Don't join iRacing if you are toxic: The Toxicity of Sim Racing. 

I hope you enjoyed this! This kind of video is new for me and I look forward to your feedback. I hope my main point comes across clearly: any "win at all costs" attitude in the vain hope of "making it big" in competitive driving or content creation may ultimately disappoint you. Believe me when I say I'm not making this to call out any specific individuals or to take anybody's side. This could have been anyone from any other chippy race I've been in. I'd like to think sometimes we just have bad days and we are human and we learn from mistakes. Nobody is perfect, I can be quite snippy and think I'm funnier than I actually am, but I hoped that if I'm judged to be a jerk, I could be told so I could correct my attitude. I know I said otherwise in the video, but upon reflection I have to say I have seen worse things including things like racism and transphobia in my races.

Thanks for the shoutout! Working on a follow up video today about potential solutions especially ones that iRacing can enact. Because as much as I want to believe that things can change through the racers alone, to a certain degree it's also iRacing's job to be our babysitter

Part of the reason why I sometimes dread doing iRacing because I'm not as talented or quick as others. Hate getting yelled at rather than learning anything of value

I think you touched on it briefly, but I think a lot of this attitude does stem from the Dunning-Krueger(sp?) effect but also just plain ol’ insecurity. A lot of people put “i’m good at sim racing” way too high on their emotional checklist and if they make a mistake, or have a bad race, that brings them to a state of existential crisis. If theyre not good at that one thing they thought they were good at, what is life? I think its the reason a LOT of games are toxic too. Nerdy gamers who go “well at least i’m good at this one thing” and can never let that be brought into question, and will win a gold in mental gymnastics trying to deflect fault or blame for any incident or issue. Can’t ever be their fault, or else what do they have in life? You don’t really see a lot of this toxic behavior (people are still assholes sometimes tho don’t get me wrong) with people who have jobs, other hobbies and ways to spend their time. If they have a bad race they say sorry, or nothing, and just turn the game off and do something else.

I used to work at Summit Point back many years ago for the SCCA races. When talking to the racers, I was impressed by the LOW level of toxicity. Yeah you see the guys after a crash jump out and want to fight each other, but if one of them was stuck or possibly injured it was the exact opposite. It is just adrenalin that cause the initial fight reaction and quickly goes away. After that initial moment the response was always "it's just racing". Just to name drop I was talking to the Paul Newman one Saturday night and was amazed that he walked around without any security. All he cared about was the racing (I was a street tire guy so we were talking about performance tires for his street cars). I asked some of the other guys about racing with a star, they said they looked at him as a talented fellow racer and really didn't treat him as a star. What I was most impressed with overall was the camaraderie in the community. Toxic behaviour would actually get you banned.

I am the NASCAR Heat 5 guy in this video. I appreciate you bringing up this topic. Usually I don’t like talking back to a trash talker but if I have a right to defend myself I will do it. Pleasure racing you and a great video. ❤️

Is that richmond clip from a nuclear war?

Very well informed and I agree with your points; I typically race in the early morning since based on my personal experience, the races are generally more cleaner and there’s not any toxic people in the lobbies. I just had a clean race at Michigan in the Cup car this morning and it was a lot of fun!

This was fantastic! The biggest thing I try to push anytime I race is positivity. I don’t care about a bunch of pretend race cars on a pretend track. I do this to just have fun and be positive.

Thanks for the shoutout mate, but more importantly, thanks for generating more content on a topic that is so misunderstood and misrepresented. I think too many people accept toxicity as just a part of gaming but come on man.... Does it really have to be? 😞

Worst experience of toxicity I have had was someone yelling at me for a unavoidable wreck then being forced to apologize to them after I was as aggressive back to them by someone else involved in the league race. Keep in mind the league is basically a beer league and damage is turned off so everyone can keep racing

One of the biggest reasons I avoid multiplayer and online gaming is all the egos and trash. At the end of the day, it's a game. If the game isn't fun, step away.

I just keep my audio chat turned off. And I’m tempted to turn text chat off as well. It’s all just massively distracting.

