Crew Chief V4 Setup: How to Install and run Crew Chief in iRacing

Crew Chief V4 is free software developed purely as a sim racer’s assistant – I use it heavily in iRacing, particularly for endurance racing and special events. Crew Chief integrates the most popular sim software, including rFactor2, Assetto Corsa, Project CARS, the F1 series, iRacing, Assetto Corsa Competizione, RaceRoom, and Automobilista.

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AI race engineers in 2026 | Getting started | Minimise on startup | Sector reports | Disable rants | Voice recognition

Crew Chief monitors real-time data directly from your sim racing app’s API, acting as a virtual spotter, with voice updates on key information about the race such as your lap times, gaps between competitors, and race standings.

It can also provide insight into the car’s current condition, including brake and tyre temperatures, tyre pressures, and other environmental conditions.

The key feature, in my opinion though, is proximity warnings and fuel management.

If you’re running long iRacing stints with Crew Chief running, the other thing worth knowing is what your CPU is doing at race starts – Crew Chief reads from the same telemetry stream the sim’s physics engine writes to, and the CPU sits at peak load during race starts on full grids. My iRacing CPU and GPU deep dive covers what’s happening at that moment and why X3D processors are the right pair for serious endurance racing with telemetry tools running.

The main site for Crew Chief can be found here. It’s a huge forum with thousands of contributors. Crew Chief also has a very engaged development team, too so I hope it’ll be around for a long time!

Let’s begin by downloading and installing Crew Chief:

How to Install and Run Crew Chief for iRacing

1. Download Crew Chief at https://thecrewchief.org/
2. Unzip the downloaded file
3. Open the installer and follow the prompts
4. Follow our Crew Chief setup guide for the best settings

AI race engineers in 2026 – the alternatives that ate this SERP

Crew Chief V4 has been the default sim-racing spotter for the better part of a decade, and it’s still excellent at what it does. But the AI race engineer category has exploded since 2024 – there are now four or five competitors that go further than Crew Chief in different directions, and most of them are paid. Worth knowing what’s out there before you commit to one.

The short version: Crew Chief is still the best free option and the best spotter for proximity warnings, fuel management and pace deltas. The newer AI engineers add things Crew Chief doesn’t try to do – real-time setup advice, lap-by-lap coaching, telemetry-driven feedback. Pick based on what you really need rather than the marketing.

Crew Chief V4 (free)

The one this article’s about. Free, mature, supports almost every sim that matters, voice-driven via your microphone with proper voice recognition. Best for: spotter calls, proximity warnings, fuel calcs, pace deltas, basic engineer functions. Where it stops short: it doesn’t analyse your driving line, it doesn’t suggest setup changes, it doesn’t compare you against telemetry from faster drivers. It’s a spotter and an engineer, not a coach.

Apex Boss (~$10/month)

The one that’s been climbing fastest in r/simracing recommendations through 2025-26. Apex Boss is built around a real-time AI race engineer that talks to you mid-race like a proper professional engineer would – not just calling out gaps but suggesting setup tweaks at the next pit window, flagging tyre degradation patterns, and reading the race situation. Subscription model. Strong for endurance racing where the engineer needs to think across stints.

Where it falls short of Crew Chief: voice recognition for driver-to-engineer commands isn’t as polished, and the supported-sim list is shorter. iRacing and ACC are first-class; rFactor 2 and AMS2 support is patchier.

DRE – Driver Race Engineer (~$8/month)

DRE sits in the middle of the field. Cheaper than Apex Boss, more focused on real-time race decisions than coaching. The engineer voice is more “calm and tactical” than Crew Chief’s slightly old-school spotter style, which some people prefer. Particularly good in iRacing for tactical pit-strategy calls based on competitor laptimes.

The trade-off: less mature than Crew Chief, smaller community, fewer integrations. If you race only iRacing it’s a viable replacement; if you race ACC, rF2 and iRacing in rotation, Crew Chief still wins on coverage.

Garage 61 (free + paid tiers)

Garage 61 is a different beast – it’s primarily a telemetry analysis platform that has added AI-engineer features as it grew. The pitch: every lap you drive gets compared against a global database of other drivers’ laps in the same car at the same track. The engineer side then surfaces “you’re losing 0.4s in T6 versus the median fast lap” rather than “watch out for the car behind”. Best for someone whose problem is improving lap times rather than managing a race.

Free tier covers most of what casual racers need; paid tiers add deeper telemetry and the AI coaching layer. Pairs well with Crew Chief because they don’t really overlap – run both, have Garage 61 in your post-session review and Crew Chief in your in-race headphones.

Coach Dave Academy AI tools (subscription, varied)

Coach Dave isn’t really an AI race engineer in the live-race sense – it’s a setups + coaching subscription that’s been adding AI-driven analysis features over time. Worth mentioning because it shows up in every “best AI race engineer” comparison thread, but the value is more in the human-coached setup library than the AI side. If you’re looking for in-race voice updates this isn’t the answer.

Quick verdict by use case

• I just want a spotter that calls gaps and fuel: Crew Chief V4. Free, mature, does this perfectly
• I race endurance and want a proper engineer making race-strategy calls: Apex Boss. The race-situational thinking is what justifies the subscription
• I want to improve my lap times against a telemetry baseline: Garage 61. The post-session analysis is the best in class
• I race iRacing exclusively and want a calmer engineer voice for tactical pit calls: DRE. Worth the trial month before deciding between this and Apex Boss
• I want curated setups + occasional AI analysis: Coach Dave Academy. Different category, but if you’re already paying for setups the AI tools come along for the ride

For most readers landing on this page, Crew Chief V4 is still the right answer – and the rest of this guide walks through the install. The other options are worth exploring once Crew Chief is dialled in, especially if you race seriously enough to feel the gap between “spotter calling out gaps” and “engineer making race-strategy decisions for you”.

