How does iRacing compare to Assetto Corsa?
AC Pros
- Has by far the most content due to all the mods available (its not all consistently good quality though)
- Cheap with a ton of content
- Can be made to look like the best looking racing game on the market via free mods like CCP
- Has road cars, something iracing lacks
AC Negs
- Multiplayer is pretty dead relative to other sims and the stuff that exists is mostly populated by casual racers and slow potatoes.
- Physics and tyre model are a little dated relative to more modern sims, both ACC and iRacing are superior nowadays.
- Not much of an actual game, its mostly good for just driving around on track by yourself due to poor AI
IRacing Pros
- By far the best platform for online racing, nothing else comes close
- Biggest player base by far and is generally taken a lot more 'serious' than other competitors thus the quality of racing is usually superior to what you will find in other sims
- All types of racing covered (Open Wheel, GT, Prototype, Touring Cars, Oval, Dirt etc)
- Has more or less every feature you could ever want from an online racing game such as insanely detailed stat tracking, team racing, leagues, divisions etc etc
- Probably the most polished and feature complete sim on the market (single player stuff excluded)
iRacing Cons
- By far the most expensive platform for online racing, a lot of people can't justify the cost... this ultimately is what helps keep the player base a lot more serious than other games though.
- Graphics and lighting are fairly dated albeit with some nice bells and whistles attached to make it look a bit more modern...
- Single player functionality with AI is still quite basic but what is there is done pretty well
- A lot of people lose patience in the rookie series because it lumps all the noobs together often resulting in carnage, this can give people the (false) impression that the player base is no better than other sims
TLDR : If you are new to sim racing then AC is the logical first choice for its low cost and free content via mods. If you then want to take it to the next level in terms of online racing id look at ACC (provided you are happy to drive just GT3 and GT4 cars) and then finally if you are addicted to sim racing online then iRacing is your final destination. I spent £20 on AC, £45 on ACC (including the DLC's) and about £3500+ on iracing alone... you don't need to spend that much, I just loved it so much I ended up buying 100% content over the 12 year period I have been using the sim.