iRacing Studios has taken the helm of the NASCAR license and its early success from the release of NASCAR 25 offered an excellent starting point for the franchise. In comparison to the previous installments of NASCAR games, it started the strongest. The dev team got the most important aspect of the game down: the racing. Many were expecting the new NASCAR 26 to take major strides forward. The opportunities for the series are endless, but ultimately, the sequel ends up with a handful of new things that don't really up shift to the next gear. NASCAR 26 is still a quality racing game, and it embodies all the talking points along with every possible reference to a podcast that is seen in modern day NASCAR.
Players can expect the four major NASCAR series with the Cup Series, O'Reilly Series, Truck Series and ARCA Menards Series. Players can jump straight into the new Chase format, which is actually the old Chase format. Huge fans of this can simply go the tail end of that schedule and select a custom driver or any driver and compete in the Chase in any series. The option to do a full championship is also available, which can be broken up or customized to fit what you want. Is there any type of multiplayer championship or online championship? Nope. With how popular this series is online, the online component remains the same with no cooperative or seasons to run with friends or randoms.
An improved Career Mode is included that brings in weekly strategic planning. Players will start in ARCA, and unfortunately only in ARCA. The strategic planning comes down to balancing Rep Points to allocate towards repairs of the body, engine, chassis and suspension. This will be balanced with upgrades and the option to replace parts once they are worn out. This is difficult because there simply won't be enough resources to allocate, so there's a good chance that you'll be in the back of these packs. Players can also upgrade their facilities, hire PR personnel or better mechanics and expand their operations. This is a slow burn, but for a Career Mode, this is solid.
Within the Career Mode will be a good bit of live action video that features Steve Letarte and Jamie McMurray. Letarte provides insight from a studio while McMurray offers training that is very useful. Peak Performance is a separate game mode in the game for training. For each individual track, McMurray will walk players through where to accelerate, let off the throttle and brake. This is actually important, as players can learn each individual track as they try to beat the time on four separate laps. Indicators pop up for timing, and having this at the bottom rather than in the middle makes it more difficult to time this right. There are cones on the inside of corners as the trajectory needs to be maintained. McMurray will also teach different aspects of stock car racing throughout the Career Mode.
For each individual track, McMurray will walk players through where to accelerate, let off the throttle and brake. This is actually important, as players can learn each individual track as they try to beat the time on four separate laps.
iRacing Studios has also added new burnout celebrations, the new Ram Truck in the Truck Series, a new spotter with Freddie Kraft (who gets pretty annoyed if you wait more than five seconds before starting a race), and the three tracks added to the calendar with San Diego, Chicagoland and St. Petersburg. There's also a trophy room to showcase wins. Driver ratings can be edited if players want to go about a custom sandbox experience. Overall, these additions don't move the needle for the series. The videos and constant reminders that there are NASCAR-related podcasts out there aren't really needed when the lack of online expansion, a better television-style presentation, any upgrades to AI, and classic content are missing. If iRacing Studios is not going to innovate and only do just enough to get by each year, this series will end up just being another NASCAR HEAT.
The driving and AI model came out solid with no real issues in NASCAR 25. The game was an excellent debut, and with NASCAR 26, the devs have implemented more of what's discussed about NASCAR on a daily basis. The handling model gets a change with new tire and brake models that provide a more authentic experience. When players opt in for a 13% length or more race, the option to turn on dynamic tire lines is enabled. The more tires wear on a course, the more rubber gets dispersed to the outside corner. Players will see these line form, and can pick up this loose rubber for extra grip or when saving tires. This game really needs better live telemetry, and if tires and brakes need to be monitored, there needs to be a color-coded temperature graphic. Having to hit a button every race to bring up a HUD gets annoying, as well.
The handling of the cars in last year's game didn't feel difficult at all. Initially, 26 seemed a lot more difficult, especially on a controller. There are multiple settings to choose for handling difficulty. There is also control options for driving that includes Normal, Precision and Steering Wheel. The game is much easier to handle with a steering wheel setup, as precision is key. The game options defaulted to no Adaptive Triggers for the DualSense, and then on Expert settings, kept the steering on Normal. Certain tracks would create wheel hop with the right rear tires coming out of corners and would lose traction every time. The initial thought is that it was more difficult, but it seems the default options were set awkward to maybe portray this? Either way, once corrected, it played more like NASCAR 25, albeit managing grip was somewhat more difficult.
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