Column: Are iRacing Adding The Wrong Road Tracks?

iRacing Cadwell Park.jpg
Image: iRacing.com
With the next build of iRacing on the horizon, Luca has been giving some thought to the tracks that are set to be added onto the platform in the future - and if they are used properly.

It is no secret that many people are not interested in iRacing due to its monetisation model, where one has to buy a subscription and then individually buy a large majority of the cars and tracks. Even I as someone who does enjoy iRacing can concede, the money one must put into it is considerable - which is why I meticulously plan what content I am picking up ahead of each season.

Whenever the schedule for the upcoming season is released, I look for which tracks are the most prevalently featured among the ones I am interested in. A good example of a track I have been wanting to pick up but have not yet is Zolder, because for the past few seasons it has only featured in the Porsche Cup series. As of next season though, it is apparently set to feature on both the Pilot Challenge and IMSA schedules.


With the news that iRacing are adding Cadwell Park in the next build, as much as I am excited to race it, I do wonder if enough people will be picking it up. Because there are multiple tracks on iRacing that for one reason or another, have not tempted people into purchasing them.

Dead iRacing Tracks​

What are some safe bets for tracks one would be willing to pick up in a sim title? The likes of Spa-Francorchamps, Mount Panorama, Nordschleife or Le Mans, all the prominent tracks that host international level racing. If you are going to sell tracks individually, those ones are some of the safest bets. Wide open, known across the entire space and hosts all kinds of racing.

But on the flip side of that, there are some tracks which are quite obscure and do not lend themselves to a lot of high powered cars. Subsequently on iRacing, you see them on rotation in certain series and even in some of the more populated participation series, the signups are not that great.

Phillip Island iRacing.jpg

Some tracks that are not base content on iRacing rarely get a decent number of sign-ups in officials. Image: iRacing.com

In the article where we discussed which currently less-frequented content on iRacing should be part of the base package, the community identified a few tracks that are not getting much in the way of participation at the moment. Such examples include: Willow Springs, Sandown, Sonoma, Phillip Island and Knockhill. Quite frankly, it is a crime that Phillip Island is in there as it is an absolute gem.

But for the sake of this point, the one we will focus on is Knockhill. The track is very small and compact, with the lap clocking in at just over one and a quarter miles, being done in around 48 seconds in an F4 car which is not that much quicker than a Porsche Cup car. It is also for the most part only known by UK car racing fans due to hosting British Touring Cars.

The track was added to the service for 2022 Season 1 and rather astonishingly, it appeared on the schedules for the GT Endurance Series and IMSA Endurance Series. Both series featured GT3 and if that was not already absurd enough, the latter also had LMP2 cars in the mix.


Of course, cars as quick as that on a track as compact as Knockhill are just a novelty, and iRacing have not dared do something like that since. But clearly, it is within iRacing's interests to have new tracks feature prominently on many of their series schedules.

Which has me wondering why they are adding some of the tracks that they are. Because how likely is it that the track does not get used after their introductory season?

The Catch-22 Situation​

More often than not, it would seem that most iRacing tracks go through a cycle: get added, feature extensively in their introductory season, then rarely ever get featured again. There are exceptions, the likes of Algarve and Mugello have longevity, still featuring prominently on the schedule following their release. But that is the exception, not the rule.

Why is this? Many of the series have their schedules decided upon every season via a vote on the iRacing forums by a co-ordinator for that series. As a result, most series will rarely include a new track beyond its introductory season and the track will be made completely irrelevant. Then hardly anyone ever picks it up or races it again.

iRacing Classic Lotus GP 24S3 schedule.jpg

The Jerez circuit has not been in iRacing for long but in 2024 Season 3, it only featured in one series. Image: iRacing UI

What that means is: The track is not popular because it does not get used, and the track is not used because it is not popular. A self-fulfilling cycle that kind of prompts the question: Why even bother introducing new tracks? Why go through all the effort to make a new track if it is just going to end up underutilised and abandoned in the following seasons?

Take Willow Springs, introduced in 2023 Season 3. How often was it featured on the current season's schedule? The answer is three times, in the Production Car Challenge, IMSA Vintage Series and Grand Prix Legends. Even a track as internationally renowned as Jerez - introduced in 2023 Season 2 - only features once on the current season schedule, in the Classic Lotus Grand Prix series.

In stark contrast to that, Algarve features across twelve different sets of series across the entire season. So with Cadwell Park on the horizon, will it be just another flop?

Impending iRacing Tracks​

Like Knockhill, Cadwell Park is a tight and compact track. In real life, probably the fastest cars that have actually raced there are Radicals. British GT does not race there so it is worth asking, what selection of series on iRacing would be the most fitting to have Cadwell on the schedule next season? Honestly, I could see all the Rookie road series like MX-5 Cup, Formula Vee and Formula 1600 all being perfectly suited to Cadwell.

