The first news is that the popular Oval racing series ARCA Menards, which draws close to 100,000 drivers each week, will be getting a refresh on its visuals and driving model that closer match advancements in the real world. Several new fully licensed ARCA cars will be featured in the Season 2 update, however the physics updates will not be coming to the older cars.

This also comes with the announcement that iRacing will be removing the old ARCA cars from the series and giving credits to any iRacers who purchased these old cars within the last year once the update releases. Older cars can still be used outside of the official series however. Additionally, another popular car will be receiving an update. The Legends Ford 34c that is part of the base content package will receive new visual updates and improved physics model.

iRacing’s development team have also discussed how they are aware they “missed the mark” when it came to the update for their GTP and LMP2 cars, primarily with concerns around cornering performance, too much grip resulting in faster lap times than the real life counterparts. Knowing that they needed to fix the issues the development team announced a plan to tackle it and deliver on sim racers expectations. The team are working on a reconstruction of the tires and composition utilizing real-world data and expanded testing practices. They have also collaborated with professional racing drivers to ensure they are hitting the mark this time.

Their next focus will be an overhaul of the hybrid system to bring it up to date with current real-world car designs and rulesets. iRacing have announced that the improved tire models for GTP and LMP2 cars will be ready to go with the 2025 Season 2 update. The developers did make a reminder however that now that the tire model has been improved and aligned more with real-world data and behaviour, the cars can become a bit of a handful at times and racers will have to be extra cautious on cold tyres. We’re excited for this sort of improvement, however I feel like for some of the community this will be a bit of a “be careful what you wish for” moment.

Another exciting announcement is the introduction of a new track to the lineup, Portland International Raceway. This two-mile road course will have multiple configs and comes along with a bunch of overhauls for existing tracks which have been receiving updates. Season 2 will include free updates to Bristol, Darlington, Dover, Homestead, Kansas, Vegas, and Iowa (repave) with more to come in Season 3. Addtionally, several tracks will feature updated support for 3D curbing including Jerez, Aragon, Sandown, VIR, Winton, Rudskogen, and Hockenheim.

Other updates will include a debris refresh for modeling and rendering of debris, while also introducing a local debris caution flag. A new Connection Flag system will now automatically pit racers who have a severely compromised connection to stop them from causing chaos on track. Additionally the developers are considering releasing a new Adaptive AI system that will dynamically alter the performance of AI on track during AI racing.

Finally, a new lighting model will be introduced with Season 2 that is being developed in parallel with a new renderer and sky model. iRacing also discussed the future with plans for a New Graphics Engine, a singleplayer career mode with AI Championships, and many more improvements to cars and series.

To read the full details of what is coming to iracing check out the full developer blog to find out more about iRacing check out our game page.