Dale Earnhardt Jr. is one of several pro racers who plays in iRacing.com sim leagues. (Harold Hinson / New York Times News Service)
How does it feel to go flat out into a turn at Indy with all four tires fighting for grip, or to pick your way through the traffic at Daytona with Dale Earnhardt Jr. inches off your rear bumper?
In the world of virtual racing, aspiring champions -- few of whom have ever been behind the wheel of a real racecar -- are coming closer than ever to finding out. They're doing it from their dens and living rooms, using simulation software developed by companies such as iRacing.com, a subscription-based online-racing service that started in 2008.
Few sports lend themselves to virtual re-creation as well as auto racing. The view through a windshield is a lot like a computer's display screen, after all, and the you-are-there perspective of in-car cameras has long been a staple of race-day telecasts.
The iRacing tracks are made from three-dimensional maps of real tracks. (New York Times News Service)
iRacing is trying to bring another dimension to sim racing: a vision of Internet racing as a recognized competition with its own global sanctioning body, a place where an amateur racer can have a fulfilling career and where professional drivers can hone their skills.
"We want to re-create the sport of auto racing in the virtual space," says Steve Potter, a spokesman for the company.
iRacing is exclusively an online service, focused entirely on real-time multiplayer racing. Other simulations, such as "Live for Speed" and "rFactor," offer realistic driving dynamics and impressive visuals. But what sets iRacing apart, says company co-founder David Kaemmer, is its degree of fidelity to the real-world cars and tracks it depicts.
iRacing basics
- iRacing.com requires a relatively recent PC with a Windows operating system. A broadband Internet connection is strongly recommended.
- Basic car controls -- a steering wheel, a gas pedal and a brake pedal -- can be purchased for $40 or less. Advanced sets can be bought for around $300.
- A three-month iRacing subscription costs $36; a year's subscription is $99.
- Members can compete only at their license levels, a rating based on their skill and safety record. There are six levels.
- The simulation's official sanctioning body, First, organizes more than 17,000 subscribers into a coherent competitive structure and enforces the site's racing guidelines.
"The laser scanning is probably the biggest leap forward," he says, referring to the three-dimensional mapping the company has used to build digital facsimiles of more than 60 tracks. The painstaking process creates a "point cloud" picture that mimics, within millimeters, the track surface, including every crack, patch and bump.
The result of this meticulous attention to detail is a level of difficulty that may be intimidating to the casual gamer and sometimes frustrating to the novice sim racer. The iRacing cars can be hard to handle, and the tracks are constructed with all their quirks and imperfections intact.
Such accuracy impresses professionals -- including Earnhardt. "Ninety-nine percent of the time it mirrors real life," he says. "There are all kinds of little intricacies and oddities in the setup that I can duplicate."
Because drivers are required to race under their real names on iRacing, it's possible that a member could find himself on the starting grid next to Earnhardt, Alex Gurney, Joey Logano, Marcos Ambrose or Justin Wilson, among other professionals who compete on the site. And this year, one iRacing member will earn a full-season ride in the Jetta TDI series.
For at least one professional, the gap between virtual and reality has narrowed enough to give digital racing yet another touch of authenticity.
"I get nervous before sim races," Earnhardt says.
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