NASCAR 25 Review (Xbox): Driving in the Middle of the Pack

The history of NASCAR video games goes back as far as you probably remember playing any video games. Having switched developers throughout the years for the core NASCAR games, iRacing Studios is a welcome addition to the NASCAR world of gaming with their development of NASCAR 25. The result is a racing game that doesn’t do much to make it compete with other greats in the genre, but is a suitable return for NASCAR fans who’ve been waiting for a while.

Realistic Car Handling

Overall, the gameplay in NASCAR 25 feels great. The feeling of racing in this is very simulation-like, with braking, accelerating, and steering all feeling responsive and intuitive to what you want to do. Staying on your line and knowing when to accelerate or when to brake is key to a successful race. The simplicity of most NASCAR tracks makes this an easy entry point to anyone looking for a sim-racing experience, with most of the tracks within the game being ovals. 

Graphically, environments and backgrounds could be fine-tuned a bit to look better. The shadows of the fences see a lot of pop-in when racing, and this tends to take away from the life-like NASCAR experience a bit. However, with that being said, the game runs at a smooth framerate, and the car models look great. 

The wear and tear on the cars throughout a long race is noticeable. Tires wearing out over time, aerodynamics taking damage over the course of the race from bumping into other cars and walls, and strategically pitting make the game fun. 

It’s when cars make contact with each other that the game misses the mark. I typically like a little bit of damage when cars collide while playing, but in NASCAR 25, it feels like there is little to no damage, even with the damage settings maxed out. When a car collides with another in a big way, I would expect to see a lot of damage on both cars, not just minor dents and scratches. I had a car flip in a race, only for it to just be returned to position after the safety car came out. I’d expect that car to be retired from the race completely with an incident like that. 

See You in the Championship

The career mode in NASCAR 25 is a fun, simple mode to get into. You create your own racing team and compete through the 4 types of NASCAR championships: the ARCA, the Craftsman Truck Series, the Xfinity Series, and the Cup Series. Doing well and racing clean earns you reputation points that help you obtain the ability to race and compete in more race types. You can race within two different series during any given season. This helps make the game feel more diverse, driving different cars and seeing new courses. I found the first season to feel a bit repetitive since you can only compete in the ARCA series to begin the game, but after finishing those 19 races, the variety opens up big time with more options. 

The more you win, the more you can recruit talent for your team in terms of mechanics or sponsors. Better sponsors allow you to earn more money for each race, which is used to replace parts on your car that get too worn to reuse. The race weekend structure is similar to real life. You practice, then you qualify, then you’re on to the actual race. The difficulty selected is what determines the length of the race. I chose normal and found that the AI was still beating me at times, so the challenge overall is pretty tough, even though my races were fairly short, but I plan to continue playing through my career mode to see out at least a season in each series. I enjoy the challenge and personally love seeing my name on top.

The career mode also heavily features Dale Earnhardt Jr., as his podcast will more or less glaze over your driver and team throughout the career mode. This is a fun addition to the career mode since most of the mode feels dull and repetitive on the presentation front. You race, repair or replace car parts, then race again. The cutscenes and animations between races are so repetitive that it doesn’t add anything positive to the overall career experience. 

Crashing Up the Ranks

Like most racing games, the multiplayer is hit or miss because it relies so heavily on the competition you go against. I tend to have a lot of fun in online races in most racing games, usually due to the way these games use a ranking system to match drivers of similar skill levels. NASCAR 25 uses a similar rating system. You are rated from C up to S class depending on how well and clean you race. Based on this class, there are different “event” lobbies you can join to race against others in a similar class. 

When the game places you in a low class like C, and you enter one of these lobbies, you tend to find some bad racers in the lineup. The matches are hit or miss since it seems like there are a lot of people who just get joy from crashing into everyone and causing chaos. This makes it hard to rise out of the C class, but at this time, I am a proud B class member. 

The chaos certain matches bring really can bring down the overall experience. As someone who wants to have competitive clean races, the bad drivers made it hard to get out of the C class. This is only exacerbated when the game doesn’t acknowledge that another driver caused a crash; it just knows that you crashed and thinks you should be penalized because of it.

Final Verdict

NASCAR 25 overall plays and feels great. I have enjoyed my time with it and will likely spend more time in the near future playing online and completing my career mode run (I won’t stop until every championship is mine). Unfortunately, the little negatives add up to take out of what should be a great immersive experience. That being said, I think NASCAR fans are going to have a great time playing NASCAR 25, as they have not had a true simulation racing NASCAR game in years.

NASCAR 25 was reviewed on Xbox Series X with a code provided by iRacing Studios. It is also available on PC and PlayStation 5.

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