Motorsport Games Announces INDYCAR Partnership

IndyCar Game Motorsport Games.jpg
Motorsport Games have announced a partnership with INDYCAR and are aiming to release a new title based on the race series in 2023.

It has been a big year for game developer and publisher Motorsport Games. They made waves in the sim racing world in the spring with their acquisition of rFactor 2 developer Studio 397, and earlier this week they announced that the next NASCAR title will utilize rFactor 2’s physics engine to complement Unreal Engine based graphics.

The latest from the ambitious Motorsport Games studio was a press release confirming they had partnered with the NTT INDYCAR SERIES to bring a much-deserved racing title to Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. Although few details are known at this time, the team is targeting a 2023 release date.

INDYCAR has been conspicuously absent from the gaming and sim racing market in recent years. Titles such as iRacing and the Project CARS series have featured the cars, and mods for Assetto Corsa and rFactor 2 have been released by Race Sim Studio and Virtual Racing Cars to help fill the void. What INDYCARs fans have been missing is a complete title with the drivers, teams, and tracks.

Dmitry Kozko of Motorsport Games says, “Motorsport Games and INDYCAR are thrilled to provide fans with a long overdue dedicated gaming experience.” So, it seems like this will be the complete title fans have been looking forward to, and akin to the Codemasters’ F1 series or the NASCAR titles Motorsport Games is now overseeing.

Sim racing’s ties to INDYCAR go way back. Older games and sim racers may remember playing Papyrus’ IndyCar Racing in 1993. IndyCar Racing was a well-loved simulator in its time, and designed and programmed by Dave Kaemmer, now best known as the founder of iRacing.

The current generation of INDYCAR is a fiercely competitive spec series. Through the first 10 races this season, eight different drivers have claimed victory.

The current cars are powered by a twin-turbocharged V6 engine, which is mated to a 6-speed paddle shift transmission. Dallara provides the carbon fiber monocoque to the 16 active full and part time teams, with engines provided by either Honda or Chevrolet. There are changes expected to be implemented for the 2023 season in INDYCAR, including the move to a hybrid 2.4l engine.

Would you play an INDYCAR title? What features do you hope Motorsport Games includes? Let us know in the comments.
About author
Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

Comments

Great news! I've been waiting for ages for a Indycar title. Hope, they won't screw it up!
 
Dreaming here but an Indy Lights to IndyCar progression would be quite the game.

Hey? Who wants to be Roman Grosjean in the purple car? He's got pace!
 
Oh this is outstanding, man I hope it has all the bells and whistles and they don't skimp. I loved Precision Racing, Indycar II. Isn't this the same company now that Stephen Hood is apart of? A new Indycar sim, YES!! :thumbsup:
 
Very exciting news, I hope this truly ends up as the spiritual successor to IndyCar Racing II. There was another Indy Car game after that, by a different dev "CART Precision Racing" around maybe 1998 (?) but I never had that one. The original Papyrus sims, ICR, ICR II and the original NASCAR Racing series are what got me hooked on racing sims all those years ago.

But, as has been said already - if it's based on RF2 they really need to fix the whole yellow flag behavior, get the rules right, and get the AI driving right on ALL tracks. If it doesn't have a solid single player offline championship, I'm not interested. And I know when RF2 gets it all right, it is outstanding - I've had those races in RF2, I'm just finally souring a bit after several years of some of the little things that always seem broken or wildly inconsistent. Maybe if they really can pull out the physics and actual driving goodness from RF2 and plant it in a better framework to handle the other stuff, these new MSG titles could be something special.

I like the idea of additional historic seasons as DLC - I still think the era of the original ICR titles ('93 - '95) were some of the best years of Indy Car racing ever, right before "the split" happened, and the cars were awesome. As much as I like most of the tracks they race on today, I do miss when they had about 50% ovals and road / street courses. That was always one of the things I loved about the series, was that diversity of tracks

But, the current series is excellent - I'm excited for this.
 

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