The whole street stock series on iracing is untouchable because of how toxic it is. Id love to run street stocks but its literally not possible. The mix of low irating people who genuinely are just starting out and high irating hardos makes it a very frustrating series to run.

Here here. On the road side of things, the more chaotic races I’ve had are in top split. These guys have egos and cannot accept someone they see as ‘slower’ being in front of them! I just let them go and get on with it

This is why I turned off my voice chat. I'm a trans femme on iracing, if I i make a mistake it's guaranteed I'm getting called slurs or told I'm a girl who can't drive. Even if I dont get insulted its distracting and like you said it beings down the mood. Only for endurance races will I turn it back on, but only for the team channel Also my most toxic experience was a redacted car open race where a dide called me the T slur over had over again because he couldn't pass me. I crashed because of how upset i was getting and then spent two minutes listening to him gloat. Haven't raced that car again, which sucks cause I actually raced agsinst some of y'all and that was cool. Jacob encouraged me to believe in myself enough to stop pit starting all the time.

I actually got told to get a life once after I protested the guy for using the homophobic f-slur at me and another guy. Apparently asking him to stop was making me a white knight so when he got hit with the protest he knew it was me and went on the old forums on purpose to find me and pm me

Just like DJs video, this hits the nail on the head. I joined iRacing 2 years ago and the toxicity has gotten worse and worse. When I first started making videos, I quickly realized that I was one of those toxic guys and have worked on it relentlessly to not be that guy. I strive to be more like you on iRacing, where if someone wipes me out, even intentionally, I can just laugh it off.

One of the biggest reasons I stepped away from official races and pretty much iRacing as a whole. Hearing someone whine and complain about everyone's driving, it takes the fun out of it.

I would agree that the toxicity has definitely grown. Especially when iracing blew up during covid. With the massive influx of new people and the spotlight on sim racing, you can't help but to have a few bad apples join. That's why I think leagues are where iracing really shines. I run a weekly league and it has actually kept me on the service for 2+ years when I was thinking about quitting

Great video, it’s pretty sad but these days I find iRacing to be much more enjoyable with voice chat disabled and hiding the text. I only do 1-2 races a week, I’d like to enjoy them

As someone who has frequently raced with Joey it's honestly shocking the amount of disrespect people throw his way. People just need to learn it's a game. Toxicity is through the roof as of late.

It's rare that I dip into the NASCAR side, for the most part they're chatty and welcoming, but there sure are a couple loud and toxic drivers, especially in the irating range you mentioned. I guess I'm fortunate this really doesn't happen in Indy fixed which is typically all I race, although there are also some bad apples there. I can understand spur of the moment, but some folks take it to the extreme. I do hope this video provides perspective to anyone that might have inadvertently done something similar. Great stuff Brendan!

heres the thing, the message your sending about not joining sim racing if your toxic, those types of people are the ones that wont gaf about what you think. theyll join the game anyway

Bro really compared iRating with a guy that finished ahead of him lol. lmao, even.

I finally had the opportunity to go back to Elko speedway for the first time in 14 years this last weekend and saw first hand how respectful the on track racing was. Minimal incidents, cars driven within the drivers capability, space given after a tense mistake or moment. Lessons from the real world that will be taken back with me to the sim. This wide range of drivers were more mature than most of the cup series and it made for some great racing. Also, i want a 110LL candle for immersion, but my girlfriend will end me. Keep the videos going Brendan, maybe ill see you and the team on track some day!

Like DJ said, the 2k area in iRacing is probably the best right now, and that's where im at. Sure people get upset when they end up on the short end of the stick, and you end up with a rotten tomato here and there. but a lot of the guys in and around this irating are there to have fun, and it makes sim racing enjoyable! and thats how it should be! And as much as I want to chase a childhood dream and become a racecar driver, I wasn't born into a racing family, so i'd either have to buy myself in or work my butt off to prove to someone im worth something... as you said, I have to remind myself of reasonable expectation, that my dream probably wont happen. It sucks, but its a reality we all have to face, and some of us just get lucky.

