While waiting for my maiden online iRacing.com event at South Boston Speedway to commence, I took a cursory glance at the drivers I’d be competing against. There, at the top of the qualifying list, was Dale Earnhardt Jr. Yes…that Dale Earnhardt Jr.

It was one of those defining moments where you realize you aren’t playing games anymore.

For those who haven’t heard, David Kaemmer (of NASCAR Racing, IndyCar Racing, and GPL fame) and a talented group of programmers, artists, and laser-scanning wizards have completely reinvented the “sport” of PC sim racing with their fledgling iRacing.com online service. Forget everything you’ve ever learned about the digital manipulation of race car–shaped pixels on a computer screen. iRacing.com isn’t just an evolutionary new racing sim; it’s an entirely new brand of sport where anyone with the ambition, desire, and hardware can compete.

A pay service with monthly subscriptions ranging from $13 to $20, iRacing recently launched an invitation-only phased rollout for former beta testers, journalists, and opportunistic early adopters. The idea is to fine-tune the service without the burden of a heavy subscriber load. The plan seems to be working well, because I’ve yet to encounter a single hiccup after weeks of online competition.

iRacing employs a website interface where all tasks, from content download to full-on racing events, launch through your web browser. A basic subscription gets you a showroom stock Pontiac Solstice with three road-racing circuits and a tube-framed 1250cc Yamaha–powered Legends Ford ’34 Coupe to hustle you around four different oval venues.


No anti-lock brakes, automatic transmissions, or behind-the-car chase views here. You'll need a decent steering wheel, steady hands, and some real driving skill

You can purchase additional cars and tracks for a fee (currently, 20 circuits with 47 different layouts are on offer, as well as a Radical Sports Racer, Skip Barber Formula 2000, and Formula Mazda for the road circuits and Late Model, Silver Crown, and SK Modified oval racers). These are unnecessary expenses in your first few weeks with the sim, however, as you won’t be able to race them until you’ve secured the appropriate license upgrade for that series.

This is what separates iRacing from every PC racing simulation that’s preceded it. Although you can run as many solo offline testing laps as you wish (even with purchased cars and tracks you’re not yet licensed for), when you join an official online event, you can’t race above your own license class and must comply with a strict sporting code. Crashes, spins, and off-road mistakes will earn you demerits that can delay or sometimes even reverse your license progression. Drive like a moron and that rookie stripe will never come off.

And as you improve your safety rating to earn the privilege to drive some of the sim’s newer tracks and more challenging cars, you can rest comfortably in the knowledge that you’re competing on the world’s most advanced sim racing stage against thousands of like-minded racers (including real-world racing superstars like Earnhardt Jr., A.J. Almendinger, and Justin Wilson).

iRacing.com isn’t just revolutionary, it’s apocalyptic. By the time you read this column the service will have opened its servers to the general public and spawned a heretofore-unknown digital sport. A sport where real-world racers and sim enthusiasts race alongside one another in precisely replicated cars on astonishingly accurate laser-scanned tracks that model bumps, compressions, and curb placements down to the millimeter.

As for that South Boston race, I gave Earnhardt Jr. plenty of room when he came around to lap me near the end of the 40-lap event. Once I lose that red rookie stripe though, Dale, I smell rematch.

September 16, 2008