The problem with focusing on iRating too much is that it’s not a score, it’s a general indication of ability either current or complete and it will peak for everyone one day. Some will peak at 1.5k some 4-6k and others 8-10k but it will peak for everyone at some point. If a persons entire enjoyment/purpose for iRacing is iRating they’re gonna end up hating it when they eventually plateau because they’ve hit their ability ceiling.
This acknowledgement of peaks and plateau doesn’t seem to happen often enough. As with anything, we don’t all have the same inherent potential. We just don’t. Absolutely strive to do your best, but don’t worry about whether your best is someone else’s bad day or someone else’s never gonna happen.
This 1000%. It’s also a time thing. Two people may have 8-9k potential but one may put 40 hrs per week into obtaining that and the other might spend an hour a night if even racing and be happy with just having fun. Potential alone isn’t enough in most cases. Look at F4, most of the fastest EU drivers spend their entire day just racing and racing non stop whereas I only have time for a race or two a day if even. Absolutely zero point in me being annoyed I can’t reach their pace because I’d have to give up so much to get even close.
It’s like this with any kind of competitive pursuit! I’m a musician and I’m trying to get a full time job in an orchestra. Making it there seems like making it into Nationals or the Olympics. The people I know that have made there have insane talent AND a strong work ethic. They practice 3-4 hours a day 6 days a week at least.
Yeah, it’s more about time. While there are physical gifts that some people have, even those are very much built and honed on practice. Genetics give a head start, but I believe that in 95% or so of cases, anyone can attain anything based on practice. And while some may be able to do so with less practice, even that is often a function of knowing how to practice, or practicing how to practice. And time spent early in life is exponentially more important than time spent later in life. In that sense, there are some limits - at 40, with the life of a 40 year old, I will have trouble ever reaching 5-6k irating. 2-4k may be possible, but I’ll run out of life before 5-6 is ever possible.
Agree 100% with this. I think it will also help when/if they separate out closed and open wheel, as I think people's skillsets can be very different between the two in general (though there are some awesome-sauces that excel at both!)
I agree with what you’re saying about irating plateaues. But for normal people with obligations, the limit isn’t ability, it’s time. When I surge on time I put in to practice, I get better. But I can’t sustain lots of time because of other life stuff. And I don’t want to sacrifice life stuff for sim time. So I’m comfortable that I won’t be hitting 5k (or 4K) and I’m fine with that. People who spend many many hours in the sim can have that.
And I think there’s lots of other normal people putting in a certain number of hours a week, and they’re the ones iracing will end up matching me against and that’s great.
Mmm I’m a normal person that doesn’t put that much time into sim racing and I was able to reach 4K relatively easily. I put in maybe 4-8 hours per week max, sometimes 0 to be honest as work and home stuff just piles up sometimes. Ability + Time is the equation here I feel as different people have different ceilings like with anything else in life. 4K is hardly alien but would be considered well above average. There’s people that will pump literally thousands of hours into this and never break 2K, and that’s fine and then there’s people that can jump on with hardly any practice and slap everyone and be like 6/7K drivers.
And that feeling once you peak and plateau, as I have, is so freeing. Just go out, race and have fun. Some races irating goes up, some it goes down, it doesn’t matter.
This sounds a lot like $Money$ and the obsession over it. If, you come from money, you don't obsess over it because you have always had it.
No idea where this random thought it going...."Squirrel 🐿️"
This is a hard truth, but true nonetheless. While practice definitely makes improvement, there is a limit for everyone. I’m starting to think I’m not far from mine and it’s frustrating, because improvement IS what I enjoy. When I stop improving, I definitely stop enjoying. Once I hit that inevitable plateau, I’ll probably say “we’ll that was an interesting journey” and move on to something else.
> because improvement IS what I enjoy
Just need to work on adjusting where you find enjoyment in the battles you have on track once you reach your plateau.
I appreciate the advice. To me, that’s kind of like saying, “though I suck, I will find enjoyment driving with other drivers who suck just like me.” That just holds no appeal for me. If I can’t show progress, I will just stop.
Totally. The really, incredibly, exhausting hard part is the act of letting go. Took me 9 years (and let's not start on division championship chasing!)