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Getting Started

Launch Crew Chief. To update the software with the most recent sounds and driver names, click on any of the green buttons (if they are green – meaning there’s an update available) “Download sound pack” and “Download driver names” buttons for example:

Whenever Crew Chief downloads a sound pack, driver name pack, or personalisation, the software will ask to be restarted:

Once the sound packs and personalisation are updated (and you’ve restarted Crew Chief), you can select your preferred spotter voice. There are several voices to choose from, each with its unique personality and phrasing.

To test the spotter’s voice, you’ll get a snippet of voice playback every time you select a new spotter in the “Cheif Voice” drop-down. But, to really get to know your spotter, click “Start Crew Chief” and start a practice session in iRacing

For voice recognition, ensure your microphone is properly set up in Windows (ensure your desired microphone is set as the default input device in Windows sound settings). Crew Chief will automatically use this setting for voice recognition.

You can test if voice recognition is working by starting the app, and then saying “Chief, can you hear me?” If voice recognition is working correctly, you should hear a response acknowledging your question.

If you’re having trouble with voice recognition, you may need to adjust the confidence levels in the Crew Chief settings. These levels determine how sure the software needs to be that it understands you correctly before responding. Start with the default settings and adjust as needed based on your experience.

My Astro Mix Amp has two separate audio devices, one for the main game and the other for chat (usually on Discord). Crew Chief works really well with that particular soundcard/headset combo so take a look if you don’t have one.

If all the sounds and driver names are updated, and you’re happy with your audio levels, select your preferred sim from the “Game” list, click the “Start Crew Chief” button in the top left and you’re ready to go.

At this stage, you can actually go out for a drive. in iRacing, you’ll want to at least disable the iRacing spotter voice ) I leave the text messages on screen but voice off when I’m using Crew Chief:

This is where a lot of people stop, but there are of course a lot of Crew Chief settings that you might be missing that you shouldn’t ignore.

Auto refueling

Crew Chief will collect data on your lap-by-lap fuel consumption, making a responsive calculation for when you should make a pit stop and, how much fuel to take on board to finish the race. Setup correctly, this is a game-changing feature.

For every setting change, you need to start with the “Properties” button:

Clicking properties will take you to a view that can be a little overwhelming at first. In fact, there are probably hundreds of controls here. But, thankfully you can search for the setting we need. So, auto-fuelling. Search for “fuel” here:

Firstly, select “Enable iRacing auto refueling when entering pit in race” (or make sure it’s selected). With this selected, when you enter the pit lane you’ll get an in-ear audio message to let you know you’re being fuelled for the end of the race.

Things can go wrong with this setting as it’s really only looking at average consumption. What if you’ve been in another car’s tow this whole race? My “get out of jail free” top would be to set the “Additional fuel to add to finish the race“. 0.7 additional Litres seems to work very safely for me. No need for a fuel calculator, and not to much driver overload thinking about fuel.

Pit box distance

The pit box distance countdown is a little bit of a lifesaver by giving you an audible countdown to your pit pox approach which should make missing your pit slot highly (or just much less) likely.

We’ve lost a race in the worse possible way before discovering this little setting, so, I recommend it!

Minimise on Startup and Run Immediately

When you initially open Crew Chief, you have to manually click the “Start Crew Chief” button. Did you know there’s a setting to automatically start and minimize the window?

Clear your previous search, then using the Category filter drop-down, select “UI, Startup & paths”. Look for the “Minimize on Startup” checkbox and the “Run immediately” checkbox.

These settings will make Crew Chief automatically run without any intervention from you.

Sector reports

I like to get regular updates on my sector timings. In Crew Chief properties there’s a setting that I find particularly useful: “Race sector reports at each sector”

To find the “Race sector reports at each sector” checkbox, select the “Timings” option in the drop-down menu.

Disable rants

Occasionally you’ll get a cheeky message from your Chief, like “maybe try it the other way up” if you roll the car.

Funny, sure but not always the most helpful thing in the world!

Voice Recognition

Provided you have a microphone on your headset, and of course that’s set up correctly in Windows, you can enable voice recognition and ask your Crew Chief questions related to the race, for example, “how long is left in the race?”.

Like Alexa or Google, a trigger word activates a voice answer. In Crew Chief, it’s “Chief…”

Here are the voice commands via the add/remove actions button at the bottom of the UI:

The voice commands I (mostly) use are on fuel, position and race duration remaining. Don’t forget to start each request with “Chief:”

1. “How’s my fuel?”
2. “What’s my position?”
3. “What’s my last lap time?”
4. “How long is left?”
5. “What’s the gap ahead/behind?”
6. “How are my tyre (or tyre) temps?”
7. “What’s my best lap?”
8. “What’s the fastest lap?”
9. “Where am I faster?”
10. “Do I need to pit?”
11. “Damage report”
12. “How’s my [fuel / tire wear / body work / aero / engine / transmission / suspension / pace ]”

Hopefully, this is a useful and thorough enough introduction to setting up Crew Chief precisely how you need it (especially in iRacing!). Let me know if you have any questions or comments below!

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Topic: iRacing