For those who’re a racing game player, you’ve got been eating insanely good thus far in 2025. Kunos kicked the 12 months off, giving PC early access to the long-awaited “Assetto Corsa Evo.” In a while, titles like “Wreckfest 2” and “Tokyo Extreme Racer” made it to PC in early access as well. Xbox players got to have a good time “Forza’s” twentieth birthday with a significant update to Forza Motorsport franchise, bringing back the legendary Fujimi Kaido. Speaking of “Forza,” PlayStation players got a taste of Microsoft’s franchise for the primary time ever when “Forza Horizon 5” dropped on PS5 in April 2025.
Even Nintendo players have been fed, with “Mario Kart World” launching as the primary brand-new entry to the franchise in over a decade. Again, good eating, but we hope you’ve got saved your appetite, since the feast is way from over this 12 months. From charming indie drops to major-studio simulators, and the primary NASCAR game in nearly 4 years — here’s what’s still on deck for racing games in 2025.
iRacing Arcade
The Folks at iRacing have been trying numerous latest things previously two years. From developing off-road racer “ExoCross” to working on the upcoming NASCAR title, the team has been hoping to expand its brand, producing more accessible and approachable titles. That is why in July 2024, the corporate backed Original Fire Games, promising to bring a title just like the Vancouver-based studio’s popular “Circuit Superstars” and “Karting Superstars.” Then, over a 12 months later, iRacing Studios finally broke the silence, with the sport’s teaser releasing this past August: meet iRacing Arcade.
Within the 20-second teaser, iRacing and Original Fire don’t show us much, but from a primary glance, it absolutely holds the feel and look of the past two Superstars releases. But with licensed cars and tracks, like Porsche’s 911 GT3 Cup automobile being shown at Imola and Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez, this looks to be the officially licensed version of the overhead racer that fans have been hoping for.
NASCAR 25
What do you get when the guy who did NR2003 and iRacing grabs the parents who did the NASCAR Heat series? The potential to make probably the greatest mainline NASCAR games in many years. NASCAR fans have not been treated to a console title because the horror show that was “NASCAR 21: Ignition.”
4 years later, iRacing Studios is ending the drought with the highly anticipated “NASCAR 25.” The announcement that iRacing could be taking the reins from Motorsport Games to make the following multi-platform release immediately got the hypetrain entering into the sim racing community. Diehards knew that iRacing CEO Dave Kaemmer is not any stranger to offline games, and is the mastermind behind iconic old-school racers like “Grand Prix Legends” and “NASCAR Racing 2003 Season.” And after acquiring NASCAR Heat, Monster Games, you’ll be able to rest assured this is way from an “iRacing” console ship.
iRacing Studios has promised a “robust profession” mode, where players will find a way to work their way up from the ARCA Menards Series all the best way as much as the head of the Cup Series. Starring 190 real-life drivers across the 4 series, the sport goes to have over 400 unique paint schemes. Mix this with online lobbies hosting as much as 40 Cup Series cars, and this game has the potential to simply be one of the crucial well-rounded releases the series has had in years. We have not gotten a confirmation for Steam quite yet, but console players will find a way to go racing on October 14.
RENNSPORT
It has been a comically slow burn previously few years for Teyon Game’s sim title “RENNSPORT.” Conceived as an esports-first sim to challenge the likes of iRacing, the sport was first announced in 2022 before the launch of its closed beta in 2023. So much has happened since then. RFactor 2’s developers at Studio 397 claimed that Teyon stole code for his or her game, and in ESL’s R1 tournament, simracers won over $500,000 playing a game not available to the mass public. It has been a rocky road, but when the sport’s open beta was released last 12 months, free to play, fans still saw an incredibly solid and realistic platform for GT and prototype racing.
An announcement this 12 months moving the sport to a boxed pricing model also put out much of the sport’s fires, eliminating the in-game currency and battle passes coming at launch. Even larger, nevertheless, was the announcement that Xbox and PlayStation could be getting the sport as well, with full cross-play and cross-progression between all platforms — something unseen within the Simracing world.
