For new iracers, irating seems like objective and definite measure of skill, but it's not that simple. Join the Discord! / discord #iracing #nascar #arca #simracing #simulation
A good reminder to all of us, thanks Justin! Your comments on the low level of variance resonated with me about why I tend to default to running ARCA. Less likely to get crashed because of no cautions and dealing with restart heros over and over. I could and have run other series and had a blast racing for 10th, but that's much less likely than racing with the guys we know and love who keep showing up in the ARCA top 5. Personally, I try not to even have 'becoming a better driver' as my main goal. My main goal on iRacing is to have fun. And that getting hung up on that little number that shows up next to your name can be a great way to take the fun out of it.
It's why I really like running all 4 disciplines for my RUclips channel - oval, road, dirt oval, and dirt road. There's always something to learn from each. Diversity of running many different series absolutely help to make you a better driver rather than specializing in a series. I also try to run at all oval tracks and race almost all oval series... and my iRating graph look like a small slope of improving iRating rather than in big spikes.
Great video! I am constantly driving A B and C class as well as ARCA and 87's, and it has definitely made me a more skilled driver although my IR doesn't really reflect that. The one thing that I would add is that whatever series you are driving- to focus on limiting your own mistakes. Most of my bad results in races are because I made a mistake, and analyzing those and correcting them is very important. Of course this tip not only helps IR but helps your general skill as well.
the problem is 100% in the algorithm they use to figure who gets how much ir and it is way top heavy. if Car #1 in session (whom iracing has figured would finish first) does they will gain IR if say car #20 (Whom again iracing figures should finish in 20th finishes say 12th they will loose IR) how they hell if you are figured to finish 1st and do you gain yet if you are figured to finish 20th and beat out 8 other drivers to finish higher shoudl you loose IR. Being Nice and letting people by will cause you to loose IR being aggressive , Blocking, Dive bombing, pushing people out of your way will get you much more victories and IR it took me 3 years to figure this out so now I have to re train how I race as I was Never aggressive and always gave more then I take it will be hard to break that habit
Great perspective... I feel that you added the "practice 1000s of laps before racing " just for me lol... I'm getting better at not doing that this season for sure amd getting more Monday races in!
watching this now. I was safety rating scared when i first got on here, got my A finally, now since ive actually started qualing and racing ive become WAY much better and wish i woudlve just raced and tried to win because ultimately you learn more being door to door then anywhere else. Great video
Very well said. There have been weeks where I could have probably farmed irating at a specific car/track combo that I was for some reason pretty good at. But all that would've done is throw me in higher splits that I have no business being in when I go to race something else. I try not to care about that number, but as you said, it's human nature to care, at least a little. I know if I'm in a practice session and some guy with a 400 irating comes flying up behind me, even though I know it's because I'm on a 25 lap run and they probably just pulled out of the pits, I still have a hard time mentally with the idea that they're going to pass me. I know I shouldn't be that way.
This is 100% why I stick to ARCA. I've always looked at pit strategy and restarts as antithetical to a skill gap - a little bit of luck in either direction can cause a good driver to finish poorly or a lesser skilled driver to finish well. Caution-less series tend to display driver skill more truly than series with cautions. It is SUPER important to learn pit strategy if you plan on running leagues though. Now that I'm running leagues more often, I'll probably start running some A, B and C Fixed more often.
Words to live by!! You won't get better as a driver unless you try them and learn from your mistakes or watching others make mistakes. Hands on experience!!
There's really only 2 benefits to higher irating. You're more likely to be in a higher split with less people making "rookie" mistakes and if you're going for rtp
finish around or higher than your Car Number mostly gives you +iRating stay away from those lap 1 wreckers and finish with below your average incident counts or at best 0x you gain Safetyrating.
Another way to get that experience and not affect your irating is by doing league races. I’ve found that to be good for trying new cars or disciplines to see if you like them or not and if you do, how to race them and what you need to improve. Not just oval but road or dirt oval as well.
