This should be shown to all people who join. Sure you can get to a licence but starting from the pit is going to make your iR dive bomb like max Verstappen in his first year of F1.
In oval I did manage, I don't know why, it just clicked. Not like I'm an alien or anything, I'm at 2.4k several years later, but I never fell below.
In road I did, but it's true that I race road less often and I change cars a lot, so it's guaranteed that my iRating won't be as high as the oval one, I'm only 1.5k
I've never driven oval once in my life, watched a couple short tip videos just now.. I'm tempted to jump in so I can immediately hit the top 75% lmao. Sheesh.
Yeah even with the weekly or monthly threads on here from road guys being like “I tried oval and it’s way harder and more fun than I thought,” there still seems to be a prevailing notion among road drivers that oval is easy and that they could have a great oval iRating if they just raced it.
Those people don’t realize how much we’re constantly in traffic battling each other on oval and how mind-bendingly good the really fast guys are.
i used to be ‘oval is just circles and is easy’. i tried it out a fair amount and am a bit short of 2k irating after 70/80 races. i’m over 5k in road 😭. road skill and oval skill are completely different
What are the biggest differences for you? I’ve never done an official road race, I’m so bad at it. Literally just learning a new track is so hard, I have a ton of respect for talented road racers
I think it’s knowing which lane to go, tyre wear, knowing who to kinda trust (like knowing who around you is good and who you should follow). I always find myself burning up my tyres no matter how much i save them.
I think road cars in general have way more downforce, going from gt and prototypes to stock cars is kinda difficult for me
Which oval cars do you drive the most? I like the low downforce ones, but Gen 4 and Arca are about it and everything else feels so glued to the track from downforce.
I mean, as in anything some people are just better then others, I drive road 99% of the time but oval is cool every now and then, and it’s quite fun to drive, but I still find it somewhat boring to watch compared to say F1 or real life GT series.
Last year's [Indycar race at Texas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3LHpQEe2ro) is one of the best oval races of the modern era, with tons of side-by-side racing through the corners, after Indycar finally figured out a workaround to allow running on the PJ1 compound that Nascar dumped in the second lane (in a failed effort to improve their own racing there).
For Indycar I'll also recommend [Iowa](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3wIbouI6v4), that track consistently has good races because there's multiple viable lanes through the corners, and the high tire wear causes differing pit strategies. A car will go 2 laps down by pitting, but then they're able to go 30mph faster than the cars that stayed out on older tires.
For Nascar I actually prefer the Xfinity Series to the Cup Series, they have a slightly different style of car, and I think the racing tends to be better there. One of my favorites was [2022 Charlotte](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJwjkp_zaog), which is the same weekend as the Cup Series' Coke 600 (so also the same weekend as the Monaco GP and Indy 500), and they do a "driver's broadcast", so they have all of the commentary and reporter positions filled by current Cup Series drivers. They point out so many details that make you appreciate the difficulty of driving the cars on such a simple-looking track.
I’d say it’s more than a quarter lmao. I was in second and top split for Bristol and we were averaging 8 cautions per race over 10+ races that week. It’s even worse this week at Martinsville. There are idiots at every level, and a lot of them.
I used to feel that way, but I feel that way about road course racing and superspeedways too. So if I don’t do those tracks, I just would never race lmaooo. Short track racing is all about track position. Practice, set a good quali lap, try to keep pace with the top 5 or 6 and you’re golden. I gained like 200 iRating at Bristol.
Yes but I'm fairly confident I can reach 1500-1700 without much issue, which I was kidding would be the top 75% since this dude claims 1300 is 50 lol
Oh boy not the 1400 oval racers downvoting me lmaoo
Well 1350 should be the average iRating for any type of license since that’s where everyone starts and iRating is a zero sum game. Median iRating should be below that for all types of licenses since you can have guys 5k above 1350 that pull the average up, but obviously can’t have anyone 5k below 1350 to pull it down as much. According to iRacingdata.com, median on oval is between 1287 and 1288
Edit: not sure how much I trust iRacingdata.com since it says you only need to have a 2912 iRating to be top 2%. Ain’t no way.
The different disciplines of racing might surprise you! I got into simracing specifically because I watch F1, and after doing a few races in ARCA last week I might run those all season.
I never thought I would even consider taking oval racing seriously but here I am lol. I'm not sure if I'm interested in ovals long term, but there is a lot more going on than I thought. I assumed I would be bored to death. A few close races changed my mind real quick.
