iRacing’s Long-Awaited Career Mode Is Nearly Here and Sounds Really Good

To date, iRacing has primarily been a platform for multiplayer racing. Eventually, the simulator added computer-controlled opponents, and you were always free to hot lap in solitude, but the single-player experience was never really a focus. That’s changing, though, with the addition of a career mode to the platform. It’s been brewing for some time—iRacing says it still needs “a little more time in the oven”—and few details were previously given, until today.

iRacing’s August development update is lengthy, diving into everything on the horizon for the simulator, from the upcoming debut of the Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH and Caterhams, to track updates, performance updates, and quality-of-life UI enhancements. It’s all appreciated, but our main focus here is the career mode.

As the team describes it, this experience is based around “racing, learning, advancement, objectives, leaderboards, realistic progression paths, and an unprecedented amount of included content.”

That last point is extremely good to hear, given that the recurring complaint against iRacing since its inception is that you pay a monthly or annual fee to use the service—which isn’t cheap, at $14.75 per month for existing members and $124.50 for the year—and then need to buy every car and track on top of it a-la-carte, beyond a limited amount of base content. Career mode will be an exception to that rule though, as “no additional car or track purchases [are] required” for it, and “access [to all content] is exclusive to this mode and does not transfer to the broader iRacing service.”

A great start, then. Beyond that, the experience sounds very broad, with seven unique careers (and more to be added down the line) that the developer describes as “a full game’s worth of content.” These will naturally span many disciplines and steps along the motorsport ladder, so whether you’re pursuing sports car or oval racing, there won’t be one set path to reach the top of your desired category.

Difficulty is adjustable, and rising through the ranks will be based on meeting certain goals, rather than simply winning events—just like in actual racing. That said, this is iRacing after all, so there will be consequences to repeatedly coming up short, including the threat of having to start over from scratch if you choke a few too many times. Fair enough; this isn’t exactly a game known for being forgiving. Frankly, I’m surprised that race length will even be adjustable, to some extent.

iRacing adds that when this feature does eventually launch, it won’t be complete on day one. Deeper elements, like budget and team management, won’t be present, at least not “right out of the gate.” Again, that’d be nice, but it’s so far outside the realm of what the service has historically been that even simply offering the framework of career progression is a big step, not to mention giving players all the content required to enjoy it out of the gate.

In terms of an ETA, iRacing’s Greg Hill wrote in Friday’s blog that “We were so close to making this post an official release announcement rather than another progress update.” While no specific timeline was given, that statement makes this all sound near-imminent, so the fall seems like a reasonable ballpark for launch. Having recently gotten my sim rig sorted again after years off the track, I’ll be ready.

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