9 year iRacer here, who has had the pleasure of racing with Justin a handful of times. He is MOSTLY spot-on in his analysis. With my current 57xx oval and 61xx road, I do have to be picky about cars and tracks to race, because honestly, no matter how much fun a car or track is, dying and losing 125 iR is never fun. That said, I LOVE my alt account, because it allows me to race content I *don't* enjoy, but am perfectly comfortable trying and struggling to do something different. It also allows me to race more with friends who might not be into the same stuff I am, or have a wide variation of iR. There are points on both sides of the coin, but well done on the whole!
Yeah my alt accounts own superspeedways and Michigan. Because getting 2nd in a Daytona race and getting 25 IR for it is like “dang ok…” and crashing out is a cool -150. But honestly I respect the people who will race anything with no regard to their rating. I just can’t have fun on certain tracks without being on an alt like you said
@@DJYeeJay 100%. My biggest problem is my car choice. My premier car is the Solstice, which I LOVE, and won an overall title in, so it's not like I grind, but when you end up in a field of 4, and they're all below 1500, a wreck and 4th place is guaranteed -175, which takes WEEKS to make up 10 at a time ): it's definitely a flawed system.
The only thing that should really matter is winning championship and divisions. Too bad there wasn't some overall leaderboard ranking system that weighted racers iRacing titles by how many they've earned. Because they do give out a lot, but the ones who keep picking them are the ones who should be revered and should be the goal of all iRacers to obtain.
Very few of the top drivers go for season points, I’d say the only one that gets real “prestige” is NIS. Honestly these days there’s so many aliens that just surface when it’s time for road to pro.
Why does that matter. Iracing titles are about so runs the highest sofs which in certain series is random and unless you guess which time slot is the sof slot you not going to get it. Also the more races you run the better your chances are. So it caters to those who no life iracing.
I started working overnight and the races in the middle of the night are much cleaner I have noticed my rating being more consistently going up overnight without being wrecked out in ridiculously stupid crashes every other race
Okay well I agree I got kicked from a league because my iRating was to low and I said to them to let me race (btw I clean house against them) and they continued to deny me so idk what to tell them..
I feel we would be in a better place separating open wheel from the "cars"... Indy from Nascar in the ovals, F3s from the GTs. I got a lot of iRating out of nowhere in Indy and I'm now too slow in Arca and Nascars.
Lmao Alt accounts. Had no idea where you were going with the money thing, but it’s sooo damn true. Lost 2 weeks worth of grinding so far at Dega, but it’s fun and momma didn’t raise no b**** . So far from 7080 down to 6400 something, (with like 8 wins in there 5 in a row) and I’m sure I’ll be down to like 5600 by the end of the week. But if I deserve it, 7k will come back so 🤷🏻♂️. Good vids man, I dig them.
So I'm pretty new to iRacing and I have one question. I pretty much focus on asphalt short oval racing (been a member for 2 weeks and just graduated to C Class), and to me, SR is *WAY* more important than iRating. I attach little to no importance to iRating. Am I wrong..? Should I care at all? It feels weird reading and hearing all kinds of discussions about improving iRating, making top splits etc. and being seemingly the only person who doesn't care haha I want to make it clear that ever since making out of Rookie Class, I try as hard as possible to get the best result I can, but at the end of the day, the Big Number isn't what I look at to tell if I had a good time or not.
When you’ve gotten enough races and experience SR becomes something you don’t even think about. You’ll be A class without even ever worrying about it. You shouldn’t care about irating itself per say, but a lot times the goals of self improvement get lumped into that number for better or worse. Racing to have fun is always the best approach though it’s a video game idc what anyone says
Until your ready to try out or join a team, irating is irrelevant. But if you're looking to get into that kind of stuff and you have a 1k rating, you're going to be judged as a bad driver before you even get to try out. I was going trying out for a team a few months ago when I had a 1.4k rating but they said to ask again when I hit 2k but they would let me run a private session with them and I walked all over their drivers. TLDR; irating isnt always a reflection of skill. Luck and other drivers also contribute to it as well.