The toxicity is why I left

I’ve seen a lot of this toxicity increase since covid I try to stay off the race chat as much as possible I do get annoyed at the ppl who are toxic or constantly complain and I’ve been known to mic up after guys wreck and won’t drop it and ask them “ if you keep complaining do you think your car will magically unwreck itself?” Usually that ends the complaining Lol but I typically leave it at that.

I think the worst I've witnessed in iracing was someone who was above 5k SR whispering me after the race insulting me for being "bad" and telling me to delete my game and never race again. Thanks to the 87 nascar series (which I love with a passion) I was able to boost my rating from 1300 to 3100 in under 2 seasons ( i racing only on weekends) and I've noticed several things as the demographic of my racing changed. Below 2k people are toxic on mic(yell and complain after a wreck), 2500-3000+ SR people are quiet and are just there to have fun (some of the best racing Ive had yet) but the people above 4k SR are total dicks, self entitled pricks, and will attack lower rating racers.

This is exactly why I’m very reserved about entering online races. I’m not as quick as others and haven’t developed my racecraft as much as I should because I’m uncomfortable with the level of toxicity. I’m all about learning and have no problem taking constructive feedback when I do something wrong or make a mistake, but the thought of being yelled at and harassed because I’ve either made a mistake and punted someone or been in the way due to lack of online experience just puts me off. I love racing as a positive distraction and a way to scratch my competitive itch but the thought of being yelled at or ending up in a RU-vidr video as an example of low driving standards really blocks me when I try to enter races. I know it’s a mental barrier to climb and I’m working on it, but it shouldn’t be a barrier for these reasons. Thanks for bringing up the subject. Great video.

I keep voice chat off nowadays and let them yell into empty web nothingness lol. Most toxic iRacing moment for me was a Legends car race - everybody was a total douche lol. Haven't been back.

This is the first video I saw from your channel but I must agree with what you are saying. I have an expensive rig like yours, but I bought it to make it feel more real to me and to have fun. I really do not care about I-rating but I do care about safety rating. I think this is the biggest problem with toxic drivers. I try to race clean and yes I sure do make mistakes, I always apologize when I do. I do sometimes get upset about stupid drivers but at the end of the day I'm just there to have fun. I feel I get that but I agree the level of toxic drivers seems to have increased and hurts the over all experience for everyone. I hope more I-Racers see this video.

I can think of two reasons why the 3k-4k iRating bracket tends to be the most toxic. It's just competent enough that people can get into a mindset that they'd be consistently up at the front and have a really high iRating if not for the driving of other people (when it's usually their own ability to deal with traffic and make good racing decisions that is holding them back). It's also competent enough that people can use their iRacing performance to bolster their self confidence and ego, but not consistently so. Good enough to get that mental 'hit' from being better than most on a good day but not good enough that their confidence/ego won't get knocked on a bad one. (of course, it's better to not pin ones self-worth on ones performance in a racing game)

Amazing video, thank you for shedding light on this topic. Lately I’ve had the drive to race, grind, etc., but when I do a race and a small incident happens (with me or someone else), it will sometimes go nuclear. And that just flat out ruins the experience for me and makes me want to stop. It’s not enjoyable whenever the atmosphere you’re in is clouded by a couple bad apples going off on each other. And I’m glad you brought up RTP, there are quite a lot of people that think they have a shot and carry that ego into wherever they go. You can make it from a lower split (the one time I advanced into Round 2, I started in like 9th split with a 4800 or something like that) with a lot of luck and consistency, and I feel like that gets into a decent amount of people’s heads that are lower on the totem pole. People seem to care a lot about their iRating and almost make it seem like that’s their entire self-worth on iRacing, which does not help either. I, myself, am guilty of that and it’s not a healthy way of thinking. To go in hand with RTP, egos, and whatever may have you, I feel like there needs to be a limit and restrictions on who can enter. I feel as if that would help calm people down somewhat, because then they wouldn’t be under of the assumption of “Oh, I can go Pro just because I’m at X rating” and blah blah. I can speak a lot on the Qualifying series and what it’s done. I also feel as if setup shops have ruined the community. You’ll have random people get attached to a certain shop and they instantly think they’re better than everyone else, all because they have “X Setup Shop” on the side of their vehicle, when that’s not the case. I haven’t been on iRacing for a long time, but with the stuff I’ve heard from teammates & friends, it’s so much worse now than it was like 3 or so years ago. Apologies for the long rant, but I just want things to get better!