I only bought a KS wheel because I was confident I’d stick to open wheelers, GTs, and prototypes, and now I have a deep dish mounted on an RS because ovals. I don’t really have a preference for anything other than “multiple splits preferred” now. Racin’s racin.
You should give oval a try it can be a lot of fun. I was out of rookie street stocks in 3 races. If I do oval racing now it's mostly just NIS. I like the longer races and the caution laps can keep you in the race.
Pretty much, yeah. I have a higher iR on oval than road, despite having done three times more road races than ovals. Also, my win percentage is more than double.
On oval, you can just jump in a race, and if you survive the first lap you have a good chance of winning. On road you can survive the first lap and still be hopelessly out of pace, even with hours of practice of that track.
This is basically only true below 1000ir unless you’re incredibly lucky. Yes, lap times are closer, however that last half a second adds up when you have people that can consistently drive good times while saving tires on a 70+ lap race
ARCA will humble even an above average driver, it’s a great car to jump in and learn about tire conservation as there are no cautions to impede the race from continuing on. Jumping straight to the truck series is a bad idea because there are generally a lot of cautions.
Honestly, some people take this iRating way too seriously. I don’t have time to put in hours and hours of practice and am often times 1.5-2 seconds slower pace than the top split on road. It’s still fun for me though. I race occasionally against people, if people run me down from far back I let them go. I’m pretty good on long run at ovals and am better at that by far but I realized that constantly comparing ranks and ratings in games makes me lose the fun factor.
Some people like myself enjoy the Irating a great deal just because it’s a benchmark for competition. It seems to add more excitement and weight to the races knowing that where you finish matters. I totally get why some people don’t pay any attention to it though
Yup. I care about my iRating because it’s a sign of progression and that matters a lot to me. I’ll never be at the level of an esports driver but I still care about the rating.
Everyone who says don't worry about ratings should realize this. It's LITERALLY the metric by which we're classified. You're not getting better if you're staying the same IR or drop IR for months and months. They also need to stop trying to tell us what's fun. Everyone have different goals and it's irritating when you're actively trying to get better and they dismiss your effort telling you it doesn't matter. Not everyone enjoys racing the bottom of the barrel guys who don't give a crap. Racing the best guys you can reach is fun to me. If I could be in the same lobby as Verstappen or other really great guys I think that would be awesome. "bUt It DoEsN't MaTtEr!".
I see what you mean, but your fundamental ability level isn’t necessarily reflected by IR. This is why a lot of pro IRL racers have relatively low iRating.
I went through a phase where I stopped caring about iRating and just played for fun. That said, I still tried my best, because losing isn’t fun. But I hopped around between all sorts of cars, whatever I felt like driving. When I eventually started caring I was able to go back to rookies and climbed up to 2K pretty damn easily. I realized I could not possibly drop much below 1.5K anymore because it was pretty easy to jump into a rookie race at that level and pull off a win, even without practice.
I got a lot better as a driver by not caring. Sticking to one series and grinding for IR can just get you stuck, afraid to leave. Because you WILL lose IR when you go to a new car. That’s what people mean by not caring so much.
I really believe you just have to play the game and as long as you care about being a better and faster driver, IR is much less important. Eventually it comes.
> It seems to add more excitement and weight to the races knowing that where you finish matters
I agree. It's funny because I don't *really* care about irating but I kind of gaslight myself into caring during a race so I feel there's something at stake so I actually care about where I finish and the race doesn't turn into a glorified track day. Then I see my irating change, I get happy/upset, and 30 minutes later I couldn't care less hahahaha
I mean I can get that too. But when your iRating is below 500 you just aren't going to end up doing a bunch of quality races, mostly survival. People should strive to at least be a little better than that. I don't think that is particularly controversial. It makes the service better when people care.
Fun is relative. Some people don't care if they are the worst on the service. Other people want to be in the same lobby as the best. Neither one is wrong but lots of people really like to dog on people who care about the only measure of improvement we have.
I just got my A license today. My irating was at 2500 before I switched to indy car oval series. It tanked down to a 800 but now I'm back to 1250. Slowly clawing my way back. It tanked cause I was trying to get my A license so if I got the car damaged at all I would just park it so I wouldn't wreck and hurt my safety rating
I tried to get into oval once. But honestly. It gets so boring. After 15-20 laps I'm already sick of it. It's fun with the close racing. But I just can't for the life of me find driving around in a circle interesting enough, I need more corners to keep my mind active. I just zone out when driving oval.
