iRace, Do You? SIMULATOR OFFERS DRIVING PRACTICE AND ONLINE COMPETITION.(NEWS)

Byline: JAKE LINGEMAN

The Motorsports Simulator from iRacing is the latest in high-tech racing simulations meant to give drivers practice time when other options are unavailable. It works because the cars and tracks used are not replicas but are physically and mathematically identical to their real-life counterparts. The iRacing development team maps millions of points on the track surface and surrounding buildings, signs and vegetation.

All 25 circuitsincluding Lime Rock, Lowe's and Virginia Internationalare rendered beautifully, though the graphics aren't quite as good as those of top-of-the-line video games. But the visuals are not far off, and the cars are most impressive.

"Anything you can change on a car in the real world you can change here, said Scott McKee, iRacing vice president of marketing. That includes suspension, tires, brakes and much more to make your racing experience as real as possible. Customers have inquired about having their own cars modeled, and iRacing says it expects to do so in the future.

Today, iRacing offers a late-model stock car, a Legends Ford "34 coupe, a Formula Mazda, a Skip Barber Formula 2000, an SK Modified, a Pontiac Solstice, a Radical SR8 V8 and a C&R Rac-ing Silver Crown. It plans to add Chevy Silverado ...