iRacing has been relatively quiet about its NASCAR console game. As far as we know, the game is called NASCAR 25 and will be out sometime in the future. That’s why any little nugget of information we receive about the game is valuable, and, for the first time in some time, we have some news.
iRacing will release NASCAR 25 in the fall of 2025. The game, still one year out, will mark the first NASCAR Console game since the release of the NASCAR Rivals on Oct. 14, 2022.
This stretch of rocky ground for NASCAR Console gaming began with the release of Motorsport Games’ NASCAR 21 Ignition on Oct. 28, 2021. Ignition was almost as anticipated as NASCAR 25 but was a relative flop.
The game as a whole had many glitches and unexplainable physics mishaps, as well as a lack of in-depth features. This disappointment led to Motorsport Games riding out their contract with NASCAR by releasing re-skinned versions of past games.
iRacing purchased the NASCAR license on Oct 5, 2023. From the little we know about NASCAR 25, the game is being developed by Monster Games. A past developer of NASCAR games, now owned by iRacing.
We also know that the developers are using Unreal Engine as the game engine. Most importantly, we see the game is getting a release on Xbox, Nintendo, and Playstation consoles, more than likely on the current generation.
However, as far as in-game information goes, we have learned very little beyond one or two artist renderings. Thanks to Executive Vice President Steve Myers, we finally know a little more.
A little over a month ago, we received the first episode of NASCAR 25 Dev Diary from iRacing on YouTube. Since then, the NASCAR 25 new cycle has been quiet. Until Monday afternoon, when iRacing executive Steve Myers had news he had to share about the game physics prototype build.
In this post and the subsequent thread of posts, Myers revealed little about the game’s contents. Fortunately, Myers let fans learn a bit more about NASCAR 25’s gameplay. We, of course, suggest reading the entirety of Myers’ thread to read comments in full with no commentary.
First, Myers made it clear he was not racing other cars. He was, in fact, on an empty track, presumably in some form of a test session. He raced at Atlanta, Bristol, Charlotte, and Homestead, notably experiencing four different types of tracks.
According to Myers, the game is fun, not difficult. This fear of difficulty stems from the use of a controller, a problem of select NASCAR games of the past. However, Myers said it is fun to learn the throttle on a controller rather than feeling like you have little to no control of the car.
Most importantly, we learned that the NASCAR Xfinity Series cars will be in the game. The Xfinity Series was present in NASCAR games from NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup to NASCAR 09 before reappearing in NASCAR Heat 2. Notably, neither the Xfinity nor the Truck Series are present in Ignition.
The most important note about the Xfinity Series cars is that Myer clearly states that they drive differently from the Cup Series cars.
This level of depth is a long-awaited wish of NASCAR fans. In real life, the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series have two different styles of racing, but in past NASCAR games, the two series cars have raced the same.
While these are just a few nuggets of information, they are indeed a blessing from the tight-lipped development staff at iRacing. Like many times before, hopes are high, and perhaps this time around, NASCAR fans won’t be let down.
On Tuesday evening, Myers made it clear he was not confirming that the Xfinity Series is in the game past the existence of a car. The team at iRacing wants to have up-to-date tracks before having the series in the game. However, his use of the phrase “but still early” did leave a sense of hope for the Xfinity Series in NASCAR 25 on the table.
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Another race weekend in the books. While Ryan Blaney battled back from several pit road setbacks to win his second straight race at Phoenix, other drivers were much to be desired. It was a big win for Penske but for several others, they leave the first “real” race of the season scratching their head with a lot that they need to figure out. Here are the biggest losers of NASCAR’s Spring 2026 Phoenix race weekend.
I’m afraid that this is starting to be habitual. Another race weekend at RCR for Kyle Busch, another terrible result. Well, the finish wasn’t exactly awful. While 17th is hardly up to Kyle’s standards, it’s about as good as it gets anymore for the two-time champion who hasn’t won a race in nearly a hundred starts.
To start things off, there was a reason to be cautiously optimistic about the future of that RCR No. 8 Chevy. New crew chief. Personnel changes. A new Chevy body. He even scored the pole for the 68th running of the Daytona 500 last month. But, since then, it has been a sharp slope downward. He was mostly a non-factor in the first three races. And, today, it seemed like the No. 8 Chevy was out to lunch. They unloaded slow. They qualified in the back of the pack. And, before Stage 1 even ended, Kyle was running 34th with no apparent issues and went a lap down to leader Ryan Blaney. To add insult to injury, Kyle Bush had a tire go down on him three times today. More than any other driver. It appears to be back to the drawing board for team No. 8.
