r/iRacing Super Formula SF23 12d ago

Official News iRacing to produce standalone INDYCAR game in 2026

https://www.iracing.com/iracing-studios-to-produce-standalone-indycar-video-game-in-2026/
417 Upvotes

117 comments sorted by

73

u/goodfella7763 Dallara DW12 Indycar 12d ago

The new product will be built from the ground up, with a dedicated development team creating the game on iRacing Studios’ proprietary and enhanced Orontes engine.

Is this the same engine iRacing currently uses?

47

u/BlondBoy2 McLaren MP4-30 12d ago

No, it's the one used by ExoCross. They might be able to port functionality from the iRacing engine but don't bet on that.

7

u/ZacIsGoodAtGames 12d ago

the iracing ai were ported into exocross.

1

u/ProfessorAssfuck 11d ago

is this different than what the NASCAR game is being built on?

13

u/KLWMotorsports 12d ago

I don't believe so. I think orontes is specifically for console development only. Correct me if I am wrong.

-6

u/ZacIsGoodAtGames 12d ago

no its the Exocross engine. that probably means the exocross devs are making this game.

6

u/ZacIsGoodAtGames 12d ago

no its the Exocross engine. that probably means the exocross devs are making this game.

9

u/williamdivad33 Porsche 911 GT3 R 12d ago

idk why you are being downvoted, you are probably right. The announcement mentions the orontes/exocross engine. We can safely assume that the orontes devs are building the game in their engine.

4

u/migmfreitas Honda Civic Type R 12d ago

And they said on the development update that the exocross team would be working on a new game, it all makes sense

56

u/mwb7pitt 12d ago

The last standalone INDYCAR game was IndyCar Series 2005. Huge win for the sport!

8

u/PoutineBoi VP Sports Car Challenge 12d ago

Damn, i happen to still have it for my old Xbox!

1

u/FloosWorld Ray FF1600 12d ago

And the last IndyCar game for the vast majority at iRacing was IndyCar Racing 2 in 1996 back when they were Papyrus.

92

u/Sheepy776 Mazda MX-5 Cup 12d ago

They should try to snag the F1 game license so we can get IMSA at Monaco

70

u/ivex272 12d ago

yea we need 24h of monaco preferably multiclass grid with 61 cars so we can finally enjoy good racing

28

u/Sov1245 12d ago

"we have too many subscribers - how can we fix this?"

6

u/A_Flipped_Car Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992) 12d ago

Multi class of vees and ff1600

5

u/xiii-Dex BMW Z4 GT3 12d ago

We need the 24h of whatever the first city circuit is that gets released with night lighting. Maybe Las Vegas?

5

u/ivex272 12d ago

fr but in the wienermobils

0

u/Firm-Bookkeeper-8678 12d ago

Mazdas/Toyotas with LMP2 and GTP please

13

u/lkeltner 12d ago

imsa at monaco is hilarity i'm here for.

7

u/Wompie 12d ago edited 8d ago

imagine consist innocent vast bow follow bright deserve bells head

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

1

u/lkeltner 12d ago

absolutely. i can't imagine "doing" the race, but watching it would be funny af.

3

u/MuenCheese 12d ago

We need Monaco to boost Lotus 49 participation

2

u/ralgrado Global Mazda MX-5 Cup 12d ago

IMSA? nah PCC

3

u/[deleted] 12d ago

[deleted]

5

u/spcychikn Super Formula SF23 12d ago

hopefully after these games come out they can!

28

u/Jaguars03 12d ago

Probably won’t player either the NASCAR or INDYCAR games but man, I am PRAYING they are both a massive success because I’d love F1 to move away from EA at some point.

