Software

iRacing

In the road section of iRacing is a big selection of the most famous cars and racetracks from the international motorsport available. The racetracks are scanned with lasers to achieve the highest accuracy possible inside of the simulation. Even cracks, curbs or other characteristics which are used to be reference points for braking or the turn in points are modeled with a high attention to detail. Also the temperature, air humidity and sun or shadow have an impact on the cars behavior. All those details combined are creating are very realistic environment for virtual motorsport.  Another benefit of iRacing is the highly detailed vehicle dynamics model which is the key to get the simulation as realistic as possible. The information to model car virtual race cars are extracted directly from the CAD model or through laserscans. The last method to gain the secret information is to disassemble the real cars and put them on a scale and measure them. Because of this attention to detail in iRacing are highly detailed race cars. The next step is to put different single weights  the associated inertia into the physical model to achieve the important parameters like the hight of the centre of gravity, the weight distribution and the inertia of the whole car as close as possible to the real car. Very important is the accuracy of the brake system. If the model is very accurate the feedback of the pedal force applied from the the driver in relation to the deceleration and the basic handling of the vehicle under braking is realistic.  Also the modeling of the aerodynamic behavior in relation to speed and body movement is displayed very accurate. This ist very important because the overall performance of the modern race cars is very dependent from the aerodynamic performance. It is also a very powerful tool to change der handling of the car with the different setups. In the end the exact numbers in terms of suspension kinematics as well as the damper characteristics have to work with the tyre model in a very good way to be as realistic as possible. In those chases iRacing is developing their system  which are the benchmark at the moment even further and improve them with every update.  

iRacing distances itself from other simulations like Assetto Corsa through the gameplay which focusses totally on the online competition against other real drivers around the world. In this case the drivers gain and loose Safety Rating and iRating Points depending on their driving discipline and the driving skills and results. With this System is ensured that the level of skill from the drivers in one race slot is pretty equal and everybody has a real chance to get a good result. Mistakes like an Off-Track, loose of control or a contact with other cars will be penalized with incident points. Those will have an impact on the Safety Rating. Incidents like cutting a corner are penalized immediately with a slow down period. If a driver exceeds a incident point limit in a race he gets penalized or disqualified depending on the rules of the race. If a driver acts extremely unsportsmanlike he can be reported to iRacing. The stuff of iRacing will have a look on the situation and will penalize the driver if necessary. This system leads overall to pretty fair racing compared with other simulations. Also the damage model works very well and leads to fair and realistic racing. 

The only real negative point are the high costs due to the subscription with the extra cars and tracks to buy compared to other simulations.