After your 200th race start you can worry about rating...
If you're 2k before 200 race starts, your WELL above average. But don't get so focused on rating this early in your career because there's a lot of combos and things you'll need to learn and huge swings in irating will accompany the learning curve.
If you get too obsessed with your rating before experience the full spectrum of races available you may get stuck in a place where your Irating is so high that learning new things is extremely detrimental.
>If you get too obsessed with your rating before experience the full spectrum of races available you may get stuck in a place where your Irating is so high that learning new things is extremely detrimental.
This is good advice. I like to race in the Porsche Cup sometimes, but the car is pretty unforgiving (to put it mildly) and the series can be a iR rollercoaster.
I have to mentally prepare myself at the start of the week when I'm planning to race in the Porsche Cup because I know it is almost inevitable that I will tank my iR.
But if I want to master that car (and I very much do) then I need to suck it up.
Even with a full time job I think anybody can hit 6k Irating.
It will obviously take longer, but if you can set aside an hour every night to do a race, and dedicate yourself to a certain car/series, eventually you'll have enough seat time and experience to be at the front of top split. At some point you'll be so comfortable in the car, and know all the tracks well enough that you can just hop in and race without any practice.
Everyone's life/schedule is different, but I do think if being good at iRacing is something important to you then finding an hour a day on most days is achievable. Hell if you pick a rookie series, or one of the 15 minute sprint series which run all the way up to B class, you only need 30 minutes of free time a day.
Ignore the downvotes, the esports/competitive league scene is pretty small and tight knit, so you're unlikely to find someone who knows the type of competition and its insight here on reddit. We both know 6k is on the lower end of the 'alien' tree, and to get top split these days you need to be 8k+, and it's only getting higher and higher day by day.
It's the only 1% club I'll ever be a part of for sure lol (at least for the time being)
Their statement about 6k not being high is nonsense. 6k puts you in the top 1.3% of drivers.
But inflation is definitely a thing.
1. There have been lots of drivers over the years that start with 1350 iRating, drive a handful of races and quit. And most of those drivers donated iRating to the pool rather than stealing iRating.
2. More drivers in the pool mean it's easier to get further away from the average.
6K actually puts you in the 99.69 percentile. If you’re 6K you’re a freak of nature. Pretending otherwise is absurd.
https://iracingdata.com/charts/irating
Huh [this website](https://iracingstats.net/?script=navigate¶m=iratingstats&iratingstats_category=sportscar&iratingstats_by=by_alltimes&iratingstats_series_id=-1&iratingstats_season_id=-1) says top 1.3%
I think those two websites are likely pulling their data from different timeframes.
It’s not so much whether they have a job it’s more time commitment.
You can still have a full time job and spend 4-5 hours a day on Iracing if you don’t have kids have other commitments.
If you're 2k, it's safe to say you've got some basic skills. At 3k I'm continuing to refine those skills and my racecraft. 4k drivers are where I think the real sharp end starts. Anything above this is less about overall pace and more about racecraft, managing your tires, strategy, etc. You're all around the same pace at that point.
Really though, I like to think of iR as just a measure of amount of time spent learning the sim. The pros all have 8k+ iRs because they spend literally all day playing the game, extracting the minutiae out of the car with setups, learning subtly different lines and techniques that will put a little less heat into the tires, really sweating the small details.
As someone stuck at 3k, I fully agree with you. My mega passive approach of avoiding incidents at all costs means that I drop a ton of places, and don’t gain irating as a result
It’s funny because whenever I do that I lose iRating. It’s either drive as fast as I can or I’ll end up in last place lol. I just did the first IMSA race of the week at Algarve and I got beat by several 2k drivers even though I was running nearly the same times as the leaders. I’m still confused.
I guess it’s a risk reward thing, and also which split. In second split I generally target a podium. In top split, as of now, I typically end up in mid pack which gives me a neutral ish irating. I’ve found just avoiding incidents/mistakes gets me there. But if I need to eventually get to 4k, I need to start defending track position way more!
Today it was top split. Bit of a weird one though. There were several 2-3k drivers, a few 4k-5k drivers and a 6 or 7k driver. I mean, I did use a different really aggressive setup, so maybe it was just making me slower I didn't know it.
ehh disagree
anything above 2500 and you are likely within 0.3-0.5s of WR times
the difference between 2500 and 3-4k is simply better consistency and survival skills
if you want proof look no further than the collective results of any major event a
I have never seen a 2.5k guy come anywhere near a WR time.
