Why I QUIT Iracing after reaching 3000 Irating

I only play Road classes, but I can kinda relate. Being over 6k is also somewhat of a challenge mentally for me. At this point, you are practically top 3 in the grid, so iRacing expects you to be ~top 5-6 at worst to not lose anything. Which is not an unrealistic expectation, because raw pace dictates a good chance for this, but this also means that you simply cannot make a mistake in any of your races, cause your rating gets screwed. I'm still not over my anxiety for losing rating after a race, while it shouldn't mean much - it's just a number that is calibrated based on the law of large numbers (so your rating trends to your actual rating over time).

Bro I have no clue what you're talking about, you said you did the rookie street stocks for 2 years. Either you were a dependent or a student or you just didn't prioritize iracing. You can't expect to spend 2 years driving the same car and then all of a sudden buying all the cars and tracks and then having to struggle with alone not to mention people get better the higher you go up that's kind of how skill based match making works.

It sounds like you just gave up because you took the most unorthodox method of all time to enter into iracing.

git good

comparing a hobby as niche as sim racing to apex, not really the best comparison but it still gets the point across if a little light on how it hits. it's like if I compared mario kart to dark souls, both can be great fun with friends but one has a hell of a lot more players than the other, and in dark souls I can't win all my PVP encounters.
I learn better from a solid ass whopping so that's why I keep coming back to iRacing as it's the only place I can get a somewhat decent race going, try getting clean and close racing on assetto or RF2, nothing.

I made it to 3k road, once… 😅

I know this feeling you're talking about, but I think over the years I learned how to tame it!
I raced NR2003 when it was in it's most popular times and after a few years, I also put my wheel aside because I was #1 tired of practice, practice and more practice and #2 very few wins. Me being a lot younger than now - if I raced NR2003 in it's heyday you can see i'm not a young guy anymore - I had some trouble dealing with all the losing! It's indeed tough!
Fast forward, this year, I finally subscribed iRacing. I never liked the monthly/ payed content, but I wanted to race ovals again against real people.

In roughly 2 months, I have 2800 irating and all the races I do, it's split #1 and people at the front often go away into the distance.
So, I know that I'll hardly win a race in the near times - unless I go to a rookies race and just happen to join a group with little experience - but I'm ok with it!

This week as Chicagoland, my 1rst races I was 0.3 sec slower in the average race lap time, then 0.2 and last night only 0.1 slower than the race winner. That made me happy. This old guy is still learning tricks and somehow still going fastish XD
So, yeah, there are always positive things to take from the races.

If im able to finish a race with 0x incidents, I consider that a win...

I’m slow even in the bottom splits.

I've gotten lucky enough to where I can beat the large majority of drivers on iracing even though I'm only at 4.4k and wreck so rarely I have a 4.99 safety rating, almost every race I do is top split and I finish top 3 in most races, I just don't do a lot of official races, most of the racing I do is in leagues and that's where I've improved the most, because leagues allow you to take risks without the consequences of your license being demoted for being in a wreck you didn't cause and you get to be familiar with people in the community.

The best way to play iracing and get better truly is to treat it like a simulator rather than a game of trying to get the highest irating and the highest license, that will come with your skill level improving.

Try learning tracks before you just hop on and grind officials, see where you can push the limits and get comfortable with the car/track combo, I know there are people who make fun of practicing but there's a reason they don't win, practice makes perfect and there's no denying it, also try to learn from people better than you rather than complaining about having to compete against them, but above all just don't take it too serious, nothing ruins a race more than that one guy who took his anger a little too far over voice chat lol.

I'm having a similar issue with Gran Turismo 7 - and GT Sport earlier...

With each race you should change your expectations and focus on getting better. Last night i was going to be happy with a top 10.

i have won like 2 nascar officials since i got to top split regularly and it’s been like half a year but i like running in the front of the pack and learning from pros i don’t have a problem with me not winning

I mean compared to a 1v1 game like chess, you can consider "being in the top half of the field" as "winning". Basically anything where your iR still goes up.

most will race 30 races in a week, not a year, youve hardly ran any miles really lol

I'm at like 1800, usually 3rd or lower split and still don't win lol

In Dirt rally, it increased my difficulty to elite and it seemed insurmountable. I went from winning by 1 minute, to 30 seconds, to placing below 15th. It hurt at first, but i realized that i just love the driving. Its just exhilarating to me. So i kept playing. And lo and behold….. i am now winning against elite by 10-20 seconds. Obviously this isnt that hard of a level, but it was for me. Winning isnt everything. You need to measure your RELATIVE progress. If you are going from 15th to 18th, then you need to figure out your mistakes. If you go from 15th to 13th, thats an improvement and to me is still rewarding.

