iRacing Announces Cover Driver and Earlier Release Date for NASCAR 26
What’s Happening? iRacing Studios announced that 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Champion Kyle Larson will be the cover athlete for its next…
iRacing Studios is adding post-race burnouts to its next NASCAR Console Game, NASCAR 26, after the feature was absent from the studio’s debut title, NASCAR 25.
Thursday afternoon, iRacing Studios and NASCAR announced the cover driver and release month for their second-ever NASCAR console game, NASCAR 26.
The game will feature Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson on its “cover” (as iRacing has yet to confirm if the game will have a physical release, something they opted out of for NASCAR 25). It will come out on an unannounced day in September.
But news about the upcoming release didn’t stop there, as iRacing also confirmed the first new feature for NASCAR 26, one that many fans were saddened was not featured in NASCAR 25.
In a follow-up post showing social media comments and in-game footage of Larson’s car doing a celebratory burnout on the front stretch of Kansas Speedway, making these post-race burnouts the first new feature in an iRacing Studio’s NASCAR game.
Of course, burnouts are a major part of NASCAR games, dating all the way back to the early days of EA Sports’ NASCAR line and continuing into the 2010s.
For many fans, the ability to not do a burnout in the game, even after winning the championship in career mode, left a lot to be desired, even if it didn’t affect gameplay.
What’s Happening? iRacing Studios announced that 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Champion Kyle Larson will be the cover athlete for its next…
In past NASCAR games, there have been incentives tied to the success of your burnout. For example, in NASCAR The Game: 2011, users would earn NXP for their burnouts.
Of course, in NASCAR 25, everything from sponsors to tracks to paint schemes was unlocked from the start, and very likely will be in NASCAR 26, leaving little reason to offer any form of reward for single-player or online burnouts.
Still, there could be some element tied to career mode, particularly if you could earn Reputation from your burnout, though this is an odd direction to take with the system, which is tied to how you race.
Even then, if the feature does not affect the game itself, it is already a welcome addition for fans.
For more info on NASCAR 26, check out the story linked below.
What’s Happening? Last year, iRacing Studios delivered the first multi-platform NASCAR console game since 2021. But just as fast as NASCAR…
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