Beginners Guide to Joining Racing Lobbies?

[GeneralDee]

So I'm now at a new point with my character where I'm shifting from the money grind to actually enjoying all the new toys El Rubio gave me. I'm very new to racing in this game. I always planned to get into cars to fill up my garages and do some racing as one of the retirement activities. But I'm having a hard time understanding how to navigate finding races, especially ones where you use your own customized car you worked so hard for. Most of the info on racing seems to be about driving techniques, what are the best cars in it's class, Fastest times, blah, blah, blah. But I'm looking for guidance on best practices to joining races. Joining vs hosting, like if i host and have to leave, will that effect everyone who's in that lobby? Where can I race my Buffalo stx or my Itali GTO?

 

In the LS Car meet, I often have trouble joining a race from in there. Either I wait forever for people to join, or I get kicked just before a race launches if I get that far. And just want to add, I know those stunt races are popular but I'm not a fan of those kinds of races. I like more realistic settings in the map environment. (reminds me of the days way back when wacky tracks ruined the assault mode in Unreal Tournament 2004). But That's just my personal opinion. So are those the bulk of the most populated races or are regular street orientated races still well populated? What's are the most important places to look when you want to race with your own cars?

 

Thanks in advance for any tips.

[Gridl0k]

Matchmaking doesn't work right, so your first race as host you should run 1 lap on your own, the second a couple might join, but the third is where it really kicks in and starts working.

 

Go into Pause > Online > Options and set 'remain as host after vote screen' to ON

 

Itali GTO competitive in any Sports class race

 

[Plocospermataceae]

Finding lobbies in this game is a nightmare, and it's been made even worse recently, either you just let the game pick a random race for you through the Quick Join thing on your phone, or then you host a race yourself. You can't even specify if you're looking for a normal race, a street race or whatever else. It's such a dumb system. As Gridlok said, your best bet is hosting them yourself. I used to host custom races for random players, although when the Tuners update came out, I couldn't get anyone to join them anymore. And half of the people would drive like dicks anyway. Edit: another tip for hosting races, there's a 60 second timer until the race just starts automatically, which is a pretty short time for getting people in. But if you toggle the matchmaking between "open" and "closed", you can keep extending the timer forever

 

The absolute best solution would be to just join a racing crew, people will race properly and they'll have a good selection of custom tracks that they play. Here's an example video of what kind of stuff people make and play

 

 

Edited April 3 by Plocospermataceae

[Aquamaniac]

On Xbox One there doesn't seem much players taking part in races at least I couldn't find some.

 

 If there is any Xbox One race crew I'd be interested, regular races, no stunt ones.

 

[DrEeveell]

I've found that the best way to get races that I like, is to use the Creator and make my own.

 

Failing that, just run a bunch of random races and if you find one you like bookmark it. Then you can make a playlist if you want.

 

If I may, I've got a few race series I've made for street races using mostly the free cars from the Criminal Enterprises Starter Pack, plus a few others. How long have the NASCAR types been free? I'm in the process of adding those in.

 

Musketball Run a smaller Cannonball Run type race.

Bommerang Run more or less the same races, going the other way.

[Big Molio]

The Open Wheel class races on this new version are as dead as Dillinger. The most players I have managed to get a race with is five. It's depressing. I am going to have to go back to stunt and land races.

[Exsanguination]

Seems to be plenty of racers in the tuner class. I usually just pause and go to the map and bring the cursor to the street race series and launch that way… or go on call to enter …. I get kicked everynow and then but just assumed it was friends racing together. 
 

usually no problem launching from jobs menu either on the Xbox one version. 

[GeneralDee]

Thanks for the info. I'm on PC BTW. I did manage to get in a couple of questionable races over the weekend. The last race I did was 3 of us. One left early and the last one missed a marker and fell way behind so that person left leaving me alone to win my 5th race giving me that Italia GTO. The first few was good but the host had to leave and once he did, most others left too. I'm beginning to embrace the fact that to truly get the most out of online activities that require more people, it's best to have friends who play often and not be in a world of randoms.

[Gridl0k]

Host, race the first two alone, then let matchmaking do it's thing, you'll capture a lobby when they vote for your track ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

[dieseltech20]

Hard as hell to find people racing on PC. When you do they are normally the hard core types that know every exploit and are just seeing which one can hit the curbs while boosting and double clutching with their frames locked in a non contact race the best. At that point I gave up and went back to console. 

[1am7h30n3]

Probably the best way to join good/varied races is to join a racing crew. A good one might be OKRC. I think that's the right link below but I can't double check because it's blocked at work. If you see oleg as leader you know you're in the right place. Join the discord as well, they advertise racing events for many/most other crews there as well, you can find a good lobby to join most days.

 

https://socialclub.rockstargames.com/crew/ok_racing_crew/hierarchy

 

Maybe also check out scuderia creatore (APEX) crew, they mostly host contact racing and are very active.

[dieseltech20]

Problem with racing crews is that they are all about those exploits and boosts. If one isn’t into that bullsh*t good luck ever finishing a race. 

[1am7h30n3]

diesel you seem to have had bad experiences with racing crews in the past. Not all crews are super competitive, many just like to have fun. I don't think that in general OKRC or APEX are into any sort of exploits or boosts. They enjoy good clean racing on a variety of custom tracks, that's about all. If you don't like the crew you race with, leave the crew, no harm done.

 

Hope to see you in some races soon GeneralDee.

[dieseltech20]

4 hours ago, 1am7h30n3 said:

diesel you seem to have had bad experiences with racing crews in the past. Not all crews are super competitive, many just like to have fun. I don't think that in general OKRC or APEX are into any sort of exploits or boosts. They enjoy good clean racing on a variety of custom tracks, that's about all. If you don't like the crew you race with, leave the crew, no harm done.

 

Hope to see you in some races soon GeneralDee.

Never been a part of one but I have joined some "anyone welcome" events through friends in the past. Only takes one race of watching them always going side to side and jumping across loops to let me know my time is better spent elsewhere.

 

Also see various well known tags while racing in gen pop and they do the same sh*t there. It's that rare occasion when they f*ck up a cheat and quickly leave the race that makes me smile.

 

APEX sounds familiar, pretty sure the crew I'm in has done events with them in the past and it's always a good time.

Edited April 5 by dieseltech20

[oleg_aka_djmeg]

epic guide for hosting public stunt races with randoms:

prerequisites:

0. start in single player

1. set your aim preference: free aim for pc, assisted aim  for console

2. go to any session

3. in pause - online - options and set matchmaking  there to closed

4. go to single player and back online, this time into a public session

-------------

5. host a race with pink ui elements in the lobby screen (these change sometimes, currently the shortest is City Limits)

6. set it to one lap and do the race solo

7. on the voting screen pick what you think the general public would pick (sh*t like plummet or big drop)

8. in the lobby for the next race change matchmaking from closed to open

9. spam the auto invite button and then also spam the skill matched players button

10. pray

 

later you can continue from step 5

 

result:

Spoiler

 

Edited April 7 by oleg_aka_djmeg