Despite some recent controversies regarding Roger Penske and the potential conflict of interest that occurs when a team owner also owns the series in which it races, the IndyCar Series is doing OK right now. I’m in no position to determine if its popularity is actually rising or not on an international scale, but at least within the racing community, it seems the series is getting its just due after years of being compared unfavorably to Formula 1, its European — and much more popular — open-wheel counterpart. But, even with some exciting things happening within the series, there remains one avenue in which IndyCar is grossly underrepresented: Video games.
A few years ago, the IndyCar Series announced that Motorsports Games — the developer behind the most recent NASCAR Heat games and rFactor 2 — was developing an IndyCar-centric game. Unfortunately, development on the game was later suspended.
This has left IndyCar without a dedicated video game, with the series instead licensing its cars out to other games such as iRacing and Project Cars 2, with the latter having the now-outdated DW12 chassis.
However, if a recent finding is to be believed, it looks like the IndyCar series will be coming to Forza Motorsport in the near future.
Someone On The Forza Motorsport Subreddit Found An IndyCar Reference In Plain Sight
For anyone unaware of how multiplayer in Forza Motorsport is set up, there are several categories one can choose to race in. One of which is the Featured section, where individual racing series and specs are prioritized to offer players more unique and curated challenges. If a screenshot grabbed by Reddit user u/Seantast1c is to be believed, it looks like someone at Turn 10 made a mistake and revealed IndyCar’s arrival to the game a bit early.
Taken on June 11, the screenshot shows a black box showcasing IndyCar in the Featured section. While IndyCar has yet to be put into the game at this time (trust me, I’m waiting), this kind of misclick on Turn 10’s part shows that IndyCar is not only coming into the game, but will be arriving soon.
Even if you’re not an IndyCar fan, you’d be crazy not to drive one in-game yourself. I love F1 and endurance racing as much as the next guy, but if you haven’t driven an IndyCar chassis at Road America yet, you truly don’t know what you’re missing.
Let’s hope IndyCar is added sooner rather than later.