My idea of sim racing is to just enjoy myself and have fun while driving cars I'll never get to drive in the real world. On iRacing I'll leave the voice chat on even if I have my mic firmly switched off so I can get a laugh from the dumb things people say that make me feel better about my own intelligence.

This is exactly why I mute all drivers and just listen to the spotter and then the crew chief app. I want to hear stuff that actually helps me not somebody whining about something or another. Sure some drivers don't like it since they can't communicate with me but it's really only a big deal on super speedways, which I hate anyway. So normally don't run those.

For me, I do not only better but also get less frustrated by the idiots by having a quick meditation session. For example when we are waiting for everyone to finish Qualy. I also do this before my IRL races too. And the key is for me to not to get too amped up while racing. I need to have a voice in my head to say, “hey, take it easy, keep your head down. Well tell him FU by beating him.”

My most toxic race happened a few months ago. I was in the limited late models at Lucas oil. Off the start this driver dove into t1 hard and doored me. I asked “really? 1st turn huh”. I was still ahead of him and about 5 laps later he came up out of t2 and doored me hard, sending me over the pit exit berm and as a result I couldn’t turn and ended up hitting the wall and when I bounced off I hit his rear qtr, turning him near mid straight, so he thought I did it on purpose. I told him what happened and that I didn’t do it on purpose and he should watch the replay to see it was him who started a chain of events that led to the accident… but he wasn’t having it. Even after I apologized to try to deescalate the situation (even though it was an honest accident and not my fault) he proceeded to tell me “I was f””””ing done”, then brake checked me twice, dove into several corners to try to take me out resulting in several other drivers getting wrecked. I was hoping he would’ve been dq’d but dirt incidents are so forgiving that he managed to run the entire race and ruined not only my race but a few other drivers as well

I've been simracing since the whole quarantine thing started, and I've had my fair share of toxicity, not on iRacing (don't have the money) but more so on GT7 and the F1 games (surprisingly not ACC). I was doing a daily race in GT7 with GT3s at the Nürburgring, andI accidentally ran a guy wide, and I slowed down to give back the position. After that, the dude started hunting me like I was deer. Every time I got closer to him he'd always crash into me. Simracing has the potential to be super good, but if behavior like this keeps happening, it might die.

From my limited experience the modifieds are pretty chill. I'd recommend that series. Street stocks and late models are also pretty fun.

Most of the time I'm pretty quiet on the radio. But sometimes I have lost my cool, just because of some people being complete idiots. First couple years on the service, it was mostly die hard racers and pros and not much streaming. Last couple years, Iracing has been getting treated less serious and drivers are just being dumb on purpose for views on RU-vid and Twitch. 9th year on Iracing and I just race for fun now and don't care much about Irating etc. Great video and keep up the great work :)

*laughs in mute while on track* However yeah it sucks that people are so toxic I have terrible anxiety and when people want to lose their cool over a little issue. Like its a game just chill and relax that's why I play EVEN in sim racing.

Damn, what a shame - 5 to 10 years back, the Truck series was probably the funnest NASCAR series. The racing was good, and everyone respected each other on track. If the guy behind you got the run on you, you licked your woind, kept your head down, and looked for the chance to get that position back. About the worst thing I ever saw back then was during a Cup series race at Daytona where the guy running 2nd kept blocking and brake checking the guy behind who kept getting a run on him. Well, on one of those, he ended up clipping the nose of the guy behind him and taking him out - dude was so furious that he wouldn’t stop screaming for at least a minute… he then went around the track and slowed down at the entrance to Turn 3, then timed it perfectly and just ran up the middle of the track when the lead pack got there - a true ”Road Rage” incident, lol. Let’s just say I was happy to be in the 2nd drafting pack, which gave us enough time to slow down and drive around the carnage.

I've been on iRacing for 8 months now and while I am very competitive cause that is me I have had a good experience on it cause I to just want to race and have a good time. I been very blessed at this point to have 16 wins on iRacing as is. I'm proud to say I have come far.

