NASCAR 25

This game has such an unbelievable lack of features that it's actually laughable. Playing the career mode gets to a point where it feels like more of a chore to progress than a truly enjoyable experience.

My feelings about this game are complicated. Up front, I will say that this is the first NASCAR game I've used a racing wheel on, and I'm not particularly great at it. First, I have to say that the intermediates are quite an improvement over NASCAR Heat 5 - Michigan especially is great fun. Road Courses are impossible, but that's a skill issue. I am nowhere near good enough with a racing wheel yet to race on them. Now, superspeedways are my bread and butter in these games, and I have to say they are not much better than the Heat games. They might even be a little worse. The AI cars are absolute jerks and will not lift at all if they get you sideways. I'm not expecting them to lay down and let you win, but they'll run up on you out of nowhere and completely clean your clock. Worse yet is the AI-generated spotter will not warn you when runs are building up behind you, so unless you're mirror driving, you likely will not see this coming. If I were better with a wheel and actually knew how to fine-tune it, this might mitigate the issue, but the game gives no hints whatsoever on how to properly set up a wheel, so newbies like me are left at a disadvantage. There's no test drive either, so in order to fine tune it, you have to go all the way into a quick race. Yes, this game is a "good foundation" and it's pretty fun, but I don't know if I can recommend this to any but younger players and hardcore fans. NASCAR 26 NEEDS to actually build on this foundation. NO SMALL ITERATIONS, iRACING! You hear me? Also, can we get an unlicensed original instrumental soundtrack like in NASCAR 98, 99 and 2000? Even if it's just a streamer mode thing? Please? I can't stream with the music on because it's all copyrighted.

Pro's: - Off that bat, this is the best overall console based NASCAR game in at least a decade or more, that being said, there are some glaring omissions that IRacing of all people should not overlook, which I'll address later - Beautiful graphics - Great Sound design and music - Good balance between arcade style racing and sim, the overall feel falls well into realistic in terms of handling, but toned down some to allow this to be easy and fun to play with a controller vs a wheel. This is extremely difficult in Iracing, but very enjoyable here, which makes quick races fun - Overall, AI cars behave pretty well, minus some quirks here and there and weird balancing issues Cons: - Lack of FOV adjustment. The in car ones are too zoomed in and you cannot see the reaview mirror or side mirror - Lack of Mirror quality adjustment. This is one that IRacing offers, but not here, and the resolution is horribly pixelated in the mirrors. - Crash physics are terrible. The CAR handling physics are done well, but the crashes and impacts become very blocky and unrealistic - Lots of handholding. Inability to do manual pitting/ very abrupt, jittery and unrealisitc AI over control during. I get it, it's a console based game, so having manual pitting and being able to input the setups on a gamepad is difficult, but the option would be nice - AI of your car. Example, you finish a session, the moment you cross the line, the ai aggressiviely jerks your car onto a predetermined racing line. Example, you hit pit road at 100 mph, the ai automatically takes control for the pit stop sequence anyways, but instantly drops to pit road speed the moment you cross the line. This could be handled better by allowing a slower input from the AI and smoothing it out to not be so rediculous - NO WAY TO DNF.... Come on IRacing - No way to make a pit stop in practice - NO MOUSE SUPPORT!!!! Come on Iracing!!! The gamepad support is quirky for the menu's, and not being able to click is a bit dumb for a 2026 PC ported game. I took an unneccary amount of time to learn to cycle the menu's with the bracket keys.... again, come on, arrows as default? - lack of the ability to mirror left and right sides during paint scheme creations - lack of memory. AI settings I find often recycle to a default low setting... You constantly have to turn on whatever INFO screen you want with each session, vs it saving or having a changeable default option - Smoke is poorly done - Some of the tracks (Daytona, Talladega) have this imaginary rough patch next to the yellow line in the corners that slow your car down. which wouldn't really be bad if it wasn't like a tire width above the yellow line Overall, it is a fun game, and the above issues are mostly quality of life improvements that I hope they will address. A developer as good and known as Iracing should atleast offer some of these things, as they offer many of them on their sim, and many competing games or worse predecessors even offer or do some things better. I think it is a bit of a miss, coming from many of the same team from and a game engine originally developed from NR2003, which has not been touched by anything else since really. I would recommend if you can get passed some the these quirks. They bother me, but they don't prevent me from enjoying what they did do right.

