Best iRacing Apps and Addons - Complete Sim Racing (2024)

iRacing has a great range of apps and addons that have been created by the community in order to increase the experience that iRacing offers.

In my opinion the best iRacing apps are:

  • VRS Telemetry
  • CrewChief
  • Trading Paints
  • SIMRacingApps
  • SoundShift

VRS Telemetry

Best iRacing Apps and Addons - Complete Sim Racing (1)

https://virtualracingschool.com/

Virtual Racing School Telemetry is something that I always have on when I run iRacing. It is an invaluable tool that allows me to take a deep dive into my lap times and figure out why I’m so slow compared to everyone else…

You can see from the screenshot above (I’m the blue, the Virtual Racing School pro is the red) that I’m able to identify subtle differences in things that I do that the pros either don’t or that they do differently.

Whether it be the line I take through a corner or the amount of braking that I do, these little differences all add up to a large amount of time difference at the end of a lap. Being able to see exactly where this time is going in a post-race or practice analysis is one of the keys to getting faster.

I use this a lot if I’m struggling for pace. It’s a fantastic tool to be able to zoom out on things and look at exactly what is going wrong, and where I can improve. I will hardly ever have a session of iRacing going without VRS Telemetry turned on.

CrewChief

Best iRacing Apps and Addons - Complete Sim Racing (2)

http://thecrewchief.org/forum.php

CrewChief is awesome. CrewChief is an all-in-one race management tool that allows you to set up tactics, get race information, lap times, and a bunch of other things over the radio, even allowing you to communicate back. It also doubles as a greatly improved spotter when compared to the default iRacing one.

One of the greatest features that CrewChief has is the ability to handle the logistics of a pit-stop for you. There’s nothing worse than fighting for position halfway through a race and having to try and manually calculate how much fuel you’ll need to take to make it to the end of the race. CrewChief automates all of this, which means all you have to do is pull into the pits and you will get the amount of fuel that the program thinks that you need to make it to the end (you can set a + lap threshold in case you don’t trust it 100%).

As I mentioned before, CrewChief also has a built-in spotter which (in my opinion) is far superior to the iRacing default spotter. It gives more information, lap times, general race updates, specifics on crashes in upcoming corners… the list goes on.

One of the coolest things is that the radio comms refer to you by a name, and if you’re lucky, you can set that name to be your real-life name! It’s just a nerdy perk that I really enjoy and increases the immersion just that little bit more.

CrewChief isn’t only iRacing specific either. It will run on a large list of popular sims which I’ve outlined in the following table.

GameChief (pit stops, etc)Spotter
iRacingYesYes
Assetto CorsaYesYes
Assetto Corsa CompetizioneYesYes
AutomobilistaYesYes
Automobilista 2YesYes
Copa Petrobras be MarcasYesYes
F1 2018NoYes
F1 2019NoYes
F1 2020NoYes
Formula TruckYesYes
Project CARSYesYes
Project Cars 2YesYes
RaceRoomsYesYes
rFactorYesYes
rFactor2YesYes
Stock Car ExtremeYesYes

I run CrewChief with every sim that I play that is compatible. A minority of games are only compatible with the spotter features and not the crew chief features but it is still great. It’s currently my favorite sim racing app and I will very rarely fire up a sim without it.

Trading Paint

Best iRacing Apps and Addons - Complete Sim Racing (3)

https://www.tradingpaints.com/

If you have seen YouTube videos or Twitch streams of people with some crazy custom paint jobs on their cars and wondering how they get them, then the answer is Trading Paints.

Trading Paints is a tool that allows users to upload custom liveries that can be used by the community. You’ll find replicas of real-life racing teams across all sorts of motorsport disciplines as well as original creations.

In order for people to see your livery and you to be able to see theirs, both drivers must have Trading Paints installed and running. Fortunately, though, a majority of the iRacing community uses Trading Paints so you will almost always be able to experience a full race of customer liveries.

There are hundreds of custom liveries available on Trading Paints. What I usually end up doing is sorting by popular and scrolling down until I find something that I like. I change them out pretty regularly but that’s half the fun.

SIMRacingApps

Best iRacing Apps and Addons - Complete Sim Racing (4)

https://simracingapps.com/

SIMRacingApps is a fantastic app for allowing you to build fully customizable dashes, timing boards, overlays, admin panels, and really just about anything else that you want for iRacing.

The best thing about SIMRacingApps is that it is a web server that is run from your computer which means you are able to connect other devices to it and have various displays and dashes on your phone, tablet, external monitors, or just about any other device with a screen that can connect to your PC through a browser.

Having the dashboards displayed on an external source means that you’ll be able to mount a phone or tablet to your rig or desk and have a nice external display with extra information that is completely separate to iRacing and not cluttering your screen.