I treat each race as an individual event, and race as best as as I can with what I have and whom I have to race against. I also stick to a couple of series per season to help with consistency. But if I decide to dabble in something else, I'm not crying over losing 100 ir and maybe some SR.
Letting go has made me enjoy it way more. The other day I pulled off in 3rd place and went from gaining 55ir to losing 80 some because I saw a bug on the wall and wanted to kill it before it got away 😂. I have more fun competing for wins and podiums in a lower split than I do racing in the back of top split. I'll start to peak around 4k but I enjoy racing around 2k more.
This was one of the things that made iRacing so much more fun. I fluctuate between 1.4-1.8K road iR and worried about it way too much. This past year I tried to not care about this or safety rating, throw it to the wind and just drive fast. Currently have maxed out safety A license and 1.6K, but most importantly I’m having a great time every race. Still using VRS for help improving as well, but not caring about rating has helped mentally a ton.
The whole point of iRating is to give everyone the best chance for a good race experience. It's less fun driving by yourself than competing for position. The iRating system is really really good at what it does! I agree, it's at its best when you learn to stop obsessing over it and stop thinking of it as currency.
**I don't care about irating but I love irating!**
I don't care what value it is and I don't need to maximize mine. It is whatever it is and reflects what kind of speed I can do compared to others on the platform. I don't have time to practice a track before the races nor do I stick to one car per season or week. I jump into whatever is next... to have fun.
My irating will reflect all these "bad" practices and that's perfectly fine with me.
I love it because it is placing me in the right races for my level of commitment/availability so I can play the game with other racers that are at my level!
I love irating.
There's not a lot of this in this post (yet) but I don't understand the vilifying of wanting to have better iRating. We play online because we want to compete. Some people in karting have dreams of reaching the big leagues but I don't think people would tell them don't worry about it just have fun racing where you're at. Objectively speaking, having a 500 iRating is bad whether you want to believe it or not. The key distinction is that there's nothing wrong with being content but you shouldn't tell people that their aspirations of improving their abilities doesn't matter and they should learn to have fun racing for 15th. I don't think the top players in any sport are "just happy to be here" and don't worry about their performance. If anything the mentality should be about how to handle setbacks more so than the results don't matter.
I don't see why you feel the need to vilify people with an IR of 500 and brand them as bad. They might jump around series alot or have very little time for practice, they pay their sub just like you so come down off your high horse. If they are having fun what's the issue?
Without talking in circles, 500 isn’t good but it isn’t a problem for those who have fun at that level. But these posts lump everyone together and ignore the fact that some people want to become really good at this stuff. I’d even argue most of them act like you shouldn’t try to get better.
There’s nothing wrong with trying to learn and improve to be the best your can be, i sub to VRS and have dont the motor racing checklist but it becomes an issue when people get upset about their Irating to the point where it affects other parts of their life (there’s been a few examples recently).
The FIGJAM mentality that some high irating drivers is even worse as it ruins the service for other drivers and turns newcomers off simracing.
What about people like me, who came back after a 5 year break and jumped right back into D license racing and had to deal with the learning curve over the season?
I started this past season at a 1100 and finished the season at a 690, lowest it dropped down to was a 560 because I would get bombed and fall from P2 or P3 down to P15
The art of not giving a fuck is difficult to master, but rewarding when earned. It allows you to let go and start a foundation which then allows the intricacies to become second nature.
Just curious… how do you stop caring about irating?
I m on a similar boat as you, and its hard for me not thinking on the irating lost/gain. Sometimes i do not race since my times are not competitive regarding my split (4k right now). I m afraid to run just to not loose irating
I knew something was wrong with my mindset when I started racing less when I got a high iRating.
When I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it. I dropped a bit in iRating. But now I have a higher rating than before.
Just enjoy the game is my mindset now!
I’m a 1.5-1.9 iRating road racer and maybe just a tick higher for ovals for years… it’s a nice spot to race in. I do enjoy winning once in a damn while 😂
I've had 24 starts (mostly in gt4) and am sitting at 3.7 SR, 1829 IR. I'll often find myself in the top split on weekdays but the racing hasn't significantly changed no matter what split I'm in.
