iRacing uses a racing license system. Watch the video below to learn more.
When you start your career on iRacing, you’ll find yourself with 4 Rookie licenses, one for each discipline of racing featured on iRacing: Oval, Road, Dirt Oval, and Dirt Road.
We have since broken out Road into Sports Car and Forumula Car licenses:
Each of these licenses is independent of one another and are affected each time you compete in an event on this discipline.
iRacing’s ranked series are separated by license level, with more entry-level cars requiring a lower license, and higher class cars requiring a higher license. You can visit the “Current Series” tab under the “Go Racing” header, in order to see all of our active series during any given season, and learn which cars and tracks are being used at which license levels.
If you’re just looking to enjoy top-tier cars from championships like the NASCAR Cup Series, NTT DATA INDYCAR Series, or the World of Outlaws, you’re able to do that right away as an iRacing Rookie with series like the Carburetor Cup, Dallara Dash, Pickup Cup or Sling Mud for Fun. These series are “Unranked”, and competing in them will not affect your Safety Rating, Minimum Participation Requirements, or iRating.
To find other unranked series, filter the page you are on for the “Unranked” tag, and any unranked series will be sorted on to your screen. Likewise, to filter these series out, select the “Ranked” tag, and any unranked series will be hidden from your view.
Of note, user-created races, like leagues and hosted sessions, are also unranked and do not affect your Safety Rating or Minimum Participation Requirement
Please refer to section 3 'License Class' in the Sporting Code for more information.