Nascar 25, created by Steve Myers’ iRacing team, is set to debut on Oct. 14 on the PlayStation 5, Xbox and PC.
iRacing
It’s been a long four years, but Nascar fans will soon have their hands on a new video game. “Nascar 25,” which is created by iRacing, is in the final stages of development as founder Steve Myers and his team bring hope to a revitalized fan base.
“We have a huge advantage in that this development has been working together for 25 years,” Myers said. “Our previous company, Papyrus Racing Games, started the Nascar franchise space in the ’90s. Our last product – Nascar Racing 2003 Season – is still considered to be one of the best Nascar games ever made. In that game, we took the approach of getting real-world data and get closer to the technical aspects of Nascar.
“We have almost 20 years of working with Nascar on our PC racing product to be as authentic and real as possible. Real-world Nascar drivers use it to train. It was the perfect time for us to make a mass-market game just about Nascar. We have all of this industry knowledge and all of the people who have made Nascar console games.”
In October of 2023, Nascar first announced iRacing’s acquisition of the rights to the new video game title, shocking the world after Motorsport Games’ demise. Nasvar video games have been lisenced by a plethora of video game firms, including Sierra, EA Sports, Eutechnyx and 704Games, with many leaving fans disappointed.
However, iRacing has major plans for its first-ever traditional video game, with more real-life drivers available to race with, realistic track options and much more. The game will also feature the ARCA Menards Series for the first time. The firm also released the full driver roster already, well ahead of the game’s release.
“I don’t think it would be fair to compare us to previous games because there hasn’t been a title in a while,” Myers said. “The driving experience is going to be an authentic experience for the game we are trying to make.
“There’s never been more drivers and paint schemes in a game than I can remember. Your first swing of the bat – you want to have a great product – but you also want to think about what you can do next.”
iRacing originally debuted on Aug. 26, 2008 as a PC racing simulator, part-Nascar and part-everything else motor sports. The correlation to real-life racing presented a major shift in Nascar gaming. Not only was the simulator realistic, but one could race against actual Nascar, IndyCar Series and even Formula 1 drivers on the iRacing platform from their own homes. The simulator became so successful that Nascar Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. joined the business in 2020 and was brought on as the firm’s executive director for iRacing.com.
“This is a space unlike any other in sports, where if you’re good at ‘NBA 2K,’ there’s no chance you’re going on a basketball court with LeBron James,” Myers said. “With racing, we’ve created a product where people can come in and figure out if they have this talent.”
Not only have racers like Earnhardt been competing on iRacing, but so have up-and-coming drivers. Of note, two-time Daytona 500 champion and Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron kicked off his career thanks to success on iRacing, as did ThorSport Racing’s Ty Majeski, amongst others.
Now, iRacing is how drivers get ready for races no matter the series. They spend hours each week competing on iRacing, especially for tracks they have never raced at previously.
Additionally, the eNascar Coca-Cola iRacing Series, has expanded dramatically over the years, with several actual Nascar teams having virtual entries.
The new Nascar 25 video game interface is different and cleaner compared to others.
iRacing
But iRacing’s real explosion came during the Covid-19 pandemic, when there was nothing else to do besides compete virtually. To fill in the void of Nascar races, Nascar on Fox partnered with iRacing for a handful of virtual races on Sundays during the pandemic. It became quite the popular spectacle, with Nascar Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon even joining in on the action.
iRacing, which uses a laser scanner to model each track as authentically and accurately as possible, also designed a street course in Chicago during the pandemic. Myers and his team set out on a mission to figure out what a street race in the Windy City would look like. They scanned the roads around Chicago’s Grant Park, which helped Nascar map out what would become the Chicago Street Course for the last three seasons.
Myers explained: “Ben Kennedy reached out and asked, ‘Do you think you can help us figure out what we’re going to do with Auto Club [Speedway] and the California track?’ What we did there opened his eyes to what is possible with our tools and helping him figure out what the future of Nascar is going to be. And that led us to working on the L.A. Coliseum.
“We are part of the fabric of motor sports.”
“Nascar 25” will hit shelves on Oct. 14.