The long-awaited 2022 Season Update to NASCAR Heat 5 has finally released as of Thursday (22nd June). Links to the DLC were made public on Steam and the PlayStation Store earlier in the week and the content unlocked around 10:00 pm BST / 5:00 pm EST on PlayStation, Xbox and PC via Steam.
Originally planned to release in October of 2022, the update to the title from 2020 was delayed for quite some time. The predecessor to NASCAR 21: Ignition has been the base for the last two releases from Motorsport Games, in the NASCAR Heat Ultimate+ and NASCAR Rivals releases on the Nintendo Switch the last two years.
Here’s what is included for the price point of $9.99. This DLC will be playable in Race Now, Career and Online Multiplayer modes.
2022 Cars and Teams included
What this DLC will include is, first and foremost, the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series in terms of the cars. That’s a big update in itself, as 2022 introduced a brand new car to the top level of the sport.
All three of those NASCAR NEXT Gen manufacturers cars—the Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Mustang and Toyota Camry—are modeled and presented. All the teams in the series last season, from Hendrick Motorsports and Team Penske down to Rick Ware Racing and Beard Motorsports are included.
With that, all the drivers from the 2022 season are on the roster, including the 2022 Series Champion Joey Logano and the other full-time drivers. A good chunk of the part time drivers have also made the cut.
Which Tracks?
Before this update, we knew that NASCAR Heat 5 already carried 23 or 24 of the 28 tracks that were on the 2022 calendar. Those missing in the older title included the Circuit of the Americas, Nashville Superspeedway, the Los Angeles Coliseum Clash track and the repaved version of Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Bristol Dirt was there already, but as a fantasy track that was created for earlier Heat games before the real-world version came to be. Because of that, NASCAR Cup cars could not drive on that track. This is the only confirmed track addition with the DLC. Atlanta is still the version that was made for the 2020 game.
All of those other tracks minus LA were included in NASCAR Rivals on the Nintendo Switch. COTA, Nashville and the new Atlanta were not on NASCAR’s radar for the 2020 season. They were included in Ignition, but not in Ultimate+. The Career Mode has a modified 2022 schedule to account for what isn’t in the title.
A brief recap of the timeline of the delays
With Ignition’s woes, NASCAR Heat 5 remained a popular console choice for players. Due to Heat 5’s continued popularity, the update to the older title was announced back in September following some rumblings that it was a possibility back a month prior. Surely, a lot has happened since that time last year.
Motorsport Games now has a new CEO in Stephen Hood as of April of this year. A new game by the company in the form of Le Mans Ultimate was announced earlier this month. After months of uncertainty, Hood mentioned the DLC during an investor call back in May, stating the NASCAR Heat 5 delayed DLC would be “coming in days”.
Days, well they turned into a few more weeks, now more than a month since. Despite what the internet may have been led to believe, the DLC does in fact exist. It was originally priced at $12.34 but was dropped due to the initial delay last year. These DLCs were first discovered earlier in the week and finally launched late on Thursday night.
The DLC is priced at $9.99 and is available on PlayStation, Xbox and PC via Steam as of today, Thursday the 22nd of June.
EDIT: We are aware of the issues that plagued the release of both the Xbox and Steam versions of the DLC release. Xbox has seemingly been fixed with a patch that rolled out within a day of the release while Steam is still spotty for some. I, myself, have not been able to get the Steam edition to work properly as of six days later. We reached out to the developers for clarification and comment and have yet to hear back.
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