I’ve got my “mute driver” hot key mapped to my button box to help. Doesn’t change their shitty racecraft, but makes for a nicer experience on iRacing

Hi Brandon! I’ve been sim racing since 1999 and this toxicity is so bad and race craft is completely gone! People not wanting to accept responsibility, no one saying sorry, just saying what you did wrong.

Toxic people will never admit that they are toxic and will look at themselves as calm and collected. So the tiltle won't really work out with most people

I've had a fair share of toxic incidents - the most toxic of which involved someone sending multiple DMs on the forums hours after the race had ended. I think part of the problem is there are no resources that new drivers are given to determine what is good racecraft. The vast majority of incidents are due to incompetence and mistakes, but unfortunately most people just assume the worst of others. That being said, I've also had a bunch of really great interactions with drivers after things have cooled off. Shoutout to those on the iRacing service who are self aware enough to apologize for incidents they caused or apologize for things they said in the heat of the moment.

I've been on iRacing since 2013, I'm here for the toxicity. It's entertaining and gets me through all the yellow flag periods. I can't tell you how much I've laughed and have enjoy racing more listening to people argue.

It’s funny you posted this… I thought it was the tax I was in… nascar trucks series is horrible.. always a few people that wreck others intentionally just because they can’t handle the power of the truck lol it’s crazy… and then they ask why it’s unranked

People take this way too seriously. I'm not going to be a pro iRacing driver and I'm not going to waste my time on it. I just do this to have fun. Video games, racing sims, whatever, are supposed to be fun. If people are faster than me, cool. If people get in a wreck with me, fine. Stuff happens.

I feel like people get more toxic in the summer.... It's really crazy how iracing has changed in the one year I've been on.. lots of people mad all the time and crashing others for no reason

My toxicity is usually me just ranting for like a SECOND and hell i even start cutting up jokes with the guy i was ranting with maybe. For example, in 2022 February for the 500, I got really pissed because it was like lap 123 of 200 and this guy up front lost control no biggy. Things happen. He saved it once i thought heck ya, then he lost control again. Basically imagine someone saving it on the apron at Daytona. Backa nd forth back and forth. He did it 3 times and then his last attempt he overcorrected into the pack. After I got collected in it, I went "fu** dude, you saved it 3 times just give up. Wouldve saved us all a headache and maybe even yourself if you had just spun yourself in the grass.

I've had an iRacing account for nearly 3 years now, but I still only have rookie licenses, because I only ever race in private leagues and hosted sessions. The one time I ventured out into anything vaguely professional (I was invited to a series hosted by Podium), I just couldn't take all the sweaty rage whenever there was a wreck. I quit two of their races, and I don't think I'll be going back anytime soon.

I thought you made some really good points. Thank you for making this. I always try to remind myself and others (usually with no success) that sometimes racing incidents and mistakes happen. The most toxic interaction I’ve had was actually in a hosted lobby. The field was spread on the last lap I think because of a crash. I had a guy chasing me down coming to the line so I threw a block. Keep in mind we all know each other in this lobby so most of us are laughing and having fun. This guy absolutely loses it on me, cusses me out, I tell him to calm down and then boots me from the lobby. Apparently he had admin control and a conversation was had about it afterwards. I called him out for his toxicity but to my knowledge nothing was done about it. Everyone else had fun and thought it was hilarious though so I guess that’s what matters.

I joined iRacing about 2.5 years ago, and I would have to agree that the state of iRacing in terms of the drivers has deteriorated significantly even in that short span. This may be a bit off-base, but I feel like the issue a lot of people have is that they set their expectations way too high going into each race. The Coke series fans all think they're the next Bobby Zalenski, but in reality, they're just a small fish in an ever-growing pond. I've always approached each race very carefully by first checking the SOF and remembering that gaining iRating/SR in any series is achieved by driving smart, not by gunning for the win every time. In a lot of scenarios, you can gain both just by not being "that guy" who wrecks the entire field and being overly agressive and surviving to the end of the race. My personal cure for being a hotheaded driver is set reasonable goals, like "get a top X finish" depending on the SOF and number of drivers in the race.

