Recently, NASCAR 25, the sport’s newest video game, rolled out its first poster. William Byron, Ryan Blaney, and Christopher Bell were revealed as the cover athletes, with actress Monica Palumbo making the announcement ahead of the Coke Zero Sugar 400. Meanwhile, with NASCAR cutting back on practice time, whether on familiar tracks or new ones, many drivers now lean heavily on simulators to get a sense of the lay of the land.
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Even so, Bell admitted he no longer spends as much time racing online as he once did before breaking into NASCAR, despite being the poster boy for NASCAR 25. While he acknowledged that simulator work has become the backbone of every race weekend and that most drivers now use it almost constantly, he himself rarely logs in for online racing anymore.
Unlike names such as Rajah Caruth and William Byron, who climbed the ladder through sim racing alone, Bell blended that virtual grind with real weekends in go-karts and dirt cars, giving him a wider foundation.
Speaking on a recent episode of Speedfreaks, Bell explained, “As a hobby racer, I lived on online sim racing. And then once you become a professional and it becomes your job, then you’re like, ‘Okay, I don’t really want to be spending my off time racing online.’ So, as a kid growing up, I raced online all the time.
“And then, yeah, the more seriously you start to take your job, and whenever it becomes your profession, it’s yeah, I’m ready to get away from it whenever I’m not on the track. So, you don’t really find me online racing as much anymore.”
With NASCAR 25 set to hit the shelves, it remains to be seen whether Bell gives the title a spin. The game marks the first time the Cup Series, Xfinity Series, Craftsman Truck Series, and ARCA Menards Series will be featured together in a single release.
The centerpiece is its all-new Career Mode, where players can create their own drivers and cars, manage contracts, finances, facilities, and staff, and make choices on and off the track that could pave their way to a NASCAR Cup Series championship.
