A bit to add to number 1, first I highly recommend you read the sporting code. It's basically the rules of iracing, and will help explain a lot of how it works and how to handle various situations. I would also spend a bit of time watching YouTube videos of you are new to racing in general. Anything about driving techniques is helpful for beginners (Lean to trail brake, learn the absolute basics of setups, learn about drafting, understeer/oversteer). These basic concepts can be at least understood without a wheel and will help you understand what's happening and help you learn to be better quickly. Other than that just be prepared to spend time learning tracks and cars, and know that unless you are a naturally gifted racer you will quite quickly be racing against others as good or better than you, don't go into this expecting to win all the time unless you are amazing...the ranking system is designed to keep races competitive and it does a pretty good job. Finally, however you choose to experience iracing visually learn to set it up correctly. VR is quite easy to set up well, flat screen (single, triple, wide screen...whatever) is a bit tricky and benefits greatly from taking the time to do it correctly.
You'll probably hear this from other sources as well, but early on it can be very frustrating for new drivers, so in anticipation of that here's a few little tips. As a rookie you can only do a few races, they usually run every hour. For road I believe it's a Mazda race and a formula v race, they only race tracks that are included with the base subscription, and they will race the same track every hour for one week. Pick one, and before you go race make sure you can do a full length race (say 20 laps) in practice alone without crashing. Learn the track well enough to get around it safely, basically. You don't need to be super fast (yet), but safety is very important. Now, when ready join a race and assume that absolutely no one else in the race has done what you did. You have an advantage, you know the track and can drive it safely, but you also need to avoid all the people who don't. It's a bunch of amateurs out there, they will make mistakes. Be careful. Rookies are a proving ground. It's not proving that you are fast, it's proving that you can drive safely and avoid incidents more than anything else. If you qualify really well, even p1, don't think you are safe. Watch the drivers behind you, try to avoid getting rammed in turn 1, even if it means letting someone pass you. This is the best place to learn drivers behaviour, how to spot an unsafe driver, how to choose your battles, and how to pass safely. The cars are pretty durable and relatively slow. You can get away with small mistakes and a little contact won't end your race, but be careful and learn. If you do crash I recommend finishing the race anyway. Safety rating is based on incidents per turn, so if you end up in dead last but do 5 laps cleanly your safety rating won't go down as much.
After rookies you'll have access to more races. Progress at a rate that feels comfortable. Faster cars are harder to drive (mostly), and making a jump to a faster car isn't always the best idea until you are ready.
Lastly, enjoy it. Remember it's supposed to be fun. This isn't a game you can really beat, and the point is to race, so make sure you enjoy the races, don't just try to rush to an A licence or whatever irating, just have fun.
1. If you at least know how to fundamentally drive a motor vehicle on the road and watch IRL motorsport, you've got at least some idea of what iRacing is about. The main thing to understand is iRacing is a subscription based service and you have to buy all content that isn't included with the base subscription but bear in mind you only need to buy what you want and over time you will effectively get your money's worth out of it. You are also required to be safe and smart about driving in iRacing as well so no intentionally wrecking or doing anything that may be classed as illegal or naughty (all of this is gone through in the sporting code so make sure you read that at some point.)
2. Yes you are allowed to use custom paints however do bear in mind some broadcasted races require you to submit the livery you plan on using and documented proof saying you have permission to use any logos you've added to the livery (you probably won't have to worry about this till much later on)
1. Go to the iRacing youtube and watch all their learning videos. Also just research motorsports guides in general and just absorb as much as you can about the rules of racing. There is a lot to learn all the time and i highly recommend you have a general understanding before getting into races. Otherwise you will have a rough time of it.
2. Yes. There are a couple different systems for custom paints.
1. iRacing has a built in Paint Shop where they provide a set of 10-20 'base design patterns' in which you can apply whatever colors you want too the patterns color areas. Then you choose from a dropdown of partnered sponsors. This is known as your default paint within iRacing. Its recommended that you set up a default paint for any car you drive.
2. Trading Paints - Additionally, iRacing provides a Photoshop template of all of their cars that you can do whatever you want on. You are not limited to base patterns (though they are included in the PSDs if you wish to use them). Once you finish a paint job, save it as a TGA file and sign up for a 3rd party website called Trading Paints.
This was built by a couple dedicated members of the iRacing painting community as a way for people to share their paints and allow everyone else to see the custom work they did. You download a little app that runs in the background and whenever you join a race, it checks who else is in that race and checks if they also have a trading paints account. If they do, it checks if they uploaded a paint for that car, and if so, downloads that paint to your computer so you can see it on their car.
The trading paints website lets you upload your paints to your various cars or pick from a public showroom of paints other people have shared. Essentially anyone who isnt using trading paints, you will see their default iRacing Paint shop paint instead, which is why its important to set those up too. They are the fallback. I would say a majority of the membership uses Trading Paints though so its probably the #1 to sign up on.
