On-line racing-how to

[Gary 075]

Newbie here, this may be a stupid question, but I can't figure out how to join a on-line race. Is there a video or How To somewhere which can explain it to me? thanks

[PawelK]

Start the game

Go to Quick Play screen

Click on Browse online

A list of racing lobbies will appear. Click on a lobby to see details of the race, then click Join in the details screen. Or click directly on Join in the list of lobbies

In the lobby list:

Lobbies with padlock are password protected

Numbers like 5/25 show how many ppl joined and how many slots are (this sometimes malfunctions).

Then car class is shown (or nothing for multi-class races).

Then minimum racing license. Your license must be at least as shown to join This may be Off, everyone may join such lobbies. The license has 2 components, the letter shows how clean a driver is (U, F, E, D, C, B, A, S), the number how good they are (everyone starts at 1500, winning races generally increases your number, losing decreases, but it also depends on rating of other drivers with whom you won or lost). Your license is only affected by participating in license-limited races, Off races have no effect.

Then you see what stages are set for the lobby (Lobby, Practice, Qualification, Race; P & Q are optional), and at which stage the lobby is now (yellow). Then how many minutes or laps of the current stage are left.

You can enter a lobby which is not full, not password protected (unless you know the password), and is not above you license level. But once you are in the lobby, you can join the race only when it's in Practice or in Qualification except last 3 minutes or so of quali. So don't bother entering lobbies with less than 4 minutes of quali left. During race you can enter the race but only to Spectate. When the stage is Lobby, there is nothing to join, people are in the lobby waiting for/setting up next race.

In the lobby list, the funnel thing on the right top opens filters which allow you to hide some types of lobbies, like those that do not require (or those that do require) racing license, or empty lobbies etc.


Once you join a lobby:

first wait a few seconds because it takes a moment for everything to update

On the left, from the top:
lobby name etc

general race settings: track, rules relating to penalties, realism etc, use <> to scroll

practice/quali/race settings, most importantly if there is mandatory pit stop and the number of laps or duration, use <> to see practice, quali, and race

your car. click on the car to select another (if allowed in the race) and to select livery

Track and/or car may show DLC, meaning you have to purchase these separately to race.

On the right: list of people in the lobby, with their rating license rating. Those with no racing license shown are AI.

At the bottom you will have "Vote to start" if the race is in Lobby stage, or "Join" if you can join to race (during Practice or Quali except last 3 minutes) or "Spectate" if you can join to spectate, or "Waiting" if you need to wait until something happens (sometimes things get screwed up and nothing ever happens, then you have to leave the lobby and try again or find another one).

When you click on Join or Spectate, the track and cars will load (takes a while)

When you joined:

You will be normally taken to the pits, where you can change car setup, pit strategies, some game options, or drive.

You also peek into the online lobby to check race settings (like mandatory pit stop, instead of bothering ppl in chat, some will answer wrong because they think it's disrespectful to ask for something that you can easily check yourself, or just to screw up your race). This does not move you out of the race back to the lobby, i.e. it does not require re-loading the track and car when you go back, it's only a peek.

On the right you have list of ppl racing, including other info, like their best time when in quali or practice.

When setting up your car, pay attention to weather info at the top as well as to the number of laps (in online lobby), you don't want to run out of fuel or to have to do unnecessary pit stop for fuel.

One more thing, after quali there is (usually, it's a lobby setting) a time-limited wait screen allowing to change setup or pit strategy between quali and race. In this screen you have to click Ready when you are done with making those changes. If the timer reaches zero before you click Ready, you will be disqualified and lose point (if this is a license race)

[Gary 075]

That a nice post. It should be a sticky post if it isn't already. Just one more minor questions. What do the icons mean under the status? The "thumbs up" to the colored triangle?

[PawelK]

Thumbs up lights up for people who voted to start.
No idea about the eye thing.
The next two seem to be related to streaming or recording the game maybe?
The loudspeaker might imply voice chat but I have never seen working voice chat in the game except via external app like discord.
I would guess the colored triangle is network ping of the person.

Anyway the icons are probably not very important, I have racked up >400 online races and 3d 16h of online racing without knowing most of them :-).