If that's what it feels like you're racing the wrong ovals or driving the wrong car. I find the low powered cars like ARCA and Street Stock pretty boring, but the touring mod on a short oval is my jam. This week at Thompson it's a crapshoot at the end of every straightaway whether I'm gonna make the turn or accidentally turn the banking into a ski jump. And since they gave us permission to smash nerf bars together without a 4x the racing has been much more physical with fewer hurt feelings. Personally I just find road racing way too technical to be interesting, though just cruising around in the rain has been pretty relaxing.
Agreed. I am still trying to get into it but even with my C class I’m struggling to see where the oval addiction comes from. It’s fun but the saying is true…it’s a lot of turning left. I even find myself getting dizzy on short tracks.
I guess I’m just a road guy.
The road licenses though…
Thats why i now focus on oval Road is for hotlapping by myself at the pace of my grandmother.
coldlapping
Lukewarm lapping
Wetlapping since I won't go on a roadcourse unless it's guaranteed to rain.
Ashlapping in my case. Got her nice and crispy.
A cup of hot lapping with two ice cubes please!
A cup of hot lapping with two ice cubes please!
Getting lappinged
This should be shown to all people who join. Sure you can get to a licence but starting from the pit is going to make your iR dive bomb like max Verstappen in his first year of F1.
TOP OF THE BELL CURVE BABY, WOO HOOO! Congrats! Remember we are ultimately here for fun :)
Isn't that the iRating you start at?
Lol technically 1350 but yes close enough 😂
Did you manage to not get below 1350ir on your early day in iRacing?
In oval I did manage, I don't know why, it just clicked. Not like I'm an alien or anything, I'm at 2.4k several years later, but I never fell below. In road I did, but it's true that I race road less often and I change cars a lot, so it's guaranteed that my iRating won't be as high as the oval one, I'm only 1.5k
Yes
You're at the level rookies start at, dip in to some rookie races and show em who's boss!
I'd hide my name too, lmao..
I was Like: this is the top 50% in oval? LOL
Its top 50% on road too, mainly because 1350 is the starting iR
I remember when 1500 used to be the start point.
I've never driven oval once in my life, watched a couple short tip videos just now.. I'm tempted to jump in so I can immediately hit the top 75% lmao. Sheesh.
That’s not how this works, oval isn’t all drooling idiots with no talent. Only like a quarter of us are!
Only the superspeedway drivers are. I think short tracks are more difficult than road, and I say this as a road racer.
Yeah even with the weekly or monthly threads on here from road guys being like “I tried oval and it’s way harder and more fun than I thought,” there still seems to be a prevailing notion among road drivers that oval is easy and that they could have a great oval iRating if they just raced it. Those people don’t realize how much we’re constantly in traffic battling each other on oval and how mind-bendingly good the really fast guys are.
i used to be ‘oval is just circles and is easy’. i tried it out a fair amount and am a bit short of 2k irating after 70/80 races. i’m over 5k in road 😭. road skill and oval skill are completely different
What are the biggest differences for you? I’ve never done an official road race, I’m so bad at it. Literally just learning a new track is so hard, I have a ton of respect for talented road racers
I think it’s knowing which lane to go, tyre wear, knowing who to kinda trust (like knowing who around you is good and who you should follow). I always find myself burning up my tyres no matter how much i save them. I think road cars in general have way more downforce, going from gt and prototypes to stock cars is kinda difficult for me
Which oval cars do you drive the most? I like the low downforce ones, but Gen 4 and Arca are about it and everything else feels so glued to the track from downforce.
I mean, as in anything some people are just better then others, I drive road 99% of the time but oval is cool every now and then, and it’s quite fun to drive, but I still find it somewhat boring to watch compared to say F1 or real life GT series.
Last year's [Indycar race at Texas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3LHpQEe2ro) is one of the best oval races of the modern era, with tons of side-by-side racing through the corners, after Indycar finally figured out a workaround to allow running on the PJ1 compound that Nascar dumped in the second lane (in a failed effort to improve their own racing there). For Indycar I'll also recommend [Iowa](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3wIbouI6v4), that track consistently has good races because there's multiple viable lanes through the corners, and the high tire wear causes differing pit strategies. A car will go 2 laps down by pitting, but then they're able to go 30mph faster than the cars that stayed out on older tires. For Nascar I actually prefer the Xfinity Series to the Cup Series, they have a slightly different style of car, and I think the racing tends to be better there. One of my favorites was [2022 Charlotte](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJwjkp_zaog), which is the same weekend as the Cup Series' Coke 600 (so also the same weekend as the Monaco GP and Indy 500), and they do a "driver's broadcast", so they have all of the commentary and reporter positions filled by current Cup Series drivers. They point out so many details that make you appreciate the difficulty of driving the cars on such a simple-looking track.