Not only can you set up things like dashes and live timing boards, but you can even set up full spotter dashboards where you can control the pit stops for your driver, traffic, flag callouts, wrecks, etc. It is super powerful once you start to play around with it a bit.

I will admit though, it’s not the best-looking piece of software in the world, but it does a fantastic job and the developers of it have done a great job of putting this together.

SIMRacingApps has a bunch of uses and once you figure out what you need, whether that be extra overlays during a race or an external monitoring system of some kind, then you can probably do it in SIMRacingApps

SoundShift

Best iRacing Apps and Addons - Complete Sim Racing (5)

http://nspace.hu/soundshift/ + updated vehicle list

SoundShift is an app that people seem to love or hate.

It gets a bit of hate because it makes a beeping noise indicating to you that you need to shift gears and there are drivers in the community that argue that you should use the noise of the engine or the shift lights to give you that information.

I use it as a way to optimize my shifting and therefore speed, and according to Sebastian Vettel, Formula 1 drivers have the same thing in their cars.

Because of this, I choose to run it and I find it helps a lot. It’s just one less thing to worry about when I’m going 3-wide down a straight at 200 mph.

There’s really not much more to it than that. You can set a target RPM for each gear and there will be an audible beep when you hit that RPM. Simple, effective, and works great.

If you’re unsure about whether you need SoundShift or not then I encourage you to give it a go, spend a few minutes looking up the optimal shift points for the car that you’re using, plug the numbers in and go hot lap for 30 minutes. You’ll know by then if it’s something that you’ll want to keep in your app toolbox or not.

Wrap Up

Well, there you have it. A handful of apps and add-ons that I use every time that I race on iRacing.

There is no particular order to the list, and each app serves its own purpose.

Again, the apps that I use are:

  • VRS Telemetry
  • CrewChief
  • Trading Paints
  • SIMRacingApps
  • SoundShift

Try them out and you might wonder how you ever raced without them.

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Best iRacing Apps and Addons - Complete Sim Racing (2024)

FAQs

Best iRacing Apps and Addons - Complete Sim Racing? ›

Best iRacing Apps and Addons - Complete Sim Racing (2022)
  • VRS Telemetry.
  • CrewChief.
  • Trading Paints.
  • SIMRacingApps.
  • SoundShift.
4 days ago

What is the best iRacing setup? ›

Best Racing Wheel and Pedals for iRacing and Your Budget
  • Logitech G920. Best Xbox-compatible wheel. ...
  • Logitech G29. Best PS4- and PS5-compatible wheel. ...
  • Thrustmaster T300. Honorable mention. ...
  • Fanatec Podium DD1 (Update: Out of stock) Ultimate Wheel Base. ...
  • Fanatec Clubsport Wheel Base V2.5 (Update: Discontinued) PC wheel upgrade.
May 4, 2022

Is iRacing the most realistic racing sim? ›

iRacing has been quoted to have the best online play and realistic car physics, while its competitors, F1, Gran Turismo, and Assetto Corsa have all been downgraded for slipping too much and not having realistic vehicle physics. Even professional racers have praised iRacing on the game's physics.

Are there mods for iRacing? ›

Apps for iRacing are essentially mods. They do a variety of things, however, each has a common goal: to improve your iRacing experience. The way that they do this varies from app to app; some will be cosmetic, some will be aural, and some will be in the feeling of the car on the track.

Is iRacing realistic? ›

iRacing tracks are precisely modeled using proprietary technologies, including 3-D laser-scanning and active weather effects, to make your PC experience indistinguishable from a real-world lap around your favorite track.

Where can I download iRacing setups? ›

iRacing How To: Download a Setup - YouTube

Is rFactor better than iRacing? ›

iRacing is great because you can always expect reliable accuracy and timing with each manoeuvre of your car. If you are comparing with rFactor 2, you will notice that the force feedback in rFactor 2 is relatively lighter and smoother compared to other softwares including iRacing.

Can you make money from iRacing? ›

There is a lot of money to be won, as there have been many competitions in recent years with prize pools in the several hundreds of thousands of dollars. For example, in 2019 the iRacing prize pool for the year was $300,000.

Who is the owner of iRacing? ›

iRacing.com was founded in September 2004 by Dave Kaemmer and John Henry. Now the CEO of iRacing, Kaemmer previously cofounded the Papyrus Design Group, developers of award-winning motorsport simulations that include NASCAR Racing: 2003 Season and Grand Prix Legends.

What is as good as iRacing? ›

There are six games similar to iRacing for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Steam, Playstation, Xbox and Oculus Rift. The best alternative is Live for Speed, which is free. Other iRacing like games are rFactor, Project CARS, Dirt and rFactor 2. iRacing is the leading online racing simulation.

