A JACKZER Guide
iRacing has a reputation for being expensive, and at a glance it kind of looks that way. Once you understand how it works, the pricing is pretty fair. Most people don't, which is exactly why it gets a bad rep. Here's the honest breakdown.
Start here
It sounds like a small distinction, but it's the most important thing in this article.
Most racing titles are something you buy once. Forza, Gran Turismo, ACC, F1. You pay your money, you get the download, that's it. A year later the studio needs more money, so a chunk of features get saved for next year's release. You buy that one too if you want the new stuff.
iRacing doesn't work like that. It's closer to Netflix or a gym membership: ongoing access to a continuously developed online racing platform, not a finished thing in a box.
The moment that reframe lands, the price tag stops feeling weird.
Worth saying too: iRacing's dev team is, in my opinion, one of the most transparent and active in the entire sim industry. Major builds every season, public roadmaps, open dev blogs. When they miss, they explain why. Over 15 years of that track record is hard to argue with. When you pay iRacing, you're paying the people keeping it alive.
Game vs Service
Same screen, different products. The price tag follows the column you're looking at.
Before the numbers
A little Guy Mats wisdom: whenever I'm about to invest serious money into something, I want a strong reason. Yours might be different to mine, but you want one.
For me, the why was clear the second I tried it. The cars and tracks are virtual, the racing is as real and as cutthroat as it gets. If you've ever been to a go-kart track and found a proper dance partner, someone who raced you wheel-to-wheel properly hard, that experience is a daily occurrence on iRacing at every level.
Real motorsport is stupidly, astronomically expensive. If iRacing scratches that itch for a fraction of the price, I don't mind investing the rig, the time and the money. The joy is genuinely immense.
A few days ago I hopped on with zero notice. No organising, no scheduling, no waiting for a league night. Sat down in the rig, jumped into a race, had one of the best racing experiences of my simracing life. That kind of moment on demand is very hard to find anywhere else.
And it's not just on-demand. It's the variety. Formula cars, GT3s, GT4s, NASCAR, prototypes, dirt ovals, vintage, all hopping in and out of the same physics universe on the same evening. The niche stuff has its own community-run splits keeping it alive. One platform, dozens of forms of racing, all available on tap.
If you have a why, the rest of this article will make much more sense.
Cost one of two
iRacing has two separate costs, and most people confuse themselves because they only see one of them on sign-up. The subscription is the first. Content is the second, covered further down. Whichever you go with, subscribe through iRacing directly rather than Steam. It makes a few things a lot easier later.
Monthly
$13
$9.10
The lowest-commitment way to test the water.
3 months
$33
$23.10
About a season. A fair window to know if it clicks.
1 year
$110
$77
The sweet spot for most people, especially with Black Friday on top.
2 years
$199
$139.30
Hardcore territory. Cheapest per-month if you know you're staying.
New member bonus
Brand new accounts get 30 per cent off whichever subscription length they pick. It's been around for years now, and feels permanent. The discounted column in the table above is your real-world price if you're starting fresh.
Black Friday
iRacing runs a huge sale every Black Friday. The savings stack on top of your existing membership. If you bought a year in July, you can buy another heavily discounted year in November and the 12 months simply get added to what you've got. Mine ends in 2032. Don't ask why.
Hardcore sim racers treat Black Friday on iRacing the way people treat car tax or insurance renewals, a fixed non-negotiable date in the calendar. Plan around it and your average cost over the long term drops dramatically. The subscription auto-renews unless you turn it off, also worth knowing.
Included content
Every iRacing subscription comes with roughly 31 cars and 27 tracks already in your garage. That's not a demo or a teaser. That's a properly substantial chunk of content, enough to cover every rookie series and several D-class series without spending another cent.
I know plenty of members who've never bought any extra content, plenty who slowly pick up a few pieces a season, and plenty who own everything. All three are valid. The included content alone will keep you racing for a long time.
Don't let the prospect of buying more stuff scare you off. It's optional.
In your garage on day one
31
Cars included
27
Tracks included
Enough to cover all rookie series and several D-class series. Numbers vary slightly as iRacing rotates the included roster.
Cost two of two
If you do want to grow the garage, here's the menu. Pay once, keep it for as long as your membership is active. And yes, before someone writes the comment, if your subscription lapses you lose access to it, even the stuff you paid for. You're licensing content, not buying it outright. That's the most common complaint about iRacing's model and it's a fair one to know going in.
Cars
$11.95
Modelled from real telemetry, often with the manufacturer's involvement.
Tracks
$11.95 - $14.95
Every track is laser scanned. A real team, real trucks, real laser equipment, every bump captured.
Legacy
$2.95 / $4.95
Older cars and tracks no longer used in active series. Cheap, but don't count toward bulk discounts.
The track price is the one that genuinely surprises me less the more I think about it. iRacing send out a team of people, trucks and laser scanners and physically scan every bump on the real track. If you ever drive that circuit in real life, you'll feel a striking similarity to what you felt in the sim. That work has to be paid for somewhere.
Legacy content fills out the older bracket. Cheaper, but no longer used in active series, and they don't count toward any of the discounts in the next section. Generally ignore them unless you want a specific car for fun.