“Want to win? Fall in love with losing”

clickbait title. your still Iracing

Simracing or just racing is a competitive environment. Even if you start racing for fun, at the end you will be intoxicated by competition and irating. Irating is basically for matchmaking, but for most of us as well evidence for our performance. Every race I tell myself „do it and have fun“. It is really hard just to enjoy racing. As soon as I see the results sheet I am in the mood of „next time I have to do better“…

One stat I like to compare no matter what I'm racing is my average points. I may get 100 points a race in lower divisions, then make it higher up and still get 100 points. In my mind I'm still running at my level, it's just that there are a lot more drivers at or above my level than there were before. With the higher participation even in the lower levels I was worried I was getting worse, but when comparing points to prior years when I won more in the same class of racing I see that my points have actually gone up while my wins and top 5s go down which means the competition is just getting better

Those 7 wins must of been sweet though

The participation trophy genre will never understand.

So, its a skill issue? Why not just become better?

If you care so much about winning, then just take it easy for a bit of a time, lose your iRating, and then you come back into a split where you are at the top again.

For me, it's hard to race seriously when people don't even practice the basic racing line, so when you are racing side by side against them in road racing and they aren't taking the racing line, you can accidentally turn into them because you are expecting them to do X but they choose not to do so. . .

Edit: By the way, I completely agree. The goals I set are not "winning" a race. Even though I generally start top 3 every race, my goal isn't my position, it's my pace, consistency, and lap times. If you focus on these things you will have fun and enjoy playing the game. If you focus only on winning, you're gonna be in for a bad time. The only reason why some F1 drivers win all the time, for example, is because they simply have a better car which has been proven throughout history. There is none of that in iRacing, it's just you and skill alone. Can't win them all.

Why does winning matter so much? I race because I enjoy driving and racing- who cares if it's for 1st or 12th? Probably best to chill out and enjoy it rather than getting your ego all out of shape because you're not always the best. It's only a game, it doesn't define you.

Why would you pay for 2 accounts for 4 years then say you couldn’t afford content? With that extra $480 you could have owned all the nascar content.

Im at 3.9K Keeping up with thr 8k guys is a win for me, considering I only get to race 1 week a month due to work, and no matter how good we think we are. Always someone better in the world.

I have just been iracing for a little under 2 months now.
My Oval rating is 3.66 /1333 I won a Kansas race in the trucks.
Then Darlington came. I joined a open 80 lap truck race I thought was a 40 lap fixed race and qualified 6th, got spun on lap 2 the recovered to run top 8 for 65 laps until I had enough being bullyed by guys who act like your not even there and if I dont give up the place we get wrecked.
I lost my temper, lost focus and killed the truck.
The freaking top guys ran 29.3-30.5's almost their entire 80 run.
No cautions BTW.
So I ask is that good to hold on to a top ten in the B licence open setup race with a fixed set up?
I still dont know how to get around Darlington I only just tryed the track 4 days before I was ok to race it.

I keep getting shunted in rookies bottom split.

I just bought iRacing because it has best AIs vs. all other sims. I bought all GT3 cars and lots of road tracks that mimics ACC.

I dont even bother racing online. I did not know iracers treat the game like a career but props to you guys!

I used to race in a league and it was serious time dedication. Tons of people all into want to win. I simply want to race and follow cars. In many human race, i just intentionally follow them, overtake them and slow down to yield and then follow them again because i dont care about winning but just racing door to door all days 😂

Now that iracing AIs are super intelligent, i can pop in and race anytime in any car/track combo.

I took a step back from iRacing for a week because I felt I was taking it to serious. When I came back 4 races, found myself with another win. I been blessed to get 11 wins after 5 months on there server and never took them for granted. I always soak it al in. I have if I'm not mistaken won some top split races too. Right now I'm at 2017 on irating.

