Opinion: No pressure, iRacing

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iRacing, not content with producing a preeminent PC racing service used by the likes of Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri, is branching out of its comfort zone. It wants to dominate the console racing market, too.

The expansion started with the seemingly obscure purchase of Orontes Games in late 2021, an independent studio formed by two brothers, Christian and Thorsten Folkers.

They had created an off-road racing game with futuristic buggy-like vehicles set in space. It was released into early access on PC with little to no fanfare in 2020. Eschewing the norm, it used an all-new, proprietary game engine, and I think it’s this element that led to a bidding war behind the scenes for its technology.

iRacing won, and ‘completed’ the product, renaming it to ExoCross in 2024.

Simultaneously, the Massachusetts sim racing giant also purchased Monster Games – a group of former NASCAR game developers who had split from 704Games (NASCAR Heat 1 to 4) following its sale to Motorsport Games.

In between then and the iRacing acquisition, it produced two NASCAR Heat-based Tony Stewart games, to a lukewarm response, and the official game of the then-burgeoning Superstar Racing Experience (SRX).

This then led to two official World of Outlaws games (real-world oval dirt racing, for those not in the loop) and associated DLC.

I have a feeling that neither ExoCross nor WoO made a particular splash in terms of sales – niches within niches. The former was at least brought out of early access thanks to iRacing, while the latter went down very well with the World of Outlaws community.

Fast forward to 2025, and iRacing’s biggest gaming bet is soon to be released. Having paid $5 million for the rights to make official NASCAR video games, its first effort (from the WoO development team) releases on 14th October.

Also, expected around a similar time, iRacing Arcade is set for a release – a spiritual successor to Circuit and Karting Superstars, injected with licensed content. Then, next year, a significant recent announcement, an official IndyCar game.

The first full-fledged official IndyCar game since 2004, this will use the same, aforementioned, game tech as the ExoCross project, and is not directly related to iRacing, NASCAR 25 or iRacing Arcade.

iRacing seems to be single-handedly saving the official North American motorsports video game scene, but from the outside looking in, that’s a lot of projects all seemingly nearing completion to oversee and promote. One game is tricky enough alone, never mind at least three in close succession.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. It has earned a lot of favour by building an extremely well-respected sim experience over 17 years and saved several games that otherwise may never have existed.

The last attempt at an IndyCar game (by Motorsport Games) collapsed, and while there was always a plan for ‘Circuit Superstars 2’, the Original Fire development team had simply run out of money.

But simply creating these games isn’t quite enough. Helping these projects has created positive sentiment, yet it will still need to deliver an exceptional experience to keep the audience on side.

Maybe there’s enough breathing space to deliver initial iterations that are simply solid – drive well, perform smoothly. It can then build from there. But it must, ultimately, be capable of providing cohesive experiences that move the genre forward.

And I’m not quite sure iRacing has managed to do that with its offerings outside of the main simulation just yet.

There are some very talented individuals working at iRacing Studios, ones who I know have what it takes. I, for one, hope they manage to pull off what no other motorsport game studio has managed in the past decade – multitasking.

This opinion piece was originally part of a prior Traxion email newsletter – sign up to receive these early, direct to your inbox, every week.