In the height of the pandemic, NASCAR took their races off track to the virtual world. With the eNASCAR/iRacing Pro Invitational Series, drivers who would have competed driving in the real world raced in the virtual world.

According to The Sporting News (April 13, 2020), it worked pretty much the same as in a real race. While the NASCAR Cup Series races were postponed through May 9 of that year, “virtual races featuring many of the same drivers who compete in NASCAR’s top series …” were virtually racing.

Even Indy Cars went virtual with a “six-race IndyCar iRacing Challenge” that year.

According to the publication, you shouldn’t “think of iRacing as a video game. Consider it a simulator.”

NASCAR Cup Series driver Clint Bowyer was quoted as saying the virtual races were “extremely realistic.” 

Of course, the racers have long since returned to the actual race tracks. For instance, Marcus Ericsson just won the Indy 500 – the real race on the real track in Indianapolis. In 2021, Kyle Larson was the NASCAR Cup Series winner and the NASCAR racers are back on the tracks competing for the 2022 crown.

While the racers are racing in the real world again, one of the nice things for those who can’t get a poll position in one of the races is that they can do so in the virtual world.

Gameranx, the online video gamers publication, ran a story by Dennis Patrick Dec. 7, 2021, listing the “11 Best NASCAR Racing Video Games.”

While the story refers to some of the games at the bottom of the list as “pretty rough” or “a bit like a sim-cade … not the strict simulation experience,” the better games received accolades with descriptions such as, “… a big push forward for fans of the racing simulator.” Another was described as “… what you would expect from a NASCAR game …” Another was described as “… just a solid NASCAR racing game.”

The gist of it all is that racing fans can actually enjoy the racing experience, whether NASCAR or Indy, or any number of other formats, with video gaming. And they’ll race on systems that, apparently, are considered worthy for actual racers to compete and hone their skills.