NASCAR Heat and Ignition video games to be removed from sale

You will no longer be able to purchase NASCAR Heat 5, NASCAR 21: Ignition – or two Nintendo Switch spin-offs – as of 1st January 2025.

Developer, and publisher, Motorsport Games has confirmed the removal via social media today, 29th November 2024.

It sold the rights to make NASCAR racing video games to PC simulation platform iRacing in October last year in a $5 million deal – much to the delight of the stock car racing game scene.

It followed a tumultuous period, with MSG releasing NASCAR Heat 5 in 2020, a barely warmed-up Heat 4, followed by its ground-up new NASCAR 21: Ignition title a year later.

This was an unmitigated disaster, suffering from a litany of game-breaking bugs. Once many of these had been fixed, AI and graphical performance left a lot to be desired.

It did receive paint scheme DLC, a 2022-season expansion plus a native PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S upgrade post-release.

According to the company’s Q3 earnings report, 55.6% of its revenue for those three months came from sales of its NASCAR games.

Meanwhile, iRacing is working on its first dedicated console game for NASCAR, utilising former series developers Monster Games. NASCAR 25 is expected, somewhat obviously, in 2025.

Part of its purchasing agreement with Motorsport Games is to deliver one final payment of $500,000, after which the existing games will be removed from sale. NASCAR 21: Ignition, by the way, is currently on sale for as little as $1.79 on PC.

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NASCAR games removed from sale at the end of 2024

• NASCAR Heat 5 and DLC (PC, PlayStation, Xbox)
• NASCAR 21: Ignition DLC and Expansion (PC, PlayStation, Xbox)
• NASCAR Rivals (Switch)
• NASCAR Heat Ultimate Edition+ (Switch)