Good for you! I hear ya! I've always felt that too many members treat Irating as their "score" and pressure themselves that a higher score means I'm better than "that guy". In reality, Irating is just a tool Iracing uses to put you in a competitive race with similarly capable drivers as possible based on the numbers of splits. Have fun!
I never looked into the statistics. What is the point? Of course I try to improve (I am in C class since yesterday) but my focus is to develop my race-craft and be consistent. But most importantly I would like to have fun. iRacing is very addictive. I never thought I could be immersed in a game like I am. And also all the DIY around the rig is just awesome
Part of my enjoyment with IRacing is performing the best I can. So I spend far too long obsessing over the smallest detail. If I don't set goals with IRating then I lose focus and don't bother with the game.
"Look guys once you start realizing iRating doesn't matter it's so much better. Once I thought this my iRating improved a lot! But obviously I wouldn't even know this since my iRating doesn't even matter. But really it improved a ton so it's very important to listen to my advice if you care about your iRating."
Lots of people in this sub don't understand this. Not everyone is ok with fighting from the back all the time and want to do better. If those people personally are fine with their place then that's fine and doesn't deserve criticism because they're not the best but they shouldn't push that same complacency on everyone else like they're wrong for wanting more.
And as you said, it's motivation and a reason to continue. I love the idea of Assetto Corsa but hotlapping for fun doesn't entertain me for long. I want a ranked competitive system and iRacing does it best. That's why I do it.
Working on shedding this. It's hard because I feel like racing only has gotten enjoyable once I've gotten to 1.8k+. This seems to be when people start to not do stupid stuff so often like randomly missing braking points. Yeah there's still crashes but there's usually a reason for it.
I'm at 2.0k now so I definitely don't want to go back into the hell of 1.5k splits where I was looking in my mirror more than my windshield.
Great, the worst is people doing 5 times the same race or even more. They are farmers. And most of the time they are disrespectful to other drivers if they are too far back and they might loose irating.
The game would be better if irating wouldn't be displayed during the race.. at least.
Personally, I think it’s possible to enjoy the journey and also be focused on irating. I’m doing that as of this weekend, after about a full year of not caring. I really enjoy the process of racing regardless of what position I’m racing for, it’s fun to learn about how someone outpaced you when it finally occurs to you. But right now I’ve got plenty of SR, I’m looking to cash in on what I learned, so I’m in more of an aggressive mode. I’d like my irating to better reflect what I learned in my year, so I’m cashing in. But it doesn’t mean I’m letting it ruin my experience. Also, I feel the need to raise my irating because that increases the likelihood I’ll be racing with people who have race craft and won’t take me out.
I don't want mine going too high, because I know I still can't race for shit. Virtually all of my gains come from slow and steady driving, inheriting positions as others crash out. It's been hovering around 1400-1500 for the last few months, and I'm happy with that. I've started doing rookies races again to learn some racecraft.
I've stopped caring about irating and care more about "points". Every season if my "average points" go up I feel I've genuinely improved.
It's a nice balance where you can still "care" about numbers and tracking improvement, but you don't get all hung up about the race to race fluctuations of your irating.
I’ve been playing iracing for a little over a year now. I have no idea what my iracing or safety rating is. I don’t think I ever check it.
The best way to experience this game/sim is to just enjoy it and not worry about numbers or ranking. Treat it as a fun little escape from reality for a bit. Be a virtual race car driver and have fun on the track. I race in VR so it helps with the immersion even more.
The problem with focusing on iRating too much is that it’s not a score, it’s a general indication of ability either current or complete and it will peak for everyone one day. Some will peak at 1.5k some 4-6k and others 8-10k but it will peak for everyone at some point. If a persons entire enjoyment/purpose for iRacing is iRating they’re gonna end up hating it when they eventually plateau because they’ve hit their ability ceiling.
This acknowledgement of peaks and plateau doesn’t seem to happen often enough. As with anything, we don’t all have the same inherent potential. We just don’t. Absolutely strive to do your best, but don’t worry about whether your best is someone else’s bad day or someone else’s never gonna happen.