But for that to happen, the track would have to be base content and if they were going to make it free, they would have said as such by now. Otherwise, it will probably end up on the schedules for the open setup versions of the MX-5 and Formula 1600 series as well as the Radical Esports Cup, Clio Cup, Grand Prix Legends, the GR86 series, perhaps F4, TCR, the Production Car Challenge with the old BMW M4 GT4 replacing the Mustang, maybe even IMSA Pilot Challenge at a stretch.


A few of those series are rather popular, but due to Cadwell's incompatibility with cars as fast as GT3s and beyond, it would be a stretch to see it do well enough in sales to feature prominently on iRacing schedules in the future. Same goes for the two other British tracks being added: Thruxton and Croft.

Other road tracks that have been announced in the most recent iRacing Developers Blog include The Bend, Adelaide, Circuit Ricardo Tormo and TT Circuit Assen. All of which have had high level racing in various forms, like Australian Supercars, Asian Le Mans Series, GT World Challenge, DTM etc. But even with Jerez struggling to get featured, what is to say that Ricardo Tormo and Assen will not suffer the same fate?

So with not everyone clearly wanting to fork out $14.95 for a track that will probably never get used again, what to do?

A Possible Solution: Content Packs​

It would be easy for us to say which tracks iRacing should be adding instead, but the problem is that the tracks they are adding are not capturing the playerbase's interest. The developers have been known to take unloved content and make it part of the base package, such as Winton, Lédenon, Snetterton and Oschersleben in the lead-up to 2024 Season 2.

Of course, they are not just going to make every track that does not sell well in its first season free, because then next to nobody would buy a track. It would be ripe for exploitation. Instead, what they could start doing to drive sales of a particular track is sell a bunch in bundles. This is something that rFactor 2 did with its content add-ons.

rFactor 2 British Track Pack.jpg

rFactor 2 players can pick up four tracks for less than 50% of what it costs to buy them all individually. Image: rFactor 2 Steam Store page

In rFactor 2's British Track Pack, players could get Croft, Thruxton, Donington and Brands Hatch. Individually, it would cost €31.96 to purchase all those tracks, but the bundle only costs €14.96. This means it works out at getting essentially four tracks for the price of two - so maybe iRacing could do something similar.

Packaging a load of tracks together, maybe even cars for some of the lower level series beyond Rookie Class, subsequently working out at considerably less than purchasing them all individually. Yes, iRacing would prefer everyone just picks up the content at full price but considering many people are not picking up certain tracks as is, people will be more likely to buy bundles with these tracks working out cheaper than normal.

Bringing Life to Old Content​

As it stands right now, many tracks are a tough sell on iRacing since very few people actually race them. What good is doing a race that maybe three other people sign up for? If iRacing want to continue adding very tight and obscure tracks, they have to be prepared eventually to face the reality that not enough people are picking up that new piece of content.

Couple that with a lot more effort to actually incentivise people picking up certain content, featuring it on the schedule frequently enough to make it worth the purchase. Because nobody who actually races in iRacing Officials is going to part with their hard-earned cash to buy a track that is only present in a few series every season.

What bunch of content on iRacing would you want to see in a pack? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
About author
Luca [OT]
Biggest sim racing esports fan in the world.

Comments

Sooner than later Iracing will need to revitalize his monetization plan, from the Road side of the Sim, outside the Free content you can't find any race outside GT3/4 and Prototype regularly, TCR? almost dead... when I join Iracing at the start of the year it was fun, but then you hit the paywall in the D Class, and even if overcome the paywall you find your self trap to a community that only wants to race the same cars at the same track, there's no variety....
Diversifying the free content outside from Mazda/Vee/1600, more cars and track, stop using the same track for a week, change track 4 in 4 days, at least you don't get boring of racing the same track all the time.
But Iracing is happy to sell you one time that car and that track that never going to see a full grid with one month, instead of keep people interests in the variety of the content, as current I feel no interest in buying anything from Iracing, because the GT3/Proto combo become so dominant that become boring, the D class cars suits me more I see no path going forward to buy cars, tracks still has their value... but I probably wont renew my sub.
 
The UK tracks that are being added now have been licensed +10 years ago. They were consistently thrown in the backburner as higher profile tracks were acquired. They have been coming out one by one when there was not a world-class track in the works, same story applies to Tsukuba.

Just because a track does not get much use after release, does not mean that it wasn't sold. Probably not as much as the most popular ones, but enough to recoup costs and generate a target revenue. If it wasn't like that, iRacing would have simply stopped producing them a long while ago.

