Test – NASCAR 25, a solid foundation for what's next

Test carried out on the PC version, with a Moza R5 steering wheel and Thrustmaster T-LCM pedals.

PC gamers will have had to be a little more patient than their console counterparts to discover NASCAR 25! Released on October 14th on PS5 and Xbox Series S/X, the official game of the American stock car championship has been available since November 11th on PC, and it is this version that we were able to get our hands on.

Since the mediocre NASCAR 21 Ignition, released in 2021 and developed by Motorsport Games, there has been no sign of an official, mainstream NASCAR game that straddles the line between simulation and arcade. This gap has now been filled by iRacing Studios, the "casual" division of the PC simulation giant.

The goal, established since the release of the official "World of Outlaws" games, is simple: to combine the accessibility and fun of a mainstream game with the knowledge iRacing has accumulated over nearly twenty years of developing their PC platform. Longtime fans of the simulation will recognize the cars and tracks, which originate from that simulation. This is the reason given for the absence of Mexico City, which has just been finalized for iRacing and could be added to NASCAR 25 later.

Thanks to the partnership between the publisher and the championship, the four national championships (Cup Series, Xfinity Series, Truck Series and even the ARCA) are playable, with more than forty drivers available for each category, and 30 circuits, with however the limitation of being able to play only on Cup circuits with cars of the same category, the same for the Xfinity, etc.

This variety is at the heart of career mode, which requires players to start their career at the very bottom, ARCA, before gradually climbing through the different categories. There's no option to sign with an existing team; instead, the goal is to develop your own team, starting with a small workshop and a single chassis, before moving up the ranks and building a points-scoring team at the top of NASCAR. This is an interesting feature that adds a career management aspect and also allows for variable difficulty.

Those eager to get started can jump straight into a Cup Series championship, either with an existing driver or their own, and a livery created using the in-game editor. This editor, which primarily uses the default liveries and customization options available in iRacing, allows users to personalize the cars, suits, helmets, and team colors they wish to create within the game. It's easy to learn while offering more complex customization options, which is a welcome addition.

On the track, the car's feel is exactly what you'd expect from a game that straddles the line between arcade and simulation. Mistakes are forgivable with driving aids, but once they're disabled, finding that last tenth of a second, whether on an oval or a road course, is a real challenge. This challenge is only amplified by the presence of around forty AI-controlled opponents, whose difficulty can be adjusted, as can their on-track behavior, allowing them to be more or less sensitive to collisions with the player.

The races are dynamic, and overall, upon first playing NASCAR 25, you're immediately drawn to the graphics, the realism of the cars, the tracks, and the behavior of the AI-controlled opponents. Unsurprisingly, the online mode quickly devolves into carnage, but it's also possible to experience some great battles with other enthusiasts. NASCAR 25 is a solid foundation on which to build for the future.

Corrections to be made

Having established this, it's important to focus on the areas that need improvement in NASCAR 26 to allow the franchise to take off. iRacing boasted of selling 200,000 copies of its game, which is a great success, but to retain players in the long term, some modifications will be necessary. While the rules concerning race segments and playoffs exist in the game, as do overtime finishes, there's no sign of the "choose cone" rule. This rule, added in the early 2020s, allows drivers to choose which lane they want to rejoin the race in before a restart. This could significantly spice up online races by adding a strategic element.

Something more akin to a bug than a deliberate oversight persists in the championship calculation system for the three series using playoffs. If the various rounds proceed smoothly, the driver who wins the Phoenix final takes the title… regardless of whether they are among the four drivers competing or not! It's a real shame at the end of a season that can reach 36 races…

Special attention must also be paid to the AI's pit entry and exit times in all game modes. During green flag pit stops, they can gain up to five seconds, entering and exiting their pit box and the pit lane much faster. This is particularly frustrating during the final pit stop of the Daytona 500, a race where you were leading in the first two segments but ultimately finished 28th because the AI ​​was "cheating" during their pit stop. Any resemblance to actual experience is purely coincidental…

The same applies to race restarts, where computer-controlled or console-controlled cars will have an advantage over the player. This isn't a problem during a mid-race restart, when there's still plenty of time to make up, but when it's a battle for the title with two laps to go, it's more complicated…

As is common in many other games, it would be nice to see drivers switch teams and retire over the course of the seasons. With four national championships, it's entirely possible to imagine drivers moving up or down the different divisions, from up-and-coming talents building their careers to seasoned veterans finishing with a season in Xfinity or Truck Series. Collision detection also needs improvement. While it's customizable, this is only to a certain extent, and the AI ​​drivers always seem a bit too close to the track, which detracts from the overall experience.

The key takeaway from NASCAR 25, however, is that the foundations are solid. You'll have a great time with a controller or steering wheel in hand, and that's the most important thing for a first game in a franchise. It's up to iRacing Studios to build on these strong foundations.

ALSO READ > EA Sports has announced that there will be no F1 26.