You could say that the Hendrick No. 48 team had a rough weekend in general. But I think it would be more accurate to say that the entire start to 2026 has been catastrophic. Heading into today’s race, even with Bowman starting the first three races of the season, the No. 48 team was 36th in points, last among all full-time drivers. Even Cody Ware was ahead of him. If that’s not bad, I don’t know what is.
To rub salt in the wound, their driver missed today at Phoenix due to showing symptoms of vertigo. So, Anthony Alfredo was into sub and…it went about as well as you’d expect. He went a lap down early and never recovered. He got caught up in the incident involving Joey Logano and DNF’d. Officially, they scored a 33rd finishing position. This is the worst start Bowman could ever imagine, considering that he’s in a contract year.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that I’ve lost my marbles. “Come on, dude! Penske just swept the weekend! How can they be losers?” Hear me out. Let’s start first with the two other Penske drivers, shall we? Joey Logano caused not one, but two multi-car pileups, one involving his Penske teammate, Austin Cindric. Cars were utterly destroyed. Before that, both Cindric and Logano were running solidly in the top 10.
So, it’s not for a lack of speed that they make our Biggest Losers list. The reason they’re listed here is that a lot of their problems today, if not all of them, were self-inflicted. Logano was driving sloppily and that took out Cindric. And even race winner Ryan Blaney almost lost this race on pit road numerous times. Rookie mistakes by the pit crew constantly had him charging from behind. Pit road penalties. He was like a yo-yo going back and forth throughout the field. What saved him in the end was that, on that last restart, Blaney took two tires and Christopher Bell took 4. If that had not happened, it is extremely possible that Blaney ultimately would have lost the race and it would have been because of their numerous mistakes in the pits.
They got lucky this week. They probably won’t get that lucky again. They need to clean up those nagging, senseless mistakes.
Ole, Danny boy. If Alex Bowman’s seat is the hottest in the series, Daniel Suarez has to be the second hottest in the garage. That No. 7 car has been a revolving door of drivers for the last several years and it looks like Suarez is shaping up to be Spire’s latest victim. It’s the same old story with the team: they show impressive speed in qualifying and even early on in the race. But rarely do they ever put a full race together. That criticism isn’t just for Suarez, it applies to the team across the board.
But Carson Hocevar is the team’s golden child. He’s not going anywhere. And the team seems pretty high on Michael McDowell at the moment. That leaves Suarez looking like the odd man out, a seat-warmer, if you will. He needs to perform. And, he’s done well to start, admittedly. But he qualified 5th for today’s race. He even earned a few stage points in the opening stage. Then, he faltered and left the race with an unceremonious whimper. Ultimately, after he was no longer a factor, he was caught up in a mid-race wreck. He finished 30th. That’s a tough pill to swallow for the Mexican-born driver. If he wants to keep his ride next year, he needs to show stark improvement in the coming weeks. I have a strong feeling that that ride is about to be a highly sought-after commodity once silly season rolls around.
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The first checkered flag of the 2026 rendition of the NASCAR West Coast Swing (as abbreviated as it is) has officially flown. It was an exciting race, full of close, tight-cornered racing, a plethora of tire issues littered throughout, and a couple of heartbreaking, hard hits. Surviving it all was Ryan Blaney, who captured the flag in the Straight Talk 500 at Phoenix Raceway. He survived pit road mishaps and passed a total of 49 cars to win the race today. It marks his 18th career victory, sweeping the weekend for Team Penske. So, for Blaney and Team Penske, the race was the highest of highs. Not everyone escaped unscathed, though. Here are the key takeaways from NASCAR’s spring date at Phoenix.
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Following a relatively clean first stage, Stage number 2 and beyond was littered with cautions. Most of these cautions were a result of tires going down after only about 20 laps or so of use. But the caution on Lao 216 was purely driver error. Joey Logano, who was running 7th at the time, made a move down on the apron approaching the finish line. Chaos ensued. Here’s what happened.
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