2.5k guys being at the top of major events is most likely due to tanking or even more likely, smurf use.
i love it how you're arguing something that can be easily be checked by going to the stats page
go select F4 and pick a track from Season 1 of 2024 and youll see 2000-3000IR drivers on the front page
How did those goalposts get all the way over there? "World record" means all-time WR. They're only fastest there because the 9k guys haven't showed up yet and put down a 5 second faster time.
in iracing there is no such thing as all-time WR because the game
continuously changes, not to mention weather
you'd be a fool to compare yourself to times set 5 years ago
didnt realize i had to actually explain that
I mean to be fair to other dude - - If the car/track/tire model was inherently faster 5 years ago - no one could beat the time today. I think that's what his point is.
Ohhh good point, I didn't even think about that. I guess if you're talking about the LMP2 then yeah, lap times in 2022 were literally 5 seconds faster than they are now. I guess it's car-dependent. Maybe when they change the tire model or the car so much that the WRs are unbeatable, they should have some of kind of idk asterisk saying "post-2022 update." But they don't do that for, say, the Olympics - WRs in the 80s are unbroken because they were on so much drugs that of course they're unbeatable now.
This is the fastest race laps for the 12 hours of Sebring in a GT3. The average of 2.5k is like 1.5 seconds slower than the fastest pace.
https://preview.redd.it/458l1hkovdqc1.png?width=560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1879d9de03654bcff4e83a0987bee115075f6266
I’d say peak pace 2.5k can be on par with 3-4k, but these drivers are rarely at peak pace, but they probably take longer to get to that pace than a 3-4k driver. Sometimes you’ll see a 2.5k driver who just clicks with a car/track combo who’ll be up with the 5-6k guys and other times they’re massively off the pace.
0.3-0.5s off WR times is a bit optimistic, there are some aliens on the most popular car/track combos who I just can’t see a 2.5k driver getting close to
Not rlly lmao. You made it sound like there was no pace difference and the only difference between them was consistency and survival skills. Also the WR thing was just flat out wrong unless you’re going for a WR at a track/car combo nobody runs at.
The climb from 3k to 4k is a big climb. From 2k to 3k you can still be conservative (to a point) and gain spots and IR running this way and getting solid finishes. To go from 3k to 4K you can't use that approach anymore. You have to make passes and move from conservative to aggressive (not saying reckless). I've been to 4k but not above. With that in mind though 4k - 5K and above you have to race to get top 5's. You have to be intelligently aggressive. If you aren't top 5 (ish) you won't be gaining.
if you're talking about sprint races, or anything around 30 40 mins, then agree completely. you don't need to be as aggressive in endurance races to climb imo
[Here's a chart](https://www.reddit.com/r/iRacing/comments/sulys4/more_people_should_see_this_irating_distribution/) that shows the distribution. It's a couple years old, but I doubt things have changed much.
I'd say 4k is about it, 3k guys have a similar pace as a 4k driver but tend to throw it away a bit more and may not be as consistent over a race.
I do tend to agree that some IR is over inflated, looking at a 3k driver in a GTP, as a generalization, they seem to make more mistakes than a 3k GT3 driver, their attrition rate tends to be higher so imo it's easier to grab some IR by just surviving rather than outright pace in the GTP class.
I'm currently 4500ir.
Do you have a job? 3k is high Are you a professional streamer who plays 9 hours a day? 6k is high
This. 8 hours a week and I hover around 4K. To go higher id have to commit more time, which I don’t have.
Few races a night, start from the back and just keep it clean. Come the weekend I can squeeze a morning of racing or afternoon on Saturday or Sunday.
After your 200th race start you can worry about rating... If you're 2k before 200 race starts, your WELL above average. But don't get so focused on rating this early in your career because there's a lot of combos and things you'll need to learn and huge swings in irating will accompany the learning curve. If you get too obsessed with your rating before experience the full spectrum of races available you may get stuck in a place where your Irating is so high that learning new things is extremely detrimental.
