iracing.com

[Cap'n Jack]

I dont think I've ever heard NZ being referred to as a massive untapped market before 🙂

There's only like 5mil of us, we do love our motorsport here in NZ but there would still only be a tiny percentage that sim race as well... But it's iRacing and it's expensive so even 100 new subscriptions from NZ is still a decent amount of money for them 🙂

Haha I’m trying to help you out here! Nah, but I can’t think of another country with as high proximity to a racetrack per-person than NZ, plus the quality of drivers regularly coming out of there, so it must be true.

 

[noshog]

Appreciate it @Cap'n Jack 🙂

I actually did something I don't normally do, I emailed iRacing to find out what's happening... I got a typical PR response, they said a lot without saying anything 🙂

 

[Cap'n Jack]

I’ve been really intrigued by the EuroNASCAR, so I had to give it a test before before the new season begins.

It’s heavy, has crap brakes and likes to get loose on corner exits and despite all that it’s an absolute joy to drive. The weight is manageable and the car actually takes corners relatively well, catching the rear end as it steps out is actually pretty easy.

Hopefully more people get on board, I’d love to see races to go official regularly.

 

[Saidur_Ali]

iRacing Development Update: August 2026 - iRacing.com

Hello iRacing, What a summer it’s been for motorsports. Between a brewing F1 title fight, dominant performances in INDYCAR, and NASCAR powering toward the playoffs, real-world racing action has been relentless. That same energy is fueling iRacing, where we’re seeing all-time high participation...

www.iracing.com

I found this part the most interesting, that they refactored and multi-threaded the core physics update loop. It will allow them in upcoming phases to raise physics tick rates, tighten input sampling, and accelerate force feedback update loops.

That sounds really positive that the game might take more advantage of the current hardware available, probably be great for people with DD wheels to feel more at one with the car.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Pretty good update overall, especially the CPU performance stuff, though I’m a little disappointed that the new multi-class race starts will be limited to certain tracks at first, but great that it’s finally here-ish. I was a little envious of the GT7 players here and their new little Caterham, but all’s good new that iRacing with now have two Caterham’s!



Also, I know single player racing is very popular here, so here’s the latest update from this season’s dev blog:

Career Mode is a project I’ve touched on briefly in each of our recent updates. We were so close to making this post an official release announcement rather than another progress update, but the mode needs just a little more time in the oven. That said, I’m thrilled to share that Career Mode is now officially technology-complete, and our team’s focus has fully shifted to bug squashing, usability testing, and final polish.

That brings us to something we haven’t fully spelled out yet: what exactly is Career Mode in iRacing? Plenty of racing games offer career modes, and each has its own take on the concept. So, what does a single-player iRacing Career Mode look like?

Career Mode redefines the iRacing experience, offering a single-player platform where drivers can follow the path real-world racers take—working their way up from grassroots local racing to the pinnacle of their favorite category.

Initially, Career Mode will launch with a core feature set built around racing, learning, advancement, objectives, leaderboards, realistic progression paths, and an unprecedented amount of included content. Ultimately, the goal is to provide a realistic, engaging experience you can enjoy at your own pace, competing at a level that’s right for you, and have a lot of fun along the way.

What to Expect on Day One

• Massive Scope: Career Mode will debut with seven unique Careers, each offering a full game’s worth of content. Two iRacers pursuing the same end goal—like becoming a top-level GT racer—can take radically different forking routes, competing in different regions of the world before converging on a global scale.
• Zero Extra Cost: Career Mode is included with your standard iRacing subscription, with no additional car or track purchases required for the mode.
• Content Access: Cars and tracks automatically unlock as you advance through your Career and re-lock upon completing each race week or season. This access is exclusive to this mode and does not transfer to the broader iRacing service.
• Ladder Design: Our designers had full access to our content library with their designs – their focus: to make the most compelling and authentic career ladders possible. Making this happen was a crucial decision to eliminate barriers and deliver a complete, deep experience using our multi-decade-spanning content library.
• Success and advancement criteria: Career mode is not structured in the same way as official racing. You advance in Career Mode based on objectives you are given each season by our Career Mode objective system. Principally, you are expected to achieve a level of performance in standings to meet the criteria for advancement. If you don’t succeed, you are given additional kicks at the can, but they are limited and you can ultimately get demoted and have to start a career over. That said, don’t worry if you want a casual experience – difficulty is adjustable. Additionally, you are given a set number of re-dos each season, but the more you take, the lower your overall leaderboard score.
• Career Length: Careers are lengthy, as they are designed to parallel the real world. Race lengths and schedule depth increases the higher you get in competition. However, this is also adjustable, and customization of schedule length and race length is provided.
• Authentic Foundations: Designed by a core group of sim racers, a former motorsport team manager, internal designers, and real-world professional drivers.

To set expectations properly, it’s also important to cover what Career Mode isn’t—at least on Day 1. It won’t debut with some common career mode features right out of the gate, such as a driver/owner system, sponsorship management, or team budgets. What we do have is a powerful dynamic foundation packed with new technology, intentional and fun career design, groundbreaking technology to power career variability, focused single-player gameplay with global competition via leaderboards, and a platform built for continuous expansion.

New Careers will launch over time as demand dictates, alongside special one-off Career Events. As with all things iRacing, this is just the beginning—our roadmap includes plenty of additional systems for future updates, including Save Game. We’re extremely proud of this mode and can’t wait for you all to get your racing-glove-clad hands on it.

The biggest take-away here is Career Mode will be included with the base iRacing subscription, with no additional costs for cars and tracks.

This is pretty huge, and will be great for testing out cars before purchasing them for multiplayer.