"Look out for number seven guys. He's gonna go pro one day!" Sounds like something Weregonnalose would say lol

The league of legends players got a g29 wheels during the pandemic

iracing feels actually really nice even for beginners, especially if people man up to their mistakes most people react very kind the iracing discord tho is prob the most toxic and newbie unfriendly sht I've ever witnessed online

Every single person who uses the Sim needs to watch this video.

I believe average iRating is around 1300. 3000-4000 is way above average. But not enough to be pro! I think low 2000s is already in top 10% or so. Not justifying their behavior at all though!

Iracing for me is toxic😂 it’s been stressing me out because I like the completion of a race but getting nose bumped or hit because a racer wants to take a position drives me mad. I race super formula where you get wrecked off the smallest hit. Anyway I’ve grown to 1.8k irating and even in a top split you just get overly aggressive people willing to hit you just for a pos, it’s taken the fun out of the game for me. I’ll be just playing AC or other games with less worry about irating and SR❤

I can't believe a guy with 3700 irating tried to "irating check" another 3k guy lol

You are 1000% correct in that they would love the publicity no matter the reason. As an example, I was in a Sprint car race with a RU-vidr who does iRacing, but is an up and coming Sprint Car racer. During this race at Kokomo, he smoked the field. I finished 2nd in that race and he was directly behind me. So he all but lapped the field. During this race there was a guy running who every time he was passed by this RU-vidr he would basically just drive into the back of him in the corners until he could get a gap. After everything was over someone asked him why he was doing that, he responded with "Because now I'm gonna be on RU-vid!" never mind the fact this guy rarely, if ever posted iRacing videos on his channel. Plus I've seen the same type of behavior on some of Kneebon5's videos, someone will be driving "normally" then when Nick passes them, suddenly they start driving like an idiot. They think they're gonna be famous now...

one time I was racing with this one guy in C-fixed Streets at Southern National. We were running two wide for a few laps when suddenly he drifts up into me and we wreck, I felt like I held my line on the outside, but its southern national and c class street stocks. On the restart we resume with two wide until it happens again. He then full throttles me in the next turn and tells me I dont know how to race and that I need to learn to back out of certain situations. Not the worst experience one could have, but thought it was worth sharing.

Watched the Coca Cola iRacing series last night and saw some good and bad. Most importantly the 2nd place car didn't drive through the 1st place car on the final corner when he could have. Sadly, last years winner got 100K for driving through people.

The most toxic thing I've experienced was something threatening me because I rear ended him on accident because my brakes locked up after he pute me a lap down.

Obviously the all star off road championshop is a pro series

Most toxic on track, low split gt4 race there was a guy who i later found out was tanking his irating. I out qualified him, and got a surprise pole. I lead 5 laps, I knew he was faster but I was going to try my best. The driver knew how brake a lot better than me, so on chat he decided to name call, accuse me of brake checking, and flat out saying im not good. Then he threatened protest. He then continued to do this the rest of the race. Mind you no contact not even a 0x between us. I basically told him he is everything wrong with iracing. Protested him for language, protested him threats, and went back and found the tanking. Got him on that too. No suspension but he stopped tanking for the most part. The thing I learned from that experience mute the mic. Ive been muting ever since and Ive been much happier. Off track, the forums can be horrible. There is one individual and when he needs to lay low his friend. They're trying to change the way racing is in on the short track side. If you like a track they hate, you are an automatic idiot. They're stymying the series that they've been dominating the last year. "you only race one race a week, you dont get to have a say on what happens in the series even if you have a few hundred starts." Maybe after 3 years i just need a break. Iracing was a fun hobby during the pandemic, but if it keeps getting more and more toxic ill spend my money on hobbies that are more constructive. Its getting to that point where its not fun anymore and im not sure if it ever will be.

After 10 years of this, I've come down to the following. If I'm in a race with no likely green flag pit stops, voice chat is definitely turned off, and I'll turn off text chat while driving. In my opinion There really is nothing positive that comes from voice or text chat in an official pick up type series for me. I'll just get more pissed off at the stupid stuff being said. League races, voice and text are on

i was toxic onece then i got banned and learned my lession and now if its my fault or not I apologize

I feel like this ties in to the iRacing Daytona 24 hours fiasco. This sort of unsportsmanlike conduct pervades even the highest level, which is unfortunate.