While iRacing's main selling point is its online scheme, the offline front has progressed enough for people to be able to enjoy tracks that don't get much use, without the need of gathering humans for racing. So unless you are AI-allergic (I know several that are this way), you can still get use out of non-popular tracks you bought.

And besides that, having a wide roster of tracks IS an attractive thing, even if you have to buy them one by one and spend a small fortune. Kind of a market being more attractive if it has its exhibitors full, well sorted and varied.
 
Pick 10 randoms track, half of the people are happy, the other half is complaining.
We all know the usual suspect tracks by now.
As a life long track hunter, I'm just keen of the idea of displaying not-so-often simraced tracks as e.g. Cadwell Park mentioned here :)

A LOT of far lesser used tracks deserves so much attention by the broader - and maybe just semi-interested motorsports fans.

But to have real effect it should really be a full replacement, leaving the herd no option whatsoever for "the usual suspects tracks" - I don't think it takes much courage for such decision, once this group starts to activate its racing muscles in new territories :)

This could be both modern tracks as
  • Monticello Motor Club, USA
  • Bira Circuit, Thailand
  • The Bend Motorsports Park, Australia
  • Bilster Berg, Germany
  • Highlands Motorsport Park, NZ
  • El Circuito de Potrero de los Funes, Argentina
  • Ningbo International Circuit, China
(ok I must admit I've been away from iR , maybe Ningbo has already been added?)

...and discontinued/deceased historic tracks could be e.g.
  • Circuito di Ospedaletti, Italy
  • Solitude, Germany
  • Continental Divide Raceways, USA
  • Keimola Motor Stadium, Finland
  • Amaroo Park, Australia
  • Circuit de Torvilliers, France
  • Paramount Ranch Racetrack, USA
  • 1960s Sachsenring, Germany
  • Circuito di Siracusa, Italy
...or the like.

I'm sure the regular i-racers won't shy away from a fundamentally comprehensive range of tracks here, there's plenty of enjoyment and discovery and close-fought layouts, so rather than perpetual "GT3 @ Spa/Monza" or "We demannddss Nords!", I rather think such alternatives will become an attraction :)
 
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OverTake
Premium
I think sometimes sim racers have to be "forced" to learn about more obscure tracks a bit, in iRacing's case that would mean just putting them on more calendars. I can only speak for myself, of course, but I was never keen on Jacarepaguá, for instance. Running a 1980s F1 season means having to run that track if you want to use authentic locations, and I've come to appreciate it more as a result. Not super obscure, of course, but it's the principle behind it that I mean.

And there is the offline factor, too, of course. Not iRacing's main deal, but I would imagine that there are a lot of people who like having these tracks for their offline racing, as @pai already mentioned.
 
Iracing as company I think are doing okay, since they purchased some dev groups and have console titles now I don't see how they can't increase the base package or have an offline version with those tracks. I don't think the subscription model is realistically out of hand or too much, but that and new content is where the squeeze is. I still.like it although I haven't been on in months. Being in a club Series participation really saps ones energy and sates the racing desires
 
I think sometimes sim racers have to be "forced" to learn about more obscure tracks a bit, in iRacing's case that would mean just putting them on more calendars. I can only speak for myself, of course, but I was never keen on Jacarepaguá, for instance. Running a 1980s F1 season means having to run that track if you want to use authentic locations, and I've come to appreciate it more as a result. Not super obscure, of course, but it's the principle behind it that I mean.

And there is the offline factor, too, of course. Not iRacing's main deal, but I would imagine that there are a lot of people who like having these tracks for their offline racing, as @pai already mentioned.

Had a similar experience with Jacarepaguá (which for me suffered a completely unnecessary fate) but had been looking forward to it when I watched the exciting races on the course from the telly back then, incl. The IndyCar oval event, but also getting started with the uncontrollable F1 monsters of the 1980s, I was completely lost.

Now I just mentioned the above as a cheeky but good reason since with iRacing you reach far into even the most remote villages of simracers. Because I agree that some modern series are also carried by ditto real world series, such as ACC is licensed under the GT World Challenge series or LMU and the fascination of simracing 1:1 against the real world calendar.
But am afraid that all the exciting hidden gems will remain hidden if they are just added as alternatives, hence my proposal for a daring change. I'm sure if you remove them again, there will be complaints :D

Now, for example CDR - it was actually a 'pun' as I miss a really good sim modeling of this popular "drivers' circuit" from the cool 60s and of which Dan Gourney described as "a better version of Riverside".
Such tracks do not deserve the thankless dusty closets of oblivion.
 
