Game Review: 'NASCAR 25'

Look, we all know the deal with licensed racers: they exist in a state of perpetually disappointing mediocrity, a sad, dusty shelf full of annualized releases where the only thing that changes is the driver roster. So when a new NASCAR game rolls off the hauler, you’re usually pre-loading the cynicism.

But listen up, grease monkeys: NASCAR 25 is the real deal. It’s messy, it’s beautiful, and it understands that the fun part of NASCAR isn't the tire pressures—it’s the pure, kinetic terror of 35 cars fighting for the same square inch of asphalt at 200 mph.

The Gen-7 Beast is Finally Untamed

The most crucial thing iRacing needed to deliver on its console debut was the feel. And damn, did they deliver. The Gen-7 car in this game is a glorious, sliding beast. It’s neither an inaccessible, hyper-sensitive sim nor a brain-dead arcade bumper car. It lives right in that golden 'sim-cade' sweet spot. On a controller—and let’s be real, 95% of us are on a controller—it feels weighty and responsive, forcing you to respect the dirty air and the high groove without needing a $1,500 force feedback rig just to navigate pit road.

The laser-scanned tracks feel incredible, too. You can feel the grip fall off as you transition to the top lane at Darlington, and trying to hold the bottom at Martinsville is a nerve-wracking exercise in patience that often ends with a polite-to-aggressive bump-draft from the AI. Speaking of the AI, it’s genuinely great. They make human mistakes—they overshoot the corner entry, they get greedy on the restarts, and they will absolutely wreck themselves trying to hold the lead, turning a seemingly dull single-file stint into instant, white-knuckle chaos.

Custom Careers and Killer Sound

Sure, the career mode is still a bit of a spreadsheet simulator. You start in the ARCA series with a paint scheme that looks like a cheap energy drink, and your “rivalries” are mostly delivered through oddly polite in-game Twitter posts. It’s bare-bones, but it functions. You chase sponsorships, you upgrade parts, and you watch the crowd size tick up as you move from the Craftsman Truck Series to the promised land of the Cup Series. It’s the framework of a career, and honestly, that’s all I needed. The racing does the heavy lifting.

What really sells the atmosphere, besides the stunning lighting on the laser-scanned pavement, is the sound. The Next Gen engine note is throaty and aggressive, and when you’re stacked up three-wide at Daytona, the glorious, deafening sound of an entire pack bouncing off the rev limiter is pure aural adrenaline. Throw in a surprisingly solid alt-rock soundtrack that perfectly captures the "tailgate at the track" vibe, and you’ve got a racer that looks and sounds phenomenal.

Is the multiplayer a complete dumpster fire of menus and ancient server browsers? Yeah, absolutely. But that’s the price of admission for NASCAR multiplayer, and the core racing is so fundamentally solid that the bones are there for a genuinely fantastic ranked experience once iRacing sorts out the lobby structure (which, fingers crossed, they will).

NASCAR 25 isn't just a good NASCAR game; it's a genuinely great, high-stakes racing game that finally respects the raw speed and drama of the sport. If you’re a fan who has been burned by every attempt since 2006, this is the one. Go get messy.