I would say 99% of the races I've been in have not had much of that. I never assume that if someone hits me it was on purpose. I'm not sure why most others do. If I hit someone, I apologize, even if I'm not sure it was my fault. Typically that's the only thing I say during a race that doesn't have to do with letting someone go, pitting, etc. If I get wrecked out of a race, I don't say anything at all. The only toxic incident I've ever had was an A Open at Homestead where I clipped a car trying to get back in line. Immediately apologized and he didn't hear me because he was ranting about me spinning him on purpose. Later in the race he ran me up high and tried to wreck me in front of the leaders and then after the race went on another rant. I responded, I shouldn't have. I won't turn off chat, I have learned how to mute individual drivers though. When I joined in 2008, rookie races were horrible. Most of those people didn't advance so they didn't stick around. Sim Racing was and actually still is a very small community. Now there's a lot of "gamers" and it's getting worse. Honestly though it's pretty much that way in the world in general. Everyone seems to think if you have a different opinion than theirs, you are an idiot. As you mentioned, The Dunning-Kruger effect.

The problem simply boils down to this: Everyone thinks they drive like Dale Sr but actually has less skills than Danica

I usually treat iRacing as a tool for my ability to grow race craft and understanding. Whether I win or lose is irrelevant to the other aspects of racing that I deal with IRL. That said, I do agree that some treat it too seriously and make bad behavioral decisions because of that. To that extent I hope that we take our time to take steps away from that behavior because we won’t have the right mentality to race the best we can race.

I will just shame them, i know im a caboose racer. Do many baby egos in racing and people get sooo pressed in rookie races

near the end of that race i asked in chat how the race had been, well I guess now I know.

C fixed and midpack guys beefing. No duo more iconic

3 bad experiences for me, 2 oval and one road, and I'm a road guy First was c fixed at Phoenix about a year ago. I accidentally tapped some guy from the southern states, apologized, but he kept going. Basically told me that because I'm from New Zealand, that my country was shit because we don't have the right to bear arms, saying we had the Christchurch mosque attack coming because we can't defend ourselves, needless to say everyone else in the lobby backed me, and I haven't seen him since Tommy Gunn. I did the c fixed at Wilkesboro, and some jerkoff was just being a dick, claiming he was better than everyone in the lobby as he was a pro mma fighter etc etc, could beat all of us both in the track and cage, I looked him up, his last pro fight was in 2017, and he didn't win, he had 4 fights booked after covid but he no showed, iykyk Had a guy in mx5s missile me at laguna Seca, just because he thought I left a gap. Used the whole senna quote and everything, I called him out, and he challenged me to a 1v1 dirt oval race, because that was his specialty, he was less than 500ir on dirt, and less than 250 on road

The road racing crowd is far less toxic than the oval crowd, which mirrors real life. Oval culture is more fixated on the carnage and the feuds, with exceptions of course.

Great video, I know I am bad about being a iracing commenter in arguments....I also like to egg it on sometimes @.@

This should be required viewing before anyone runs their first race in rookies.

I'm actually only a couple weeks out from finishing my first year on the service, and overall I'd say it's been pretty positive with very little toxicity. Now, I know that's far from overarching and there has been plenty of unacceptable behavior along the way that I've witnessed and even been a victim of. The worst that I have personally experienced was one of the top oval drivers on the platform as a whole trying to ream me out for a mistake I made in the Late Models. Mind, I was only 2 months into my sim racing hobby at that point in the first place, so personally I feel I was doing pretty alright if I was being put in top splits with drivers like him lol Either way, if that's the worst I've experienced in 12 months, I say I've been pretty fortunate. At the end of the day, I'm just there to have fun and live out what I can of a dream that I could never realistically attain in the real world of being a racecar driver.