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as far as british tracks go i have only love for silverstone, brands hatch and donnington.
the others are for the classes i like to drive too small. The Oultons, Cadwells, Snettertons of the world are too small for GT3 cars for example and barely ok for GT4.
of course they can be great fun in smaller cars, nobody denies that, but for me personally, these are not my cup of tea, and thats fine.
 
Premium
as far as british tracks go i have only love for silverstone, brands hatch and donnington.
the others are for the classes i like to drive too small. The Oultons, Cadwells, Snettertons of the world are too small for GT3 cars for example and barely ok for GT4.
of course they can be great fun in smaller cars, nobody denies that, but for me personally, these are not my cup of tea, and thats fine.
Actually to me, Oulton is as fitting for GT3 cars as Laguna is. Yeah it is a bit tight but very rewarding in those cars. Snetterton, not a fan of the track. Cadwell most certainly fits into the bracket you're referring to.
 
1724695913833.jpeg

WTF is that small thing good for? What is it even? Are their dev's getting nuts?

Their shaders/whole skybox(which is ~30-50% of what you see in every racing sim) look like the 1990's and then they focus on nonsense like that? Instead of improving what's really important; modern lighting/skyboxes/shaders etc.

Those tiny things in the grass aren't even visible while racing! It's not even 1 april but they really seem to be joking there...

The only good thing of iRacing is their multiplayer and the VR performance. But the rest is simply outdated, it's way overpriced for what you get.

So a pass for me, even while it has great cars/tracks/online races.
 
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I think packs would be a good option. I plan to buy only the well know tracks because I know them from other sims and I know they're fun. One track every 2-3 months, so it's going to take a while. Minor tracks in bundles could be an incentive to try them.
 
Premium
I personally welcome the fact that Iracing is also giving lesser-known tracks a chance. The biggest and best-known ones are already in the service (except Monaco) and the fact that the “smaller” tracks are now gradually being added is only a good thing. Slower car classes in particular are ideal for this, Cadwell Park in F4 or Formula Ford are fantastic combinations.

If the tracks no longer appear too often in the schedule, you can still drive them against the AI. No problem for me.
 
Premium
I personally welcome the fact that Iracing is also giving lesser-known tracks a chance. The biggest and best-known ones are already in the service (except Monaco) and the fact that the “smaller” tracks are now gradually being added is only a good thing. Slower car classes in particular are ideal for this, Cadwell Park in F4 or Formula Ford are fantastic combinations.

If the tracks no longer appear too often in the schedule, you can still drive them against the AI. No problem for me.
Hey don't get me wrong, I welcome it too. But if people don't buy it and races there are non existent, I can't see why they do. Which is why I pray that all these under-appreciated tracks can have players be given an incentive to purchase them.
 
Most of the players I know (and I have been an iRacing member for over 12 years) just pick up all the new stuff (cars/tracks) as it appears, so they have no problem with this at all. Most of the rest buy a track if it falls into one of their categories of interest i.e. road/oval/dirt/dirt oval racing. That's pretty much me.
Road tracks are my thing: I always buy any new one just because I am curious what it will be like, I very rarely buy a roval (every other year maybe), no ovals, no dirt tracks at all.
I agree, it's a pity some really fun tracks are not used often, but as all new tracks feature in the AI bit, if it really bothers a player, he/she can always do an AI race, can't they?
 
Hey don't get me wrong, I welcome it too. But if people don't buy it and races there are non existent, I can't see why they do. Which is why I pray that all these under-appreciated tracks can have players be given an incentive to purchase them.
Well, I resumed my iRacing activity during Cov-19 confinement after 12 years of dormant profile, but when I entered it as an old track collector and primary off-line racer through times (with the exception of LFRS, FSR, sparse rF1 and WTCC league participation and SRW during the 00s), I had the exact same POV as of the R3E DLC's of today, i.e. if I observed a track not in my collection, I immediately vacuumed everything up on iRacing store here.

Though eventually it became really expensive on the long run, especially after just a week or so jumping back on the online wagon, suddenly I saw my self caring about my iRating and so on, and then it took off from there, well helped by 3½ hours time saved of daily commute to/from work place, which was the only reason it could be done.

My membership only lasted 1 year, but the sim I ended up spending the most money on, the online part itself I loved, but when everyday life on the other side of Cov-19 returned, both money and time ran out here, so I completely follow your words, as I presume many other simmers do, when iRacing is not quite your only to-go sim on a weekly basis.

Here it could be really nice if iRacing had some DLC Pack bargains/sales campaigns with good money to save. As mentioned, it is one's property as an off-line racer.

However, I can follow you so far that iRacing is probably about 95% online (if not more) and that iRacing itself could do a lot more to promote the other exciting tracks that they actually have in their barn.
 
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