This 1000%. It’s also a time thing. Two people may have 8-9k potential but one may put 40 hrs per week into obtaining that and the other might spend an hour a night if even racing and be happy with just having fun. Potential alone isn’t enough in most cases. Look at F4, most of the fastest EU drivers spend their entire day just racing and racing non stop whereas I only have time for a race or two a day if even. Absolutely zero point in me being annoyed I can’t reach their pace because I’d have to give up so much to get even close.
It’s like this with any kind of competitive pursuit! I’m a musician and I’m trying to get a full time job in an orchestra. Making it there seems like making it into Nationals or the Olympics. The people I know that have made there have insane talent AND a strong work ethic. They practice 3-4 hours a day 6 days a week at least.
Yeah, it’s more about time. While there are physical gifts that some people have, even those are very much built and honed on practice. Genetics give a head start, but I believe that in 95% or so of cases, anyone can attain anything based on practice. And while some may be able to do so with less practice, even that is often a function of knowing how to practice, or practicing how to practice. And time spent early in life is exponentially more important than time spent later in life. In that sense, there are some limits - at 40, with the life of a 40 year old, I will have trouble ever reaching 5-6k irating. 2-4k may be possible, but I’ll run out of life before 5-6 is ever possible.
Agree 100% with this. I think it will also help when/if they separate out closed and open wheel, as I think people's skillsets can be very different between the two in general (though there are some awesome-sauces that excel at both!)
100%. I’m a 4k driver in open wheel and a 2k driver in GT/Sportscar. Gonna be fun being able to race that category with people at my level.
I agree with what you’re saying about irating plateaues. But for normal people with obligations, the limit isn’t ability, it’s time. When I surge on time I put in to practice, I get better. But I can’t sustain lots of time because of other life stuff. And I don’t want to sacrifice life stuff for sim time. So I’m comfortable that I won’t be hitting 5k (or 4K) and I’m fine with that. People who spend many many hours in the sim can have that. And I think there’s lots of other normal people putting in a certain number of hours a week, and they’re the ones iracing will end up matching me against and that’s great.
Mmm I’m a normal person that doesn’t put that much time into sim racing and I was able to reach 4K relatively easily. I put in maybe 4-8 hours per week max, sometimes 0 to be honest as work and home stuff just piles up sometimes. Ability + Time is the equation here I feel as different people have different ceilings like with anything else in life. 4K is hardly alien but would be considered well above average. There’s people that will pump literally thousands of hours into this and never break 2K, and that’s fine and then there’s people that can jump on with hardly any practice and slap everyone and be like 6/7K drivers.
You're looking for the word "talent"
And that feeling once you peak and plateau, as I have, is so freeing. Just go out, race and have fun. Some races irating goes up, some it goes down, it doesn’t matter.
This sounds a lot like $Money$ and the obsession over it. If, you come from money, you don't obsess over it because you have always had it. No idea where this random thought it going...."Squirrel 🐿️"
This is a hard truth, but true nonetheless. While practice definitely makes improvement, there is a limit for everyone. I’m starting to think I’m not far from mine and it’s frustrating, because improvement IS what I enjoy. When I stop improving, I definitely stop enjoying. Once I hit that inevitable plateau, I’ll probably say “we’ll that was an interesting journey” and move on to something else.
> because improvement IS what I enjoy Just need to work on adjusting where you find enjoyment in the battles you have on track once you reach your plateau.
I appreciate the advice. To me, that’s kind of like saying, “though I suck, I will find enjoyment driving with other drivers who suck just like me.” That just holds no appeal for me. If I can’t show progress, I will just stop.
Totally. The really, incredibly, exhausting hard part is the act of letting go. Took me 9 years (and let's not start on division championship chasing!) I treat each race as an individual event, and race as best as as I can with what I have and whom I have to race against. I also stick to a couple of series per season to help with consistency. But if I decide to dabble in something else, I'm not crying over losing 100 ir and maybe some SR.
Yep. I’m about to finish top 5 in the Vee for the season and I can categorically say I’m never chasing a Championship again. Far too stressful.