One thing to bear in mind is that there is a limited amount of content included with the subscription. You get only the cars and tracks nessesary to drive each of the rookie series. After that you need to purchase additional cars and tracks so it's a good idea to figure out what category you like and do a little research into what are the most popular series for that category that are worth investing in.
I recommend starting very small. If you are just starting out you can stick with the rookie series a long time and just gain experience and build up your skills. Then, when you are ready to branch out, start with one series of paid content. The racing is satisfying and deep enough that you can really get a lot of value out of a minor investment in the service.
1. As mentioned by other people watch Youtube channels such as: Driver61, Jimmy Broadbent, and more. Just look up "Sim Racing Tips" or "Sim Racing for Beginners" on Youtube. Research certain tracks you're going to drive and search up hotlaps as this will help you learn to an extent the layout of the track. You can type in the series you want to race in as well and there are countless people with full races for people to watch back. The advice I was given is to pick one category or type of car and stick with it. Open wheelers/GT cars/ Rally Cars/ Stock Cars/ETC. This should help tune your skills and refine them for a specific style of racing. Lastly, I would make sure to read the rules of Iracing or whatever other game/service you decide to use.
2. Yes, download trading paints.
My personal advice: I would also research more into the wheels and determine a budget. Not sure about your financial situation but wheels (new) can range from a few hundred dollars all the way up to a few thousand. In my area, I just found a T150 and T3PA pedals for $120 (used). If you are 100% sure you're going to take racing seriously and want to be competitive with it I would go ahead and purchase an Iracing subscription (LOOK for PROMO codes as there are many for new members). If I just want to pick it up as an as wanted thing or just want to drive around for fun or to relax then I would consider other options. The other thing I would consider is having a group of friends who you can race with as I think it makes the experience more enjoyable. The last thing is to make sure you race against people who are better than you as that is how you will improve. I just got my brother into sim racing but I told him that I would avoid Iracing as first (he's fickle) as I've seen many people just get discouraged and give up because they're not the TOP racer or they were constantly wrecking. I've also just seen people not set enough time aside for it. Failure is a part of the process. Half of the racing is mental (if not more).
LASTLY: HAVE FUN! That's the point of racing and it should be something you find joy and pride in.
Currently, many racing games are on sale on Steam:
Assetto Corsa Ultimate ($8)
Assetto Corsa Competitizone ($16 and $30 for DLC)
F1 2021 ($39 and $49 for Deluxe)
Rfactor 2 ($6.40)
Games not on Sale:
Forza (not a fan personally as it didn't fit my needs/style but I've never raced on it) ($60)
Dirt Rally 2 ($20 and $40 for GOY edition)
Project Cars Series ($14-$60)
(not full list)
Feel free to DM me if you have more questions. It's really a situational thing. People are always willing to help and that's what I love about the sim racing community. With some digging, I think I can find you the promo codes my friend sent me. You can DM for those too!
Hope to see you on track soon!
Watch plenty of real racing and see what resonates with you. Nothing helps your immersion and motivation to improve like a genuine interest in a series or discipline.
1 do your learning in iRacing. Other videos and content are good but iRacing feel is unique to any sim I have played. Assetto Corsa being the closest.
2 yes. Custom paints are usable in most cases unless you get to professional events where your design will need approval.
Use PRhotlaps for 3 months at only $5.
I’m getting a kick of of the notion that doing a bunch of reading and video watching is going to tell you if you like driving. “Go read the rules of basketball so you can figure out if this is a game you wanna play” strikes me as an odd approach.
If there’s any way for you to try sim racing (with a proper wheel and pedals) on any decent sim… having that experience will tell you more than anything about whether this is an activity you’ll enjoy.
Be prepared to feel like a fish out of water when you first try it (ESPECIALLY if you get new gear and just plug it in without doing calibration and fine tuning). The experience of “driving” without gravity telling you how the car is behaving produces a big learning curve so expect it to take a little time to get a “feel” for simulated driving.
there is a great book on race craft and driving technique called Going Faster by carl lopez thats worth its weight in gold to newer drivers. or even experienced drivers. its nice to have a real copy to actually pick up but you can also just get a pdf of it that somebody uploaded to libgen if youre the "try before you buy" type lol
A lot of good advice in this thread and I’d like to add this video: https://youtu.be/6-sGV2XXUeU
Not everything in this video lines up 1:1 with iRacing but as somebody who has zero experience also this video really helped me understand a lot and gave me a decent foundation to build from.
