bazkie bumpercar | unfluencerI don't know why I even bother with #iRacing anymore. It's just bad game design to make the beginner car undriveable.
Jamie Hamel-Smith@bazkie are you referring to the Mazda? The Vee? The GR86? The Street Stock? What’s the issue specifically?
@jamiehs The Mazda. It used to be fine, until they changed the tire code about a year ago, and since then it's been really hard to drive.
I managed to get the hang of it somewhat, but at the start of every race there's 2 or 3 people crashing out in the first corner, which basically ruins every race.
Also when you get the slightest of nudges from the back, you will often spin out (along with a 4x penalty). It's so frustrating, to prepare for a long race, only to have it end after 10 seconds.
@jamiehs It's just really weird game design to me, to make the beginner car, the first car most people experience when starting simracing, to be a car that even relative veterans like myself can hardly keep on the road. I don't get it, this can't be good for getting new members to join iRacing??
@bazkie stupid question from me… but are you using a wheel and pedals?
Mazda races are all chaos until you get into the split you belong in; most of us found it to be a struggle at first.
@jamiehs that might be it.. ever since the tire code change I've been stuck at 1200 or so 
Yes, I'm using a wheel and pedals :)
Here's my super weird elo graph lol (I stopped playing for a while after the tire change out of frustration with it)
(the small dip before the tire update was when my internet was fucky, so got a lot of forfeits)
@bazkie as weird as it sounds… just focus on seeing the checkers. Don’t even think about the other cars. Don’t practice being quicker; that will come with time, naturally. Focus on avoiding wrecks and seeing the checkers in every race. When that strategy is used, you will gain positions throughout the race, and you will eventually be in a higher split where this random crashing is less common.
I have to remind myself of that even in the Vintage IMSA series sometimes.
@jamiehs thanks, I'll try 🙏 I'm just really scared of overtaking really slow cars right now lol. But I guess I just got unlucky in that regard recently.
I also noticed you can actually race as an observer, so basically without collisions, as an invisible participant. I thought I might try that as somewhat of a "semi-multiplayer" simracing variant. Maybe a bit less interesting, but also less frustrating!
Anyway, thanks for the tips and pep talk, I appreciate it! 🙏 👍
@bazkie agreed. The Mazda isn’t one of my favorite cars. I much prefer the GR86 as I can tell what the car is doing, the feedback is just a bit better.
The #1 strategy for surviving rookie Mazda races is to allow the other cars to crash and just keep your distance and drive safely. Don’t race, just practice clean laps with the other cars around you; close enough to see, but keep your distance. If they are faster they will leave you. If you are faster they will likely crash anyway.
@jamiehs I've been adopting that very strategy recently! But then on the 3rd car or so I was overtaking, they pushed me off the road lol, so now I'm kinda past my "I've had enough" point.
Maybe will pick it back up later..
Thanks for the tip btw, I guess I could try the GR86, tho it's not always available @ free tracks.