Even at 2500 I’m almost always in the top split. You start a new series and have no idea how drive that car and you are still going against the best drivers.

i quit for 9 months worst thing i ever could have done, forgot all skill no joke. I used to run up front nose to bumper , mistakes happen people wreck , i was getting reported because i would mess up or get netcoded like when your car slames into bottom line when your actual moving up the track in realtime. So don't get discouraged and quit maybe just back off for a bit run back take it easy . kinda like a mind reset . Iraceing truely takes a toll on the mind, i felt like a bad driver for ruining others races but i now realize it happens to everyone, no matter how bad people bash you. keep your head up

Winning has never been everything. I'm in Div 5 rn and I'm just happy to get top five or podium. It's fun and I expect to climb higher just to race cooler cars. I'm here to improve my skills and maybe win a few races. Only maybe. lol

i’m currently sitting in the low 2k irating and i actually like when i get placed in the top split despite my chances of winning being near zero. i don’t care that i’m car number 24 in a 26 car field. i look at it as i’m racing against guys who are much better than i am and i can learn more from what they’re doing differently compared to me

looking at the stats iracing posts about demographics, 3k actually is top 1-5% depending on the series and discipline.

My friend likes to brag that there irating is better, but they never play so

It's not a racing game. It's a points game based on racing. The ONLY way to get top split iRating is to gain points over time. Wins DO NOT MATTER. Only your points matter.

Understand that earning 40pts in 6th place is much more efficient than risking your 40pts for another 6pts and fighting for 5th. Most of the time wrecking out.

STEADY GAINS OVER TIME. That's how the top racers got their rating. They earned it 20pts at a time, over years.

IRating is a good measure of Time+skill combined. It shows a good understanding of how racing for points works.

In 5 years the top guys will have 20k IRating, but that doesn't mean they are 2x as good as now. It just means on average, the gain more raring than they lose. It adds up.

At some point the top players will be unreachable by even pro drivers who start iracing because the possible points gained over time will take at least a year or two to gain.

Well said!

I'm currently stuck in oval 3k purgatory. I win no more. Im pretty happy with top 10s now.

Well Ratings don't mean a thing. If you don't enjoy your racing and expect too much, you are never going to do good. Who cares if you win or not, just compete against the drivers in the race and get the best position you can. if everyone drives a clean race, it should be a fun race no matter where you place in the end. Some tracks you may be better than others.
You should be proud to have such a high IRating, like I said, if you enjoy the racing, who cares what position you get at the finish line.

Good. The game is simple and patjedid

Right now I am struggling with just bad drivers. I can’t get through two laps without someone wrecking. My oval irating went way down. It’s the most frustrating thing.

I quit iRacing because of the shear frustration of it. It's a wreck-fest plain and simple. Last season I had an A license with a decent SR and IR. Now I'm a B and will probably get dropped to a C next season. I'm not saying I don't make mistakes but I go out of my way to give room to other drivers, (even if it cost me the race) why can't others do the same? You can't finish a race in any kind of good standing if you're wrecked, period. The last race I was in made 10 straight races I got wrecked. 10 straight! Others will disagree and blame me saying I'm being unreasonable (it's racing after all, accidents happen) and that's fine. But there's also something called "Racing Etiquette" and people need to learn that and stop being so damn selfish. For me it's just not worth it anymore.

I always say this, if you have the ability (chance and luck) to win, win. But if you can’t, survive and hope to finish well. Top 5s and top 10s are still great to have along with wins and championships

Man there was never a time where i could fight for wins on my journey to 5k road.i eventually just went from losing in second split to losing harder in top split. I have like a <3% win rate and most of those wins were on off-weeks where everyone else was like 2k IR

Avoiding the big one or every crash is basically winning because Iracing is a game where anyone can play so you know the big one especially on big tracks or where cars are all grouped together will happen because it doesn't just happen in Iracing it happens in almost every racing game. So avoiding the big one is already a win in a way.

Currently (sorta) going through this at 3.7k road... I'm okay with finishing 8th but, it's too damn stressful to run officials with zero mistakes in top split. I haven't done an official in a few months now, only been running endurances with my friends which has been way more fun