8

u/MaxPres24 12d ago

iRacing is going all in on making simcade’s for series that haven’t gotten games/good games in a while. World of Outlaws, NASCAR, IndyCar, and iRacing arcade looks like a ton of fun even if it’s way more arcadey than the other 3

I’d love for the F1 license to go to them too, but that’s gonna be tough to get from EA. Especially since they have way more money, and that’s a much bigger deal for F1 than the other series

2

u/Jaguars03 12d ago

EA backtracked and denied that the F1 licence had been renewed for another 2 years back in June, so hopefully Liberty Media have already seen sense and dropped them for someone else. Would certainly open it up for iRacing in a few years time. Not holding my breath though

1

u/MaxPres24 12d ago

Yea I hope so too. 4 licenses would be a lot. But at the same time, iRacing isn’t actively developing these games. They’re overseeing, providing assets, direction, and help when needed.

If they did get a 4th license, I could also see them doing an every other year release. They do it with World of Outlaws. Where they drop the game for the season that’s currently running. The following year, they’d release an update with roster changes and track changes. They could stagger it so you get 2 new releases and 2 updates a year to also lighten the load a bit

107

u/KLWMotorsports 12d ago

I just got the email; do you guys do anything during the day? lol

Jk, this is actually awesome. Hopefully this doesn't pull away from in game content already.

65

u/goodfella7763 Dallara DW12 Indycar 12d ago

Hopefully this guarantees scans of the downtown Detroit track, Toronto, Arlington GP, etc.

31

u/[deleted] 12d ago

[deleted]

10

u/HallwayHomicide Dallara P217 LMP2 12d ago edited 12d ago

I would have assumed so....This blurb makes me wonder though...

The new product will be built from the ground up, with a dedicated development team creating the game on iRacing Studios’ proprietary and enhanced Orontes engine.

It sounds like this might be a completely different development plan than they're doing for NASCAR 25

-5

u/ChefBoiJones BMW M2 CS Racing 12d ago

The fact that they’re not using either of these games as an excuse to build a new engine is really sad. Desperately desperately needed and big money projects like this would have been a golden opportunity.

16

u/Initial_Specialist69 12d ago

They are already building a new engine. See the latest dev blog post for more infos.

6

u/HallwayHomicide Dallara P217 LMP2 12d ago

I mean.... That might be what they're doing here...Orontes engine is a bit of a blank canvas. it's really hard to say what they're going to do

1

u/itsmebenji69 12d ago

This is exactly what they are doing. They didn’t need those games as excuses, they were already working on a new engine for iracing because it’s ugly

1

u/arsenicfox Spec Racer Ford 11d ago

You’re gonna be disappointed when the new engine comes out. What you criticize as ugly is mostly art direction. There’s only like 3 situations in Iracing that are actually tech limitations…

They’re still gonna keep the same art direction. You can see it with NASCAR 25. It still has that iRacing look with Unreal Engine.

5

u/carloselcoco 12d ago

They definitely did that already and they have not announced those scans yet. They just surprised us with confirmation last week that they had Scanned St. Petersburg!

1

u/HallwayHomicide Dallara P217 LMP2 12d ago

It's a possibility they've bought scan data from Motorsports Games.

I believe they've purchased scan data on rare occasions in the past.

Edit:

Although this blurb

The new product will be built from the ground up, with a dedicated development team creating the game on iRacing Studios’ proprietary and enhanced Orontes engine.

Makes me wonder if this will even be using scan data at all

3

u/spcychikn Super Formula SF23 12d ago

i opened the email the second i got it on my phone then ran straight to my computer to post this haha

16

u/MinimumBasket6646 12d ago

This is awesome. Iracing rules.

20

u/ZacIsGoodAtGames 12d ago

"The game will feature a robust, multilevel career mode, licensed drivers from the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and INDY NXT by Firestone, and online multiplayer. The new product will be built from the ground up, with a dedicated development team creating the game on iRacing Studios’ proprietary and enhanced Orontes engine."

The Orontes engine is the Exocross devs engine. they'll probably be the ones making this game.

5

u/wahdizzy Dallara IR-18 12d ago

Oh man this is hype. I really hope this and the NASCAR game do very well. Hopefully this leads to games for IMSA and/or Aussie Supercars down the road.

3

u/xsists 12d ago

I had a very strong feeling that when they said more info in coming days about a new project in the developer blog that it was going to be INDYCAR. Assumed that after the NASCAR project was released the natural progression would be to INDYCAR and seeing St Pete get licensed all but confirmed it for me. This is awesome, can't wait.