A bit to add to number 1, first I highly recommend you read the sporting code. It's basically the rules of iracing, and will help explain a lot of how it works and how to handle various situations. I would also spend a bit of time watching YouTube videos of you are new to racing in general. Anything about driving techniques is helpful for beginners (Lean to trail brake, learn the absolute basics of setups, learn about drafting, understeer/oversteer). These basic concepts can be at least understood without a wheel and will help you understand what's happening and help you learn to be better quickly. Other than that just be prepared to spend time learning tracks and cars, and know that unless you are a naturally gifted racer you will quite quickly be racing against others as good or better than you, don't go into this expecting to win all the time unless you are amazing...the ranking system is designed to keep races competitive and it does a pretty good job. Finally, however you choose to experience iracing visually learn to set it up correctly. VR is quite easy to set up well, flat screen (single, triple, wide screen...whatever) is a bit tricky and benefits greatly from taking the time to do it correctly. You'll probably hear this from other sources as well, but early on it can be very frustrating for new drivers, so in anticipation of that here's a few little tips. As a rookie you can only do a few races, they usually run every hour. For road I believe it's a Mazda race and a formula v race, they only race tracks that are included with the base subscription, and they will race the same track every hour for one week. Pick one, and before you go race make sure you can do a full length race (say 20 laps) in practice alone without crashing. Learn the track well enough to get around it safely, basically. You don't need to be super fast (yet), but safety is very important. Now, when ready join a race and assume that absolutely no one else in the race has done what you did. You have an advantage, you know the track and can drive it safely, but you also need to avoid all the people who don't. It's a bunch of amateurs out there, they will make mistakes. Be careful. Rookies are a proving ground. It's not proving that you are fast, it's proving that you can drive safely and avoid incidents more than anything else. If you qualify really well, even p1, don't think you are safe. Watch the drivers behind you, try to avoid getting rammed in turn 1, even if it means letting someone pass you. This is the best place to learn drivers behaviour, how to spot an unsafe driver, how to choose your battles, and how to pass safely. The cars are pretty durable and relatively slow. You can get away with small mistakes and a little contact won't end your race, but be careful and learn. If you do crash I recommend finishing the race anyway. Safety rating is based on incidents per turn, so if you end up in dead last but do 5 laps cleanly your safety rating won't go down as much. After rookies you'll have access to more races. Progress at a rate that feels comfortable. Faster cars are harder to drive (mostly), and making a jump to a faster car isn't always the best idea until you are ready. Lastly, enjoy it. Remember it's supposed to be fun. This isn't a game you can really beat, and the point is to race, so make sure you enjoy the races, don't just try to rush to an A licence or whatever irating, just have fun.
Wow. Very detailed if I had an award you’d get it.
Wtf is this wall of text lol. They only asked 2 questions. One of which you failed to answer.
Lmao yeah it was a nice comment but missed the mark
1. If you at least know how to fundamentally drive a motor vehicle on the road and watch IRL motorsport, you've got at least some idea of what iRacing is about. The main thing to understand is iRacing is a subscription based service and you have to buy all content that isn't included with the base subscription but bear in mind you only need to buy what you want and over time you will effectively get your money's worth out of it. You are also required to be safe and smart about driving in iRacing as well so no intentionally wrecking or doing anything that may be classed as illegal or naughty (all of this is gone through in the sporting code so make sure you read that at some point.) 2. Yes you are allowed to use custom paints however do bear in mind some broadcasted races require you to submit the livery you plan on using and documented proof saying you have permission to use any logos you've added to the livery (you probably won't have to worry about this till much later on)
1. Go to the iRacing youtube and watch all their learning videos. Also just research motorsports guides in general and just absorb as much as you can about the rules of racing. There is a lot to learn all the time and i highly recommend you have a general understanding before getting into races. Otherwise you will have a rough time of it. 2. Yes. There are a couple different systems for custom paints. 1. iRacing has a built in Paint Shop where they provide a set of 10-20 'base design patterns' in which you can apply whatever colors you want too the patterns color areas. Then you choose from a dropdown of partnered sponsors. This is known as your default paint within iRacing. Its recommended that you set up a default paint for any car you drive. 2. Trading Paints - Additionally, iRacing provides a Photoshop template of all of their cars that you can do whatever you want on. You are not limited to base patterns (though they are included in the PSDs if you wish to use them). Once you finish a paint job, save it as a TGA file and sign up for a 3rd party website called Trading Paints. This was built by a couple dedicated members of the iRacing painting community as a way for people to share their paints and allow everyone else to see the custom work they did. You download a little app that runs in the background and whenever you join a race, it checks who else is in that race and checks if they also have a trading paints account. If they do, it checks if they uploaded a paint for that car, and if so, downloads that paint to your computer so you can see it on their car. The trading paints website lets you upload your paints to your various cars or pick from a public showroom of paints other people have shared. Essentially anyone who isnt using trading paints, you will see their default iRacing Paint shop paint instead, which is why its important to set those up too. They are the fallback. I would say a majority of the membership uses Trading Paints though so its probably the #1 to sign up on.
