Why NASCAR Could Finally Have the “Most Authentic Racing Game” in 2025

The average race fan does not consider NASCAR or any other genre of motorsports, for that matter, purely sporting entertainment. The new-age fan not only is interested in watching the sport but also experiencing the same, and that is exactly what the governing body is trying to provide for its audience in the near future.

Ever since the world battled through the COVID-19 pandemic, humans have realized the importance of digital communication and the realism levels things such as games bring to the table today.

The same is true for racing games, or simulators as their more serious counterparts are called. Organizations such as iRacing have been providing sim-racing capabilities to PC users for years now, with several forms of motorsports for users to try their hands at, including NASCAR.

They have been the sport’s official sim-racing partner since 2010 as well, providing fans with an opportunity to race in a hyper-realistic environment which especially caught the attention of drivers as well as fans during the pandemic.

Now the same experience is set to come to race fans who long yearn for a realistic, well-executed NASCAR game for platforms such as Xbox and PlayStation.

While other motorsports genres such as F1 and World Rally Championship (WRC) have been well-represented by sim-cade (a mix of simulation and arcade) games for consoles as well as PCs, NASCAR has somewhat been lacking on that front.

NASCAR Heat 5, one of the sport’s most recent games offers its players an arcade experience, which essentially alienates the fan from the difficulty of the real thing, while also not appealing to the internal fraternity such as drivers and team members.

With news breaking last year on how iRacing acquired Motorsports Games, the developer responsible for the NASCAR Heat series, both the stock car racing governing body and the simulation expert have been working towards making one of the best stock car racing games ever, NASCAR 25.

How will NASCAR 25 differ from any other stock car racing game?

Elaborating on getting the intricacies of driving and the sport correctly, iRacing Senior Vice President and General Manager Rich Garcia touched on how the upcoming title will be one of the most authentic representations of the sport to date.

With access for console gamers being added to their arsenal, Garcia spoke about how minute details such as the distinctive roar of a NASCAR V8 engine make or break such an ambitious project, which is currently under development.

“One of the things I really believe as game director is getting the details right. That includes everything from the sound of the engines to the roar of the fans. When the player is sitting down at home, that’s the emotion and feel I want to bring to the fans.”

The game is bound to be released in the fall of 2025 for players to experience for the first time, promising laser-scanned tracks and hyper-realistic cars for a truly immersive experience which has somehow been lacking for console gamers all this while.