There will be St. Petersburg, Chicagoland and Naval Base Coronado venues to boot. This season Chase format, too. Kyle Larson adorns the (virtual) cover.
We also know that NASCAR 26 is a yearly motorsport game release, created once again by iRacing Studios. Obviously.
Now, in a gargantuan (I’m joking) 57-second gameplay trailer, some words flashed on the screen with further new additions. The pre-order pages on digital stores also went live and provided a little extra colour.
So, here are 18 small (in bold) features recently discovered.
Overhauled Driving Physics
In iRacing Studio’s own words, the driving physics are ‘overhauled’ for this year. In fact, the blurb goes even further than that, proclaiming that they are “Driving Physics 2.0”.
2.0. That’s a bold call. This is apparently justified thanks to new tyre and braking models. And that’s it. That’s all we know. They are called Driving Physics 2.0 and things are new. Let’s see how it plays in September.
Training, Spotter and AI use
A new mode this time around: a one-on-one training mode presented and voiced by Crew Chief Steve Letarte, and Daytona 500 champion Jamie McMurray will be present. A brief snippet was shown in today’s trailer, but we’re keen to see how in-depth it goes.
There will also be a spotter voiced by Freddie Kraft.
The game’s Steam page carried the AI-generated content disclosure, citing that “NASCAR 26 used AI to generate certain VO lines and other presentation elements throughout the UI.”
Visuals
Based on this brief trailer and associated screenshots, it’s true that the game does look enhanced, with richer lighting effects especially, compared to last year’s instalment. There still seems to be that Vaseline-style blurriness during exterior camera angles, however.
iRacing Studios is clearly very proud of the extra fidelity, going so far as saying that the graphics are “improved” and particles “better.” Really going out on a limb there.
To provide a little more detail, the skyboxes have been replaced for ‘26 vs ‘25, now with dynamic lighting. The Rockingham venue has received a ‘refresh’, with is iRacing parlance for a typically thorough revision, with trackside details in particular up-to-date. Circuit of the Americas is also stated as ‘updated’, although we suspect this is more track layout related than graphical quality.
750HP Package, Left Side Tires Only and RAM
This year, the 750HP engine package has been replicated, where the Cup Series runs a higher output powerplant during road courses and short ovals.
An almost no-brainer, but the RAM that runs in the Truck Series is also present. Awkwardly, the trailer calls it a ‘Dodge RAM’, which, while that’s still what many fans refer to it as, the Dodge moniker was dropped from the truck line in 2009.
Finally, in something that seems like it could have been patched in its predecessor, there will be a strategy option to change just the left side’s rubber.
There’s more too, as the career mode will feature new garages, facility upgrades, plus the real-world Door Bumper Clear podcast. Changes to cautions, with an ‘involved screen’ plus a trophy room, are other small additions.
To round out this list of fresh information are the PC system requirements, which seem to be identical to NASCAR 25 and are listed below. There’s also the price, which is $59.99 for the Standard Edition and $79.99 for the Gold, for the digital-only release.
NASCAR 26 PC system requirements
Minimum
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10 64-Bit, Windows 11 64-Bit
Processor: 4 core CPU or better – Some examples (but not limited to): AMD FX-6300, Intel Core i5-4430, Intel Core i5-2320, AMD Ryzen 3 1200
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: A gaming graphics card with at least 4GB of DEDICATED memory – Some examples (but not limited to): Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon 570 or better
DirectX: Version 12
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 65 GB available space
Additional Notes: A physical PC running windows is required. A PC emulation on a MAC or other types of Virtual Machines are not supported
Recommended
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10 64-Bit, Windows 11 64-Bit
Processor: 8 core or more CPU (some examples but not limited to: Intel Core 9-10980XE @ 3.0GHz, Intel Core i9-9900KS @ 4.00GHz, AMD Ryzen 9 3900X, or AMD Ryzen 9 3950X)
Memory: 32 GB RAM
Graphics: Gaming graphics card with at least 8GB of DEDICATED memory (some examples but not limited to Nvidia 2080 TI or AMD Radeon VII)
Discussion
They need to get electric nascars