Due for release in Autumn 2025, more details are being shared about the licensed oval racing game as the latest NASCAR 25 Developer Diary looks at career mode. It’s also now confirmed that NASCAR 25 will be released on PC as well as consoles.
The video features a variety of staff from iRacing and Monster Games, including Dale Earnhardt Jr, along with NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver and keen sim racer Ty Majeski, who was previously the top ranked oval racer on the server for many years. And it begins by discussing the inclusion of the ARCA Menards series in the game for the first time in the series. As the first standalone NASCAR title to be published by iRacing after acquiring the license from Motorsport Games, a realistic career mode is a major focus on NASACR 25.
You’ll start in a garage at the back of your grandpa’s old shop, and then work your way up through the series by racing your way through to a top team. And along the way, you’ll be given choices which will impact your gameplay, managing the details of your team to various levels depending on your preferences.
The direction makes sense. As I mentioned in relation to the PC release of World of Outlaws: Dirt Racing 24, also developed by Monster Games and published by iRacing, it makes little sense to replicate iRacing for consoles and in separate PC releases. But using the existing assets, physics and knowledge to create games which offer a more accessible simcade experience, along with a much bigger single player focus, potentially attracts a different audience, and one which might end up trying out iRacing in the future as well.
Much like with World of Outlaws, I’ve dabbled in the iRacing oval series. But as a European motorsport fan, while I’ve gained a much bigger appreciation of those disciplines through sim racing, I’m far from knowledgable about the sports, especially when it comes to what happens in the pits and garages besides refuelling or changing tyres. And like World of Outlaws, I’m really tempted to pick it up and play it alongside iRacing as something I could dip into on a controller during a quick lunch break, rather than comitting the time to jumping in the sim rig, practising and racing on the official schedule against more experienced human opponents.
Overall REP seems fairly self-explanatory, although it’s not clear yet what WP might stand for. Hopefully your choices will have some kind of noticeable impact on how your driver performs, or the opportunities that become available to you.
The video also includes cash, and “RD” levels, presumably research and development of new parts, along with sponsorship management and staff controls.
Also mentioned is the relationship with your crew chief and spotter, making it feel more like genuine interactions rather than UI screens. Which is certainly something that could end up feeding back into the core iRacing title at some point.
It’s going to be interesting to try out the game, especially considering one of the most popular titles in the history of NASCAR games is still NASCAR Racing 2003 Season (NR2003), which is still being played and modded. That game was developed by Papyrus, founded by David Kaemmer and Omar Khudari. When the NASCAR licence expired and was picked up by Electronic Arts, the NR2003 source code was sold to Kaemmer, who used it for the original basis of iRacing. And Monster Games previously worked on NASCAR Heat until and including Heat 4 (along with the SRX and Tony Stewart’s games).
NASCAR 25 is due out in Autumn 2025 for PC and consoles, and you can keep up with the latest news, details and more, here. If you can’t wait until then, PC owners can sign up to iRacing, here (which will credit your referral to ORD, which we’d appreciate!).
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