How to Set Up A Racing Wheel in iRacing

iRacing is unlike other racing titles in that you really need to use a racing wheel and pedal set. You can technically use a controller. However, due to the simulation physics, this can present some challenges.

When using a racing wheel, whether a budget wheel like the Logitech G923 or a direct-drive wheel from Simucube, MOZA, or another brand, you first need to go through the setup process. iRacing does its best to guide you through the wheel setup process and is much better than other titles in some ways. However, there are a few options it doesn’t explain.

In this guide, I’ll show you how to set up any racing wheel in iRacing and optimise your force feedback settings for the best driving experience within iRacing.

Setting up a racing wheel in iRacing: The process

When you first start iRacing with a racing wheel connected, you’ll be prompted to configure your controls. This process will run through the basic setup, and it’ll do a pretty good job at instructing you on how to calibrate your wheel.

You’ll have to turn your steering wheel when asked to do so, pull each shifter paddle, or change gear with a shifter if you have one. After this, you’ll have full control over your racing wheel settings from the iRacing menu.

Below is a step-by-step guide on how to correctly set up your racing wheel in iRacing.

Find out if your racing wheel is compatible with iRacing.

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Setting up additional accessories, including shifters

As part of the initial calibration process, iRacing will ask if you want to set up a H-pattern shifter, or paddle shifters. During this setup, you should set up any additional accessories that you may have. You can adjust your controller inputs at any time using the drive section of the options.

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To change your steering, pedals or gearbox calibration, select the input you wish to calibrate from the top right of the controls settings screen.

Changing your button mapping

To configure additional inputs or change the button mapping on your steering wheel, go to the control settings screen, which is the tab on the far right of the options menu.

In the control settings, you can assign various inputs to control different areas of your car while racing. You can use a mixture of inputs, including your keyboard and the inputs on your steering wheel, to maximise the amount of control you have.

It can be useful to set up buttons to control elements such as your ignition and starter, headlights, and pit limiter. All of these are commonly used in iRacing, so assigning them to easy-to-remember buttons will help.

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Recommended force feedback settings for iRacing

Getting your racing wheel performing in its sweet spot in iRacing can require some tinkering. You will need to adjust the force feedback settings for your wheel directly in your wheel’s software (Pit House, Fanatec Control Panel etc). Then, you will also need to set up the force feedback settings in iRacing correctly.

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To make finding the best force feedback settings easier, below are our recommended iRacing force feedback settings for the most popular racing wheels.

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What each force feedback setting in iRacing controls

iRacing has a limited number of force feedback settings that you can change in game. These primarily allow you to set your maximum wheel strength so that iRacing can send the correct levels of force feedback to your wheel. Setting this correctly can help to avoid clipping or your wheel feeling underpowered.

Below are the settings that you can change in iRacing, and what each one does, as well as our recommendation for each one.

• Enable force feedback: This setting turns force feedback on and should always be enabled.
• Use linear mode: You should use linear mode when using a direct drive racing wheel.
• Reduce force when parked: Reducing the force when parked should be enabled and makes it easier to rotate the steering wheel when stationary.
• Strength: The strength setting can be set using the auto button next to wheel force. This can help eliminate clipping.
• Wheel force: The wheel force should match the force feedback of your racing wheel.
• Intensity: The intensity is a secondary setting that is used when the strength is set to auto. This helps adjust the maximum strength of your wheel.
• Smoothing: This setting smooths the force feedback and should be left at zero for most wheels.
• Damping: This settings should also be set to zero, but can be used to add weight or damping to your FFB.
• Min force: Increasing the min force will help highlight smaller FFB details in lower-powered wheels. Set this to zero with a direct drive wheel.

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Recommended racing wheels for iRacing

Choosing the best sim racing wheel for iRacing within your budget gets harder each year due to the increasing number of sim racing brands and new wheels. The past few years have seen entirely new brands such as MOZA and Asetek taking sim racing by storm and populate brands such as Fanatec and Thrustmaster releasing new wheels.

To make things a little easier when choosing which new wheel to buy, I’ve rounded up my recommended racing wheels for iRacing across a range of budgets. Below are my recommendations and reasons why I chose each wheel.

	Wheel	Price	Pros
	Logitech G923	£/$349.99	The best budget racing wheel
	MOZA R12	£/$559	MOZA’s best force feedback to date
	Simucube 2 Pro	$1380 / €1450	One of the best direct drive wheels
	ClubSport DD+	€/$999.95	Fanatec’s best performing wheel ever

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• Written by Rich Article updated on August 14, 2024 Tags: Sim Racing How To Guides, Sim Racing Product Guides

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