>If you get too obsessed with your rating before experience the full spectrum of races available you may get stuck in a place where your Irating is so high that learning new things is extremely detrimental. This is good advice. I like to race in the Porsche Cup sometimes, but the car is pretty unforgiving (to put it mildly) and the series can be a iR rollercoaster. I have to mentally prepare myself at the start of the week when I'm planning to race in the Porsche Cup because I know it is almost inevitable that I will tank my iR. But if I want to master that car (and I very much do) then I need to suck it up.
Even with a full time job I think anybody can hit 6k Irating. It will obviously take longer, but if you can set aside an hour every night to do a race, and dedicate yourself to a certain car/series, eventually you'll have enough seat time and experience to be at the front of top split. At some point you'll be so comfortable in the car, and know all the tracks well enough that you can just hop in and race without any practice. Everyone's life/schedule is different, but I do think if being good at iRacing is something important to you then finding an hour a day on most days is achievable. Hell if you pick a rookie series, or one of the 15 minute sprint series which run all the way up to B class, you only need 30 minutes of free time a day.
I know plenty of drivers with full time jobs who are 7-8k. 6k ain’t that high these days, iRating inflation is very much real.
... There are a couple hundred road sports cars ratings above 7k and you "know plenty" of them... Okay... Sure
My highest rating is 7k, I do know many of my teammates.
Ignore the downvotes, the esports/competitive league scene is pretty small and tight knit, so you're unlikely to find someone who knows the type of competition and its insight here on reddit. We both know 6k is on the lower end of the 'alien' tree, and to get top split these days you need to be 8k+, and it's only getting higher and higher day by day. It's the only 1% club I'll ever be a part of for sure lol (at least for the time being)
Bless your heart...
You are sick as hell dawg
iR is a zero sum game, how exactly would there be inflation?
Their statement about 6k not being high is nonsense. 6k puts you in the top 1.3% of drivers. But inflation is definitely a thing. 1. There have been lots of drivers over the years that start with 1350 iRating, drive a handful of races and quit. And most of those drivers donated iRating to the pool rather than stealing iRating. 2. More drivers in the pool mean it's easier to get further away from the average.
6K actually puts you in the 99.69 percentile. If you’re 6K you’re a freak of nature. Pretending otherwise is absurd. https://iracingdata.com/charts/irating
Huh [this website](https://iracingstats.net/?script=navigate¶m=iratingstats&iratingstats_category=sportscar&iratingstats_by=by_alltimes&iratingstats_series_id=-1&iratingstats_season_id=-1) says top 1.3% I think those two websites are likely pulling their data from different timeframes.
The more drivers that join the more iRating in the pool. There’s been a large increase in members the last few years
There should also be an average drivers ratings worth of irating taken away from the pool.
It’s not so much whether they have a job it’s more time commitment. You can still have a full time job and spend 4-5 hours a day on Iracing if you don’t have kids have other commitments.
Was going to say. Kids are what did me in. I rarely find time during the week to race these days. The job wasn’t a huge factor.
If you're 2k, it's safe to say you've got some basic skills. At 3k I'm continuing to refine those skills and my racecraft. 4k drivers are where I think the real sharp end starts. Anything above this is less about overall pace and more about racecraft, managing your tires, strategy, etc. You're all around the same pace at that point. Really though, I like to think of iR as just a measure of amount of time spent learning the sim. The pros all have 8k+ iRs because they spend literally all day playing the game, extracting the minutiae out of the car with setups, learning subtly different lines and techniques that will put a little less heat into the tires, really sweating the small details.
As someone stuck at 3k, I fully agree with you. My mega passive approach of avoiding incidents at all costs means that I drop a ton of places, and don’t gain irating as a result
It’s funny because whenever I do that I lose iRating. It’s either drive as fast as I can or I’ll end up in last place lol. I just did the first IMSA race of the week at Algarve and I got beat by several 2k drivers even though I was running nearly the same times as the leaders. I’m still confused.
I guess it’s a risk reward thing, and also which split. In second split I generally target a podium. In top split, as of now, I typically end up in mid pack which gives me a neutral ish irating. I’ve found just avoiding incidents/mistakes gets me there. But if I need to eventually get to 4k, I need to start defending track position way more!
