@ExiaRS: 1) you won`t learn to drive with others, if you leave every race after a crash. I think nearley everbody has a crash sometimes. It is part of racing. Use the chat-function and say "sorry". Let your "victim" pass and everything ist ok! 2) To learn how to drive a steady race!
If you always quit the race when your too slow of when you hit somebody (by mistake) how will you learn? How will you improve yourself ? Even if your 10sec behind and don't have the pace to catch up, keep going ! The other may make mistakes too and you may be closer than you thought. At least you drive, you learn the track the car, you try to get faster. You can see if the gap increase or not, you can see if you do better on some turns/portions of the track... you can improve yourself. And If the quicker overlap you, don't be shame, keep going, learn how to manage this (being aware when the 1st overlap you, not ruining his race, etc). And when you find yourself alone, see it as some hotlap in race conditions, focus on your driving, just keep an eye on the gaps between the others (or the map). But don't give up. You will learn more on yourself and improve your skill in race than doing hotlap alone in SP.
Most time it sorts out and you have three races in one (slow., medium and fast packs have their fun by having their own race within the race) and if the so-called backmarkers know how to race, like nickfox said, its not a problem at all...actually the opposite is true as even lapping a slower driver needs some skill on both sides....the more if there is someone behind you who might take advantage of such a situation... Edit: One thing I observed about Newbies (or casual drivers with less practice ) is that they often try to compete with skilled drivers (specially when you`re behind them). As I never push them too hard (cause is mostly easy to provoke an incident simply by increasing the pressure) it can be very annoying to hang behind them - something they only realize when get passed them = up and away within one lap....
I don't mean to pile up on you, but as people have implied before, there is so much that you can learn in MP by sticking with it. I would argue that the single most important skill you can learn is patience. You'll quickly realise that there's no point in trying to gain a few extra positions in the first turn by taking a risky line because the only thing you achieve is a huge pile up and a bunch of angry people. You will immunise yourself against the constant restarts everyone is prone to have in SP races. You'll see that if you drive perhaps a bit slower than you want to, but securely, someone is bound to make a mistake in front of you and you'll catch up. And the difference in skills is the beauty of MP. As @Fairman said, there are exciting battles going on in all groups of players, whether way ahead or way behind. No more trying to find the sweet spot with AI where you have a good battle without outclassing everyone by miles, or being left behind the pack alone. Even if you finish over 30 seconds later than the first guy, so what, you're clearly not competing with him anyway. With a populated race, chances are there will be at least one or two players with which you can have a good fun fight. And how do you get a populated race? Exactly by not quitting at the first mistake or strike of bad luck unless you really have to go.
I agree with your post, just don't always practice it...depends on how much time I have to race that evening or what kind of mood i'm in honestly. But i agree sticking around can lead to some great racing and is good for the race in general. Some of the best battles i've had are like for 10th place with another evenly matched racer I can relate to this, happened to me tons early on - basically just as you describe it - and i'm still not great. You just have to persevere, keep learning tracks and keep logging on to the online races and it will get better for you. You don't have to be a top driver to have fun in online race. Keep coming!
If I had a dollar for every time somebody plowed into me in turn 1 and then quit 5 seconds later I'd be the richest man in Iowa.
I've actually noticed a lot more restraint being shown by the majority of drivers lately (maybe we're all growing up - couldn't say that with a straight face lol), however, being hit at the first corner still happens to me a fair bit, even later in the race too, my mindset after I know my race has been ruined is to go to hot lapping, even if I know I won't catch up again, it's always fun to try and steal fastest lap away from the leaders lol.
With some of you I agree. Others are being a bit over the top. I've finished races that weren't going well for me. However, if a race is particularly bad and I just can't seem to get it together and I'm a few seconds away from being lapped, I'm out. If I steal the pleasure of lapping someone from you, then that is what it is, for you. I always let the really faster guys pass. Those who race with me know this. There is no good reason to hold up an Alien that was shunted, or had a bad start. But if my race is going from bad to worse, then I just might bounce, and I do not apologize for it. Swagg
Friday night i decided to try some of the new G5 and jump on a race at sonoma. I think we were 12 to start or something and by the end we were 4. I finished second wayyyyyy behind @Andy Kettler but i still had some good fighting with the guys who finished 3rd who was going to finish 2nd until the last turn. So yes it sucks that people are leaving but i said it before as long as you had fun racing the end result and who is left doesn't really matter. Yes it would have looked better that i finished 2nd out of 12, Meh i am not that into myself .
I can certainly understand occasionally cutting your loses and ending your race early. As I've stated before, I doubt any of us stick every race out to the bitter end. if most drivers only occasionally quit in the midst of a particularly disappointing race, I don't think we'd be having this discussion. But it is much more pervasive than that. Quitting is an epidemic, not just in R3E but in pretty much all sims with public racing. Races like MeMotS described, where 12 started and only 4 finished, are the norm, rather than the exception, in my experience. It's a pleasant surprise if even half of the field finishes a race. I'd love to see some data from S3 on the % of racers who complete a race they start. Rampant quitting takes a lot of the fun out of multiplayer races. I, for one, have gotten to a point where I rarely bother with multiplayer anymore. After a lap or two, most of the field has quit and I might as well be hotlapping. If most people stuck it out most of the time, there would be enough cars on the track for interesting racing at the front, middle, and back of the pack. I try to stay to the end even when I am essentially driving by myself b/c so many have quit, but it leaves me less likely to join another race in the future. I don't think I'm alone in that. I don't think anyone realistically thinks no one should ever quit a race. But, if we could simply reduce the knee-jerk quitting at the first sign of adversity, I think that would make multiplayer a better experience for everyone.
iracing has a rating system that dictates what servers you can get in so bad drivers stay in the low rating servers and good drivers are allowed to race all the content with anyone. one of the best ways to be lose your rating in iracing is to quit out of races because you gain no rating but lose any points lost for bad driving.
Would increasing the race end timer help? If you are 30+ seconds behind the leader then you are going to get a DNF anyways so less motivation to finish.
There is already the statistics section in the profile. Not sure what are the plans for this - at least for me it`s all empty (except for 1 non championship point - no idea how I deserved this) - guess in future this could be the motivator for more people to finish the races (with points for 1st till 10th place if you stay till end for example). Add some benefits for the points....