AI Racing
With iRacing AI you can race against highly adjustable computer-controlled drivers!
You Can Race Against iRacing AI in Three Main Ways
#1 Single Races
Create a one-time race against an AI field with any available car & track combo!
#2 Championship Seasons
Race a full championship season against AI, the schedule is all up to you!
#3 Hosted & League Races
Fill out the field of your hosted or league race with additional AI drivers!
How to Access iRacing AI
iRacing AI can only be accessed through the iRacing UI. To access the iRacing UI, launch iRacing using your desktop shortcut.
Once you’re in the UI, click “AI Single Player” in the navigation bar on the left side of the application.
Competing against iRacing AI will not affect your iRating or your Safety Rating.
In iRacing AI competitions, you are always racing against computer-controlled AI Drivers. Your driving in these races has no bearing on your iRating or your Safety Rating.
Learn More About iRating & Safety Rating → https://www.iracing.com/license-progression/
AI Enabled Cars & Tracks
https://support.iracing.com/en/support/solutions/articles/31000159313-what-content-is-currently-available-on-ai
#1 Single Races Against AI
How to Setup a Single AI Race
To access an iRacing AI Single Race from the AI Racing page, click the “Single Race” button in the top-right corner. A new window will appear that walks you through setting up your event in a step-by-step process. You will be able to select which track you would like to race on, which car you will drive, and what form the race event will take, such as including no Practice, and having the race be measured in laps or time. You can also fully customize a variety of other options including: weather, track conditions, track options, and time of day. Finally, you can also select which car(s) your AI opponents will drive and customize their difficulty. Here, you can even select the “Avoid Me” option, which makes your AI Opponents try very hard to not strike your car. When you’re finished, you’ll jump right into the iRacing Simulator and start racing!
#2 Championship AI Seasons
How to Setup AI Season
To create a new AI Season, click the “Create a Season” button in the top-right corner. A new window will appear that walks you through setting up a new AI Season. Just like an AI Single Race, you will follow many of the same steps such as selecting your car, weather, session types, AI opponent roster, track options, track conditions, and time of day. The biggest difference between setting up an AI Single Race and an AI Season is that you will be able to select multiple tracks – one for each event in the AI Season, and that the options you select may be further customized for each event in the AI Season!
Each track added is a single event in the AI Season, and features its own customization menus for race sessions, weather, track options, track conditions, and time of day. Each of these options allows you to configure each event so that they can be unique within the AI Season, instead of all having the same race parameters. For instance, you could run your first event, a 100 lap race at Daytona International Speedway – Oval on a windy day at high-noon, and then run your second event, a two hour race at Daytona International Speedway – Oval on a hot Summer’s night!
Finally, you have the opportunity to set your Championship Points system for the AI Season. Multiple real-world point systems are available for you to select, or create a custom system of your own design.
Once you’ve set up your AI Season, hit the green “Save” button. This will then open your AI Season event for review, and you can click “Race” to begin your pursuit of the championship!
#3 Hosted & League Races
Multiple iRacers from all over the world can trade paint with AI drivers for the first time as AI Hosted events come to iRacing with the 2021 Season 4 build! Using any of our AI-enabled content, you’ll be able to create race sessions that fill up the field with virtual drivers to compete alongside real iRacers. This functionality works with both regular Hosted sessions and with Leagues.
How it Works
Create an AI Hosted session the same way you would create any other Hosted session. We recommend that the iRacer with the best connection serve as the host. Only AI-enabled tracks will be eligible for AI Hosted sessions.
iRacers register for, and join, the AI hosted session. While the AI drivers will only be able to compete in AI-enabled cars, the host may create a session that allows other iRacers to run in cars that aren’t AI-enabled.
The AI roster in the session will be linked to the iRacer who creates the AI Hosted session. This roster may be created on the spot, or selected from rosters that you’ve already built. When the host joins the server, the AI cars join; if the host leaves the server, the AI cars leave. If the host returns, the AI cars return as well.
