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How to Delete Ghost Laps in Iracing

Clear, step-by-step guide answering how to delete ghost laps in iRacing for iRacing drivers. Remove or hide ghost cars fast so you can record clean laps quickly.

If you’re dealing with how to delete ghost laps in iRacing, the short answer is: you can’t surgically erase a single server ghost while racing, but you can hide ghosts in-session or remove the saved replay data that creates them. You’re in the right place to fix this fast.

Quick Answer — how to delete ghost laps in iracing

iRacing shows ghost cars from saved lap data or your session best. To get rid of them: toggle ghost display off in the session HUD, restart or rejoin the session, or delete the replay file in Documents\iRacing\replays and then restart iRacing.

What’s really going on

A “ghost” is a playback of a recorded lap used for on-track comparison (your best lap, a pace car, or a saved replay). Time Trial and hot-lap modes normally create ghost cars so you can compare lines. Ghosts are not separate drivers you can ban — they’re playback data. That data lives only for the session or as a replay file on your PC, so removal is either a UI toggle or deleting the replay.

Step-by-step fix

  1. Hide ghosts quickly in-session: open the in-sim session HUD (press ESC or the session UI) and look for “Ghost”, “Compare”, or “Show Ghosts.” Set it to Off or None.
  2. Restart or rejoin the session: leaving and rejoining the session will clear session-only ghosts. This is the simplest quick fix.
  3. Delete the replay file that contains the ghost: close iRacing, open Documents → iRacing → replays, find the replay for that session and delete it, then restart iRacing.
  4. For Time Trial: choose “No Ghost” or set the comparison target to “None” in the Time Trial menu before launching laps.
  5. If the ghost is from someone else in an official race: you generally can’t delete it — race ghosts are server-side and controlled by iRacing. Focus on hiding ghosts or starting a new session.

Extra tips / checklist

  • Always close iRacing before deleting replay files to ensure changes take effect.
  • Back up a replay before deleting if you might want it later.
  • Deleting replays does not affect your safety rating (SR) or iRating.
  • If ghosts reappear after deleting, confirm you removed the correct replay and restart the sim.
  • If a persistent ghost seems like a bug, log a ticket with iRacing support and include the replay filename.

FAQs

Q: Can I delete another driver’s ghost?
A: No. Ghosts tied to other drivers on the server are controlled by iRacing and cannot be removed by a client. You can only hide them locally.

Q: Will deleting replay files affect my stats?
A: No. Replays are local files for playback. Deleting them won’t change SR or iRating.

Q: Where are iRacing replay files stored?
A: Look in Documents → iRacing → replays (or “replay”) on your PC. Replays are plain files you can remove after closing the sim.

Q: Why do ghosts keep coming back?
A: If you rejoin the same session or choose to compare with “fastest lap,” iRacing will re-create the ghost. Start a fresh session or change the comparison to None.

Wrap-up

Ghosts are stored lap data; you can hide them quickly in the session, restart the session, or remove the local replay file to prevent them from appearing. Try hiding ghosts first — it’s fastest — and delete the replay only if you want the ghost gone permanently from your machine.