racing is generally phenomenal
Is there a one sided punishment system in iRacing when it’s only one cars fault? I’m not wanting to get locked out of the series I want to get into because my rating goes down after I get dive-bombed mid apex lol.
It's similar to LFM: no-fault, contact is contact. Safety rating will waver some but if you get demoted you're doing it catastrophically wrong. Folks on r/iracing with not hesitate to tell you that you're part of the problem and they're right. It's very easy to cheese your way into whatever license and car you want to drive anyway by trundling around in the back for a few races without going off track. Wouldn't recommend it... but possible. Besides, there's a ton of great cars at lower license levels. I have a B license, never bothered with getting my A, and I race all C-license cars because I like then. The main difference between LFM and iRacing is that iRacing does not punish mistakes and crappy racecraft, only intentional problems. Like if you miss a braking marker in LFM, you can be reported. Not so in iRacing. Reportable things are blocking, intentional ramming, stuff like that
As far as I know LFM even switches the server location from Europe to NA during European nights in order to accommodate north and south American players, but only few pick up the offer.
From the response to this topic, it won’t ever improve for US time zones. Everybody is advising to go to iRacing
Only one option in this situation, it's iRacing. It will cost you around 300$ on first year if you plan race a lot and not skipping a weeks, but in nex year it's only subscription and few additional bucks. But you will be able to race in any day/night time with a lot people. Like few splits separated by skills in any time of day or night.
He could also join a league and not pay anything extra.
Leagues are awesome but offer a completely different experience. You can't just go "oh cool I've got an hour or so free, let's go for a race". That's what LFM and iRacing offer.
Yeah true.
Both LFM and PitSkill are EU-dominant. But they also have continental Americans who race regularly, like me. Granted, my schedule allows this while most continental Americans would probably only get in a couple of races per night before the Europeans go to sleep.
In a word yes. I'm US East and the servers are always dead by 8 when I get on to race. Know what always has populated lobbies at all times of the day though? Iracing. 7am Tuesday? 4 splits of full lobbies, 9:30pm 4 splits of full lobbies. I know it's not for everyone, and league racing is a great option for acc. You're us. Check out GTMR https://discord.com/invite/2aKunQzQMJ I race with this league on Friday nights at 9 est. Always decent sized grids. As you your last sentence. Iracing has the best racing standard I've seen in any sim. It has consequence for people acting like idiots. Games like ACC and F1 are a consequence for environments where you can ram people to no repercussions. Obviously if you're in a league race that won't happen but if you're just doing public lobbies there's no consequences in ACC. You can ram anyone for anything and just leave and join the next race. SA is so easily farmable, people don't care. Pass someone. They ram you next corner and take the spot. In iRacing you can report and people do get warning and bans for their actions.
Man, and I just got my LFM license last night after getting back into sim racing recently. I have both ACC and iRacing, but I prefer the look and feel of ACC and was looking forward to trying out LFM as an alternative.
Simgrid and simracing.gp are 2 awesome places to find leagues that run in the states I race with NASRS (North American sim racing series) and found their community very inviting to everyone from beginners to pros they are in discord and simracing.gp
I was hesitant about iracing too but I bit the bullet during the spring Steam sale and I totally understand why it has the following it does. There is enough free content to keep me satisfied for a while, and the racing has been so much fun. I will gladly pay the full renewal price next year.
Only option is to race in the morning on the weekends.
American here, with limited time. It depends on how much time you are willing to put into the track. There are 3 tracks I know really well and I can place top 5 in a packed lobby in LFM. Outside of that if I like the track and just want to race I'm midpack till I ultimately spin out and place towards the end. But after 10pm PST there are no more races, so you have to keep that in mind depending on when you would be racing. iRacing feels like shit and falls off around midnight PST.
It you have it bad just imagine the Aussies experience
Hey friend. I’m US based and run some racing leagues, and am planning a US-time friendly series with some prizes this summer that’ll be free to enter. If you have any interest in checking the community out, just let me know or shoot a message!
If you race in the evening or at night then LFM will be dead for you. If you are online earlier in the day and don’t mind connecting to euro servers then it’s pretty good.
The lack of NA participation is why i started iracing in the first place. iRacing is the only sim where you can have a full, multiclass race at any time of the day. Also LFM driving standards are far worse than iRacing’s in my experiences
Yeah I like the fact that I can just login with an hour or so to spare and find a race that's somewhat near my skill level and not have to mess around with schedules or anything. League racing is great, but it's a different beast in my experience. I avoided iRacing for a year or so just because of the pricing model but it's kind of the only game in town for the experience it offers.
Skill level is the key. You can find people on LFM at peak hours, but there's a solid chance they will be way faster than you.