NASCAR 25 Review – Realism, Rivalries, and Reward Points

NASCAR 25 Review

NASCAR 25 the official NASCAR game released on PC and consoles with iRacing.com Motorsports Simulators. iRacing is the current king of online racing. Since their launch in 2008, they have amassed an impressive player base. With all these years of experience, they created their first concrete racing car simulator. Considering the wide variety of racing cars they support in their online game, it's a little surprising that they did it based on NASCAR. But maybe not too much. There are very few good NASCAR games. Perhaps iRacing saw an opportunity in this underserved racing category.

How well did they do? Let's dive in.

First impressions of the game are very positive. The amount of content is somewhat overwhelming. NASCAR 25 features all four national series: ARCA Menards Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and NASCAR Cup Series. iRacing brings laser-scanned car models and tracks to the game to provide a level of authenticity never before seen. There are over 150 officially licensed drivers across four series. As for the track, there are 30 unique tracks to test your skills on. On the downside, there is no cross-platform support at launch. They hope to implement this in the future.

Equally impressive is the deep career mode. You can not only climb the career ladder, but also go into management. There are sponsor goals: to buy and develop new racing parts, hire crew members to keep your rides intact, and build their reputation through on-track performance and PR opportunities. You can decide how to compete in all four series. Play as yourself or your favorite driver and/or special car in everything from full schedules to special compositions of all short tracks or super speeds.

Let's make it real

A big addition to the game is the ability to run seasons from different series simultaneously. If you want, you can host two championships at the same time. Race weekends run like the real thing, so you can switch between series and try to score two or more wins on the same track.

To be honest, the masters of each type of track will lead every race. Thanks to the Racing Insights gaming platform, sports stars have never performed like their real-life offline counterparts. If you want real competition, NASCAR 25 supports an incredible forty, yes, forty, online racers in multiplayer mode.

In career mode, it's all about choice. You can let the game automatically manage your career or do it yourself. After each race you will receive a summary of your progress. On the practical side, damage to the vehicle must be repaired. Do it yourself or let your team's engineers do it. This approach applies to all other activities, such as hiring staff and attracting new sponsors. To get higher rewards from top sponsors, you need to achieve better results in races.

At the end of each race you will receive bonus points. Reward points are the game currency. The more reward points you collect, the faster you can move up the career ladder. Finishing a race is important, but it is not the only metric tracked. The system also tracks your racing ship. If you race cleanly, lead laps, reach certain lap speeds, and set qualifying and practice goals, you'll earn even more reward points.

Unique NASCAR physics

To further invest in your career, there is a Dale Earnhardt Jr. download. The feed represents turning points in your career, both good and bad, in the form of a social media feed. For added visibility, real-life NASCAR media like Jeff Gluck, Kelly Crandall, and even NASCARCASM highlight your on-track performance on social media after every race in Career Mode.

So, there's a lot hidden in this game, but what about the actual racing? The game features a physics model tuned by experts and based on real feedback from real NASCAR drivers and race teams. How does this affect actual gameplay? From a physics perspective, cars and trucks behave as expected. NASCAR cars handle differently than other racing cars. The cars are designed to race straight on tracks with sharp turns. Thus, they do not respond quickly to sudden steering changes.

These characteristics are not suitable for very dynamic force feedback. There is very little effort when driving on straight sections. If you play the game with an FFB wheel, it's underwhelming. The wheel seems dead. However, as soon as you enter a corner, the force feedback comes alive and you can feel the roll kick on the underside of the car. NASCAR racing is a unique brand of racing, which results in a unique style of feedback. On straight lines there is practically no feedback from the road. Perhaps there will be more detail on PC.

For the console version of the game, the feedback must be adapted to support not only steering wheels, but also controllers. Given the less precise nature of the controllers and NASCAR's unreliability, this is no easy task. On PS5, DualSense delivers the best possible force feedback experience with haptics and adaptive triggers. If you're used to racing with a steering wheel, you'll have to learn how to use a controller. You need to be less hands-on on the straights and really only need to be smart on banked turns.

Player Settings

The game has a wide range of options to suit a wide range of player skills and preferences. You can make the game feel arcade-like or realistic by changing the gameplay, driving, AI, controls, advanced controls, and display and sound settings. Advanced controls provide force feedback settings. There are many settings that can be customized, so it will take a little trial and error to find the ones that suit your needs.

AI is always an issue in racing games for those who prefer to play offline. In NASCAR racing, given the close combat nature of chariots, the need for good AI is greatest. In a field of forty cars, the AI ​​has to control many other AI cars, as well as the player. Minimizing contact is a top priority. Just like drafting a project. Riding the bumper of the car in front of you is a vital racing component of oval racing. There is also a pit strategy to deal with.

During testing, I was convinced that the AI ​​was adequate. Basically, cars with artificial intelligence behave quite understandably. We still have improvements to make, and to iRacing's credit, they are addressing them. As of October 18, they have released nine patches. Many of them deal with issues related to AI. Hopefully they will solve most of the AI ​​problems.

On the technical side, the game was marked with a checkered flag. The game runs smoothly on the console. I didn't notice any stuttering or lag while gaming. Pop-in exists, but it's not a problem because you'll mostly be paying attention to what's right in front of you. The cars and liveries look great, as do the tracks. The game also features sounds from the weekend's NASCAR events, both on and off the track.

Impressive debut

NASCAR 25 is impressive in scope. Whether it's Quick Race, Championship, Multiplayer or Career, the combination of tracks, cars and experiences will keep oval racing fans busy for a long time. While NASCAR 25 isn't perfect, it is an impressive debut in the series.

***PS5 verification key provided by the game publisher***