Best IndyCar Game Alternatives

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With the Motorsport Games title unlikely to see the light of day, IndyCar fans continue waiting for a dedicated game. However, there are IndyCar game alternatives – here are our favorites.

Image credit: Honda Racing

The top rung of the American Open Wheel ladder has not seen a dedicated racing game since 2004. Codemasters’ IndyCar Series 2005 hit consoles in 2004 and let players race in the 2003 season of the Indy Racing League. Yes, that is confusing – but it fits with the chaos that was the second American Open-Wheel Split.

Either way, 20 years later, IndyCar may not have had a standalone game in the meantime, but that does not mean that its cars and some of its tracks have not been available in other games and sims. While mods make almost anything possible, official content is also available in numerous titles. Here are our favorite IndyCar game alternatives as of late 2023.

Motorsport Games IndyCar Cancels Licenses.jpg

As of mid-November of 2023, the Dallara IR-18 remains in rFactor 2. Image credit: Studio 397

IndyCar in rFactor 2​

Of course, the obvious pick on this list has to be rFactor 2. While the future of IndyCar content in the sim is in serious doubt due to the series looking to terminate its licensing agreements with Motorsport Games, the current version of the Dallara IR-18 is available in the sim. Even if it gets pulled, it is likely to continue life as a mod.

At the time of writing this article, the car is still available for purchase in the Steam Store. If you are looking to recreate the 2022 or 2023 IndyCar grid, you can do so with the rF2 version of the IR-18. Additionally, the following tracks from the 2023 calendar are available, either as offical or mod content.

rFactor 2 IndyCar Tracks​

  • Texas Motor Speedway – Mod
  • Long Beach – Official
  • Barber Motorsports Park – Mod
  • Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Oval & Road) - Official
  • Road America – Mod
  • Mid-Ohio – Mod
  • Toronto Street Circuit – Mod
  • Iowa Speedway – Mod
  • Gateway – Official
  • Portland – Official
  • Laguna Seca – Official

A version of the St. Petersburg (Florida, not Russia) street circuit is available as well, but was initially released in 2016. Users have reported crashes when trying to load the track, so it is likely no longer compatible. The Detroit and Nashville street circuits are not available.

In addition to this, carsets for several more recent seasons can be found in the Steam Workshop. For fans of historic IndyCar racing, the 1998, 1990 and 1985 CART seasons offer some nice variety.

It is important to note that the quality of the mod content can vary significantly. Some of the older creations may have issues that require workarounds or fixes after downloading.

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A fictionalized version as well as a mod (pictured) of the 2023 IndyCar are available in Automobilsta 2.

IndyCar Game Alternatives: Automobilista 2​

Known for its abundance of Formula One content, Automobilista 2 also has no less than four IndyCar seasons available. Well, sort of – they are called Formula USA in the game, and the 2023 car is a fictionalized version. Developer Reiza Studios had an accurate vehicle ready to release, but could not come to a licensing agreement with IndyCar. Hence, sim racers got a slightly altered car in the Racin’ USA Pt. 3.

As part of the Racin’ USA Pt. 2 DLC, sim racers get access to the 1995 (Gen 1), 1998 (Gen 2) and 2000 CART (Gen 3) season cars. Numerous American tracks are either part of the base game or of DLC packs.

Automobilista 2: IndyCar Tracks​

2023​

  • Long Beach (Racin’ USA Pt. 1 DLC)
  • Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Oval & Road Course – Racin’ USA Pt. 3 DLC)
  • Road America (base game)
  • Gateway (Racin’ USA Pt. 3 DLC)
  • Laguna Seca (Racin’ USA Pt. 1 DLC)

Historic​

  • Long Beach (used in 2000, different layout than in 1995 and 1998)
  • Rio/Jacarepagua Oval (base game – 1998/2000)
  • Gateway (1998/2000)
  • Cleveland (all Gens – Racin’ USA Pt. 2 DLC)
  • Road America
  • Laguna Seca (all Gens)
  • Fontana (1998/2000 – Racin’ USA Pt. 2 DLC)

IndyCar-Game-Alternatives-Automobilista-2-Historic.jpg

Three generations of historic CART vehicles add to Automobilista 2‘s IndyCar experience. Image credit: Reiza Studios

Oval racing in AMS2, especially against the AI, still has room for improvement, but does feature full-course yellows, pace cars and adjustable weight jackers. As a result, exciting high-speed battles are possible in the sim. The cars automatically switch to the respective aero configuration needed for short ovals and speedways.