AI Opponents enter the Session and fill grid slots as soon as the Session Host Joins the Session. To ensure all desired Humans are able to join a Session, the Host should Register for their Session, but wait to Join until the very end of the Registration time – otherwise, AI Drivers may fill slots that could be instead taken by Humans.
Before the Session Host clicks to Join their Session, the Session Host can select the amount of AI Opponents that should join with them when they click their Join button via a slider next to the Join button. This could be any number from zero to the full AI Opponent Roster!
If the AI roster is not big enough to fill all remaining open grid spots, new iRacers will still be able to join.
AI Frequently Asked Questions
What AI content comes with iRacing AI?
By default, iRacing provides you with an Official AI Season. This AI Season may be used as is, customized as you’d like, or simply used as a reference for creating your own unique AI content!
Running an Official AI Season will create a copy of the Official AI Season with your results. Official AI content can be copied and customized, but cannot be deleted.
When I use a Car Class AI Opponent Roster, how is iRacing generating the AI Drivers?
iRacing AI comes equipped with a pre-set list of AI Drivers that it uses to fill Car Class AI Opponent Rosters so you can get on track immediately. These AI Drivers are given reasonable settings to keep the racing both fun and competitive. However, you can also randomly generate an AI Opponent Roster, or build your own from scratch if you’re looking for a new challenge.
If you’re feeling adventurous, you can create your own roster of up to 60 AI Opponents to compete against. Custom AI Opponent Rosters include custom paint jobs, adjustable driver personalities, customizable racing skills, and much more. Finally, please keep in mind iRacing AI continues to develop – using very large fields of AI Opponents may have an impact on your frame rate as well as cause some unpredictable AI behavior.
Visit our AI Racing How-To page on AI Opponent Rosters for more information on building and adjusting AI Opponent Rosters: https://www.iracing.com/ai-rosters/
How do I adjust the skill level of the AI Opponent Roster for an event?
When you are creating the AI event, on the “Set AI” step, adjust the Skill Spread values to a minimum and maximum value that fit your driving skill. This will automatically scale all AI Opponents to have a driving skill value within the Skill Spread range.
Can I share my user-generated iRacing AI Seasons with my friends?
Yes! When a new iRacing AI Season is saved, it creates a new AI Season file on your computer. You can find these files in the following folder location: …\Documents\iRacing\aiseasons.
Here, you will see a series of .json files, each with the name of one of your AI Seasons. You can easily share these “.json” files with anyone you wish; just have them save the file inside their own …\Documents\iRacing\aiseasons folder. Then, next time they launch iRacing via the iRacing UI, and navigate to the AI Racing section, they will see the AI Season in their iRacing Simulator! If you had run any of the events in the AI Season before sharing the file out, your race results will be included in the AI Season. If you want to send a fresh AI Season without your results in it, simply use the “Copy” button on the AI Season first to generate a fresh AI Season, then share that one.
Does the Simulator look any different when running iRacing AI?
When you start an AI Racing event, the interface is almost entirely the same, with just a few added options. Once loaded into the Simulator, on either side of the usual Practice/Qualify/Race button, you will see a “Prev” button and “Next” button. You can use these to go back to the previous session, or skip ahead to the next session. For example, if you have a bad start and want to try again, use the “Prev” button to restart the Race, or, if you get a great Qualifying lap and are ready to move to the Race, click the “Next” button.
Can I pause my race?
Since you are actually the only human out on the track, yes! While you’re driving, you can use the Pause hotkey on your keyboard to freeze the simulation if you need to step away.
Note: This will not work in hosted or league sessions.
Can I re-run a bad race after it’s complete?
Yes! If you want to re-run an event in your AI Season before moving on to the next one, use the “Re-run Last Race” option to give it another try.
Help! I lost my iRacing-provided AI content!
If you don’t see any Official iRacing AI content when you first launch the iRacing UI after an update, log out, close the iRacing UI, and try relaunching it again.
Please visit https://www.iracing.com/ai-racing/ for information on AI and how to use it