NASCAR 25 was just released recently, and the overall impressions of the game have been positive. The core gameplay and racing are mostly fun; the game just needs a bit more content and polish. However, fans have begun pointing out a major problem, and interestingly, it has less to do with the game itself and more to do with how players behave.
The online racing experience within NASCAR 25 has been terrible. You often get queued with players who know nothing about racing, or simply don’t care. Players start crashing everywhere, and it gets difficult to hold a line. You can get hit from anywhere and spin out, losing all progress.
Fans never expected a skill problem to plague the game. NASCAR 25 is published by iRacing Studios, which has a robust system for managing the skill levels of players.
Online Racing On Speedways Is Terrible
One fan with the name bingussy13 recently took to the r/NASCARVideoGame subreddit to vent out their frustration with the online racing in NASCAR. Here is what the post says:
Seriously, guys… when I can’t even get through turn 1 on Talladega because everyone is swerving and crashing into each other. Can’t even stay in a draft because everyone pulls to the right or left of you and spins you out. My god. I’m sticking to quick race and championship mode. I can’t deal with these people. Not expecting the racing to be as clean as iRacing, but damn it’s NASCAR.. It’s not rocket science.
Now this isn’t just a one-off take. The comment section is filled with players heavily relating and agreeing to this problem. The current solution is to completely avoid racing on Speedways when playing online and only focus on Road Courses.
Racing on Speedways sounds easy, as there are very few corners, so you don’t worry about braking and corner entry/exits as much as you would on a road course. It’s mostly just racing flat out on an oval. However, racing on speedways and superspeedways only sounds easy — it is far from it. Because you are going flat out for most of the circuit, even the slightest movement to your steering and a push from another car can send you spinning off. Secondly, racing on large ovals is all about finding a line and staying within a draft to open up overtaking opportunities. This becomes difficult if you keep getting hit from behind.
Overall, speedways and superspeedways require a certain level of skill that the casual racing player just doesn’t have. They need a robust skill filtering system to ensure that players get the lobby of their skill levels. Thus, chaos ensues in almost every online lobby that isn’t curated.