How do I increase my graphics in iRacing? ›

You need to try this setting! Insane performance and fps boost for iRacing

Can you practice iRacing offline? ›

Do not forget that iRacing provides an offline service (Test Drive) during all update periods so you can enjoy any type of content that you have previously downloaded without having purchased it. Sessions in progress at the start of maintenance will be terminated.

Which is the No 1 racing game in the world? ›

1. Asphalt 9: Legends. The Asphalt 9 is the successor to the famous racing title, the Asphalt-8, the top-grossing and Best Racing game for android. It has a wide variety of cars to choose from, ranging from Ferrari to W Motors.

Who is the best iRacing driver? ›

Casey Kirwan

Does Lando Norris use iRacing? ›

He has been active with F1 2019, iRacing and rFactor 2 participating in multiple events.

Is there F1 in iRacing? ›

iRacing and the Mercedes-AMG F1 team have confirmed that two Mercedes Formula 1 cars – the 2021 Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E and the yet-to-be-named 2022 car – will be coming to the popular racing simulator.

Are VRS setups free? ›

A: If you only share setups, the free Casual plan is all you need. If you compare yourself against a teammate several days per week, you need to upgrade. If you only compare against a single datapack or a single team, the Dedicated plan may be all you need.

Can you buy car setups for iRacing? ›

It is encouraged to buy setups if you have no interest in making your own, but you want to get access to them! iRacing is a very competitive game and you'll need every edge you can get! A NEW CHALLENGE: In open setup races, you're not only going to have to get used to your car and the track but your setup too!

What equipment do I need for iRacing? ›

So, you've decided that you want to race on iRacing, but you don't have any equipment. It's really simpler than it looks on the surface, in reality, you just need a computer that meets the specifications and a driving peripheral like a controller or a wheel.

Is iRacing harder than Assetto Corsa? ›

Considering that iRacing also has a licence system to rank your skill level, cars in iRacing can be absurdly much harder to control than cars in any other games or simulator, including Assetto Corsa.

How realistic is Automobilista 2? ›

How realistic is Automobilista 2? Being one of the latest racing games released in the market makes AMS2 one of the most realistic and advanced thanks to its developer's technological innovation. In fact, the game has often been praised for its attention to detail, realistic driving experience and stunning graphics.

Is rFactor 2 realistic? ›

rFactor 2 is a realistic, easily extendable racing simulation that offers the latest in vehicle and race customization, great graphics, outstanding multiplayer and the height of racing realism. It features mixed class road racing with ultra realistic dynamics, an immersive sound environment and stunning graphics.

How much do pro iRacing drivers make? ›

Consequently, 40 of the best racers in the world of iRacing compete for a prize pool of $300,000! And the first-place winner gets $100,000, an astounding number! So if you're looking to make money in iRacing, being one of the best is your first step. You can follow the tournament schedules on the eNASCAR website.

How do you become a pro in iRacing? ›

As a rookie, you'll need to participate in 2 races or 4 time trials, and have a safety rating of over 3.0 in order to be promoted to Class D. From there, you can work your way to class C, B, A, and if you can make the cut, the Pro license level.

How much do cars cost in iRacing? ›

iRacing Pricing Summary

If you wish to buy additional cars, they cost a one-time fee of $11.95. If you want to buy additional tracks, they cost a one-time fee of either $11.95 or $14.95 depending on the track. We also offer several discounted cars and tracks priced at $2.95 and $4.95 each.

Does Dale Earnhardt Jr own iRacing? ›

Last year, after years of promoting the platform, Earnhardt officially became a part of the iRacing family when he was named executive director and part of the company's management committee.

Do you have to use real name iRacing? ›

We also find that racing under your own identity helps increase the overall sportsmanship factor among members. For these reasons, we require members to register using their real names, which, in addition to facilitating friendships, promotes personal responsibility.

How many players does iRacing have? ›

iRacing
MonthAvg. Players% Gain
December 2020118.0+9.82%
November 2020107.4-11.10%
October 2020120.8-3.08%
September 2020124.7+6.41%
88 more rows

What is the most popular racing sim? ›

THE BEST SIM RACING GAMES
  • Dirt Rally 2.0.
  • iRacing.
  • Assetto Corsa / Assetto Corsa Competizione.
  • Project Cars 2.
  • rFactor 2.

What is the best racing sim for PC? ›

The best sim racing games for 2022 | FOS Future Lab
  • It's a question more and more are asking, as sim racing breaks out from its nerdy subculture chrysalis into the billowing butterfly of real relevance to modern-day racing. ...
  • iRacing. ...
  • Assetto Corsa. ...
  • Assetto Corsa Competizione. ...
  • Project Cars 2. ...
  • rFactor 2.
Jan 13, 2022

Is there a realistic driving simulator? ›

The simulation program DriveSim allows you to practice driving as if you were commanding a real vehicle, thanks to its realistic situations and environment. DriveSim scenarios include real traffic and pedestrians.

