iRacing Career Progression Paths - How To Progress Each Discipline (2024)

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Understanding iRacing progression

Your iRacing license progression is the key to unlocking more series to race in. Your license sits independently of your iRating (which is a rating of your overall speed and ability) and is instead dictated more by your safety rating.

The individual licenses that you can progress through in iRacing are;

• Rookie license
• D license
• C license
• B license
• A license
• Pro license
• Pro WC license

Every racer starts their journey at the rookie license level, and you can never be demoted out of D license and back into rookie. That means once you are promoted out of your rookie license and into your D license, you will always have all D license series available to race.

How to get promoted in iRacing

To move up through the iRacing licenses and get promoted, you will need to meet the minimum participation requirements (MPR) for the next license. These normally involve a participation criteria, such as race in at least 4 events. And then you’ll also need to ensure that your safety rating is higher than 3.00 at the end of the season.

Now is probably a good time to talk about iRacing seasons. Throughout the course of a calendar year, iRacing will host multiple seasons. Each season is your chance to get promoted to the next class.

You need to ensure you meet the MPR for the next license and have a safety rating of at least 3.00 before the end of the season to be promoted. If you do both of these things, you’ll be promoted to the next class.

If your safety rating dips below 2.00 when the season ends, you will be demoted to a lower license.

Read our complete guide to iRacing licenses explained for more detailed information.

iRacing career progression paths

As mentioned in our iRacing license guide, you have four individual licenses in iRacing, one for each discipline of racing. These disciplines include Asphalt Oval, Asphalt Road, Dirt Oval and Dirt Road.

Each discipline features a different range of series that are unlocked as you progress each individual license. Your license for all four licenses are individual. This means, that if you progress to a C license in Asphalt Road, you won’t automatically progress to C license in Asphalt Oval.

Below are the progression paths for each discipline of racing in iRacing.

Asphalt Oval

Asphalt Oval is the home of everything NASCAR in iRacing. There are also open-wheel racing series throughout the Asphalt Oval discipline. There are a total of 35 racing series that make up Asphalt Oval racing in iRacing, mainly NASCAR series.

Rookie:

Closed Wheel

• Fanatec Street Stock Series – Rookie
• Rookie Legends Cup

D Class:

Closed Wheel

• iRacing ARCA Menards Series
• iRacing Late Model Tour – Fixed
• NASCAR iRacing Late Model Series

Open Wheel Racing

• SK Modified Weekly Series

C Class:

Closed Wheel

• Coliseum Clash
• iRacing Street Stock Series – C
• NASCAR iRacing Class C
• NASCAR iRacing Series
• NASCAR iRacing Series Clash
• NASCAR Super Late Model
• VRS Advanced Legends Cup
• Winter iRacing NASCAR Series

Open Wheel Racing

• NASCAR Tour Modified Series
• NASCAR Tour Modified Series – Fixed
• NTT Indycar Series – Fixed

B Class:

Closed Wheel

• NASCAR iRacing Class B
• NASCAR iRacing Class B – Fixed
• NASCAR Legends

Open Wheel Racing

• iRacing Silver Crown Cup
• iRacing Sprint Car Cup

A Class:

Closed Wheel

• eNASCAR Qualifying Road To The Pro Series
• NASCAR iRacing Class A Series
• NASCAR Next Gen Cup Series
• NASCAR Next Gen Cup Series – Fixed

Pro Class:

Closed Wheel

• eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series

Asphalt Road

The Asphalt Road racing discipline is the one that I have personally spent the most amount of time in. It’s here where you will find the GT3 cars as well as prototype and open-wheeled cars. This is without a doubt the most popular racing discipline and has 59 series in total.

Rookie:

GT Racing

• Fanatec Global Mazda MX-5 Cup

Open Wheel Racing

• Sim Racing Studio Formula Vee iRacing Series

D Class:

GT Racing

• BMW Sim GT Cup
• Falken Tyre GT4 Challenge – Fixed
• Fanatec Global Challenge
• Ferrari GT3 Challenge
• RUF GT3 Challenge
• SimLab Production Car Challenge
• Touring Car Challenge

Open Wheel Racing

• Formula Renault 2.0
• Road To Indy – USF2000
• Skip Barber Race Series

Prototypes

• SCCA Spec Racer Ford Challenge

C Class:

GT Racing

• Road Racing
• Advanced Mazda MX-5 Cup Series
• Bathurst 12HR
• Fanatec GT Challenge
• Heusinkveld GT Challenge
• IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge
• Porsche iRacing Cup – Open
• Porsche iRacing Cup – Fixed
• Supercar Series
• Supercar Series – Australian Servers
• VRS GT Endurance Series

Open Wheel Racing

• DOF Reality F3 Championship
• Grand Prix Legends
• Indy Pro 2000 Championship
• Vertagear F3 Championship – Fixed

Prototypes

• Kamel GT Championship
• Radical Racing Challenge

B Class:

GT Racing

• Fanatec GT3 Challenge
• IMSA Endurance Series
• IMSA Hagerty iRacing Series
• VRS GT Sprint Series

Open Wheel Racing

• Classic Lotus Grand Prix
• Dallara Formula iR
• iRacing Formula 3.5 Championship
• NTT Indycar Series – Open

Prototypes

• Ricmotech LMP2 Prototype Challenge

A Class:

GT Racing

• European Endurance Series
• Pure Driving School European Sprint Series

Open Wheel Racing

• iRacing Grand Prix Series
• iRacing Grand Prix Sprint Series – Fixed

Dirt Oval

The Dirt Oval racing discipline in iRacing is home to the super popular World of Outlaws series. There are a total of 24 different racing series in Dirt Oval consisting of Sprint cars and late models.