Best NASCAR game since Nascar '15 so for anyone who likes stock car racing will have a blast with this game! Career mode is really good, and AI races very well, some of the best I have experienced. This game is not NASCAR Thunder good but it has the bones and potential to have the future enteries to have that kind of legacy! Only drawbacks I found so far is pitstops the AI is way OP and gains 10 seconds everytime on you, and the AI doesnt react well with crashes (either comes to a complete stop or runs through you). For a first entry for this publisher with a console NASCAR I'd say we are in good hands and anyone who is fan I think will enjoy this game.

the ai literally drives on rails. doesnt matter how you change the settings. if the ai has the inside track, it will stay on that track and clip into your vehicle. i will literally turn my wheel left into the ai's car and can zip around the track stuck to the ai. the ai also likes to draft into the backseat of the car in front of them. they actually stick together and will fly through corners like this. worst racing from ai in a racing simulator i have ever seen. the only settings that appear to work are the difficulty settings and the skill range and even then, it doesnt really appear to affect anything at all. this is an arcade game that is lying about being a simulator in any facet. if your sliders dont work, it's an arcade game. period. if you want a semi-fun racing game, [strike]pick this one up for no more than $20.[/strike] it's genuinely not worth anymore than that. **UPDATE** I uninstalled the game after posting the original review, but then felt like maybe I was a little harsh and that I should give it a second chance. I can say conclusively, that no, don't buy this game. It's frustrating in the worst ways. The AI is poorly programmed. There's no other way to put it. The game is programmed to feature "pack racing" and no amount of slider adjustment, other than the difficulty slider, changes this. i have the same complaints, but my frustration has only been exacerbated since reinstalling. the ai does not respond to the player and when it does, it *feels* artificial. i enjoy the look of the game, i like the way the racing feels, but this is a bad racing game. even for an arcade racing game. this is bad. dont waste your money.

After spending 18 hours on this game, I'm about to uninstall. The only thing good about this game is the graphics and driving physics. Soundtrack as well if that matters to the buyer. It would be hard for this game to be an less shallow. Championship mode is just 36 quick races. Online can be fun for a few races. Career was the real disappointment. It's about as bare bones as it comes. Your driver has no character or image, literally. The money and reputation system is just monotonous. Same applies with upgraded car parts and replacing them. There is no R&D system either. Just comes down to whether or not you can afford it and eventually you're left with so much money that you're just going through race after race like a sheep following sheep. Also, want a teammate? Not an option. Customization is good for todays standard. The social media thread is boring and repetitive. And I will never understand why developers can't give you the option to use IRL drivers in a career mode. You get the point. This is an arcade, quickfire game. If you want a racing game with depth and longevity in career that will keep you coming back for more, F1 is the way to go. If that scratches your itch. If you want a simulator, iRacing. With the amount of money they make from iRacing and have made from this game in sales, they could at least improve the AI with a patch.