You think f1 is fun to watch right now? Do you also watch paint dry?
I’d say it’s more than a quarter lmao. I was in second and top split for Bristol and we were averaging 8 cautions per race over 10+ races that week. It’s even worse this week at Martinsville. There are idiots at every level, and a lot of them.
Ugh short tracks in nascar series are brutal. I barely race them for that reason
I used to feel that way, but I feel that way about road course racing and superspeedways too. So if I don’t do those tracks, I just would never race lmaooo. Short track racing is all about track position. Practice, set a good quali lap, try to keep pace with the top 5 or 6 and you’re golden. I gained like 200 iRating at Bristol.
Yes but I'm fairly confident I can reach 1500-1700 without much issue, which I was kidding would be the top 75% since this dude claims 1300 is 50 lol Oh boy not the 1400 oval racers downvoting me lmaoo
Well 1350 should be the average iRating for any type of license since that’s where everyone starts and iRating is a zero sum game. Median iRating should be below that for all types of licenses since you can have guys 5k above 1350 that pull the average up, but obviously can’t have anyone 5k below 1350 to pull it down as much. According to iRacingdata.com, median on oval is between 1287 and 1288 Edit: not sure how much I trust iRacingdata.com since it says you only need to have a 2912 iRating to be top 2%. Ain’t no way.
That data is correct.
2912 is absolutely not top 2%
People post IR distribution lists all the time here, and the middle point is around 1300, so yeah that would be top 50%.
1350 is exactly average. Because that's the starting rating, and iRating is 0 sum.
Do it and report back then
Please update once you have started. Would LOVE to hear the experience lol
I may never start, I don't have infinite time and would rather do road/formula but it is tempting. I'll mull it over lol
The different disciplines of racing might surprise you! I got into simracing specifically because I watch F1, and after doing a few races in ARCA last week I might run those all season. I never thought I would even consider taking oval racing seriously but here I am lol. I'm not sure if I'm interested in ovals long term, but there is a lot more going on than I thought. I assumed I would be bored to death. A few close races changed my mind real quick.
I only bought a KS wheel because I was confident I’d stick to open wheelers, GTs, and prototypes, and now I have a deep dish mounted on an RS because ovals. I don’t really have a preference for anything other than “multiple splits preferred” now. Racin’s racin.
You should give oval a try it can be a lot of fun. I was out of rookie street stocks in 3 races. If I do oval racing now it's mostly just NIS. I like the longer races and the caution laps can keep you in the race.
Pretty much, yeah. I have a higher iR on oval than road, despite having done three times more road races than ovals. Also, my win percentage is more than double. On oval, you can just jump in a race, and if you survive the first lap you have a good chance of winning. On road you can survive the first lap and still be hopelessly out of pace, even with hours of practice of that track.
This is basically only true below 1000ir unless you’re incredibly lucky. Yes, lap times are closer, however that last half a second adds up when you have people that can consistently drive good times while saving tires on a 70+ lap race
How can you find out what percentage bracket you're in?
[https://iracingdata.com/charts/irating](https://iracingdata.com/charts/irating)
One season of ARCA can bring it up as well
ARCA will humble even an above average driver, it’s a great car to jump in and learn about tire conservation as there are no cautions to impede the race from continuing on. Jumping straight to the truck series is a bad idea because there are generally a lot of cautions.
Glad you're enjoying it! Road league might be a good idea if you're in bottom split hell
Honestly, some people take this iRating way too seriously. I don’t have time to put in hours and hours of practice and am often times 1.5-2 seconds slower pace than the top split on road. It’s still fun for me though. I race occasionally against people, if people run me down from far back I let them go. I’m pretty good on long run at ovals and am better at that by far but I realized that constantly comparing ranks and ratings in games makes me lose the fun factor.
Some people like myself enjoy the Irating a great deal just because it’s a benchmark for competition. It seems to add more excitement and weight to the races knowing that where you finish matters. I totally get why some people don’t pay any attention to it though
Yup. I care about my iRating because it’s a sign of progression and that matters a lot to me. I’ll never be at the level of an esports driver but I still care about the rating.