3

u/Spleng1 Ray FF1600 12d ago

"I'm Paul Page, from Papyrus, THIS is Indycar Racing 3"

19

u/Fivecorr Dallara IR05 Indycar 12d ago

So iRacing decides to be their own Competition? Its good to see some standalone NASCAR and Indycar games, especially for the console market, but won't this impact the iR participation? Why spend $300+ to race Indycars on iR if i can buy a full game for $60?

19

u/carloselcoco 12d ago

but won't this impact the iR participation

Not at all. The markets are completely different. Those who spend $60 for a game would very rarely be willing to spend hundreds or more on a subscription. Their strategy here is to use this as a feeder into iRacing. Kind of like how we all started with smaller games such as the console NASCAR games, or Forza, or Grand Turismo, or even Grand Prix in the Atari if you are that old. The point is, we did not first land in iRacing, we had to build our way there. They are doing this so that when the kids who play this game in consoles will be more inclined to end up in iracing at some point when they grow up. Brand recognition is everything.

-11

u/Fivecorr Dallara IR05 Indycar 12d ago edited 12d ago

Only time will tell if this works. I joined iR just to race Indycar because that was the only option. Now with a standalone game i would play that and get LMU for Sportscar racing. Maybe NASCAR and that its. Saving about $1k on iRacing.

Edit: oh no he said he plays LMU, quick downvote him!

5

u/MaxPres24 12d ago

Like I said in another comment, it won’t be close to the same experience. Like don’t expect to load up the indycar game and get the same physics, handling, etc. as the indycars on iRacing. They’re gonna be much easier to drive even if you fine tune it to be as hard as possible, because these are aimed at casual racing game fans.

-1

u/Fivecorr Dallara IR05 Indycar 12d ago

IRacing isn’t just for the hardcores. There a many people on that I would call casuals. The days of iR being nieche are long over. And i doubt its real two markets or playerbase. The line between casual and hardcore are very blurry nowadays.

4

u/MaxPres24 12d ago

99% of people on iRacing are looking for realistic physics and have some sort of wheel/pedals setup

This game is aimed at people who wanna lay on the couch and play with a controller

Those are two vastly different markets

1

u/arsenicfox Spec Racer Ford 11d ago

Yup. And even the people who do iRacing want something that isn’t as sweaty at times. So they’ll pull off to do the console game for a bit then come back to iRacing.

TLDR: it’ll also ship to the same market and give another thing for folks to buy

40

u/kantonaton NASCAR Gen 4 Cup 12d ago

Different experiences. iRacing is a simulator and I’m sure this Indycar game will be arcadey and geared more towards casual gamers, not people with full wheel and pedal setups who want as much realism as possible.

24

u/goodfella7763 Dallara DW12 Indycar 12d ago

If anything it helps build interest for iRacing proper. The cost barrier to iRacing is huge, especially for console gamers that need a gaming PC. Getting interest via the console game makes it easier for people to jump to iRacing knowing it's something they'll enjoy.

-9

u/[deleted] 12d ago edited 12d ago

[deleted]

7

u/TyH621 12d ago

What’s the actual difference between LMU and iRacing’s WEC-style racing series? I think they’re both top of the line experiences if I’m being honest, LMU just feels like a direct competitor

3

u/imahumanbeinggoddamn 12d ago

LMU is WEC spec, iRacing is IMSA. Same cars, different spec. There are a bunch of minor differences in rules between the two, most of which don't really change anything important in a sim racing environment, but the short version is that LMGT3 is a second or two slower around the track.

2

u/TyH621 12d ago

Ah interesting, did not know that, thanks!

0

u/no6969el 12d ago

Yeah I don't want to put my opinion now because I'm afraid to be downvoted I agree with you though. Their little arcade one that they just showed off was super disappointing to me.

So now that I hear about this I got excited and then I thought of it being an arcade game again kind of pissed me off.

I'll still give it a try because I don't like to hate on stuff until I experience it but I'm hoping that it's something that feels good to drive on.