For esports diehards and league runners, this alone may very well be the silver bullet for the sport. Console players have had access to Sim titles like “Assetto Corsa” and “Assetto Corsa Competizione,” but have never been capable of play alongside their friends on PC. This alone could motivate racers and leagues to adopt it when it releases later this 12 months.
Super Woden Rally Edge
It’s hard to consider a more underrated racing game on the market than “Super Woden GP”. Spanish solo-creator ViJuDa combined the top-down motion of arcade titles throughout the ’90s with a profession mode, UI, and soundtrack mimicking Gran Turismo to make a masterstroke of retro racing nostalgia. Its latest work, “Super Woden Rally Edge,” goals to bring that level of nostalgia from the circuits to the rally stages. Players will find a way to drive across eight locations in over 80 cars. While the cars are all unlicensed, they’ll definitely remain recognizable to rally and Gran Turismo fans alike, starting from modest ’60s hatchbacks to ’90s hillclimb monsters.
Readers who’ve played Funselektor’s “Art of Rally” will feel right at home with the sport’s top-down gameplay (which can get a chase camera for the primary time!). Nevertheless, ViJuDa guarantees an in-depth profession mode, where players compete for money to purchase, upgrade, and customize their cars. There hasn’t been an official release date yet, but Rally Edge stays on track for a PC version by the tip of 2025.
Project Motor Racing
Console players have been starved for true sim titles for a very long time. While the “Forza” and “Gran Turismo” series reign supreme in sales, diehard simracers yearn for the following racer that drops the “cade” from these mainline “simcades”. Ian Bell’s Project CARS Series helped fuel that desire for five years. The legendary developer’s crowdfunded sim series went through three games with over one million copies sold, but saw its end after the third edition of the series in 2020 lost its way. To make use of Bell’s work, think less “GTR” and more “Need for Speed: Shift.”
That spill made Bell hit the reset button and create a brand-new team, Straight 4 Studios. Made up of a giant chunk of developers from the legendary GTR2, Bell’s brought the band back along with one goal: to create a real follow-up to the GTR series. Originally generally known as “GTRevival,” the studio struck a cope with “Farm Simulator’s” publishers at GIANTS Software, and ended up with a brand-new name: “Project Motor Racing.” All this to say, Bell and his team have learned quite a bit previously five years, but what can we expect from PMS — a fourth Project CARS or a 3rd GTR?
It definitely looks like the latter, and in one of the simplest ways possible. With 27 track layouts across all five continents, “Project Motor Racing” could have over 70 GT and Prototype racers on tap, starting from the legends of the ’60s, all the best way as much as the Le Mans hypercars of today, with all of the Group C and GT1 goodness in between. For those who’re a fan of endurance racing or simply sim racing on consoles, you are going to want to envision this out when “Project Motor Racing” fully releases on November 25.
over the hill
We end this list with a tough pivot from the high-fidelity sims and blood-pumping arcade games on the best way, because Funselektor and Strelka games promise to bring yet one more gorgeous racing game by 12 months’s end: “over the hill.” Set in various biomes and terrains, you and three of your bravest friends get to overland in classic off-roaders, tackling different objectives and exploring the open wilderness. Players will find a way to find and unlock latest vehicles, upgrades, and customizations for his or her trucks, and may even find portals to latest areas of the sport’s colossal map.
As mentioned before, the sport is made by Canadian studio Funselektor, who’s already brought us phenomenal titles like “Absolute Drift,” “Golden Lap,” and “Art of Rally.” Those of you who’re aware of Funselektor’s art style will feel right at home with Dune Casu’s minimal but majestic art style. Very rarely will we describe a video game as “Cozy,” but with scenes like this, how on earth are you able to not? While no specific date has been given, “over the hill” is about for release before the tip of the 12 months, with a console release on the best way soon after. For those who love driving games but need something to lower the blood pressure, it’s absolutely value a glance.
This Article First Appeared At www.jalopnik.com