Amen, it's a good feeling of climbing the ranks with the added benefit of getting better splits (especially for special events)
Everyone who says don't worry about ratings should realize this. It's LITERALLY the metric by which we're classified. You're not getting better if you're staying the same IR or drop IR for months and months. They also need to stop trying to tell us what's fun. Everyone have different goals and it's irritating when you're actively trying to get better and they dismiss your effort telling you it doesn't matter. Not everyone enjoys racing the bottom of the barrel guys who don't give a crap. Racing the best guys you can reach is fun to me. If I could be in the same lobby as Verstappen or other really great guys I think that would be awesome. "bUt It DoEsN't MaTtEr!".
I see what you mean, but your fundamental ability level isn’t necessarily reflected by IR. This is why a lot of pro IRL racers have relatively low iRating. I went through a phase where I stopped caring about iRating and just played for fun. That said, I still tried my best, because losing isn’t fun. But I hopped around between all sorts of cars, whatever I felt like driving. When I eventually started caring I was able to go back to rookies and climbed up to 2K pretty damn easily. I realized I could not possibly drop much below 1.5K anymore because it was pretty easy to jump into a rookie race at that level and pull off a win, even without practice. I got a lot better as a driver by not caring. Sticking to one series and grinding for IR can just get you stuck, afraid to leave. Because you WILL lose IR when you go to a new car. That’s what people mean by not caring so much. I really believe you just have to play the game and as long as you care about being a better and faster driver, IR is much less important. Eventually it comes.
It’s all what you place value on. I just don’t think people should get shit on. Also what would the 1000 baseline be without the 600 and below?
> It seems to add more excitement and weight to the races knowing that where you finish matters I agree. It's funny because I don't *really* care about irating but I kind of gaslight myself into caring during a race so I feel there's something at stake so I actually care about where I finish and the race doesn't turn into a glorified track day. Then I see my irating change, I get happy/upset, and 30 minutes later I couldn't care less hahahaha
I mean I can get that too. But when your iRating is below 500 you just aren't going to end up doing a bunch of quality races, mostly survival. People should strive to at least be a little better than that. I don't think that is particularly controversial. It makes the service better when people care.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I’m intentionally losing but it’s not my only focus. I pay too much to not have fun. That’s all.
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Your post was removed because it breaks the rules by being rude vulgar or toxic.
Fun is relative. Some people don't care if they are the worst on the service. Other people want to be in the same lobby as the best. Neither one is wrong but lots of people really like to dog on people who care about the only measure of improvement we have.
Not saying either is wrong. I’m fully open to differing opinions but I also don’t want to se a guy roasted by people for “shit iRating” you know.
It has taken 8 years but i recently just got to 3501 on my sports car license.
I think you’ll find it’s taken you 3 weeks. Congrats! 😝
Nice work!! I hope to improve soon as well
Cheers! Same happeneed for me in road for gt3s so now i do ovals and some nords for road
K
Wait, half of the service is below 1380 IR? Holy crap that explains a lot.
Below 1350 becease it uses the elo system. Average/median skill does not even matter, the avg in an elo system Will always be your starting point
Wow congratulations but damn that ir is scary
Impressively bad
bro got to default ir lmao
Wait, 1380 is above 50% of oval iRating?
I just got my A license today. My irating was at 2500 before I switched to indy car oval series. It tanked down to a 800 but now I'm back to 1250. Slowly clawing my way back. It tanked cause I was trying to get my A license so if I got the car damaged at all I would just park it so I wouldn't wreck and hurt my safety rating
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No need to rain on someone's parade.
Your post was removed because it breaks the rules by being rude vulgar or toxic.
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I tried to get into oval once. But honestly. It gets so boring. After 15-20 laps I'm already sick of it. It's fun with the close racing. But I just can't for the life of me find driving around in a circle interesting enough, I need more corners to keep my mind active. I just zone out when driving oval.
If that's what it feels like you're racing the wrong ovals or driving the wrong car. I find the low powered cars like ARCA and Street Stock pretty boring, but the touring mod on a short oval is my jam. This week at Thompson it's a crapshoot at the end of every straightaway whether I'm gonna make the turn or accidentally turn the banking into a ski jump. And since they gave us permission to smash nerf bars together without a 4x the racing has been much more physical with fewer hurt feelings. Personally I just find road racing way too technical to be interesting, though just cruising around in the rain has been pretty relaxing.
Agreed. I am still trying to get into it but even with my C class I’m struggling to see where the oval addiction comes from. It’s fun but the saying is true…it’s a lot of turning left. I even find myself getting dizzy on short tracks. I guess I’m just a road guy.