As long as you are staying well above 1000 irating you shouldn’t worry about it at first, but definitely don’t worry about SR or promotions for awhile, especially if you already at C, I’ve been on for over a year and getting promoted to A next month, only run a few B here and there. But if you focus on SR a lot you can fall into the same trap I got into and fall below 1000 iracing then have to fight your way out of the bottom split with some really shady folks. But right now I’m back to sitting at around 1,350 and racing against decently clean drivers, improving speed at every track, and it’s only been my mistakes holding me back. But I’m sure once I minimize those mistakes 2k plus will come easy. Word of advice, don’t speed on pit road looking at the black box and speed coming back in trying to serve the penalty. But yeah just focus on racing better don’t try to force the promotions or SR constantly learn, C level racing is a great place to learn with a decent irating.
I led every lap but the last 5 in the Texas Arca race fianlly figured out how to run it caught a lap car was getting by him but avoiding to run into him we head into turn 3 and this guy who had spun the entire back straight away immediately merges back onto track not only right in front of me and P2 he fucking mats the gas so the slight movement to the right to stay out of his way just all goes out the window since his car just darts right after matting it and then I go to report the dude and iracing says it’s not properly edited because I didn’t click the mic button I really hope P2 reported him he was super mad in chat I can’t talk voice chat of 3 months ends August 31st but I can’t blame him for the words he used complete fucking idiot man
If you’re correlating your self worth with an ELO system in a digital racing game. Just remember, you’re a loser, but the people with higher numbers are even bigger losers. So enjoy your low number, you have a whole life to live bro.
Игры
A good reminder to all of us, thanks Justin! Your comments on the low level of variance resonated with me about why I tend to default to running ARCA. Less likely to get crashed because of no cautions and dealing with restart heros over and over. I could and have run other series and had a blast racing for 10th, but that's much less likely than racing with the guys we know and love who keep showing up in the ARCA top 5.
Personally, I try not to even have 'becoming a better driver' as my main goal. My main goal on iRacing is to have fun. And that getting hung up on that little number that shows up next to your name can be a great way to take the fun out of it.
My goal this season has been make good content and win the arca championship haha, I guess the both count as fun in a way.
It's why I really like running all 4 disciplines for my RUclips channel - oval, road, dirt oval, and dirt road. There's always something to learn from each. Diversity of running many different series absolutely help to make you a better driver rather than specializing in a series. I also try to run at all oval tracks and race almost all oval series... and my iRating graph look like a small slope of improving iRating rather than in big spikes.
Yep that’s definitely the fast track for improvement! Makes for good content too
Great video! I am constantly driving A B and C class as well as ARCA and 87's, and it has definitely made me a more skilled driver although my IR doesn't really reflect that. The one thing that I would add is that whatever series you are driving- to focus on limiting your own mistakes. Most of my bad results in races are because I made a mistake, and analyzing those and correcting them is very important. Of course this tip not only helps IR but helps your general skill as well.
Yes, watching replays after the race is vital skill, I was gonna make a video around that at some point!
the problem is 100% in the algorithm they use to figure who gets how much ir and it is way top heavy. if Car #1 in session (whom iracing has figured would finish first) does they will gain IR if say car #20 (Whom again iracing figures should finish in 20th finishes say 12th they will loose IR) how they hell if you are figured to finish 1st and do you gain yet if you are figured to finish 20th and beat out 8 other drivers to finish higher shoudl you loose IR. Being Nice and letting people by will cause you to loose IR being aggressive , Blocking, Dive bombing, pushing people out of your way will get you much more victories and IR it took me 3 years to figure this out so now I have to re train how I race as I was Never aggressive and always gave more then I take it will be hard to break that habit
Great perspective... I feel that you added the "practice 1000s of laps before racing " just for me lol... I'm getting better at not doing that this season for sure amd getting more Monday races in!
nahhhhh unless? ;)
Being new to Iracing I haven't driven any of the content available so every car, track amd race is my first every week.
Keep it up man. Your channel helps me out a lot...
watching this now. I was safety rating scared when i first got on here, got my A finally, now since ive actually started qualing and racing ive become WAY much better and wish i woudlve just raced and tried to win because ultimately you learn more being door to door then anywhere else. Great video
Very well said. There have been weeks where I could have probably farmed irating at a specific car/track combo that I was for some reason pretty good at. But all that would've done is throw me in higher splits that I have no business being in when I go to race something else.
