Roughly how much will this cost?

[MustartMatters]

Hi guys, looking to get into iracing.
I am only interested in doing indycars around ovals.
How much will it cost to have the dw12 and all the current indycar ovals?
And will iracing have the new 2018 spec indycars?
Would it be worth getting it when the new indycars come out or to buy it now and get the new car later?
Cheers

 

[MustartMatters]

Additional question:
Can you rock up whenever you have time and race or is there a foxed timetable where you have to be there on time. If so, what happens if you miss a race?
And what happens if a race has many cautions and you end up running out of time?

 

[burrito]

Something like Indycar is not as popular as say GT3 or Porsche Cup or Formula Renault 2.0. However it isn't as dead as say the Lotus 49. If you want good races you will have two timeslots a week that most people will compete in (therefore getting good, competitive, races). With regards to cost, it's $15 a track but you get a discount if you buy 6 or more pieces of content at once.

Sometimes they offer discounts to people who own older versions of new cars. So owners of the DW12 may (may) get a discount toward the new car (if and when it comes).

If you miss a race nothing happens. If it goes on too long and you have to leave you lose around 100 iR and some safety rating but it's negligible.

 

[MustartMatters]

So the indycar races are hard to find? You can't walk in and just race?

Something like Indycar is not as popular as say GT3 or Porsche Cup or Formula Renault 2.0. However it isn't as dead as say the Lotus 49. If you want good races you will have two timeslots a week that most people will compete in (therefore getting good, competitive, races). With regards to cost, it's $15 a track but you get a discount if you buy 6 or more pieces of content at once.

Sometimes they offer discounts to people who own older versions of new cars. So owners of the DW12 may (may) get a discount toward the new car (if and when it comes).

If you miss a race nothing happens. If it goes on too long and you have to leave you lose around 100 iR and some safety rating but it's negligible.

 

[Troy Eddy]

So the indycar races are hard to find? You can't walk in and just race?

The IndyCar fixed oval series has races every 2 hours and most of them have enough racers to be official. The times when there aren't enough racers are when the tracks are unpopular like New Hampshire, Milwaukee, Richmond, and Motegi. Even then it is only in the middle of the night US time when not enough people sign up for an official race.

The IndyCar Road series actually runs 6 road courses and 6 ovals every season. These races are open setup so you can make adjustments to the car. There are usually only 5 races a week that are guaranteed to be official. There me be more official races at popular tracks, but you can't count on it.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

For a race to go "official" it needs to attract at least 6 players (or is it 8?), so not every race that goes official will be interesting, hence: even if there is a race every two hours and even if almost all of them go "official" you will not always get a full grid, or even better two or three grids which would heighten the chances of players around you being roughly your level of expertise.
In order to play the indycar series with fixed setup and only ovals (which is kinda the beginner level and attracts rowdy teenagers at afternoons US time) as a starting point, you would need to first acquire your D licence (not done through speed but through racing safely, plenty of threads on this forum discussing how to do it quickly), then buy the car for about 12 dollars and the following tracks for 12 dollars (shorter tracks) or 15 dollars (longer tracks) for next season:

INDYCAR Series - Oval - 2017 Season 3 Fixed
Dallara DW12
Class D (4.0) --> Pro/WC (4.0)
Races every 2 hours at 15 past
Week 1 (2017-06-13) Texas Motor Speedway - Oval (Afternoon) Qual attached, Rolling start, Full
course cautions, Single file restarts.75 laps
Week 2 (2017-06-20) Kentucky Speedway - Oval (Afternoon) Qual attached, Rolling start, Full
course cautions, Single file restarts.75 laps
Week 3 (2017-06-27) The Milwaukee Mile (Afternoon) Qual attached, Rolling start, Full
course cautions, Single file restarts.75 laps
Week 4 (2017-07-04) Iowa Speedway - Oval (Afternoon) Qual attached, Rolling start, Full
course cautions, Single file restarts.110 laps
Week 5 (2017-07-11) Chicagoland Speedway (Afternoon) Qual attached, Rolling start, Full
course cautions, Single file restarts.75 laps
Week 6 (2017-07-18) Michigan International Speedway (Afternoon) Qual attached, Rolling start, Full
course cautions, Single file restarts.60 laps
Week 7 (2017-07-25) New Hampshire Motor Speedway - Oval (Late
Afternoon) Qual attached, Rolling start, Full course cautions, Single file restarts.75 laps
Week 8 (2017-08-01) Kansas Speedway - Oval (Night) Qual attached, Rolling start, Full
course cautions, Single file restarts.75 laps
Week 9 (2017-08-08) Indianapolis Motor Speedway - IndyCar Oval
(Afternoon) Qual attached, Rolling start, Full course cautions, Single file restarts.50 laps
Week 10 (2017-08-15) Pocono Raceway - Oval (Afternoon) Qual attached, Rolling start, Full
course cautions, Single file restarts.60 laps
Week 11 (2017-08-22) Gateway Motorsports Park - Oval (Afternoon) Qual attached, Rolling start, Full
course cautions, Single file restarts.85 laps
Week 12 (2017-08-29) Auto Club Speedway - Oval (Night) Qual attached, Rolling start, Full
course cautions, Single file restarts.60 laps

If you buy three to five items at one go there is a bit of a discount (10%), 6 or more items will get you a slightly better discount of 15%.
You need to finish 51% of one race in eight different weeks to qualify for "season completed" which will in turn get you a 4 dollar bonus for next season. If I were to start from scratch, i'd buy the car and the first five tracks to see if this is really what i want and then buy as many as i feel i need to buy later in the season. By looking at the schedules of seasons past, one gets a feeling for which tracks are used often and which aren't. Indianapolis for instance is ALWAYS used and attracts hordes of players (for better or worse).
I did many seasons in the indy fixed as one of the slower guys, races varied from dreadful to hugely entertaining, with three out of four being really fun, and every tenth or so being plain awful.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

Additional question:
Can you rock up whenever you have time and race or is there a fixed timetable where you have to be there on time. If so, what happens if you miss a race?

As there are races every two hours, nothing happens apart from you having to wait for the next race to start.

And what happens if a race has many cautions and you end up running out of time?

No problem since races are about 40 min each, so there is 80 mins of buffer, no way this is going to get eaten up by however many cautions. There is a longer indy race each year a weekend before or after (?) the real life indy, but that has just taken place, I suppose (didn't follow the schedule, so not sure).
You might also want to consider joining a league. These usually run only once a week and do much longer races of 60min., 90min. or longer. There, servers are booked for 4 hours or more, so again, many yellows will not really be a problem.