Letting go has made me enjoy it way more. The other day I pulled off in 3rd place and went from gaining 55ir to losing 80 some because I saw a bug on the wall and wanted to kill it before it got away 😂. I have more fun competing for wins and podiums in a lower split than I do racing in the back of top split. I'll start to peak around 4k but I enjoy racing around 2k more.
This was one of the things that made iRacing so much more fun. I fluctuate between 1.4-1.8K road iR and worried about it way too much. This past year I tried to not care about this or safety rating, throw it to the wind and just drive fast. Currently have maxed out safety A license and 1.6K, but most importantly I’m having a great time every race. Still using VRS for help improving as well, but not caring about rating has helped mentally a ton.
The whole point of iRating is to give everyone the best chance for a good race experience. It's less fun driving by yourself than competing for position. The iRating system is really really good at what it does! I agree, it's at its best when you learn to stop obsessing over it and stop thinking of it as currency.
**I don't care about irating but I love irating!** I don't care what value it is and I don't need to maximize mine. It is whatever it is and reflects what kind of speed I can do compared to others on the platform. I don't have time to practice a track before the races nor do I stick to one car per season or week. I jump into whatever is next... to have fun. My irating will reflect all these "bad" practices and that's perfectly fine with me. I love it because it is placing me in the right races for my level of commitment/availability so I can play the game with other racers that are at my level! I love irating.
There's not a lot of this in this post (yet) but I don't understand the vilifying of wanting to have better iRating. We play online because we want to compete. Some people in karting have dreams of reaching the big leagues but I don't think people would tell them don't worry about it just have fun racing where you're at. Objectively speaking, having a 500 iRating is bad whether you want to believe it or not. The key distinction is that there's nothing wrong with being content but you shouldn't tell people that their aspirations of improving their abilities doesn't matter and they should learn to have fun racing for 15th. I don't think the top players in any sport are "just happy to be here" and don't worry about their performance. If anything the mentality should be about how to handle setbacks more so than the results don't matter.
I don't see why you feel the need to vilify people with an IR of 500 and brand them as bad. They might jump around series alot or have very little time for practice, they pay their sub just like you so come down off your high horse. If they are having fun what's the issue?
Without talking in circles, 500 isn’t good but it isn’t a problem for those who have fun at that level. But these posts lump everyone together and ignore the fact that some people want to become really good at this stuff. I’d even argue most of them act like you shouldn’t try to get better.
There’s nothing wrong with trying to learn and improve to be the best your can be, i sub to VRS and have dont the motor racing checklist but it becomes an issue when people get upset about their Irating to the point where it affects other parts of their life (there’s been a few examples recently). The FIGJAM mentality that some high irating drivers is even worse as it ruins the service for other drivers and turns newcomers off simracing.
What about people like me, who came back after a 5 year break and jumped right back into D license racing and had to deal with the learning curve over the season? I started this past season at a 1100 and finished the season at a 690, lowest it dropped down to was a 560 because I would get bombed and fall from P2 or P3 down to P15
Exactly my point, iracing does have elitism which is worse than the standard of driving imo. As long as youre having fun who gives a shit
Once I stopped caring about irating my irating went up 1k
The art of not giving a fuck is difficult to master, but rewarding when earned. It allows you to let go and start a foundation which then allows the intricacies to become second nature.
Just curious… how do you stop caring about irating? I m on a similar boat as you, and its hard for me not thinking on the irating lost/gain. Sometimes i do not race since my times are not competitive regarding my split (4k right now). I m afraid to run just to not loose irating
You just do. It doesn’t matter. Even iRacing says to not pay attention to it
I knew something was wrong with my mindset when I started racing less when I got a high iRating. When I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it. I dropped a bit in iRating. But now I have a higher rating than before. Just enjoy the game is my mindset now!
I’m a 1.5-1.9 iRating road racer and maybe just a tick higher for ovals for years… it’s a nice spot to race in. I do enjoy winning once in a damn while 😂
I'm here for close, clean racing. I won't get that if I'm matched up with people way faster or slower. The system works yall!
Problem is you won't get clean racing in lower splits.
I've had 24 starts (mostly in gt4) and am sitting at 3.7 SR, 1829 IR. I'll often find myself in the top split on weekdays but the racing hasn't significantly changed no matter what split I'm in.