How do I make iRacing look realistic? ›

1 Easy Trick to make iRacing LOOK STUNNING! - YouTube

What is a good FPS for iRacing? ›

You usually want to aim for whatever your monitor's refresh rate is. So for instance, if you have a 60hz monitor, you'll want to be getting at least 60fps. If you have a 144hz monitor, you'll want to try to get 144hz.

Is 60 fps good for iRacing? ›

For me, 60fps is the ideal frame rate. It's smooth enough that you can't see the flicker, responsive enough that you can react to stimuli in an instant and was always the traditional speed of arcade gaming, which brings home that extra sheen of quality you could only find in arcades.

Can you race solo in iRacing? ›

To access an iRacing AI Single Race from the AI Racing page, click the “Single Race” button in the top-right corner. A new window will appear that walks you through setting up your event in a step-by-step process.

Can you race against AI in iRacing? ›

As it stands, following the build for 2022 iRacing Season 3, 46 cars and 66 tracks, some with multiple configurations, are currently available to race on iRacing with AI drivers.

Can you test drive cars in iRacing? ›

You will be able to test drive any content you have pre-ordered, as well as the Dirt Street Stock, Dirt Legends car, and dirt USA Speedway.

What is the most realistic mobile car game? ›

Best racing games for Android 2022
  • Real Racing 3.
  • Need for Speed: No Limits.
  • Asphalt 9: Legends.
  • GT Racing 2.
  • Traffic Rider.
  • Horizon Chase.
  • Beach Buggy Blitz.
  • Mario Kart Tour.
Jan 24, 2022

What game has the most realistic car damage? ›

BeamNG. drive is a simulation game that takes damage models to new levels with its highly-praised soft-body physics, a complicated but highly effective system that makes crashes look pretty awesome. Few games can compete with BeamNG when it comes to the way cars crash, shed debris and get smashed up.

Should I wear shoes while sim racing? ›

Sim racing shoes provide both grip and comfort, but tend to be expensive. It is an important thing to consider not just for comfort, but for playability as well. You need to be comfortable for sure, but you also want to make sure you have maximum control and can perform at your best.

What is the most realistic racing game 2021? ›

5 Best Racing Games Of 2021
  • 5 F1 2021.
  • 4 Cruis'n Blast.
  • 3 Hot Wheels Unleashed.
  • 2 Riders Republic.
  • 1 Forza Horizon 5.
Dec 19, 2021

Can I use PS4 for iRacing? ›

Unfortunately, the answer is no, you cannot run iRacing on your PS4. iRacing is a PC exclusive game, but that's part of why it's such a great game!

What is a good FPS for iRacing? ›

You usually want to aim for whatever your monitor's refresh rate is. So for instance, if you have a 60hz monitor, you'll want to be getting at least 60fps. If you have a 144hz monitor, you'll want to try to get 144hz.

What type of computer do I need for iRacing? ›

iRacing runs only on Windows OS that too only on Windows 8.1 64-bit and above. The game's official website recommends Windows 10 64-bit OS. The game is not compatible with any other OS. If you are using Mac, then you will have to download and install Windows OS using Apple's Boot Camp utility.

How do I make graphics better in iRacing? ›

1 Easy Trick to make iRacing LOOK STUNNING! - YouTube

What do you need for an iRacing setup? ›

You're going to need a somewhat decent computer to run the game. According to the requirements on iRacing.com, that means running at least Windows 8.1 or Windows 10. You can use a Mac, but figure that out on your own. You'll want at least 8 GB of RAM, a graphics card with at least 2 GB of memory and a 4 core CPU.

What does the C mean in iRacing? ›

C Letter = CPU usage for the physics thread (smallest sequence of programmed instructions that can be managed independently). S Letter = Shows the service synchronization state or the "skew" of the connection to the iRacing servers. Green is good, Yellow is average, Orange is fair, and Red is bad.

What does the Q mean in iRacing? ›

The “Q” portion is a bargraph that represents your connection quality, and this bar can display varying colors — a green bar is good, yellow or orange means less than ideal connection quality, and it will turn red if your quality is dropping below an acceptable level.

Is 120 FPS better than 60? ›

The short answer is that 60fps is more widely available and cheaper to run, but is noticeably less smooth than 120fps. Fast-paced, competitive video games will absolutely benefit from 120fps over 60fps, but the extra 60fps won't matter much for everyday tasks like browsing the internet.

Is iRacing a demanding game? ›

Hardware you need for iRacing

As iRacing is not a console game, so it will require you have a computer. Any relatively modern computer will do the trick, however, as the requirements for the game to run are not that demanding at all. And so, it should be relatively easy to access!

Is iRacing overpriced? ›

Compared to other games iRacing is very expensive. If you want all the cars, all the tracks and compete online, you'll pay north of $1000 dollar and still have to pay for a monthly subscription.

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