Pursuing the ultimate simulation might disappoint many in terms of fun factor.
First though, I like this game enough to give it a 7.5. The reasons I like it are not because its an accurate simulator, but because the multi-player is great. For whichever track you race on, you can alter nearly everything on your car to produce the best results. There are practice sessions, then qualifying, and then racing. You get penalized for breaking rules and there are many tools at your disposal for working on your lap times. Also, people that play iRacing are serious; they want a good clean race and most try their hardest to win (without playing dirty.) It feels like you're preparing for a real race and the satisfaction of doing well is the same feeling as real life. Okay, so I am dissatisfied with the game though. Reason 1: You pay a $12 subscription and are only given a few cars and tracks. The rest you have to buy...from 12 to 15 dollars or so. I don't know how many are willing to invest so much in a game on top of their subscription but iRacing tends to a small crowd. My second reason is the graphics are bland and there is no feeling of speed. This is common with many simulators but it is especially annoying for this one because it should be easy to update the graphics on the closed tracks. My third reason goes along with the second; I play mainly GT5 and F1 2010. GT5 provides a real-enough simulation and also provides a lot of beautiful looking cars and tracks and theres no subscription or extra costs (besides future DLC maybe). Some other quirks that I may just not be aware are fixable are the sequential stick on my driving force GT does not work (only the paddles do) and even after calibrating the steering wheel, the wheel turns more than you are actually turning after a certain point, and cones and some barriers are not movable and you can drive right through them. iRacing is impressive and underwhelming at the same time and for me, the price is not worth it. I would recommend this game to people who enjoy tuning cars and enjoy multi-player and a near family like community.