The iRacing team is making a NASCAR racing sim for consoles

05.10.2023 - 21:09 / theverge.com / Jay Peters

By Jay Peters, a news editor who writes about technology, video games, and virtual worlds. He’s submitted several accepted emoji proposals to the Unicode Consortium.

iRacing, known for its simulation racing game for PC, has acquired the rights from Motorsport Games to make a NASCAR racing sim for consoles, according to a Thursday press release. NASCAR and iRacing already work together on virtual races within iRacing that have “thousands of people participating daily,” the press release says, and now they’ll partner up for a NASCAR game for PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and Steam that’s expected to come out in 2025.

“Having the ability to build a NASCAR console game is a privilege we promise to execute with the utmost care,” iRacing president Tony Gardner said in a statement. “We look forward to working diligently with NASCAR industry stakeholders to deliver a product that provides an amazing experience for the gaming community and NASCAR fans worldwide.”

An iRacing-made console game seemed like a pretty likely possibility after the company announced last year that it had acquired Monster Games, which worked on the first four NASCAR Heat titles. At the time, iRacing said the acquisition would “bring another level of expertise under the iRacing roof and further the company’s ability to bring the highest quality racing games to the broader market, including the console space.”

iRacing founder Dave Kaemmer was also the co-founder of Papyrus Design Group, the maker of many legendary racing simulators, including its final game, NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, which contributed some of the source code that makes up iRacing.

Motorsport Games will continue to support its NASCAR games through 2024.

/ Sign up for Verge Deals to get deals on products we've tested sent to your inbox daily.