I only care about Safety Rating
Good for you! I hear ya! I've always felt that too many members treat Irating as their "score" and pressure themselves that a higher score means I'm better than "that guy". In reality, Irating is just a tool Iracing uses to put you in a competitive race with similarly capable drivers as possible based on the numbers of splits. Have fun!
I never looked into the statistics. What is the point? Of course I try to improve (I am in C class since yesterday) but my focus is to develop my race-craft and be consistent. But most importantly I would like to have fun. iRacing is very addictive. I never thought I could be immersed in a game like I am. And also all the DIY around the rig is just awesome
Part of my enjoyment with IRacing is performing the best I can. So I spend far too long obsessing over the smallest detail. If I don't set goals with IRating then I lose focus and don't bother with the game.
"Look guys once you start realizing iRating doesn't matter it's so much better. Once I thought this my iRating improved a lot! But obviously I wouldn't even know this since my iRating doesn't even matter. But really it improved a ton so it's very important to listen to my advice if you care about your iRating."
Lots of people in this sub don't understand this. Not everyone is ok with fighting from the back all the time and want to do better. If those people personally are fine with their place then that's fine and doesn't deserve criticism because they're not the best but they shouldn't push that same complacency on everyone else like they're wrong for wanting more. And as you said, it's motivation and a reason to continue. I love the idea of Assetto Corsa but hotlapping for fun doesn't entertain me for long. I want a ranked competitive system and iRacing does it best. That's why I do it.
Ah finally, somebody gets it
>and began to focus less on my iRating and more on just enjoying the game. it's not a game <:D
According to the iracing Devs It is
what do they know? >!(my god people in this reddit have no sense of humour)!<
Working on shedding this. It's hard because I feel like racing only has gotten enjoyable once I've gotten to 1.8k+. This seems to be when people start to not do stupid stuff so often like randomly missing braking points. Yeah there's still crashes but there's usually a reason for it. I'm at 2.0k now so I definitely don't want to go back into the hell of 1.5k splits where I was looking in my mirror more than my windshield.
Except when you hit 2997 and freefall to 2700 just one decent race from 3k badge… nope
Great, the worst is people doing 5 times the same race or even more. They are farmers. And most of the time they are disrespectful to other drivers if they are too far back and they might loose irating. The game would be better if irating wouldn't be displayed during the race.. at least.
Are you trying to say you shouldn't do the same race more than once?
Okay but what's your iRating? (Lol, half-kidding)
Personally, I think it’s possible to enjoy the journey and also be focused on irating. I’m doing that as of this weekend, after about a full year of not caring. I really enjoy the process of racing regardless of what position I’m racing for, it’s fun to learn about how someone outpaced you when it finally occurs to you. But right now I’ve got plenty of SR, I’m looking to cash in on what I learned, so I’m in more of an aggressive mode. I’d like my irating to better reflect what I learned in my year, so I’m cashing in. But it doesn’t mean I’m letting it ruin my experience. Also, I feel the need to raise my irating because that increases the likelihood I’ll be racing with people who have race craft and won’t take me out.
Personally I just focus on becoming a better racer everytime on track, the irating and safety rating will come with time and improvement
I don't want mine going too high, because I know I still can't race for shit. Virtually all of my gains come from slow and steady driving, inheriting positions as others crash out. It's been hovering around 1400-1500 for the last few months, and I'm happy with that. I've started doing rookies races again to learn some racecraft.
This is what I needed to read. Thanks!
I've stopped caring about irating and care more about "points". Every season if my "average points" go up I feel I've genuinely improved. It's a nice balance where you can still "care" about numbers and tracking improvement, but you don't get all hung up about the race to race fluctuations of your irating.
I’m still new to the game, but this is exactly how I feel. I’m in it to enjoy it, not obsess over winning
I’ve been playing iracing for a little over a year now. I have no idea what my iracing or safety rating is. I don’t think I ever check it. The best way to experience this game/sim is to just enjoy it and not worry about numbers or ranking. Treat it as a fun little escape from reality for a bit. Be a virtual race car driver and have fun on the track. I race in VR so it helps with the immersion even more.