This past weekend marked the 24 Hours of Spa on iRacing, an event that, for many sim racing enthusiasts, represents the highlight of the year.
But this time, instead of thrilling races, the spotlight was stolen by a disgraceful performance by a professional team in one of the lower splits (split 22 or 23).
Why? After suffering a crash, these drivers spent dozens of laps intentionally ruining races for others—blocking, crashing, and disrupting the entire experience.
UPDATE: iRacing Finally Responds to 24H Controversy
The silence that screams
The worst part isn’t even the incident itself. Anyone can have a bad day. What’s unacceptable is the official response from iRacing when this behavior was publicly called out.
Instead of acknowledging the issue, taking clear action, and being transparent, the company issued a generic PR statement:
Seriously? After such a blatant and harmful episode? That kind of statement only fuels the perception of impunity and disconnection from the community.
The problem isn’t just the punishment—it’s the opacity
What frustrates many isn’t just the lack of bans—it’s that the whole system feels like it’s built for secrecy rather than justice. There’s no clear record of protests, no public decisions, no accountability. Everything gets swept under the rug.
Why not publish a log of reports received, sanctions issued, and decisions taken? No one is asking for private data—just basic transparency. Other platforms with far fewer resources (like LFM) do this without issue.
A system that silences critics and protects saboteurs
The double standard is obvious. In this same case, iRacing’s only public follow-up was a warning against “harassment” toward other members. Not toward those who ruined the race—but toward those asking for accountability. That’s right: calling someone an “idiot” in the chat seems to matter more than destroying a 24-hour endurance event.
We’re in a supposedly serious racing simulator, and yet we’re expected to believe that words are as serious as actions. That mindset is exactly why things feel broken.
What’s lost is more than a race it’s trust
The saddest part of all this isn’t a ruined event or a few trolls behind wheels. It’s the slow erosion of faith in a platform that once stood for excellence and integrity. Because yes, things are no longer what they were in 2019. The post-pandemic boom brought a wave of new players—and chaos. And while that happened, iRacing chose to look the other way.
Those of us who have been here for years aren’t asking for miracles. We just want a fair, clear, and consistent system. One where rules apply equally to everyone, where reports don’t feel like a dice roll, and where the community knows that their voice matters.
Transparency. Consistency. Honest communication. These are not luxuries—they are the foundations of any serious community, especially in a competitive environment.
iRacing, there’s still time. But the clock is ticking.
This website uses affiliate links which may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
I’ve been on iRacing since 2020, and renewed every year on BF, but I’m going to take a break on November. I’m a 56 years, slow middle field SR 4.5 and IR 1.7K , and already have 700€ invested on cars and tracks. I also race everyday or at least train.
Now safety rating is a joke, protests are a waste of time and even iRating and splits in some series are not well implemented.
Because we aren’t seeing any light at the end of the tunnel, maybe I return in 2 or 3 year! This is what many simracers that love iRacing should do. Boycott the service, hopping they learn something and make important changes.
Lol, same age, same experience, break in September … going to race LMU .. let’s meet there and see if it is better.
> safety rating is a joke
Well, actually, it is not a _safety_ rating. It is just a number for “incidents per corner”. But a good example for another facade: they just call it safety rating but this is fake.
Enjoy racing.
Why I quit Iracing. Seems like they do not have enough people to keep up or the do not give a crap. They seem to be fine as long as the cash keeps coming in. Safety rating means squat and are starting to get the Forza attitude about crashing people.
Amen. I love iRacing. Been on it since around 2015 I think. The sim is great, and I dont mind paying a sub to get consistent organized races. But things like these really sour the experience..
I did not have team mates to do the 24h, but I was looking forward to doing a lot of races on Spa that week. I ended up doing only a few, because in every race i did, some mad man went full send on lap 1 without the skills to stay on their line and punted me off track. Left a bitter taste tbh.
This is precisely why I quit a year + ago and I will never return. Not so much the larger events but the general lack of enforcement.
The only thing that justified the price for me was the idea that youd be racing with other people who actually want to race and there would be some oversight on player behavior.
You wont really get that, you’ll get the same copy and pasted message in return every single time.
Now, I figured out a trick to see if they were doing anything. I used the iRacing phone application to follow the accounts of the drivers I was petitioning when I knew for certain it was intentional. (Speeding through traffic on caution laps to ram me.)
Doing this, I could check their results and tell if they were still doing races after I got the response from iRacing from my petition.
Drivers still turning races and that was the final straw for me. Canceled my subscription and uninstalled the application.
Not another dime out of my pocket is going to the company. Its an absolute joke.
Add on top of that they sold ExoCraft, which is the most god awful piece of garbage Ive ever had the misfortune of trying.
Its no simracer but even by arcade racing standards it is absolute dumpster water.
Save your money, play literally any other Sim racer. They may not have all the content iRacing has but its a lot better than bleeding money to waste so much of your time in a destruction derby you have zero interest in.
Any half decent competitor needs to come around and just bury iRacing.
It is trash.
Well observed, and I agree to 100%!
Have you ever “seen” a steward?
Have you ever seen anything happening when someone shot you off on purpose?
I haven’t!
At least: I do not know what iRacing does when someone ruins my race.
Transparency => ZERO!
Recently I got a message from iRacing that I should drive more carefully after someone reported me coming back on track “too early”. This was a more or less auto generated e-mail. I don’t think there was a (human) steward or someone / somthing looking into the files.
When someone crashed me coming down the road in the wrong direction, I did not see anything happening (I filed a report). I would have expected a two weeks ban or so, because of what happened. No one cared.
The community has whipped itself up into a complete frenzy about this. Obviously what the team did was terrible but the response has been absolutely OTT stupid and lots of channels taking the opportunity to be self-righteous for clicks, this included.
I haven’t been racing consistently for over 2 years. On top of that, when I do race, I’ve come to enjoy more D, C and even R race series, so my IR has taken a hit over time. Anyhow, I’m in a lot of lower splits and I haven’t found anymore intentional wrecking than pre pandemic times.
Been an iracing member since 2010 this should be an immediate and permanent ban