If you prefer an authentic-looking Dallara IR-18, however, a high-quality mod is available on RaceDepartment. It also includes different aero configurations plus a working push-to-pass system, as well as all liveries and AI files for the 2023 grid.

The RD download section has livery packs including AI drivers for the 1995, 1998, 2000 and 2023 seasons available, too.

IndyCar-Game-Alternatives-iRacing.jpg

Despite no longer holding the IndyCar license, the Dallara IR-18 is still available in iRacing. Image credit: iRacing

IndyCar Game Alternatives: iRacing​

While also not officially-licensed anymore, the car is still in iRacing as well. In official events and series, it cannot be run on IndyCar tracks currently. This does not prevent private events to be held on those circuits, however. Plus, iRacing does feature high-quality AI racing, making it a good IndyCar game alternative.

As the service is based in the US, it should come as no surprise that a majority of the 2023 IndyCar circuits are available. Coupled with market-leading oval racing, iRacing shpuld be worth a closer look for fans of the series.

iRacing: 2023 IndyCar Tracks​

  • Texas Motor Speedway
  • Long Beach
  • Barber Motorsports Park
  • Indianapolis (Oval & Road)
  • Road America
  • Mid-Ohio
  • Iowa Speedway
  • Gateway
  • Laguna Seca (base content)

Additionally, the Detroit Belle Isle street circuit is part of iRacing‘s track roster. It was used until 2022, with IndyCar switching to a layout in the downtown area for 2023 onwards.


IndyCar Game Alternatives: Assetto Corsa​

Of course, the seemingly omnipotent Assetto Corsa could not be omitted from our list of IndyCar game alternatives. While the sim does not feature IndyCar out of the box, there are several mods for current and past vehicles available. In an un-modded state, AC only features Laguna Seca when it comes to IndyCar tracks. A lot more have been created by the community, though. Here are the current IndyCar circuits you can find on RaceDepartment, plus select historic ones.

2023​


Historic​


Unfortunately, Assetto Corsa does not support rolling starts or full-course yellows, so your experience will not be quite as authentic.

What do you think of our IndyCar game alternatives? Let us know on Twitter @OverTake_gg or in the comments below!
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About author
Yannik Haustein
Yannik Haustein
Lifelong motorsport enthusiast and sim racing aficionado, walking racing history encyclopedia.

Sim racing editor, streamer and one half of the SimRacing Buddies podcast (warning, German!).

Heel & Toe Gang 4 life :D

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Comments

A
BruceD said:
From what I've read, splinters were the least of your problems back then! :laugh:
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Idk, check this out:

Even when the cars did not crash, racing on a board track was exceedingly dangerous due to flying wood splinters and debris, and due to the primitive tire technology and head protection of the era. In one oral history taken from a driver, he told a tale of wooden shards driven into the faces of drivers and riding mechanics, and sudden catastrophic tire failures caused by track conditions. Cars were fitted with anti-splinter devices to protect their radiators. Pete DePaolo wrote in his book Wall Smacker that racing on boards was "a great sensation, tearing around a board speedway dodging holes and flying timber."​

But yeah, that's not all:

Drivers often were ejected from their cars and would fall several meters. Drivers and riding mechanics often were driven over by their own or another car.​
 
A
Thanks to having a reason for running ovals in AC, with the '72 McLaren, I now remember why AC is quite suboptimal for ovals: not only does it not have proper ovals rules, but it doesn't know about chassis settings for ovals: wedge, track bar, unequal caster, and weight distribution; and despite requiring the player to adjust the ride height for each wheel, it doesn't display the resulting height values separately on the left and right. And of course, having configurations of the same car for different ovals and road courses, that would be changed during a championship, is out of the question.
 
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MJQT
wolftree said:
Or the rFactor 1 port called CART Factor, which kind of works on ovals too (if you can still find them).
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Good point. I think I have the rFactor JNS Ovals pack saved somewhere. I'll have to upload it here. As you suggest, though, isiMotor AI only 'kind of' barely works on ovals though... have never had or seen a great experience with it.

