The mid-2000s have one huge core memory for me: lobbies full of slightly tipsy LAN attendees all trying to drive in circles to be the first across the line in NASCAR Racing 2003 Season. Ultimately, it always descended into chaos with cars strewn about the track whilst a handful of the more competent players drove off into the distance (well, until they came back around the circuit, anyway).
And since the mid-2000s — with a brief excursion to play NASCAR Heat 5 during the pandemic, I’ve not really spent much time with the intricacies of oval racing. Even a foray into iRacing itself couldn’t tempt me away from the more usual sports car series that it offers. But there’s a new sheriff in town, and its name is NASCAR 25… and it’s developed by… wait… iRacing Studios???
Yeah, that’s right. A game from the very people that bring us the most popular multiplayer racing game on Earth right now is the latest entry in the NASCAR franchise of games. That should put it in a positive position from the get-go as a decent racer, then.
And — for the most part — it is: the cars feel chunky in a way that they can take a bit of a beating before suffering race-ending damage and they handle in a way that’s predictable, allowing you to keep it up close and personal with the drivers alongside you. Something you’ll be pleasantly surprised with as you’re hurtling down the road at some 200 miles per hour. With it more or less being NASCAR Racing 2003 Season under the hood (iRacing itself was born from the source code of NASCAR 2003), it’s almost like being back at those LAN parties (except with less inebriation), though it certainly does look prettier now.
Back then, I never really understood the intricacies of oval racing — surely the line closest to the smallest part of the circle is the fastest way around, right? Wrong. There’s a whole raft of nuance to the sport that’s hard to really understand if your only exposure to it is TV broadcasts and clips on YouTube. You might find yourself with the lead pack, working together to build a lead that reduces the number of dogs in the fight at the end, or you might have to work with a bump-draft-buddy in order to catch them up from mid-pack. Even how high you are on the corners will have an impact on your race outcome. The offline AI drivers really know how to turn up the heat as well, so you can always drop in and have a meaningful race to push your own tactics to the absolute limit.
However, multiplayer introduces the bane of all sim-racing titles with an online presence; random players that don’t understand the nuances of close racing, preferring to always try and get ahead of you rather than working with you in a bump-draft train all in the pursuit of victory. Or completely missing some of the finer aspects of racecraft that can make a race go from a heart pounding adrenaline rush to one of frustration and anger as you’ve just been intentionally PIT maneuvered once more in the corners.
Overall,NASCAR 25 can be a lot of fun in the single-player races, gracing you with the feeling of being in a pack of cars doing 200 miles per hour, piloted by sheer bravado and a will to be faster than the person in the car next to you, whilst being packed closer together than sardines in a tin.