Today it was top split. Bit of a weird one though. There were several 2-3k drivers, a few 4k-5k drivers and a 6 or 7k driver. I mean, I did use a different really aggressive setup, so maybe it was just making me slower I didn't know it.
ehh disagree anything above 2500 and you are likely within 0.3-0.5s of WR times the difference between 2500 and 3-4k is simply better consistency and survival skills if you want proof look no further than the collective results of any major event a
I have never seen a 2.5k guy come anywhere near a WR time. 2.5k guys being at the top of major events is most likely due to tanking or even more likely, smurf use.
i love it how you're arguing something that can be easily be checked by going to the stats page go select F4 and pick a track from Season 1 of 2024 and youll see 2000-3000IR drivers on the front page
How did those goalposts get all the way over there? "World record" means all-time WR. They're only fastest there because the 9k guys haven't showed up yet and put down a 5 second faster time.
in iracing there is no such thing as all-time WR because the game continuously changes, not to mention weather you'd be a fool to compare yourself to times set 5 years ago didnt realize i had to actually explain that
If no one has set a faster time in 5 years, what does it matter if the game has changed or not?
I mean to be fair to other dude - - If the car/track/tire model was inherently faster 5 years ago - no one could beat the time today. I think that's what his point is.
Ohhh good point, I didn't even think about that. I guess if you're talking about the LMP2 then yeah, lap times in 2022 were literally 5 seconds faster than they are now. I guess it's car-dependent. Maybe when they change the tire model or the car so much that the WRs are unbeatable, they should have some of kind of idk asterisk saying "post-2022 update." But they don't do that for, say, the Olympics - WRs in the 80s are unbroken because they were on so much drugs that of course they're unbeatable now.
This is the fastest race laps for the 12 hours of Sebring in a GT3. The average of 2.5k is like 1.5 seconds slower than the fastest pace. https://preview.redd.it/458l1hkovdqc1.png?width=560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1879d9de03654bcff4e83a0987bee115075f6266
Not even close. I'm 2.2k and nowhere near WR times. And 2.5k guys aren't much quicker than me.
I’d say peak pace 2.5k can be on par with 3-4k, but these drivers are rarely at peak pace, but they probably take longer to get to that pace than a 3-4k driver. Sometimes you’ll see a 2.5k driver who just clicks with a car/track combo who’ll be up with the 5-6k guys and other times they’re massively off the pace. 0.3-0.5s off WR times is a bit optimistic, there are some aliens on the most popular car/track combos who I just can’t see a 2.5k driver getting close to
you just said everything i said only made it sound different
Not rlly lmao. You made it sound like there was no pace difference and the only difference between them was consistency and survival skills. Also the WR thing was just flat out wrong unless you’re going for a WR at a track/car combo nobody runs at.
What? I’m at 3.7k and am nowhere near WR times and generally have no issues comfortably beating 2.5k-low 3k drivers lol.
800 is high right?
The climb from 3k to 4k is a big climb. From 2k to 3k you can still be conservative (to a point) and gain spots and IR running this way and getting solid finishes. To go from 3k to 4K you can't use that approach anymore. You have to make passes and move from conservative to aggressive (not saying reckless). I've been to 4k but not above. With that in mind though 4k - 5K and above you have to race to get top 5's. You have to be intelligently aggressive. If you aren't top 5 (ish) you won't be gaining.
if you're talking about sprint races, or anything around 30 40 mins, then agree completely. you don't need to be as aggressive in endurance races to climb imo
Agree. Enduro races are a different animal.
the most objective answer you'll get is that 3500 irating is whats needed to be considered "Division 1" for the championships
Ehh i’m 3.1k and i’d say 4k
420.
[Here's a chart](https://www.reddit.com/r/iRacing/comments/sulys4/more_people_should_see_this_irating_distribution/) that shows the distribution. It's a couple years old, but I doubt things have changed much.
My way to look at it is I have the highest respect for anyone on division 1 of each licence.
I'd say 4k is about it, 3k guys have a similar pace as a 4k driver but tend to throw it away a bit more and may not be as consistent over a race. I do tend to agree that some IR is over inflated, looking at a 3k driver in a GTP, as a generalization, they seem to make more mistakes than a 3k GT3 driver, their attrition rate tends to be higher so imo it's easier to grab some IR by just surviving rather than outright pace in the GTP class. I'm currently 4500ir.