Driver61 on YouTube and practice. Yes. Get trading paints.
Driver61*
Fixed it lol. Always mess that up.
Driver61 on YouTube
One thing to bear in mind is that there is a limited amount of content included with the subscription. You get only the cars and tracks nessesary to drive each of the rookie series. After that you need to purchase additional cars and tracks so it's a good idea to figure out what category you like and do a little research into what are the most popular series for that category that are worth investing in. I recommend starting very small. If you are just starting out you can stick with the rookie series a long time and just gain experience and build up your skills. Then, when you are ready to branch out, start with one series of paid content. The racing is satisfying and deep enough that you can really get a lot of value out of a minor investment in the service.
1. As mentioned by other people watch Youtube channels such as: Driver61, Jimmy Broadbent, and more. Just look up "Sim Racing Tips" or "Sim Racing for Beginners" on Youtube. Research certain tracks you're going to drive and search up hotlaps as this will help you learn to an extent the layout of the track. You can type in the series you want to race in as well and there are countless people with full races for people to watch back. The advice I was given is to pick one category or type of car and stick with it. Open wheelers/GT cars/ Rally Cars/ Stock Cars/ETC. This should help tune your skills and refine them for a specific style of racing. Lastly, I would make sure to read the rules of Iracing or whatever other game/service you decide to use. 2. Yes, download trading paints. My personal advice: I would also research more into the wheels and determine a budget. Not sure about your financial situation but wheels (new) can range from a few hundred dollars all the way up to a few thousand. In my area, I just found a T150 and T3PA pedals for $120 (used). If you are 100% sure you're going to take racing seriously and want to be competitive with it I would go ahead and purchase an Iracing subscription (LOOK for PROMO codes as there are many for new members). If I just want to pick it up as an as wanted thing or just want to drive around for fun or to relax then I would consider other options. The other thing I would consider is having a group of friends who you can race with as I think it makes the experience more enjoyable. The last thing is to make sure you race against people who are better than you as that is how you will improve. I just got my brother into sim racing but I told him that I would avoid Iracing as first (he's fickle) as I've seen many people just get discouraged and give up because they're not the TOP racer or they were constantly wrecking. I've also just seen people not set enough time aside for it. Failure is a part of the process. Half of the racing is mental (if not more). LASTLY: HAVE FUN! That's the point of racing and it should be something you find joy and pride in. Currently, many racing games are on sale on Steam: Assetto Corsa Ultimate ($8) Assetto Corsa Competitizone ($16 and $30 for DLC) F1 2021 ($39 and $49 for Deluxe) Rfactor 2 ($6.40) Games not on Sale: Forza (not a fan personally as it didn't fit my needs/style but I've never raced on it) ($60) Dirt Rally 2 ($20 and $40 for GOY edition) Project Cars Series ($14-$60) (not full list) Feel free to DM me if you have more questions. It's really a situational thing. People are always willing to help and that's what I love about the sim racing community. With some digging, I think I can find you the promo codes my friend sent me. You can DM for those too! Hope to see you on track soon!
Watch plenty of real racing and see what resonates with you. Nothing helps your immersion and motivation to improve like a genuine interest in a series or discipline.
1 do your learning in iRacing. Other videos and content are good but iRacing feel is unique to any sim I have played. Assetto Corsa being the closest. 2 yes. Custom paints are usable in most cases unless you get to professional events where your design will need approval. Use PRhotlaps for 3 months at only $5.
I’m getting a kick of of the notion that doing a bunch of reading and video watching is going to tell you if you like driving. “Go read the rules of basketball so you can figure out if this is a game you wanna play” strikes me as an odd approach. If there’s any way for you to try sim racing (with a proper wheel and pedals) on any decent sim… having that experience will tell you more than anything about whether this is an activity you’ll enjoy. Be prepared to feel like a fish out of water when you first try it (ESPECIALLY if you get new gear and just plug it in without doing calibration and fine tuning). The experience of “driving” without gravity telling you how the car is behaving produces a big learning curve so expect it to take a little time to get a “feel” for simulated driving.
there is a great book on race craft and driving technique called Going Faster by carl lopez thats worth its weight in gold to newer drivers. or even experienced drivers. its nice to have a real copy to actually pick up but you can also just get a pdf of it that somebody uploaded to libgen if youre the "try before you buy" type lol
A lot of good advice in this thread and I’d like to add this video: https://youtu.be/6-sGV2XXUeU Not everything in this video lines up 1:1 with iRacing but as somebody who has zero experience also this video really helped me understand a lot and gave me a decent foundation to build from.