‘NASCAR ‘25’ is a game that fans of the sport will honestly enjoy...if iRacing Studios is going to try and possibly turn this into a yearly franchise, then this is the perfect foundation to start building upon.
One of my earliest gaming memories was when I got a pre-owned copy of ‘NASCAR Thunder 2003’ from a local GameStop. I sucked at it, genuinely awful. I think my first race was with Ryan Newman at the Talladega Infield race (a fantasy track), and I got mopped. It was from that moment that I wanted to win. I tried for weeks and just couldn’t win a race in this game from over 10 years ago at the time. Then it all clicked. I won the ‘Daytona 500’ in a literal tie with Jimmie Johnson as Ken Schrader in the M&M’s Ponatic. I’ve always loved racing, and NASCAR was my first love there. Now, after an incredibly rocky series of games and a several-year hiatus…NASCAR fans have reason to be excited as the stock car series returns to the gaming landscape with the console release of ‘NASCAR ‘25’, but is it all victory lane and champagne? Or have we junked our car on lap two?
‘NASCAR ‘25’ marks a new life into the name as ‘iRacing Studios’ (yes, THAT iRacing) steps to the plate and takes the mantle from ‘Motorsport Games’. One of the biggest parts of this game is that we have the top three series of NASCAR (Cup, Xfinity, and Trucks), but now the game features the ARCA Menards Series, the fourth-tier grassroots series for NASCAR. Featuring drivers who hardly get any real airtime from ARCA, the chance to be in a video game is an awesome addition, no matter what.
As race fans, we care about the racing product on track, and if it is bad, by God, they will let you know about it. While ‘NASCAR ‘25’ isn’t a perfect replica like its ‘bigger brother’ in iRacing, it honestly was better than I had expected. The cars feel heavy, and weighed down, and aren’t just massive piles of lead. You can feel the car’s rotation in the corners at most tracks. I noticed it at places like Dover and Kansas, where oversteer or ‘loose on exit’ can be common in real life. It keeps you on your toes and aware of what your car and other cars are doing around you. I told some friends I’d compare the driving model to those early ‘Thunder’ games. You drive the car too deeply into the corner, and the understeer is gonna hurt you big time. Roll into the throttle too early and get loose, and you have to work to keep from crashing.
The game does feel ‘lost’ in some ways, physics-wise. Nothing is a huge problem, but there were several times where contact would be made with another car on a straightaway, and it just felt like balls bouncing off each other. It wasn’t often, but it would take you out of the game when it did happen.
The heart of NASCAR games from days past comes from the career mode. I think most fans my age have memories of struggling in a backmarker in the ‘NASCAR Thunder’ series or racing Ryan Newman (that’s odd he’s come up twice here) in ‘Chase of The Cup’ for a Whelen Modified Tour ride. ‘NASCAR ‘25’ takes a new approach with a one-of-a-kind showcase event with ARCA cars at Rockingham. Once you ‘succeed’ you…earn an ARCA car? It’s not really fleshed out, but either way, you now become the owner and operator of your own ARCA Menards Series team.
You and your crew begin to work towards a winning ARCA program. You can make upgrades by purchasing new parts for the cars, including the body, chassis, engine, and suspension. After each race weekend, you have to make repairs on said parts, costing you work points, so you have to be aware of what really needs time and effort. You don’t necessarily wanna invest a lot of time in the body if you’re heading to Bristol just to do a lot more damage to it. Like most things in life, you can only wear these parts out so much, so be financially smart as well because after a few races in a row, you’ve gotta buy whole new parts for the car.
The process feels very similar to some of the earlier NASCAR console games, where you’re forced to work with what you have, but also, new stuff isn’t too far off and feels achievable for you and your team. You also have driver responsibilities such as showing up for events, helping take care of the team, and attending marketing meetings or PR events, which all have their effects on what you will work on in a given week. These feel… arbitrary in a lot of ways. The way you earn work points for your car doesn’t feel explained. Plus, unless you’re running on really damaged equipment, you can always work your car back to 100 percent every week as long as you aren’t fully tearing stuff up all the time. The Reputation you also earn by clean racing and respectful driving builds to sponsor opportunities and ultimately more money coming into the team. This mechanic definitely felt more effective than the work points and made you feel like you were earning more in the long term with your clean driving and respect on track.
Overall, the career mode is very bare bones, and as long as you are smart and aware of the car and your equipment’s limits, then you can build into a winning program pretty fast.
One thing I do want to mention that iRacing is good for is the paint booth. ‘NASCAR ’25’ and it’s paint booth feature all base schemes found in iRacing and as a former iRacer, having the knowledge of that was wonderful to see. You have a lot at your disposal for how you want to create your custom machine to look.
‘NASCAR ‘25’ is a game that fans of the sport will honestly enjoy. It fills a void that has been left open for years and allows them to be able to finally ‘scratch that itch’. It’s not something that will blow other racing games out of the water, but if iRacing Studios is going to try and possibly turn this into a yearly franchise, then this is the perfect foundation to start building upon.
