Nine things we learned from a NASCAR 25 developer Q&A

While the wait for gameplay trailers, screenshots, journalist and content creator previews and pre-order details continues – interminable for some NASCAR gaming fans who have waited literal years for a solid official game – the development team provided some morsels of information.

First, NASCAR 25, by Monster Games in collaboration with and under the stewardship of iRacing, remains on track to release this year.

It will, as previously discussed, have a lengthy single-player career mode, laser-scanned tracks and vehicles, official drivers and paint schemes, plus four classes: ARCA Menards Series, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Cup Series.

While new footage or images are not available, a Q&A with NASCAR gaming doyen Matt Lewis – who has previously worked on the EA and 704Games NASCAR titles and is a producer on NASCAR 25 – answered some community questions. Here are the main takeaways.

NASCAR 25 will release either at the end of September or beginning of October

No, NASCAR 25 has not been delayed to 2026. It is remaining resolutely in 2025, and in the fall, as previously discussed.

An exact release date is set to be provided before the end of June, with driver rosters, track lists and further screenshots due in July.

As for gameplay footage, this will come once the pre-order store setups have been completed.

“There is no question, [the release] will be late September, early October,” said Lewis.

“Definitely by the end of June, we will have a firm date. It’s totally on track. Gameplay trailer, you can expect about a month before that, so late August, somewhere in that window.

“In a perfect world, you want your pre-order to go up and your gameplay trailer to come out at the same time.”

Paid DLC will mostly be paint schemes and possibly career perks

Continuing a running theme from past NASCAR games – remember how many paint scheme DLC packs were released for the NASCAR Heat titles? – post-release paid-for downloadable content is set to be fresh designs.

In real-world NASCAR, several drivers and teams will have commemorative or retro designs for certain events, or simply a specific sponsor for a few rounds, then switch it up for others.

These are set to be represented in NASCAR 25 as DLC. When asked by Jessie Punch about what to expect from DLC, Lewis explained the following:

“Primarily, paint schemes. Obviously, the paint scheme sort of economy in NASCAR is crazy. think it was over 400 paint schemes that we expect to have this year by the time we’re all said and done.

“You’ll get basically one paint scheme per driver. There’ll be a couple of extras for like the cover guys and things like that, on the initial launch, but all the rest of them will be through either the Gold Edition, or you can buy individual paint packs separately. Those will start to trickle out after launch.

It sounds like there could also be a way of purchasing a ‘leg-up’ for the career mode too, with the producer mentioning the possibility of extra in-game cash as a pre-order bonus, or purchasing golden engines, chassis or suspension to enhance performance – but further details and pricing are not currently available.

It will not be on PlayStation 4, Xbox One or Switch

NASCAR 25 will be releasing for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. That means the older PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will be skipped, and there’s no word on a dedicated Nintendo Switch (or Switch 2) spin-off like with some recent NASCAR games.

This is similar to other official games of real-world motorsport, with the likes of EA SPORTS WRC, EA SPORTS F1 25 and Monster Energy Supercross 25 skipping the eighth generation of consoles.

“I know there’s going to be some PS4 players that are upset by that, but here’s sort of the harsh reality – those consoles are 12 years old at this point, and there’s some opportunity cost.”

True-to-life pit options and rules

While details here are extremely light, race formats such as stages will be part of the gaming experience, as expected.

When asked a question about being able to select which tires to change, such as only the left side, Lewis said, “Yes, full pit options, all the rules like stages. All the rules you would expect, all the pitting options you would expect.”

Career will feature ‘turning points’ but no driver market

Unlike the Formula 1 or MotoGP games, however, while the career mode is expected to be detailed, it will not feature a ‘silly season’.

“[In the career] there’s a notion of ‘turning points’, and we present those to you through a really unique system featuring Dale Jr. and some of his podcast stuff that he does,” explained Lewis.

“But the coolest part is, you’re only going to get maybe three or four of those in your entire career. From a replayability perspective, you could then go back and play career and have these sorts of big moments happen differently every time you play.”

These remind us of the ‘turning points’ seen in other game career modes, such as MotoGP. Here, they are described as either appearing in a movie for credits, or visiting the shop to increase your relationship with the crew to make your car quicker, or pitstops more efficient.

“There are some things like that you’ll have to make some decisions on and but again, [a driver market] that’s in the building blocks category. To be able to build a system that, in the future, would actually do some silly season stuff, but not now in sort of the traditional sense, no.”

Multiplayer grids will be massive

One of the low-key benefits of the NASCAR Heat games was the size of the online multiplayer grids, with up to 40 players in one race.

This is set to be the same for NASCAR 25, with Lewis confirming “the field max in every series applies, and all four [aforementioned] series will be available.”

In the Cup Series, that is 40 cars, Xfinity 38, Trucks 36 and ARCA 40.

You will also be able to fill multiplayer grids with AI-controlled rivals, and private lobbies will be an option.

“There are some plans that we’re still working on with maybe some sort of weekly special events and things like that too.”

But they will not be cross-platform

One area that developer Monster Games, no part of iRacing, has never implemented previously is cross-platform multiplayer – for example, in World of Outlaws: Dirt Racing 24.

The same will be true for NASCAR 25. 

“Unfortunately, no cross-platform for year one,” stated Lewis.

“Again, that’s more a factor of just time and energy and making sure we get stuff right. But we’ll get to it.

There will be over 180 official drivers

Replicating four NASCAR series vehicles is no mean feat, for the first of what should be a multi-year gaming franchise. But, there also needs to be the requisite drivers to remain authentic.

That is a lot of drivers. And there will be over 187 drivers from day one:

• ARCA Menards Series – 56 drivers
• NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – 43 drivers
• NASCAR Xfinity Series – 42 drivers
• NASCAR Cup Series – 46 drivers

There’s a 10-year plan

While it’s not clear if there will be a dedicated yearly release for the new NASCAR games, or if it’s set for a bi-annual release with DLC in between, such as World of Outlaws, there is a long-term vision.

According to Lewis: “We’ve got a year plan to get us out the door, we’ve got a three-year plan for where we want to be in three years. And we’ve got a 10-year plan of what the Madden-level NASCAR game [will] look like, and where we want to be long-term with everything we can possibly do.”