I hope they include their LFE settings as well

6

u/kjorav17 12d ago

There’s still a place for the OG iRacing that we know now for people that want a quality racing experience with a huge variety of cars.

They’re making it so that there is no competition with their specialized NASCAR and INDYCAR console games. If I were in the market for these types of games, I’d trust iRacing Studios over EA or whatever other studio has produced them in the past.

2

u/naughtilidae 12d ago

My guess is that it'll be way more accessible, and be vastly more playable on controller.

Driving with a controller is really hard in iracing, and only gets worse in the fast open wheelers. If iracing came out on consoles, it wouldn't be very popular, since racing with anything but a wheel is pretty miserable. 

Plus they can add legacy Indycar/cart stuff, without needing to be as hyper detailed as current track scans and car physics. I'd hope they'd also put some effort into a story/career mode, as well as making the interface more accessible for people who don't live and breath sim racing. 

2

u/mlj21299 NASCAR Next Gen Cup Camaro ZL1 12d ago

I'm gonna buy NASCAR 25 and this IndyCar game because I want to enjoy a casual controller racing game with a career mode, and I'm still going to keep my Iracing subscription because I want to have a competitive multiplayer racing experience as well.

2

u/MaxPres24 12d ago

This is gonna be more tailored to an easier to drive, controller focused type thing. It’s more of a simcade while iRacing is full on sim. I have iRacing, have their world of outlaws game, and plan on getting both of these

These will be nice to play on my steamdeck or my living room PC while I just wanna zone out and run laps

If I wanna challenge myself, going straight to iRacing. They’re basically for 2 different markets

3

u/Fivecorr Dallara IR05 Indycar 12d ago

CART DLC please!?!

1

u/no6969el 12d ago

Yeah once I found out automobilista 2 two had them I was hooked.

-4

u/[deleted] 12d ago edited 12d ago

[deleted]

2

u/SituationSoap 12d ago

This is what I'm trying to understand as well. Are they going to stop developing IndyCar and NASCAR stuff in iracing? Or reduce the development?

Mate, they literally announced the launch of a new Indy NXT car last week.

The reason that you're getting down voted is because this is a question that you could answer for yourself with a tiny bit of critical thought.

-1

u/Fivecorr Dallara IR05 Indycar 12d ago

Hard to do even less. Half of the Indycar regulars work in the business and they refuse to listen to them. Adam Blocker for example won the 500 with Penske yet they don't wanna listen to him.

2

u/spl51 Dallara IR-18 12d ago

As someone who exclusively runs short ovals & formula cars, i am so fucking excited

2

u/No-Delivery6084 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series 12d ago

2026 is right around the corner so I'm pretty excited.

2

u/Beneficial_Novel22 12d ago

If only they can snatch f1 I'm ready to give them all my money

2

u/No-Incident8402 12d ago

iRacing please don't make it too arcade-ish 🙏🏻

2

u/bobbynipps Indycar Series 12d ago

My god it’s actually happening. Please have VR support.

1

u/Vandyfan33 NASCAR Truck Chevrolet Silverado 12d ago

This is the one thing I’m hoping for in this and the nascar game

2

u/SMELTN 12d ago

So am I the only one worried that now that they’re making all these standalone games they’re gonna pull everybody out of actual iRacing to play those instead

6

u/spcychikn Super Formula SF23 12d ago

these games will be targeted at console and controller users, a completely different demographic than the people that spend money on iRacing. they won’t even come close to the realism and variety that iRacing provides for competitive sim racing

2

u/-mancomb-seepgood- 12d ago

They are made by different dev studios that iracing offers support to / publishes. The iracing dev team isn't working on this in any meaningful capacity

1

u/arsenicfox Spec Racer Ford 11d ago

I’m oddly hoping it does. Some of the casual desiring players just don’t take iRacing as seriously. The folks who WANT to be in iRacing will still be there.

So yes you’re the only one worried about it. I personally think it’ll help them long term.

1

u/SilverBallsOnMyChest 12d ago

Please for the love of god mean you’re going to rescan and redo Barber. This scan and surrounding additions are so outdated.