During an indycar race at charlotte with a sof of ~2k one driver was particularly toxic. He throwing blocks berating people through voice chat and just generally being a dick. Checking his profile he had a bunch of racist and xenophobic sayings all over his profile. After reporting his profile he hasn't raced in a few months. Iracing relies on the community to report these goofs. If these people continue to go unreported the problem wont be solved.

A big thing that creates toxicity is not knowing the rules. The biggest one to me is in oval, and it's going 3 wide rules. You can tell by how they drive that 98% are unaware that the car making it 3 wide is responsible for the wrecks caused, and it's something that can be protested, every time. If they were aware of the rules, they wouldn't be going 3 wide every lap and keeping it 3 wide for successive Laos. Yes, the pro's do it, but they're professionals. 98% of iRacers are not.

Next to LoL sim racing has to be next, people can be quite mean

My most toxic experience in iracing: some kid spun himself off my nose rookie street stocks charlotte... called me the n-word in *all teams* chat : |

IRacing once someone wrecked me and kept send me rude chats, same day messages my fb too like bro chill, you took me out then come harass me

I like this kinda "simracing philosophy" video stuff, would be cool to see more of it on a variety of different issues/subjects. Unfortunately though, I think there is a bit of a Dunning-Kruger effect-ish thing going on with the toxicity side too, as I don't think those toxic people really consider themselves toxic, and therefore don't put any thought into how they should behave. Personally I think there should be some tolerance for "blowing off steam" when something happens and we should have thick skin on the internets. Real race drivers absolutely say mean stuff about each other into their helmet or team radio, and we have all thought, or said out loud to ourselves or our team chat channel "jeez this guy is an idiot" (or worse) when we see someone out of control or rejoining unsafely or whatever... But it shouldn't carry on. Grumbling in the moment is part of it, but you should be able to drop it and get on with the rest of the race. Carrying on about it for multiple laps, going after other details (iRating, name, voice, etc) that are irrelevant, threats, and so on are all taking things way too far. I'm not on iRacing because I'm broke, but I've organized community races on various games/sims for 20 years, and one of the worst toxic things I've seen came from a low-skill driver leading a race going off on another lower-skill driver over a clumsy attempt at putting them a lap down. They had raced together for around 3 years at that point, and the leader had lectured everyone that very night about being patient and careful, especially in traffic and communicating well, but then didn't communicate clearly or drive carefully given they had a 12 second lead, although the guy getting lapped did brake erratically when he realized the leader was trying to get past. The leader still limped to the line and won, but then went on a week long rant to staff, accusing the lapper of deliberately trying to wreck him so the lapper's teammate could win, saying it was intentional because one time 4 years prior the lapper got mad about something he said, calling the lapper all sorts of names and ripping on their driving, then demanding staff ban the lapper, then attacking a few specific staff when they tried to offer advice. Staff instead decided to suspend the leader for his attitude, who played the "you can't fire me I quit" card by saying he had already left the league.

didnt know this channel til now, new sub and hope i get to see you on the track some time

Toxic iRacers in comments be like: “I’m right you’re wrong end of story” “You’re a (expletive galore) (even though it wasn’t your fault) “You’re the one at fault even though you were the leader and I was a lapped car at a super speedway” “You’re wrong because you watch Austin Ogonoski’s content” And whatever people did to that Connor guy in that race on Atlanta

My Worst experience in iRacing? flatout racism. I have a Middle Eastern name. I make mistakes. I'm not the best driver, and I don't like to communicate. When I had voice chat turned on, I heard remarks that are either stereotypes or just hurtful comments related to where they perceive me to be from. And when I turned it off, I still one time got a comment about an aviation related incident that happened at the start of the century

Honeycutt being toxic? No never. Anytime I’ve heard that dude key up it’s always some bullshit. The toxicity is terrible anymore and you’re 100% right it’s the higher iratings. Big egos.

i was in a rookie race and a lapped car got angry at me for asking him to let me by did i do anything wrong?

I’d rather deal with Assetto Corsa’s ai then deal with toxic sin racers.

Best way to race on iracing is in a league. Open lobbies suck

Also where is this Road to Pro series? I dont see it

Who was he talking about at the end about their attitude catching up?

I think iRacing proves that a non-anonymous internet would be nicer is false