I cannot in good conscience give this game a fully negative review but with that being said, if there was a 5 star rating system, I would be giving somewhere between 2-3 stars. First off, the positives: Graphics are FANTASTIC! Just go to North Wilkesboro at night and load into the night time race session. It is one of the best looking racing atmospheres I have experienced in a video game. It is sad that they could not be bothered to put in a day to night cycle, something that has been happening in games for a very long time now. The driving feels great. When I say this, I mean when it is just you, the car, and the track. It feels good enough and can be challenging enough to make it enjoyable to just run laps. You can run many different lines and the car just feels great overall. Thankfully none of the series feel exactly the same so when you get bored with one, you can swap over to another for a somewhat different driving experience and track schedule. Overall, I am more than satisfied with the driving but that was never an issue with the later Heat games, which got very stale for me. I will touch more on this in the negatives. The Negatives: The lack of real time pit stops was a very big disappointment when you consider how important pitting is to a race strategy in NASCAR. If games from the easy 2000s can do it, what is the excuse here supposed to be? I mentioned that the driving felt great but once you get into the track with other cars it gets less impressive very quickly. While yes, the ai can do some really good racing against you, making contact with other cars and crashing both feel like a step in the wrong direction even when compared to the Heat games. There is no real IMPACT at all! This is NASCAR we are talking about. Anybody with common sense should know that the crazy crashes and hard hits are one of the things that sets this apart from other racing sports and it is definitely something that should have been made a priority in NASCAR 25. I think for most people, this is such a big part of the sport that there was now way they wouldn't give it the time and consideration deserved. With realistic crashes and car damage, this would be a MUCH better game overall. Right now it just looks like the cars were made out of play dough and when they hit something it leaves a little dent or impression with a couple of marks on the paint. You can drive 175 mph into the wall at Daytona and still drive around to the pits and be right back out by the end of caution. Not being able to drive the pace laps is a bummer but not nearly as upsetting as this stuff ⬆️ There are some bugs and other issues like getting a penalty on a road course and being forced to a stop right in the middle of traffic 🤣 but overall I didn't experience anything annoying enough to write about here. Career mode: I am making a section just for the career mode. This is what many people were looking for the most since iRacing's "career" mode is very limited. It is also one of the things they hyped up the most like it was going to be this ground breaking thing and a call back to the awesome days of NASCAR THUNDER 07! Instead, we were given the NASCAR Heat 5 career mode with a new touch of paint. The cool Dale Jr Download videos? Just generic clips where he talks about the same exact things happening through your career no matter who you arre or how many times you have played through it(good luck with that because it is hard enough to get through it once). All of your decisions are "hey, do you want more cash or more time to work on your car", the car upgrades are pretty much just Engine, aero, chassis, and body tiers 1-5 and that is it. You get the same sponsor offers at the same point in the career mode no matter what and it starts to feel more like a chore after the first full season. I really just expected so much more here but instead it seems like they just did the bare minimum on so many things. Verdict: While, I can still recommend this game because their are not a lot of options and iRacing is expensive, this could have been such a great game. A lot of people are saying "next year, next year!" but I played through the World Of Outlaws games and I can tell you now that they will most likely not be making any ground breaking changes to the next iteration of this series. Why? Because a lot of people bought this one and they know a lot of people are going to buy the next one as well. I hope I am wrong about that. I was not expecting this to be iRacing, nor did I want it to be, but I most DEFINITELY did not want it to be a prettied up version of the Heat games. If these things don't bother you, then you will probably have a lot of fun with the game. I am happy that console players at least have a way to play a modern NASCAR game now.

Terrible port, the mouse cursor doesn't dissapear, it's always on top of my screen. There is no PC graphics settings (motion blur, dlss etc.). The only good part about this game is everything audio related. Also no penalty for ramming other players.

I really wish I could give NASCAR 25 a neutral rating - I think it's a fine and serviceable NASCAR game that was made on a limited production time, and dwarfs the games that had come out years prior from Motorsport Games. I am going to keep playing my career save and I'm hoping iRacing Studio gives us some more updates. That said, this game has some truly baffling design decisions and missing features that I expected a NASCAR game to have. The core driving and AI behavior are great and make the moment-to-moment driving some of the best in any NASCAR game. On a controller, it's lovely. However the career mode is so lifeless and monotonous that it makes me wonder where development resources went. The upgrade/sponsor path is very boring and the overall 'strategy' of career is kind of pointless. Customization is very limited - why can't I name my own team in a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ singleplayer career mode? Or not have some faceless driver next to real driver portraits? Games back in the day used to have real teams offering your up-and-coming driver contracts, and I don't know why they couldn't do that here instead of making me drive for 'Rampage Motorsports' or some other awfully generic crap. Older PS2-era games had full weekly schedules of events, and now we get a 'pick between some money, rep, or mechanic points each week' and then go race. It's just so godawfully generic. Furthermore, there's a lot of 'rules' content that is messed up or missing. No choose cone/rule, cars involved in cautions not moving to the tail end of the field, BS corner-cut penalties, black flags for getting spun into the pits, NO DNFS (HOW ARE THERE NO DNFS IN A NASCAR GAME, WHAT IS THE POINT OF WRECKS/DAMAGE IF EVERY CAR FINISHES NO MATTER WHAT), etc etc. For an 'authentic' NASCAR experience there are so many things just made wrong or straight up missing. AI is also cracked on restarts and pit cycles, though they have bad strategy logic that you can abuse instead. Soundtrack slaps imo. Unreal Engine 5 performance kinda sucks too. Game is overly demanding hardware wise for some pretty PS4-era visuals. Like I enjoy the game, and I'm still going to keep enjoying it, but something like Chase for the Cup 2005 is just more fun. It was just better then. How is a simracing juggernaut in iRacing and the largest domestic motorsports series not able to fund a better game than 20 years ago? I don't get it, and I really hope updates can fix some of this, though I fear we'll have to just wait for a NASCAR 26.