iRacing Studios’s IndyCar game won’t use any code from previously cancelled projects

• iRacing Studios had access to a different developer’s recently cancelled IndyCar game code
• It has eschewed that basis, instead working from scratch for its own 2026 IndyCar title

IndyCar has been crying out for a fully-fledged video game for over two decades now, since Codemasters released IndyCar Series 2005 back in 2004.

Motorsport Games secured a licence to create an official IndyCar game in 2021, with plans to release it in 2023. However, it was clear that the beleaguered publisher was trying to spin too many plates, with official BTCC and NASCAR games under consideration but ultimately also falling by the wayside.

To cut costs, MSG’s Australian studio (Motorsport Games Australia) was shuttered. The team, which also developed KartKraft, had been exclusively working on an Unreal Engine-powered IndyCar game, which was allegedly in a playable but unfinished state. An apparent game trailer was also leaked, showing off impressive visuals, albeit without much substance.

However, redundancies led to the implosion of the IndyCar deal, with MSG facing $2.9 million in liabilities. A deal was struck between MSG and IndyCar, though, where the licensor received $400,000 plus all of the IndyCar game’s assets, including its coding.

The agreement, which was struck in May 2024, allowed IndyCar to seek alternative arrangements for an official video game, and also allowed MSG some breathing space to continue work on its World Endurance Championship simulator, Le Mans Ultimate. 

This is the part of the story where iRacing comes in.

New deal

iRacing took over the reins of the IndyCar video game project last year and has since revealed its official IndyCar game would be released in the second half of 2026. 

What we know so far is that the game won’t use Unreal Engine like MSG’s abortive effort, but iRacing Studios’ (iRacing.com’s publishing arm) Orontes Engine, most notably used in the firm’s futuristic off-road game, ExoCross. 

But has having access to MSG’s IndyCar game code helped accelerate development for iRacing?

“I mean, we had access to it if we wanted it,” stated Executive Vice President and Executive Producer of iRacing, Steve Myers, to Traxion.

“Truthfully, there wasn’t a lot that was created. So it wasn’t like there was a lot to take,” he continued, explaining that MSG’s IndyCar game perhaps hadn’t progressed much at all under the stewardship of Motorsport Games Australia.

“There were some laser scans that were done that, you know, anything like that that would have been valuable to us, we would have taken,” said Myers, “I think most of that stuff isn’t even relevant anymore. The stuff that they had was for tracks that they’re not even running [in the 2026 IndyCar Series],” he concludes.

Above: The leaked IndyCar game trailer, created by Motorsport Games Australia, which was cancelled.

This last comment perhaps alludes to tracks that iRacing hasn’t already scanned and which are no longer on the IndyCar calendar, such as the Nashville Street Circuit, which was last used in 2023. 

iRacing currently boasts every 2026 IndyCar track barring St Petersburg, which is in progress, and the brand-new Streets of Arlington and Streets of Markham tracks, meaning MSG’s laser-scan data is largely superfluous to the IndyCar project.

“Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything that really benefited us,” Myers emphatically concluded.