It is no secret that iRacing is very expensive, with the majority of cars and tracks costing a lot to purchase. Our own @Emily Jones has put together a guide that can help you get the best experience possible out of the service.
With the subscription fee required to even access iRacing costing a great deal, many can be quite tentative when it comes to picking up content that is not part of the base package. With the majority of cars individually costing $11.95 and tracks costing $14.95, buyer's remorse can be very prevalent if the content itself does not get used often.
One must be calculated and meticulous in choosing the content they do on iRacing. Therefore we enlisted the expertise of our resident pro iRacer Emily Jones to put together a guide, so all kinds of players can get the best tailored experience on the service as possible.
iRacing 2025 Buyers Guide
After doing official races and moving up from Rookie class in any of the five licences (Sports Car, Formula Car, Oval, Dirt Road and Dirt Oval), it may be quite easy to just look at a car or track you like without realising that participation is not always great.With all content costing the same, some pieces of content are used more by the community than others. Obscure national level tracks like Knockhill and Cadwell Park never get the same signup rates as internationally renowned venues like Spa and Monza. Same with cars as for example, the Renault Clio Cup series rarely gets more than three participants.
For a quick and easy way to garner how popular a piece of content is, look at the 'Series Results' tab and see how many participants there have been at certain times. You can even look back on previous weeks to see how well that a certain track on that series schedule has done.
But if there is a piece of content you want to get regardless of how utilised it is in officials, there is a website that can help you out. whenrace.com provides insight on which timeslots for typically less-participated series will guarantee a strong turnout. Plus there are links to the communities for these series in order to coordinate further with other people who use this content.
Of course, there will be those not interested in officials and either exclusively compete in organised hosted leagues or even just AI racing. In the case of the latter, it is worth checking iRacing's official page listing which content can be ran within the AI Single Player mode.
There are also means to get yourselves heavily discounted subscriptions. Motorsport UK for example, with their esports membership for the cost equivalent of £25, not only can you get a 12-month membership to iRacing - which would typically cost $110 - but also the FIA F4 car, one of the most popular cars on the service.
Best Cars For Each iRacing Road Racing Class
Sports Car
For those looking to get the best experience possible in Sports Car, the brand new BMW M2 CSR at rookie level will perfectly prepare you for the demands of the higher classes. Then from Class D, GT4 cars gets strong usage in both the Fixed series and the Class C Sports Car Challenge series that it shares with LMP3.GT3 is the next logical step, and the Ferrari 296 GT3 can be raced from Class D before the other GT3s (if you do not count the Rain Master series) in the spec Ferrari GT3 Challenge series. You can also do Special Events and race the GT Endurance Series from Class C with these cars, then Class B GT3 sprint series and even going into the IMSA set of series it shares with prototypes.
Formula Car
For Formula Car, starting either in Formula Vee or FF1600 at rookie level, the next step up is F4 with a bunch of series at Class D. At Class C, both F3 and Super Formula Lights are the best option, with the latter being rain compatible. Then at Class B, a few series with longer races in the form of IndyCar and Super Formula.F1 is at Class A, but those series rarely get huge signups, with the Grand Prix Tour series accessible from Class C being more populated, due to them falling on the same week as F1 Grand Prix with full distance races.
Which pieces of content would you recommend to a fellow iRacing player? Let us know in the comments below, and join the discussion in our iRacing forum!
