iRacing Arcade is “iRacing meets Mario Kart, meets SimCity”

• iRacing Arcade takes Original Fire Games’ Circuit and Karting Superstars, and turns the ambition up a level
• Career mode detailed, with ‘SimCity’ style elements
• Further licensed car teased

iRacing, through its iRacing Studios umbrella, has been branching out into sim-like, or sim-lite, games since 2022’s official World of Outlaws: Dirt Racing release. This was followed by a sequel, and soon, NASCAR and IndyCar games.

But later this year, it is set to expand its more accessible options, with iRacing Arcade joining its existing ExoCross game.

In a surprise move, announced last year, it is being created by the diminutive Original Fire Games team. The Canadian-based family team is now, in effect, creating a spiritual successor to its prior Circuit Superstars and Karting Superstars efforts – except with input, advice and backing from iRacing.

The announcement initially seems a little out of place for the doyens of simulation multiplayer, but sat alongside the other projects on the way, iRacing’s Executive Vice President and Executive Producer, Steve Myers, believes it can find its place:

“I always felt like there was still a space missing for us at the bottom of the pyramid that could be a good marketing tool, but also a way of engaging a younger audience,” he explains to Traxion.

“I played their games and loved them. It was a lot of fun for me to do that quick action gameplay, coming from a world like iRacing, where you’re often doing multiple-hour races potentially.

“Having something that is small and in smaller bites, it felt like we needed something like that.”

Unique career mode

The development team’s previous efforts saw you progress through a series of cups, but for iRacing Arcade, the goal is a more fleshed-out career mode.

“We’ve got a really fun career mode that’s coming into [iRacing Arcade] that’s very different,” teases Myers.

“I like to call it iRacing meets Mario Kart meets SimCity.

“You start with a small racing garage, and as you earn money, you upgrade your racing campus to bigger and better buildings, allowing you to add more race cars to your team, and upgrades that provide you with racing advantages.

“You can design your campus the way you want.”

In the one supplied image, you can certainly see the SimCity reference – Will Wright’s gaming series allowed players to create a metropolis, viewed from an isometric view.

Here, we can see what looks like an outlandish garage, surrounded by ancillary buildings. There’s the option to ‘build’, ‘relocate’ or ‘demolish’ shown in the user interface. At the top of the screen, there is a money level, and then a limit for the number of cars and drivers, presumably limited by the size of your campus.

It affirms a far deeper experience than Original Fire’s prior projects. It isn’t the only major change, either.

Licensed content and a change of perspective

While some fictional models will exist in miniturised form, like in Circuit Superstars, you’ll also be driving a selection of real-world licensed cars lifted from iRacing, including the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992) seen in the announcement trailer.

“Getting Porsche involved early was like a huge domino in validating the product to our other partners,” says Myers.

Real-world venues are also seen, with Imola and Mexico’s Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez – also recently added to the main iRacing simulation – previewed so far.

Perhaps a bigger change will be the on-track perspective. Whereas Circuit Superstars is played from an isometric viewpoint, iRacing Arcade will adopt a chase camera like Original Fire Games’ follow-up game, Karting Superstars, according to Myers:

“I liked the remote control car camera view in the original Circuit Superstars, and I think there could have been a compelling game built continuing that.

“Originally, when I was thinking that we would go that way, after playing Karting Superstars and some internal discussions, we decided that the chase camera is the way to do it.

“I’m glad we made that decision because playing the game now is just so much fun. It’s an absolute blast to play.”

iRacing Arcade will be released first of all on PC this ‘fall’, with console versions set for a 2026 release.