I try not to care about that number, but as you said, it's human nature to care, at least a little. I know if I'm in a practice session and some guy with a 400 irating comes flying up behind me, even though I know it's because I'm on a 25 lap run and they probably just pulled out of the pits, I still have a hard time mentally with the idea that they're going to pass me. I know I shouldn't be that way.
This is 100% why I stick to ARCA. I've always looked at pit strategy and restarts as antithetical to a skill gap - a little bit of luck in either direction can cause a good driver to finish poorly or a lesser skilled driver to finish well. Caution-less series tend to display driver skill more truly than series with cautions. It is SUPER important to learn pit strategy if you plan on running leagues though. Now that I'm running leagues more often, I'll probably start running some A, B and C Fixed more often.
Words to live by!! You won't get better as a driver unless you try them and learn from your mistakes or watching others make mistakes. Hands on experience!!
There's really only 2 benefits to higher irating. You're more likely to be in a higher split with less people making "rookie" mistakes and if you're going for rtp
finish around or higher than your Car Number mostly gives you +iRating
stay away from those lap 1 wreckers and finish with below your average incident counts or at best 0x you gain Safetyrating.
Another way to get that experience and not affect your irating is by doing league races. I’ve found that to be good for trying new cars or disciplines to see if you like them or not and if you do, how to race them and what you need to improve.
Not just oval but road or dirt oval as well.
You're right! I was actually thinking of that as this video was uploading and decided to just let it be haha
Try out idk players iracing league
AI racing can also be great for that, for people that don't want to join a league or can't find one suitable for themselves.
9 year iRacer here, who has had the pleasure of racing with Justin a handful of times. He is MOSTLY spot-on in his analysis. With my current 57xx oval and 61xx road, I do have to be picky about cars and tracks to race, because honestly, no matter how much fun a car or track is, dying and losing 125 iR is never fun. That said, I LOVE my alt account, because it allows me to race content I *don't* enjoy, but am perfectly comfortable trying and struggling to do something different. It also allows me to race more with friends who might not be into the same stuff I am, or have a wide variation of iR. There are points on both sides of the coin, but well done on the whole!
Yeah my alt accounts own superspeedways and Michigan. Because getting 2nd in a Daytona race and getting 25 IR for it is like “dang ok…” and crashing out is a cool -150. But honestly I respect the people who will race anything with no regard to their rating. I just can’t have fun on certain tracks without being on an alt like you said
@@DJYeeJay 100%. My biggest problem is my car choice. My premier car is the Solstice, which I LOVE, and won an overall title in, so it's not like I grind, but when you end up in a field of 4, and they're all below 1500, a wreck and 4th place is guaranteed -175, which takes WEEKS to make up 10 at a time ): it's definitely a flawed system.
I get what your saying though I just got my B license and racing Arca at Bristol cost me 500 IR easy.
The only thing that should really matter is winning championship and divisions. Too bad there wasn't some overall leaderboard ranking system that weighted racers iRacing titles by how many they've earned. Because they do give out a lot, but the ones who keep picking them are the ones who should be revered and should be the goal of all iRacers to obtain.
Very few of the top drivers go for season points, I’d say the only one that gets real “prestige” is NIS. Honestly these days there’s so many aliens that just surface when it’s time for road to pro.
Why does that matter. Iracing titles are about so runs the highest sofs which in certain series is random and unless you guess which time slot is the sof slot you not going to get it. Also the more races you run the better your chances are. So it caters to those who no life iracing.
I started working overnight and the races in the middle of the night are much cleaner I have noticed my rating being more consistently going up overnight without being wrecked out in ridiculously stupid crashes every other race
Okay well I agree I got kicked from a league because my iRating was to low and I said to them to let me race (btw I clean house against them) and they continued to deny me so idk what to tell them..
I've only been on for a little over 2 months, but have learned a ton from your videos. SN- so that's why you mainly run ARCA
The main reason I race arca is because of how the car feels compared to the other NASCARs and no cautions makes the races mroe fun usually for me.
No iPacing. Plus.
I feel we would be in a better place separating open wheel from the "cars"... Indy from Nascar in the ovals, F3s from the GTs. I got a lot of iRating out of nowhere in Indy and I'm now too slow in Arca and Nascars.
