NASCAR 25 Review – A New Chapter

With iRacing taking over the reins of NASCAR from 704Games, expectations for this latest addition to the racing simulator franchise have been quite high. NASCAR 25 is a tricky one to discuss, considering that it’s a love letter to enthusiasts while offering very little to a more casual racing fan to stand out. That’s not to say that it’s a bad game, far from it. But there are a few complaints, nonetheless.

The best way I’d describe the situation is that when you’re at the wheel of a car, this is an excellent racing simulator that looks and feels brilliant. It’s when you go off the tracks that things get a little dicey. I’m happy to say that the experience I was expecting from the game’s Dev Diaries in the run-up to its release is there for those of you looking to dive into it.

“The franchise’s Unreal Engine debut certainly lives up to that promise, with each track looking phenomenal while the audio design does a good job of bringing the crowds and roaring engines to life.”

But if your interest in racing is nothing more than fleeting, there’s little on offer to keep you invested in a campaign that feels too grindy, while a lack of fun alternatives keeps this one from joining this year’s greats. Allow me to explain.

You begin your journey as a rookie driver looking to make your mark in the ARCA Menards Series, racking up wins to earn Reputation and cash with which you repair and upgrade your car in your garage while also taking part in a few events to further improve your standing. On paper, it all sounds quite interesting, placing you in the shoes of a rising star in a superb recreation of the excitement surrounding NASCAR in the real world.

The franchise’s Unreal Engine 5 debut certainly lives up to that promise, with each track looking phenomenal while the audio design does a good job of bringing the crowds and roaring engines to life. And once you fire up your engine and get rolling, you immediately get the feeling that iRacing is on to something special.

Your car handles like a dream, and only gets better as you win a few races and get access to better parts for it. I was blown away by the very first few upgrades and the difference they made to my ride’s handline and acceleration. How you treat your car is as important as actually winning races, as you soon find that pushing it to its limits almost constantly could cost you a winning position, thanks to natural wear and tear setting in. iRacing has also made several tweaks to Force Feedback for those of you who’d like to play this one using a wheel.

“Once you fire up your engine and get rolling, you immediately get the feeling that iRacing is on to something special”

The opponent AI is quite tame for the most part, although it is erratic enough to keep things interesting. Your fellow racers often try to gain the upper hand as they move along the track, creating the scope for collisions more often than you might expect. However, being prudent with your spacing mitigates the chances of that happening to a large extent, and your team radio is quite good at calling out potential gaps that you can exploit to get ahead.

I would have liked the option to customize my car’s look for Career Mode, but the Team menu does give you a very wide range of choices outside of it. But no matter how your car looks, the way it blazes along tracks does deserve some praise, considering the excellent framerates on a base PS5. While there is a bit of stutter when playing online, I didn’t find it immersion-breaking in the slightest. NASCAR 25 chugs along quite smoothly, although a bit of motion blurring on race replays might have helped them depict the raw speed and power of each car better.

The game does a good job at making you feel each bit of damage you inflict on your vehicle, both visually and via feedback from your controller. I soon learned it was a better strategy to be kind to my vehicle and only coax as much as I needed out of it in any given situation. That’s because I was landed with quite a hefty bill of repairs after my first race, my hard-won earnings almost depleted as I forked over the cash to replace parts that my mechanics couldn’t fully fix.

You see, your garage staff has a limited number of Working Points for you to allocate towards fixing up your chassis, engine, suspension, and body. Their condition directly affects the Performance Rating of your vehicle, which can determine where you place in the next race you take on. I found myself buying replacements more often than I would have liked until I learned to ease off the throttle until I really needed to use it.

“I found myself buying replacements more often than I would have liked until I learned to ease off the throttle until I really needed to use it”

In races, crashes, or bad turns can similarly affect your car’s performance. It’s all very realistic, and the social media posts from your fellow racers at the end of a race, in case you crash into them, were a fantastic touch that added to the immersion. For those of you who like a bit of challenge from your racing, there’s a dearth of options that you can tweak in order to make this a very engaging experience indeed!

It’s all very authentic as it feels like you’re part of an actual crew looking to win as many races as you can or at least place well enough in them to keep your sponsors happy. It’s really good that iRacing managed to capture the look and feel of a NASCAR race with aplomb. I just wish that it had paid the same attention to what happens off the tracks.

In the interest of saving myself some time, I turned things down to the Normal setting and went to town on the game’s Career Mode to see how far I could go. It’s a tad disappointing that the Reputation Points you need to get you to the next big event are doled out quite sparingly, making the game’s Career Mode feel unnecessarily longer than it should have been.

“The races themselves played out quite smoothly with little to no lag or stutter, which is quite a good thing if you’re planning on duking it out with your buddies”

And that isn’t a problem tied to the races themselves. In fact, the races are quite generous in how they allocate Reputation Points to good drivers who avoid crashes and drive as cleanly as they can. Indulging in Practice and Qualifying Laps nets you a few more and also provides an opportunity to earn a bit of extra cash from sponsors that come along as you keep racking up wins.

My main gripe with the Reputation system was that it feels entirely too dependent on races. Opportunities for some PR appearances do come along to your garage, but they were quite often a choice between earning more rep or Working Points, making me choose between my own personal standing or my crew. I found myself choosing my crew every time just to ensure I had more resources to allocate towards repairing my car between races.

The game’s Season and Online modes are another gripe I had with it. They offer little to no variety in terms of the core gameplay loop, which was quite annoying despite how good it is. I will say that joining an online lobby is quite seamless, and you’re sure to find enough people to race against as the game picks up some momentum. The races themselves played out quite smoothly with little to no lag or stutter, which is quite a good thing if you’re planning on duking it out with your buddies.

“If you’re a racing enthusiast, a fan of NASCAR, or somebody who’s looking for a racing simulator that does the job and does it well, go for it.”

It’s easy to see that NASCAR 25 is iRacing’s way of testing out the waters, seeing what works and what doesn’t in its pilot project. The studio has done well to focus on getting the most important part of the experience right: the racing. That’s sure to be a feather in its cap. But as for the rest of the experience, NASCAR 25 does very little to stand out and carve a name for itself like the driver at the center of its Career Mode.

It’s evident in the pre-race and post-race cutscenes, and in the repetitive camera angles in replays of your races. It shows in little details like the voice on your team radio that doesn’t change even once as you go from race to race, or even across modes. It’s prominent in the commentary that constantly repeats itself, and in the same faces standing around your car as you prepare to race. At least the tracks are varied enough

So, should you buy NASCAR 25? If you’re a racing enthusiast, a fan of NASCAR, or somebody who’s looking for a racing simulator that does the job and does it well, go for it.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.