EDIT: an incomplete rF1 pack now uploaded here on RD. https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/jns-oval-track-pack.65108/ The AMS port is more complete: https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/jns-trackpack-32-oval-tracks.12959/

wolftree said:
ICR2 has aged badly and what passes for AI in it is not really possible to race against cleanly, especially on street circuits. Ted Meat has tried to do a career on it but it's mostly just a mess.
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Yes, it is very dated - since the ICR2 AI runs on train tracks either in a single line or in two side-by-side lines - but it is less annoying if you don't run on max damage (Ted Meat is on "Realistic" damage, while GPLaps ran on "Arcade" damage in his successful 1989 full season) and the 'train track' nature of the AI actually lets them navigate lapped traffic in a convincing way that is of similar speed to the player (something most - if not all - of today's popular sims struggle to pull off, making full-length races of little interest).
 
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A
MJQT said:
isiMotor AI only 'kind of' barely works on ovals though... have never had or seen a great experience with it.
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Eh, it's alright imo, until the AI starts bumping into your car. I've had plenty of fun with 70s' NASCAR, and some with modern cars—but Indy was indeed more difficult and made me want to slap some of those drivers. OTOH, at least the cars don't spin from a slight touch like in NR2003.

The most impossible challenge on rF1 ovals is to try modern Indycar on a superspeedway: the AIs are glued into their two trains at 370 kmh, and there's nothing one can do about them without colliding with someone.
 
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D
rFactor 1 is a good choice as well, even though no official Push-2-Pass system (My mod has Temporary Boost in the road courses for a makeshift P2P), and I enjoy rFactor 2 official and mod IndyCars, and iRacing's IndyCars (RedactedCars).
 
D
aasasd said:
The most impossible challenge on rF1 ovals is to try modern Indycar on a superspeedway: the AIs are glued into their two trains at 370 kmh, and there's nothing one can do about them without colliding with someone.
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Yeah turn them down to 70% and AI Mistakes to 10, lol. Don't turn the AI Limiter too high or else you'll get stuck in their traffic.
 
D
MJQT said:
Yes, it is very dated - since the ICR2 AI runs on train tracks either in a single line or in two side-by-side lines - but it is less annoying if you don't run on max damage (Ted Meat is on "Realistic" damage, while GPLaps ran on "Arcade" damage in his successful 1989 full season) and the 'train track' nature of the AI actually lets them navigate lapped traffic in a convincing way that is of similar speed to the player (something most - if not all - of today's popular sims struggle to pull off, making full-length races of little interest).
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Yeah, ICR2: CART Racing is my go-to for 15-minute nostalgia trips, since it was the first IndyCar Sim Racing game I really played (though mainly Indianapolis as Helio or Danica).
 
D
Daveybird said:
Yeah, ICR2: CART Racing is my go-to for 15-minute nostalgia trips, since it was the first IndyCar Sim Racing game I really played (though mainly Indianapolis as Helio or Danica).
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I go alllll the way back to Indycar Racing (ICR1). But that ruined me as a driver. I used a joystick and could go flat out around tracks like the Milwaukee Oval. When I got ICR2, it took me weeks just to learn how to brake & turn again
 
Apocalypse2112
kpduke said:
VRC Formlua NA 1999 car pack for AC, matched with real 1999 Champcar skins available on racedepartment is the best indycar/champcar experience you can have in a sim game. sad that AC doesn't have rolling starts (well it kind of does with a mod) and that AC doesn't do any good single player racing, but in terms of DRIVING, that is the mod i always go to for the best indycar/champcar experience on any game. I am happy to pound laps after laps just in practice trying the so many real tracks you can download from racedepartment and elsewhere. Very challenging at first and then utterly satisfying. matched with csp/pure its looks are to die for that match the mighty 2.65 single turbo v8 revving at 14,000rpm.
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What's wrong with the single player racing? I've managed to create many good AC F1 championship seasons with modding of json champ files. Sure the ai has its limitations and flaws but so have the other sims' ai's. AMS2 isn't much better. My seasons have been very enjoyable.

Are the tracks all available? I might check that out soon.
 
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Kevin Troschinski
Premium
Apocalypse2112 said:
What's wrong with the single player racing? I've managed to create many good AC F1 championship seasons with modding of json champ files.
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EXACTLY. Not only F1 Seasons... i have created all those championships easily with the vanilla launcher and have nearly 4000h fun with singleplayer racing:



But speaking of CART i there should be nearly all tracks avaiable for AC, except some ovals i think. Personaly i don`t use ovals, cause the game (AI) is not really made for it.
 
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Apocalypse2112
Ah... cool. I have to check those. Never tried an oval on AC. What is the issue on those? AI?

