Troll threads always live on, though to be honest it should have been locked.
Anyway, iRacing is great and all, but pricing wise you don't get a lot for your money, yes the service is the most well implemented and the quality is very high but to say nothing is (or is going to be) better than iRacing? There is always someone with a better idea, someone with an edge, always something better around the corner.
Rfactor 2 is a one time price, the developers have had years to learn from the community of the original game, i'm pretty sure they have also had plenty of access to the Netkar series, to iRacing itself, along with many other titles on consoles and the pc. Developers don't often sit idle and what Rfactor 2 brings is a new generation in their line of sims, the basis of which may (or may not) be ahead of iRacing. Don't forget that the base engine of iRacing has not changed, and for whatever changes and updates they do it is still that same engine. Just in the way Rfactor 1 was, no matter what mods or updates were implemented, the limitations of the engine were characteristics of the game as a whole, whether good or bad these were always and always will be present.
A brilliant example of this is the Online game World of Warcraft, released in 2004 the base of the game has not changed, with constant updates and expansion packs bringing it into 2011 the game has improved massively, but the heart of the games engine still has most of the same limitations it had in 2004, there is only so far it can be taken, and problems presented to developers that may be unsolveable, which would be non-existant in a modern game engine. That is the case with iRacing, for as amazing as it is, those who develop new systems will have access to further technology that can push realism further beyond what can be done by modifying an older platform. Netkar, many people accept that this sim from a small budget company is more accurate than iRacing, many believe the tyre model is closer to reality, the characteristics of the sims core are the key to this.
Lastly, however Rfactor 2 compares to iRacing, one thing i do know is that it will be good, it will be an improvement over the original and it certaintly will be cheaper and more realistic for the general person. There is a reason that community of iRacing is so small, the game is a niche, it is very expensive and it is very hardcore, its multiplayer ranking system (which does work) is not very friendly to new drivers and many think it could be done better, lack of a singleplayer game outside of testing is a put off for many. If you want to race with your friends, you have to pay for your own server alongside paying the subscription price. iRacing is great, but if it really was the best thing since sliced bread there would be more than 3000 people online worldwide, which is the general number i usually see, when you compare that to games that have millions of players, or even old online games (Diablo 2 from 1999, i logged on there recently and found 70,000 people online in europe). The fact is that while the quality of iRacing can not be doubted, there is something missing.
