NASCAR 25 Dev Diary Shows First In-Engine Glimpse, Laser-Scanned Tracks Confirmed

NASCAR 25 game shot.jpg
Image: Monster Games / iRacing Motorsport Simulations
iRacing and Monster Games are developing the upcoming NASCAR 25 and have just released their second dev diary, providing a first glimpse at the game engine and confirming the tracks will be laser-scanned.

After purchasing the NASCAR licence from Motorsport Games, who developed the last few official NASCAR titles, Monster Games and iRacing are hard at work bringing America's premier racing series to console. NASCAR 25 is set for a late 2025 release for PlayStation and Xbox consoles.

Monster Games have just released their latest game in collaboration with iRacing, World of Outlaws: Dirt Racing 24. They also have a pedigree in official NASCAR titles, last working on 2019's NASCAR Heat 4, and several other racing titles like SRX: The Game and Tony Stewart's Sprint Car Racing.


The development team released their first dev diary back in August, and they provided a first glimpse at concept art for the game itself. But now we have our first look at the capabilities of the Unreal game engine itself with the panning shot of the car in the garage. Unfortunately, we are yet to see any actual gameplay or cinematics, that will be revealed in due course.

But thankfully there is a detail picked up from the dev diary that will be music to many a sim racer's ears. The team have confirmed that all tracks will be laser scanned. Thirty-five of the thirty-seven tracks that the NASCAR Cup Series will be racing at in 2025 are already laser scanned for iRacing (exceptions being Bowman Gray Stadium and Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez), NASCAR 25 will mark the first time a NASCAR licenced console game will feature laser scanned tracks.

iRacing Talladega laserscan.jpg

iRacing already has the majority of tracks that NASCAR races at scanned on their service. Image: iRacing.com

NASCAR 25: Laser Scan Tracks "Critical To Authenticity"​

iRacing Senior Vice President and Executive Producer Greg Hill on the topic of laser-scanned tracks stated: "We are able to trace geometry (and) 3D models onto the points that we have captured out in the real world. That will provide you with a surface that is precise to the millimetre, so every little subtlety, every little nuance there in the real world, you will feel."

NASCAR 25
still does not have a release date, and it is currently up in the air as to whether it will be released for PC via Steam and on Nintendo Switch as was mentioned in the original announcement. Back in February to OverTake.gg, iRacing Vice President Steve Myers stated:

“It’s tricky because we expose ourselves in a lot of ways by having a PC product out there and I think not necessarily for the reasons people would believe. Let’s just say that there are other platforms out there that like to take advantage of other people’s work. It’s a tricky question and I don’t know if we’ve really come up with the answer to that yet.”

What are you hoping for in the upcoming NASCAR 25 game? Let us know in the comments below and join the discussion on our forums!
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Comments

This says it all. This is what AC has done to the PC market, by allowing intellectual property to be stolen at will.

“It’s tricky because we expose ourselves in a lot of ways by having a PC product out there and I think not necessarily for the reasons people would believe. Let’s just say that there are other platforms out there that like to take advantage of other people’s work. It’s a tricky question and I don’t know if we’ve really come up with the answer to that yet.”
 
This says it all. This is what AC has done to the PC market, by allowing intellectual property to be stolen at will.
So iracing is going to leave the pc market and be a console exclusive in the next update!
Assetto corsa what have you done?
 
“It’s tricky because we expose ourselves in a lot of ways by having a PC product out there and I think not necessarily for the reasons people would believe. Let’s just say that there are other platforms out there that like to take advantage of other people’s work. It’s a tricky question and I don’t know if we’ve really come up with the answer to that yet.”

Oh yes of course is just that and not because with a standalone nascar game on pc less people will buy the same content on iracing
 
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This says it all. This is what AC has done to the PC market, by allowing intellectual property to be stolen at will.

“It’s tricky because we expose ourselves in a lot of ways by having a PC product out there and I think not necessarily for the reasons people would believe. Let’s just say that there are other platforms out there that like to take advantage of other people’s work. It’s a tricky question and I don’t know if we’ve really come up with the answer to that yet.”
Can the devs not encript the content in such way that literally nobody else but them would be able to get into it ?
 
Can the devs not encript the content in such way that literally nobody else but them would be able to get into it ?
The data has to be decrypted before the game engine can use it, meaning the crypto keys/methods are included within the game code. With this information you can create a program or script that decrypts the data.
 
“It’s tricky because we expose ourselves in a lot of ways by having a PC product out there and I think not necessarily for the reasons people would believe. Let’s just say that there are other platforms out there that like to take advantage of other people’s work. It’s a tricky question and I don’t know if we’ve really come up with the answer to that yet.”

I don't expect that they will ever release a NASCAR sim on PC since it would be competing directly with iRacing's single player mode, which costs vastly more. The fact of the matter is, there are already existing NASCAR mods for Assetto Corsa, and rips of Gran Turismo models, which has (almost) always been Playstation exclusive, so the argument that console exclusives stop piracy doesn't hold water.
 
Consoles only probably means it will be some kind of simcade, like the EA F1 games. I was hoping for a new NR2003, but I doubt it will be like that.
 
there are already existing NASCAR mods for Assetto Corsa
Worth mentioning, that besides well-known RSS Hyperion and Facebook ACNM cars, there is also a EuroNASCAR mod (here on OverTake) and also Trans-Am TA2 cars from VRC that are pretty close to NASCAR ones.
 
Worst BS excuse ever not tonr3lease the game.on PC. Even if the content was fully ripped to be modded, a full Nascar game coyld not.be replaced by AC or rfactor 2 or AMS1. These sims can't even match the quality of the previous Nascar Heat games in terms of features specific to Nascar Racing.

Seeing such a successful company being so afraid, and with such a little self confidence, is surprising and disappointing. Low ambition is never successful. High ambition may lead to success, and iRacing demonstrated that, why change the strategy?
Monster games, Nascar games won't replace iRacing, it would be a mistake to believe so.

Anyway, bad strategies and decisions have been plaguing gaming companies for years, and this is another example of a clever one becoming just irrational. That's a virus!!!
 
Worst BS excuse ever not tonr3lease the game.on PC. Even if the content was fully ripped to be modded, a full Nascar game coyld not.be replaced by AC or rfactor 2 or AMS1. These sims can't even match the quality of the previous Nascar Heat games in terms of features specific to Nascar Racing.

Seeing such a successful company being so afraid, and with such a little self confidence, is surprising and disappointing. Low ambition is never successful. High ambition may lead to success, and iRacing demonstrated that, why change the strategy?
Monster games, Nascar games won't replace iRacing, it would be a mistake to believe so.

Anyway, bad strategies and decisions have been plaguing gaming companies for years, and this is another example of a clever one becoming just irrational. That's a virus!!!
Yeah thats just your opinion. There is a good market in the console world - racing games have had success there. Just because you are not getting a game for PC doesnt mean its a bad decision, or a company "is afraid".
 
That argument against PC games applies to every sim out there, yet they are being made. If the game's features are great, it still makes it the default choice. If all those tracks and cars were ripped into AC... we would still not get a good NASCAR sim for free.

However if the game's features ARE great and it's a decent sim, they might lose subscribers and content purchases from iRacing (which are way more expensive than a single purchase AAA priced title). I think it's more about that than piracy/modding. They are just looking for a scapegoat.

Edit: Also funny since GT Sport/GT7 rips are a thing.
 
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