I want to get better and get my A license but I want to enjoy my self.
About gaining IRating from one car and track for one week I drove Indycar at Daytona for a whole week won 7 races and gained 800 IRating
I want to run as many series a possiable.
Lmao Alt accounts. Had no idea where you were going with the money thing, but it’s sooo damn true. Lost 2 weeks worth of grinding so far at Dega, but it’s fun and momma didn’t raise no b**** . So far from 7080 down to 6400 something, (with like 8 wins in there 5 in a row) and I’m sure I’ll be down to like 5600 by the end of the week. But if I deserve it, 7k will come back so 🤷🏻♂️. Good vids man, I dig them.
I quickly found out the W’s are worth more than a big number being slightly bigger lol
When you say slightly you ain’t kidding. Hell yeah +13 for that dub! But a dub is a dub. Got one at .000 the other day.
So I'm pretty new to iRacing and I have one question. I pretty much focus on asphalt short oval racing (been a member for 2 weeks and just graduated to C Class), and to me, SR is *WAY* more important than iRating. I attach little to no importance to iRating. Am I wrong..? Should I care at all? It feels weird reading and hearing all kinds of discussions about improving iRating, making top splits etc. and being seemingly the only person who doesn't care haha
I want to make it clear that ever since making out of Rookie Class, I try as hard as possible to get the best result I can, but at the end of the day, the Big Number isn't what I look at to tell if I had a good time or not.
When you’ve gotten enough races and experience SR becomes something you don’t even think about. You’ll be A class without even ever worrying about it. You shouldn’t care about irating itself per say, but a lot times the goals of self improvement get lumped into that number for better or worse. Racing to have fun is always the best approach though it’s a video game idc what anyone says
Until your ready to try out or join a team, irating is irrelevant. But if you're looking to get into that kind of stuff and you have a 1k rating, you're going to be judged as a bad driver before you even get to try out.
I was going trying out for a team a few months ago when I had a 1.4k rating but they said to ask again when I hit 2k but they would let me run a private session with them and I walked all over their drivers. TLDR; irating isnt always a reflection of skill. Luck and other drivers also contribute to it as well.
As long as you are staying well above 1000 irating you shouldn’t worry about it at first, but definitely don’t worry about SR or promotions for awhile, especially if you already at C, I’ve been on for over a year and getting promoted to A next month, only run a few B here and there. But if you focus on SR a lot you can fall into the same trap I got into and fall below 1000 iracing then have to fight your way out of the bottom split with some really shady folks. But right now I’m back to sitting at around 1,350 and racing against decently clean drivers, improving speed at every track, and it’s only been my mistakes holding me back. But I’m sure once I minimize those mistakes 2k plus will come easy. Word of advice, don’t speed on pit road looking at the black box and speed coming back in trying to serve the penalty. But yeah just focus on racing better don’t try to force the promotions or SR constantly learn, C level racing is a great place to learn with a decent irating.
i agree
:)
Is that orange chicken on the side of your ride? Lol hell ya
Yep! Hahaha
The first step is to let go of the ego. The ego will do nothing good for you in any area of your life. Be like Elsa and let it go
What if they just removed the ability to see your own iRating?
Driving in the back of the pack not crashing will get your ir up but doesn't make you a better driver
I led every lap but the last 5 in the Texas Arca race fianlly figured out how to run it caught a lap car was getting by him but avoiding to run into him we head into turn 3 and this guy who had spun the entire back straight away immediately merges back onto track not only right in front of me and P2 he fucking mats the gas so the slight movement to the right to stay out of his way just all goes out the window since his car just darts right after matting it and then I go to report the dude and iracing says it’s not properly edited because I didn’t click the mic button I really hope P2 reported him he was super mad in chat I can’t talk voice chat of 3 months ends August 31st but I can’t blame him for the words he used complete fucking idiot man
Sorry to hear about that mean I hope you get one!
6:45 i dont practice
If you’re correlating your self worth with an ELO system in a digital racing game. Just remember, you’re a loser, but the people with higher numbers are even bigger losers. So enjoy your low number, you have a whole life to live bro.