What I've found out during my experience of tweaking the AC champs files is that you have to make the slower cars' aggression to 0. That helps tremendously with qualifying and when they become backmarkers. Many people set all cars' aggression very high and it creates idiotic crashes. The downside is that low aggression create problems on street circuits like Monaco when the low aggression cars get stuck behind eachother. But that's the price to pay for much better qualifying and backmarker overtaking experience.
 
Kevin Troschinski
Premium
Apocalypse2112 said:
Ah... cool. I have to check those. Never tried an oval on AC. What is the issue on those? AI?

What I've found out during my experience of tweaking the AC champs files is that you have to make the slower cars' aggression to 0. That helps tremendously with qualifying and when they become backmarkers. Many people set all cars' aggression very high and it creates idiotic crashes. The downside is that low aggression create problems on street circuits like Monaco when the low aggression cars get stuck behind eachother. But that's the price to pay for much better qualifying and backmarker overtaking experience.
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My experience so far is - fast cars (formula, open wheelers, prototypes) -- aggressivness down (70-75) slower cars (touring, cup, and so on) - aggressivnes up 80-90 This provide good battles between the AI in those cars.
While in faster cars it would cause crashes.

But it´s also track depending. Fast and tight tracks - also aggr. down, slower tracks, wide tracks - aggr. up.

Btw. i do not set the aggressivness or AI skill per car, but the whole grid. To achieve realistic results with real life driver-counterparts i do use ballast and restrictor per car.
 
Apocalypse2112
Kevin Troschinski said:
My experience so far is - fast cars (formula, open wheelers, prototypes) -- aggressivness down (70-75) slower cars (touring, cup, and so on) - aggressivnes up 80-90 This provide good battles between the AI in those cars.
While in faster cars it would cause crashes.

But it´s also track depending. Fast and tight tracks - also aggr. down, slower tracks, wide tracks - aggr. up.

Btw. i do not set the aggressivness or AI skill per car, but the whole grid. To achieve realistic results with real life driver-counterparts i do use ballast and restrictor per car.
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I only use champs files and don't touch anything else. When I set ballast and restrictor on CM, it only affects on the 1st race of the championship. After that things get screwed (for me) and random cars are taking qualifying top spots. But when I only set the json files all work perfectly.

This is what I use (championship.champ) file. Works superb. Maybe I should experiment with the aggression settings more. But very challenging to win or outqualify Alonso and Hammy in my 2007 season with Raikkonen/Ferrari. Sometimes I manage to do that but it's tough (for me).

{
"name": "Nick Heidfeld",
"car": "f1_2007_bmw_sauber",
"skin": "Heidfeld",
"aiLevel": 88.0,
"aiAggression": 1.0,
"nationality": "Germany"
},
{
"name": "Roberto Kubica",
"car": "f1_2007_bmw_sauber",
"skin": "Kubica",
"aiLevel": 86.0,
"aiAggression": 1.0,
"nationality": "Canada"
},
{
"name": "Fernando Alonso",
"car": "f1_2007_mclaren",
"skin": "Alonso",
"aiLevel": 96.0,
"aiAggression": 25.0,
"nationality": "Spain"
},
{
"name": "Lewis Hamilton",
"car": "f1_2007_mclaren",
"skin": "Hamilton",
"aiLevel": 96.0,
"aiAggression": 25.0,
"nationality": "England"
},
{
 
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U
kpduke said:
VRC Formlua NA 1999 car pack for AC, matched with real 1999 Champcar skins available on racedepartment is the best indycar/champcar experience you can have in a sim game. sad that AC doesn't have rolling starts (well it kind of does with a mod) and that AC doesn't do any good single player racing, but in terms of DRIVING, that is the mod i always go to for the best indycar/champcar experience on any game. I am happy to pound laps after laps just in practice trying the so many real tracks you can download from racedepartment and elsewhere. Very challenging at first and then utterly satisfying. matched with csp/pure its looks are to die for that match the mighty 2.65 single turbo v8 revving at 14,000rpm.
Click to expand...
VRC Formula NA 1999 is really great. I think AMS1 with the CART Extreme mod is better. Just curious if you have tried the latter.
 
U
Kevin Troschinski said:
Well @ovals there is no real good balance. You`ll either easily win or you´ll become last.
But most likely you`ll crash sooner or later or the AI does it :D
Click to expand...
I've had a few decent AI oval races in AMS1 with the CART Exterme mod. You might enjoy this little video I made. :p Or not.

 
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