Voted but only to get a free demo onto Steam.
The basic subscription gives you all the cars and tracks required to get started. Depends on what you're looking for in a game - if you need a huge number of cars and tracks from the start to get your enjoyment, iRacing is not for you, not even if you could afford to buy everything up front. iRacing's 'value' is focused on the quality of the racing, not on the content.
Of course people need to get used to it and for people new to the sim or simracing in general this might take a few weeks/months. But the moment you leave the Rookie level, the racing is so much better than any other non organised racing, in any other online racing (sim).
That was never my experience, in fact it was the complete opposite. Even at Rookie level, at least 80% of the racing was clean. Yes, there are always first corner incidents even at the highest level, but there are ways to anticipate and avoid them in many cases. It also helps if you qualify near the front, or start from the back. And you can rank up very quickly if you follow the rules. If you aren't great or new, you need to get better in test mode or time trialing before jumping in to races. And when you do attempt a race, just take it easy. The trouble-makers tend to grosjean their way into the first corner, so hang back, let them all spin out, and cruise past. I was in the top 5 of my rookie races almost all the time, and I don't remember doing any overtaking. People just wiped out, either on the first corner, or about three quarters of the way through the race when they're starting to lose concentration so I just gained places. Slow and steady might not win the race, but in the case of iRacing rookie level, slow and steady puts you in the top 5.
Sounds like sims are not for you. I don't know a single sim that doesn't require hours of time investment.I don't want to have to invest hours into iRacing just get out of the trench just so I can enjoy myself. Not when I'm paying them to do so!
Well it's not the case for me in the 900-1000's I just don't have the time for it. I invest most of my hours in to Dota 2 and it's bad enough dealing with dickheads in that game but at least in Dota 2 I can swing things in my favour by queuing with GAF. I don't want to have to invest hours into iRacing just get out of the trench just so I can enjoy myself. Not when I'm paying them to do so!
There are plenty of games which don't have huge fan bases which can still afford free matchmaking and cheap content. I feel the reason sim racing is niche is because of the ridiculous pricing and poor pad support. I don't blame anyone for wanting to pick up RaceRoom (picking this since it was on the front page of steam) only to find you have to tinker with the pad to get it working correctly and once you've done that find out that all the content in the game at the moment costs roughly ~£40. That doesn't include SP or MP either. I'd just laugh and delete it and go back to Shift or F1 2013.
Well they will, so if you've got time, what's the problem?
Well it's not the case for me in the 900-1000's I just don't have the time for it. I invest most of my hours in to Dota 2 and it's bad enough dealing with dickheads in that game but at least in Dota 2 I can swing things in my favour by queuing with GAF. I don't want to have to invest hours into iRacing just get out of the trench just so I can enjoy myself. Not when I'm paying them to do so!
It's very clear, it just doesn't make much sense. You say that time investment isn't an issue, and you seem to appreciate that sim racing as a hobby requires some dedication, but you don't want to give iRacing a chance because you've had some bad races. And if that's the main issue, and you think that all racing games are 'shitty' online (despite iRacing being clearly the best in this area), then I'm not sure what that leaves you, because you're gonna have an even worse experience elsewhere.
