The empire continues to grow as iRacing Studios announce standalone INDYCAR games for PC and consoles, with the initial title secheduled to launch in the second half of 2026.
It will be the first dedicated INDYCAR game to be released in more than 20 years, and there’s been a long-running relationship between the series and iRacing, aside from a brief hiatus between 2022 and the start of 2024. And it’s also a historic return to the roots of iRacing as Indianapolis 500: The Simulation, IndyCar Racing and IndyCar Racing 2 were all developed by Papyrus Racing Games, which later became iRacing.
I’m sure I’m not the only older sim racer who had their first experience of a realistic racing game thanks to Indianapolis 500 on the PC, and in my case, the Amiga.
It’s the third officially-licensed championship under the iRacing Studios banner, alongside the existing World of Outlaws: Dirt Racing games, and NASCAR 25 due out in October. It’ll be built from the ground up on their Orontes engine with licensed drivers from the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and INDY NXT by Firestone, featuring a multilevel career mode and online multiplayer.
“INDYCAR fans have long been clamoring for a standalone title for consoles, and we’re excited to give them what they’re looking for in 2026,” said Tony Gardner, iRacing president. “Our company has grown significantly in recent years with the addition of new development teams and studios,” Gardner said. “Our INDYCAR title will benefit from this growth as it will be the sole focus of one of these teams. However, the game will also incorporate elements like car and track assets, technology and driving characteristics developed from other iRacing Studios products.”
The press information also mentions that Team Penske driver Sctoff McLaughlin is one of the real-world drivers who will be involved with the development.
Alongside the long-term licensing for official games, there’s also been a separate long term extension to the licensing for INDYCAR within iRacing, which is good news.
As for the new official INDYCAR game series, it’ll be interesting to see how this and NASCAR will impact awareness of iRacing, and if it brings more people into sim racing. Or alternatively,if existing subscribers decide they can make do with a one-off game instead.
It’s also intriguing to see iRacing explicitly refer to the Orontes Engine, which was acquired as part of Orontes Games, the developers of what would become ExoCross. NASCAR 25 and World of Outlaws both use Unreal Engine 5, so this may be the start of iRacing using their own system for developing PC and console games in future (with the obvious exception of iRacing Arcade).
The INDYCAR game from iRacing will be available for the PC, the Xbox Series X|S, the PS5 and the Steam Deck.
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