How do things end up legacy? Let's say the new BMW M4 GT4 lands. The old one gets phased out of active series and shuffled into legacy retirement. New car becomes the working one, old car becomes the discount-bin curiosity.
The other important thing, cars and tracks rarely go on sale. The subscription discounts all the time. Content stays at full price almost permanently. The way you save on content is the loyalty system, which is up next.
The hidden discount
The single most generous part of iRacing's model, and almost nobody knows it's there. Genuinely rewards people who stick around.
Bulk, small
10% off
License 3 to 5 pieces of eligible content at once.
Bulk, large
15% off
License 6 or more pieces of eligible content at once.
What I usually do at the end of the week is pick up three pieces of content at once. Maybe the next track in a series I want to race, a car I fancy trying, or an upcoming track I know I'll want next season. Three at a time, so the 10 per cent bulk discount always kicks in. The tracks I bought kept popping up again across different series and seasons, and before I really noticed I had most of the ones I actually wanted to race. The cost spread out over months almost invisibly.
Free money
If you're an active racer, iRacing pay you back for showing up. Participation credits work out at up to $10 per season, capped around $40 a year. They apply against subscription renewals or content.
Friend referrals also generate credits. They expire 24 months after being granted, so don't sit on them. If you race actively, that's a meaningful chunk knocked off the real cost.
iRacing have more detail on exactly how the participation thresholds work. Worth a couple of minutes of reading once you're in.
Participation credits per year
Up to $40 a year in credits if you race actively across all four seasons. Apply them to renewals or content. Don't sit on them, they expire after 24 months.
The almost-free route
There's a genuinely incredible deal that runs through local motorsport organisations, and almost nobody talks about it. I've no affiliation, I just think it's class.
Motorsport UK Esports, for example, has a paid membership of around £28 a year. As part of that membership you get a full 12 month iRacing subscription plus the FIA F4 car included. The F4 car alone is worth nearly $12 at full price.
The deal exists thanks to a partnership between iRacing and the FIA, and it's available worldwide through your local FIA member club. Australia, Germany, Brazil, wherever you are, there's almost certainly a national motorsport organisation that can hook you up with a free or heavily discounted year.
Only for new accounts, mind. If you're new, though, this is the cheapest way in. Worth a few minutes of googling your local FIA member club.
Where to look
Motorsport UK Esports
~£28/yr membership includes 12 months iRacing + FIA F4 car.
Your local FIA member club
Most countries have an equivalent. Check your national motorsport authority.
New iRacing accounts only
Existing members can't redeem. If you're new, this is the cheapest path.
The honest recap
Real numbers for real members, not the worst-case fearmonger version of iRacing's cost you usually see online.
Cheapest entry
~$55
First year, new-member discount
$77 first-year subscription minus what you save by skipping any extra content. Effectively free if you can use the FIA backdoor.
Realistic first season
$45 - $55
On top of the subscription
A handful of extra cars and tracks once you start finding series you actually want to run. Bought in batches of 3 for the bulk discount.
A full year, serious
$150 - $300
All in
Subscription plus regular content drops across the year. Drops year on year as your library fills in. The first year is the priciest.
These numbers drop dramatically as you build up a track collection. The first year is the most expensive year you'll have on the platform. By year three you're mostly just renewing the subscription and picking up the odd new release that catches your eye.
For the time, the variety and the genuine joy I've had out of this platform over the years, the deal works for me. I'm not telling you it's cheap. I'm telling you it's fairly priced for what you actually get. Compared to almost anything else you'd spend a hundred quid a year on, most subscriptions deliver a lot less than this does.
Don't let the price stop you trying it. A month or three months is enough to know. Remember, you're not buying a game, you're buying a service. Big difference.
A note on the rest of the iceberg
This article covers what iRacing themselves charges. The other half of the story is the gear you race with, the wheel, pedals, rig, optional overlays and the rest. That's where the bigger spend usually sits, and where having affiliate codes in your back pocket actually matters.
Every active discount I can offer is on the discounts page. If you're budgeting around iRacing, that's where to take the next look.
A typical first year, rough proportions
Proportions, not dollars. iRacing tends to be one of the smaller line items once the hardware spend is in.
Keep going
Everything below is something I personally use or wrote. Affiliate links are marked the same way they are everywhere else on the site.
Related guides
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Once you're on iRacing, this is the next conversation. Wheelbase, rig, stints, strength. The macro FFB guide.
ReadHow I Setup My FFB
The slider-by-slider checklist, in the order I touch them. Pairs naturally with iRacing's clipping meter.
ReadThe lie every sim racer believes
The mindset piece. If you're investing real money into something like iRacing, this is the longer conversation.
ReadGear that matters here
Race-engineer-grade overlays, leaderboards and live timing across iRacing, ACC, LMU and more.
Pro setups plus the GO Fast telemetry app. Race engineer in your pocket.
The full SIMAGIC bundle deal. Direct-drive base, wheel and pedals at the lowest price of the year.
Watch the video version
All videos on YouTubeHow much does iRacing actually cost?
The original video this article was built from.
The Irish Pub would love to have you, we've league races on Thursdays and the craic is mighty. Can't wait to see you there.
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