iRacing

After a brief, and troubled, 12 months apart, IndyCar and iRacing have resumed their decade-long partnership to bring official esports for the championship back to the sim racing platform.

NASCAR and iRacing have today jointly announced that the simulator racing developer has acquired the licence to develop and publish “simulation-style” racing games under the NASCAR name, starting with a console release in 2025.

Formula One and iRacing fans, rejoice! In a surprising turn of events, the iRacing Motorsport Simulation team has announced a partnership with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team to bring “multiple” cars to the PC racing sim in future builds.

The iRacing Motorsport Simulation team has given a taste of what’s to come in the 2021 Season 4 build of the PC racing sim. While there’s no formal announcement as of yet, the team has uploaded a number of “Season Spotlights” videos to the official iRacing YouTube channel.

One of the world’s oldest remaining motorsport events, the Mount Washington Hillclimb, has a new digital lease of life, taking its place as the first point-to-point course in iRacing — at the same time as Travis Pastrana was breaking his own record at the event.

According to iRacing’s official Twitter account, players of the PC racing simulator have accumulated the impressive total of three billion laps driven.

Like so many other championships, IndyCar has seen its calendar all but destroyed by coronavirus concerns. That includes the 2020 running of the famous Indianapolis 500 — one of three races in the Triple Crown of Motorsport — which is now due to take place in August rather than the traditional May date.

With the motorsports calendar in disarray this year, esports is experiencing a popularity surge. Viewers are tuning in to watch virtual sports in their hundreds of thousands on streaming platforms, and now it seems that traditional broadcast media is after some of that action too.

Following up on the first build of 2020, the iRacing team has released the Season 2 build to all subscribers. Headlining the new season are two new additions: the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 MR, and the Norwegian rallycross circuit Lankebanen.

Last week, the iRacing Motorsport Simulations team confirmed the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR arrives in March. The IMS team has one-upped itself with a new trailer showing off the six-cylinder racer.

Last September, iRacing’s Steve Myers confirmed the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport would make its way to the PC racing sim. Now, we can set our sights on taking the GT4-class racing machine for a spin in March.

World famous soft drinks brand Coca-Cola has signed a multi-year deal with iRacing to become the title sponsor of the eNASCAR series.

Last year saw the soft-launch of the highly-anticipated AI feature in iRacing. At the time, only the Porsche 911 GT3 and a selection of circuits were able to show the feature off. Following that, Skip Barber and the Mazda MX-5 series also got a chance to use the competent AI in the PC racing sim.

Long-running PC racing sim iRacing will further expand its BMW lineup with the addition of the M4 GT4 later this year. The good news comes courtesy of the iRacing Motorsport Simulations team itself, who shared details of a visit to Turner Motorsport — one of the largest BMW privateer teams in the world — earlier this week.

The new year begins early for iRacing subscribers, as the IMS team has released the 2020 Season 1 Build to all subscribers. Headlining the inaugural season of 2020 are two new V8 Supercar additions: the Holden ZB Commodore and Ford Mustang GT.

At this month’s Frankfurt Motorshow, iRacing’s Steve Myers confirmed the long-running PC sim will expand its Porsche lineup further in 2019. The latest addition? The 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport.

Is Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya coming to iRacing as part of its Season 4 build due next month? It certainly looks that way, though we can’t be certain.

Next month’s Season 4 build of PC racing sim iRacing is looking to pack quite a punch.

Earlier this month, the team behind iRacing showed off its new, work-in-progress damage model. It looks to be one of the biggest leaps for the acclaimed PC sim racer yet, and if we’re being honest, it looks amazing.

Collisions are about to become even more terrifying in iRacing.