Rookie:

Late Models

• Buttkicker Sirtcar Street Stock Rookie Series
• iRacing Dirt Legends Cup

D Class:

Sprint Cars

• Fanatec 305 Sprint Car Series

Late Models

• DIRTcar Limited Late Model Series

Modifieds

• Engine Ice Dirtcar 358 Modified Series

C Class:

Sprint Cars

• DIRTcar 360 Sprint Car Series
• iRacing Chili Bowl Nationals
• iRacing Dirt Midget Cup
• USAC 360 Sprint Car Series

Late Models

• DIRTcar Pro Late Model Series
• World of Outlaws Super Late Model Series – Fixed
• DIRTcar Street Stock Series

Modifieds

• Super DIRTcar Series – Big Block Modifieds

B Class:

Sprint Cars

• AMSOIL USAC Sprint Car Championship
• World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series

Late Models

• World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series

Modifieds

• DIRTcar UMP Modified Series

Pro Class:

Sprint Cars

• World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Championship

Late Models

• World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Championship

Dirt Road

The Dirt Road racing discipline in iRacing is the newest addition. And it is also the series that features the least amount of racing series across all licenses. There are only a total of 9 series that are split across Rallycross and Off-Road Trucks.

Rookie:

Rallycross

• iRX Volkswagen Beetle Lite – Fixed

Trucks

• Pro 2 Lite Off-Road iRacing Series

D Class:

Rallycross

• iRX Volkswagen Beetle Lite

Trucks

• Pro 4 Off-Road iRacing Series

C Class:

Rallycross

• iRacing Rallycross Series – Fixed

Trucks

• Pro 2 Off-Road iRacing Series

B Class:

Rallycross

• iRacing Rallycross Series

Trucks

• Pro 2 & Pro 4 Off-Road iRacing Series

Pro Class:

Rallycross

• Yokohama iRacing Rallycross World Championship Series

How to unlock NASCAR Cup Series in iRacing

NASCAR racing in iRacing is extremely popular. That is very apparent as there are 14 racing series that all feature NASCAR cars, past and present. The pinnacle of these racing series is the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series which features a prize of $300,000.

With the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series being a Pro level event. Most NASCAR fans will look at the NASCAR Next Gen Cup Series as the top series in the NASCAR progression path. Before this, there are the NASCAR Xfinity cars to race in. These features in the NASCAR iRacing Class B series.

To unlock the NASCAR Next Gen Cup series, you will need to progress to Class A.

How to unlock the IndyCar series in iRacing

IndyCar is another extremely popular racing series in iRacing. This can be found in both Asphalt Oval and Asphalt Road licenses. You can unlock the Asphalt Road NTT IndyCar Series – Open by reaching Class B in Asphalt Road.

If you fancy oval racing, you can find the NTT Indycar Series – Fixed in class C of Asphalt Road.

How to unlock GT3 cars in iRacing

GT3 racing is among the most popular in sim racing. There are whole games such as Assetto Corsa Competizione that are dedicated to GT3 racing. So it’s no surprise that the GT3 trend continues into the competitive world of iRacing.

You can unlock GT3 cars pretty early on in the Asphalt Road career. You only need to progress out of the Rookie class to unlock a couple of GT3 events. Both the Ferrari GT3 Challenge and RUF GT3 Challenge are available in Class D in Asphalt Road.

These two events allow you to race in a spec series against other identical cars.

To progress to a multi-car GT3 series you’ll need to reach Class C where a range of GT3 series become available. There is the Fanatec GT Challenge, Heusinkveld GT Challenge and IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge to name a few series where you can race a whole grid of GT3 cars.

The best GT3 car to buy

Unlike games like ACC where you can race a wide variety of GT3 cars straight away. iRacing instead requires you to digitally purchase each individual GT3 car that you want to race with. This makes choosing a GT3 car a much more difficult process as you can’t try out each car before you buy it.

The best three cars for GT3 racing in iRacing are;

• BMW M4 GT3
• Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020
• Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO

All three of these cars allow you to race in GT3 and IMSA series, giving you slightly more racing series to participate in. And all three are incredibly quick cars.

The BMW M4 GT3 is an extremely well-balanced car that is very easy to attack with.The Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 is a lightweight and agile car that can be driven hard. And the Huracán GT3 Evo is extremely quick around almost every track.

Other cars that are fast in other games such as ACC, including the Mercedes-AMG GT3 and the Audi R8 LMS GT3 can feel a little sluggish in iRacing.

Are there any iRacing promo codes for new members?

There is a selection of iRacing promo codes that new members can use when purchasing their first subscription. Normally these only apply to members first purchase, but occasionally iRacing will offer a discount code for existing members too.

Below are the current working iRacing discount codes for 2022.