iRacing will have more content in the base membership package starting 2023 Season 1

Justin Melillo
The iRacing base membership will not only have the Toyota GR86 included for free, but two tracks will also move over from paid content.
iRacing Off-Road: Keaton Swane, Cam Pedersen score Wild West wins

On Wednesday (30th November) iRacing announced a piece of new content coming in 2023 Season 1, the all-new Toyota GR86, but they also announced some changes in their base content lineup.

While the new Toyota GR86 Cup Car is brand new, it will make its debut on the service as a piece of base content, included for free with any subscription level.

Toyota GR86 will release as included base content for iRacing in 2023 Season 1
The new Toyota GR86 Cup Car (image from iRacing)

There will also be more base content added to all users in Season 1 – whether they already own it or not as these have already existed as paid content for years – two tracks, both of them of the road variety, but Virginia International Raceway has asphalt and Wild West Motorsports Park has a few layers of dirt on it.

This comes a season after a piece of base content was removed, the legacy edition of Daytona International Speedway from 2007, as it was added as an option in the paid piece of content on the service for the regular edition of the same track, newly updated with laser scan data from 2021.

2023 Season 1 is right around the corner, and while more new content might be announced before Week 13 goes live next week, this change in what comes included will give new users and users on a budget even more content to get into next year.

VIRGINIA INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY

VIRginia International Raceway (image from iRacing)

The release reads that they current version of VIRginia International Raceway (VIR) will be taken off the paid content list and added to the base content list starting in 2023 Season 1.

The full course at VIR is 3.270-miles or 5.262-kilometers in length and includes 17 corners. iRacing also includes six other configurations of the circuit, some longer and some shorter, that take different paths around the grounds.

However, reading into the release a little further, things get a bit confusing as to whether it will stay as included-with-subscription content.

VIRginia International Raceway (image from iRacing)

It was also announced that later in 2023, there will be new version of VIR releasing, complete with new scan data as well as “extensive art and surface updates” that will overwrite the existing track, similar to what happened with Phoenix Raceway last year, as replays will no longer be accessible after the update.

“The current version of the track will serve as free content until the updated version is released,” which to me says that when VIR gets the update, it will no longer be a piece of included content. Maybe I’m reading that wrong, but I wouldn’t expect to have VIR as free content for too long if this is the case.

WILD WEST MOTORSPORTS PARK

iRacing Off-Road: Keaton Swane, Cam Pedersen score Wild West wins
Wild West Motorsports Park

Something that looks like it will be free AND stay free is an introductory to Short Course racing. A mainstay on the Off-Road Championship Series earlier this year, and one of only four tracks that are purpose build off-road racing venues, Wild West Motorsports Park becomes included in 2023.

The venue released in 2019 and iRacing hopes that with this move, the Dirt Road program on the service will get a boost in players looking to advance their licenses and iRatings.

MORE DIRT ROAD CONFIGURATIONS

iRX: Yohann Harth wins Phoenix, title race down to three
Phoenix Raceway’s Dirt Road configuration

Both Daytona Rallycross and (Legacy) Phoenix Raceway will soon have a second Dirt Road configuration that doesn’t have a joker lap, something the Short Courses don’t have either. This will keep the rookie series consistent in rules when Wild West joins the party.

These two tracks are already free with a subscription, but now become even more encompassing for the Pro truck racers out there.

While there was no iRacing Rallycross World Championship this year, there was the iRacing Off-Road Championship for top level dirt road racers. With these changes, it seems iRacing is gearing members up for more short course action in 2023.

SOURCE: iRacing

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