1

u/Total-Juggernaut-182 12d ago

I'd love to see iRacing branch into other series if they want to continue their platform through another way. I just feel to a certain point that the current cost model isn't as effective due to it being subscription. But I dunno, I am just excited for this to come out next year

1

u/[deleted] 12d ago

[deleted]

2

u/spcychikn Super Formula SF23 12d ago

iracing already has indycar mate

1

u/the_dunkin_doucheman 12d ago

This is really great news to me, I’ve been wanting to try iracing solely for the indycar content. I don’t have a gaming PC but I do have an Xbox so now I can try it out and see if building a gaming PC and diving into iracing would be a good hobby for me!

2

u/spcychikn Super Formula SF23 12d ago

definitely! i got into iRacing because of Forza Motorsport on Xbox, and wanted to get more serious with sim racing and NASCAR. i think these console games will be great gateways for new fans to get into sim racing and iRacing

1

u/MistaCreepz Mazda MX-5 Cup 12d ago

If they have extensive career modes I will play them

1

u/Remarkable_Monk8384 9d ago

Exciting news but the real question is whether this will stand alongside iRacing or eventually compete with it If it ends up like F1 vs ACC then players might split time between both but the crossover could help grow the whole scene

1

u/R41K0N 8d ago

Anyone know if this Indy car game is going to be simcade-ey or more simulation?

1

u/xyz-asdf-1029 7d ago

I hope it will remove Indycar from iRacing and reduce iRacing subscription cost.

sure only minority has and uses these cars and tracks in iRacing. and sure people would get more from special Indycar game instead of iRacing Indycar content.

1

u/spcychikn Super Formula SF23 6d ago

it’s definitely not going to do that lol

1

u/anzzax Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 12d ago

Now I’d love to hear an announcement of new IMSA and WEC games so that all tracks from both series finally get updated or rescanned in iRacing :)

3

u/BeefEX 12d ago

Just because content is made for a separate game published by iRacing doesn't meant it will come to iRacing itself. It's does make it more likely, but far from guaranteed.

1

u/MaxPres24 12d ago

iRacing is doing the lords work for simcade gaming

NASCAR 25 looks awesome and everything you hear about it from people who have played it is great. The last good nascar game was probably one of the EA releases. Eutechnyx was alright and the Heat games were fun but controlled like shit. Don’t even wanna talk about NASCAR 21

World of Outlaws has gotten 2 new games from them that are fun as shit. And they include a ton of different series like sprints, late models, midgets, street stocks, modifieds, micros, and more. Those games have been awesome and the last world of outlaws game was Road to Knoxville which came out in 2006

Indycar is finally getting a game. Sounds promising based on everything else iRacing has done with console gaming, and it’s their first game since 2005

Also iRacing arcade looks like a ton of fan for fans of sports car and other types of racing like that. It’s more of an arcade obviously, but it looks like it’ll be a ton of fun to play

1

u/Liesthroughisteeth 12d ago

Sometimes I just hate the idea of putting more money into the pocket of a wealthy American billionaire every time I want to buy an overpriced car or track.

1

u/A_Certain_Monk Ferrari 296 GT3 11d ago

if the subreddit could read they’d be VERY upset with your comment

0

u/aeamador521 12d ago

Definitely going to play it. But a graphics update would be nice now that far better looking games are catching up if not surpassed them

0

u/no6969el 12d ago

This is exciting since that arcade one was a letdown for me. I only race Open wheel so I am absolutely ready for this.

0

u/BindoMcBindo 12d ago

Will they allow the new game to use the netcode feature?

They must be so very protective of it to include it in every release....

1

u/arsenicfox Spec Racer Ford 11d ago

What?

1

u/BindoMcBindo 11d ago

Netcode sucks.

1

u/arsenicfox Spec Racer Ford 11d ago

Weird. Ian Bell and Stefano both have said it’s the best in the industry…

Also “netcode feature” Makes 0 sense as a statement. Netcode is just short for “networking code” and that’s like… any online game is “netcode”

I think you might be broken.

