How to broadcast an iRacing league.
Everything a league needs to put its races on air: the people, the setup, the session, the graphics and the stream. Written by a crew that broadcasts iRacing leagues every week.
By the GSRC crew · Updated October 2026
A league broadcast is more than a screen capture of the race. Viewers need to know who’s leading, who’s fighting and what just happened. That takes a director choosing the pictures, commentators explaining them, and graphics that keep everyone oriented. Here’s how the pieces fit together.
1. The people
A proper league broadcast needs three people: a director who runs the pictures, and two commentators, one on play-by-play and one on colour, so neither has to carry the whole race alone. That’s the standard every GSRC show works to.
Director: chooses cameras, runs replays and brings up graphics.
Play-by-play commentator: who’s where and what just happened.
Colour commentator: why it happened and what it means.
Assistant director (bigger fields): extra cameras, replays and a highlights cut.
2. Getting into the session
Your director watches the race from inside iRacing, joined to the session as a spectator. The league admin needs to make sure the broadcast account can get in: share the session details and password, and check that spectators are allowed in the session settings. Test this in practice or qualifying, not on race night.
3. The broadcast PC and software
The director’s PC runs iRacing in spectator mode and the production software that turns it into a show. OBS Studio and vMix are the common choices. They combine the game picture, the graphics and the commentators’ audio, and send the result to your streaming platform.
Running iRacing and encoding a stream on one machine is demanding. Lower the sim’s graphics settings to what looks good on a stream rather than in VR, and test a full-length session before your first live race.
4. Cameras
iRacing’s broadcast-style cameras show the race from fixed trackside positions and follow cars around the lap. Onboard and chase cameras add variety, but a broadcast built mostly from TV cameras is easier to follow. Choose the car to follow by the story of the race, not by position.
5. Graphics and timing
A timing tower is the one graphic every broadcast needs: positions and gaps on screen all the time. Lower thirds, a track map and grid and results pages come next. These overlays read live data from iRacing on the director’s PC and sit on top of the game picture in your production software.
6. Commentary
Commentators rarely sit in the same room. Most broadcasts bring them in remotely over a voice call and mix their audio into the stream. Two things matter most: the commentators hear the game audio and each other without delay, and their own voices aren’t sent back to them as an echo. Do a sound check before every show.
7. Streaming
Stream to YouTube or Twitch from your production software. For 1080p, YouTube recommends a bitrate in the range of several megabits per second, so check your upload speed and leave headroom. Schedule the stream in advance so viewers get a reminder and the link is ready to share.
8. Before you go live
Spectator access works and the session password is correct.
Graphics show the right series, names and numbers.
Commentators can hear the game and each other, with no echo.
The stream is scheduled, titled and set to public at the right time.
A test recording plays back with sound in sync.
Common mistakes
Following the leader all race when the battles are further back.
Cutting cameras every couple of seconds.
Graphics that cover the cars or the track.
Commentators who haven’t looked at the entry list.
No test before the first live race.
Rather not build all of this yourself? GSRC runs the whole broadcast for iRacing leagues: crew, cameras, graphics and stream.
We’ll run it for you.
Two commentators, a director, replays, a timing tower and graphics built to your branding.