What’s Happening?

Dale Earnhardt Jr revealed new details about NASCAR ’25’s Soundtrack, Career Mode, and Driver Ratings during the latest episode of the Dale Jr Download.

Career Mode: Dale Jr Download and Getting Started

During the Ask Jr segment of the Aug. 5 episode of The Dale Jr Download, Earnhardt gave new insight into some key features of career mode.

First and foremost, the NASCAR Hall-of-Famer provided more information about The Dale Jr. Download’s role in the game’s in-depth career mode. Earnhardt claims that he and his co-host, RFK Racing Spotter T.J. Majors, recorded 30 to 45 different clips that will play during your career depending on your actions.

“So me and T.J. recorded about 30 or 45 different scenarios that can play out for a driver, like hiring a new crew chief or losing somebody important on their team, like an engineer, or gaining a new sponsor, or getting themselves into trouble, or whatever. And so when this scenario sort of happens, or you choose this route, you’ll hear from us, and what we think about it.” — Dale Earnhardt Jr

Towards the end of the segment, Earnhardt also revealed how career mode starts, stating that the player is given a chance to race in an ARCA race at Rockingham and must meet a specific requirement to start their career.

“It’s kind of like, ‘Hey, man, you’re a local short track guy, and you’re getting this chance to run this ARCA car, and you need to improve and impress to continue your career,'” Earnhardt said.

This is similar to other NASCAR games, such as EA Sports’ 2004 release, NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup, in which players had to beat Ryan Newman in a street race to start their career.

Driver Ratings are “Definitely Gonna Create Some Controversy”

Earnhardt also touched on Driver ratings, a feature that many fans are excited about.

In most sports games, athletes are assigned specific ratings to show their ranking amongst their peers. These ratings, based on specific skills, are combined into an overall rating. This feature is not present in NASCAR games but will be featured in NASCAR ’25.

Unlike most other sports games, Earnhardt doesn’t believe users will be able to edit the ratings, only view them.

“It’s literally just fixed ratings,” Earnhardt said. “I don’t know that you’ll be able to adjust them. But you can literally go in there and look at the drivers and what they’re great at.”

When other sports games are released, such as EA’s Madden or College Football, athletes often post about disappointing ratings, something Earnhardt teased would likely happen in NASCAR ’25

“This [driver ratings] is definitely gonna create some controversy… there’ll be some disagreements, for sure,” Earnhardt said.

Soundtrack: New Artists, Featured Song, and Missed Songs

During this episode, Earnhardt also opened up about the soundtrack, something he took responsibility for during the developmental process. Last week, Earnhardt posted a clip of the game’s home screen and revealed some details about its roster of 27 artists and songs, and expanded on this conversation during this episode.

The most important note is that the game’s featured song is by System of a Down. Earnhardt explained that this was not his choice but a pick from an iRacing employee. However, Earnhardt had to reach out to the band to explain why the song would work for the game.

But, as expected, he says the game will feature a diverse mix of music. “We tried to have a lot of different genres represented… rap, rock, country, a little bit of history and nostalgia, mixed in as well,” Earnhardt said.

Earnhardt and the team at iRacing had some trouble with licensing. Earnhardt stated, “There were a couple of songs that I wanted that we didn’t get.”

One of those songs was Stuntin’ Like My Daddy by Lil Wayne and Birdman, though this was more of a censorship issue, as the game must have clean music. Earnhardt said that the clean version of Stuntin’ Like My Daddy had “a lot of gaps.”

The former Daytona 500 Champion and music enthusiast also said the game features a healthy number of independent artists from iRacing’s available catalog. He said he would listen to “30 or 40 songs in a big chunk” and work to find the ones that best fit the game.

“There’s a bunch of, I think, good songs in there from some independent artists that I’m excited about because this could be a big break for them,” Earnhardt said.

Overall, the 50-year-old sim racing veteran seemed enthusiastic about the work he and the iRacing team did with the soundtrack, saying that it won’t be perfect for everybody, but that’s just the way it goes.

“The soundtrack’s gonna be good for a lot of people,” Earnhardt said. “There’ll be some people that are disappointed, some things aren’t in there, some songs aren’t in there, and some people won’t care. Some people will mute the music as soon as they start playing the game.”

iRacing is set to release NASCAR ’25 on Oct. 14 for XBOX Series X/S and PS5, with a PC port to be released later. For information, including timelines, promotional videos, and in-game info, make sure to check out our in-depth article on NASCAR ’25, which is linked in the section above.

Let us know your thoughts on this! Join the discussion on Discord or X, and remember to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for more updates.