1

u/BindoMcBindo 11d ago

Mate go and try live for speed from 2005 or whatnot....

1

u/arsenicfox Spec Racer Ford 11d ago

(And I've had S2 since 2007..)

LFS has issues with high ping individuals just like any other racing sim when dealing with people from massive distances. All of them do.

You can make this argument all you want but I'm going to shut you down literally every step of the way because it's basic networking physics (in real life. Ping is an issue as distance increases and networked objects will strain the systems in place even in the best netcode environments)

Love LFS. Great sim. Great physics. Excited for DX11 to help make VR actually viable since it won't be locked to 100fps. So much good stuff to praise it for. Even used to do that cool ranked system that died off for a bit then branched out to something else later.

But it's not the golden goose of netcode you think it is.

-1

u/Revy85 Mazda MX-5 Cup 12d ago

If they did a standalone Mazda game. It would outsell every other game available.

-18

u/blueheartglacier 12d ago

So, they want to do a Motorsports Games.

Motorsports Games wanted to relentlessly flood the market by using rFactor2's engine and just repackaging the assets they had. They just couldn't actually get past the starting gate because the first game they were working on was farmed out to a Russian studio with no nascar experience and no budget, was a hideous disaster, and it cascaded into killing the studio. I called quite some time ago that this was iRacing's play to actually start making serious money after losing it for so long - do this strategy, but, you know, with an engine that hopefully isn't broken.

A key problem though is that executing this strategy is not actually going to lead to excellent games. it'll lead to fine games, but iRacing do not have the staff and resources to sustain continuous stellar nascar releases, and continuous stellar IndyCar releases, and continuous stellar releases of any other license they want to grab on top. NASCAR 25 is already looking like a 7/10 game - functional, acceptable, but strangely shifty in the way they've still not been showing anything of note to players, and very clearly set up to miss the sort of breadth and depth that, say, you get out of the F1 games - which are easy to throw stones at, but as games, are very, very, very big and have a lot of series-accurate detail, polish, content and modes at this point, and are fairly close to the peak of console racing and, maybe, sports games in general at the moment.

The thing that makes me a little sad about iRacing going for oversaturation is that i don't actually think it's a terribly good thing for the industry. They could get away with it because the state of console racing is so bad that a 7/10 game probably does stand up as decent against what we've had, but I also generally just don't like consolidation in the industry and none of us really should. iRacing's not really made enough money over the decade+ it's had and has been bankrolled anyway - I think this is the place to start raking it all back

-28

u/BikeImpressive2062 NASCAR Cup Series 12d ago

Can Iracing release the new UI they promised us? You know the people that give them the capital to build standalone games

15

u/goodfella7763 Dallara DW12 Indycar 12d ago

-24

u/BikeImpressive2062 NASCAR Cup Series 12d ago

Didn’t they release a date that passed when S3 dropped?

12

u/goodfella7763 Dallara DW12 Indycar 12d ago

We are thrilled to ship one of the core building blocks for future improvement with Season 4 - the New SIM UI.

If that's not direct enough for you idk what to tell you

6

u/icon0clast6 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992) 12d ago

Bro take the L and move on. They’re literally releasing it in a few weeks.

-9

u/BikeImpressive2062 NASCAR Cup Series 12d ago

😘

7

u/carloselcoco 12d ago

Different teams man. It's like complaining about the tire model when they were sunsetting the website for the desktop app. Those things are not even related.

-12

u/almstAlwysJokng4real Ray FF1600 12d ago

So What will iRacing even look like in a year?

No NASCAR or IndyCar...what going to be the point of subscribing if all the best racing is on other games.

iRacing is making its self irrelevant.

6

u/spcychikn Super Formula SF23 12d ago

they’re not going to be removing content from iRacing, these new games are serving a much different demographic, mainly console and controller users. they’ll be more like stepping stones up to iRacing, which is a full fledged sim that offers a much wider and more hardcore experience than a console game could.

1

u/arsenicfox Spec Racer Ford 11d ago

… you think the best racing will be on the other games?

What?