NHRA Drag Racing Title Coming Late 2022 from GameMill Entertainment

NHRA Game Coming Late 2022 01.jpg
NHRA and GameMill Entertainment have shared the first teaser of an as yet unnamed NHRA game coming later this year.

Arguably the most underrepresented category of racing in the modern gaming world is drag racing. But this is soon to change thanks to GameMill Entertainment.

GameMill has developed a wide variety of titles ranging from American Ninja Warrior to Disney's Frozen to outlaw racing. This could be a cause for concern for anyone seeking a true-to-life recreation of hyper technical race cars like Top Fuel dragsters, but NHRA has leant their name to the project, and the press release from GameMill states that the game will feature "physics-based gameplay for simulated real-world depth and speed".

The title will be released on PlayStation5, PlayStation4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Steam. It will feature both single-player and multiplayer modes and offer Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock, Pro Mod, and Super Street car classes, and include real-world NHRA drivers and NHRA sponsors.

NHRA and GameMill are looking for community feedback on what to call the title. A post shared by both of their Twitter accounts is asking for name suggestions.

The title is due to be released in late 2022 at this point, so stay tuned to RaceDepartment for more news and teasers in the coming months.

Would you play a drag racing game? Let us know your thoughts on this project in the comments below.
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About author
Mike Smith
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

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Comments

Peppelino
Wow.. Thanks Mike, for the heads up.
Why not ?? It's about time we have it. This might be fun. Name ? !
* Nitro '22 - Drag Me To Hell *
I said it first...
 
D
Can't understand how dragracing can be fun in a Sim. With Dragracing you need the immensive G-forces, rattling and all that to unleash that adrenalinerush, etc.
 
VFX Pro
Wow... I thought constantly turning left was boring, imagine just shifting once in a straight line. Yes, we're getting dumber and lazier by the minute.
 
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Ville Niklas
UnixRoot said:
A modern remake of Street Rod 2 would be nice. Buying cars and parts, modify and tune them. All that combined with realistic driving physics, etc. That's the kind of drag racing I want to see, not that million dollar top fuel crap.
Click to expand...
That game was a blast :inlove:
 
Badwheels
Well with this racing game we won't have endless discussions about

  1. "When will we get Nords"
  2. "I can't seem to make apexes
  3. "What brake bias should I have "
  4. " The tires are cold"
  5. "Fast bump, slow bump, fast rebound, slow rebound"
  6. " The AI is slow"
  7. "The AI will crash you out"
  8. "The day/night transition could be better"
  9. "I just want to get in the game for a quick race"
  10. "The pit stops seem to take too long"
  11. "VR makes the racing that much better"
  12. " I really wish they would include ( insert ancient car of choice here)"
  13. " I really wish they would include the (insert ancient track here) "
  14. " There are too many crashes in the first corner"
 
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Austin Ogonoski
VFX Pro said:
Wow... I thought constantly turning left was boring, imagine just shifting once in a straight line. Yes, getting dumber and lazier by the minute.
Click to expand...

Drag racing revolves around engine building, the same way Indycar oval racing revolves around fine-tuning aero, the same way baseball revolves around sabermetrics. It's less about the actual driving and more about the science project side of it.

If the game doesn't have comprehensive engine adjustments, engine damage & weather/atmosphere simulation, it's pointless. Unfortunately a lot of drag racing games eschew these elements because they're "too hardcore" for the average user. So they devolve into driving straight for a few seconds and result in idiots like yourself thinking the sport is "more boring than NASCAR."
 
Austin Ogonoski
winston malcolm said:
I'm waiting for the heated discussion about tyre models :)
Click to expand...
No dev is ready for the insane challenge that modeling a drag tire requires. Nor any of the forces that are exerted on pro level drag cars.

Based on track prep, the amount of VHT used, the surface temp, surface type.... drag tires don't actually hook up 100%. Ever. Wheel speed is always slightly higher than ground speed, so even on a "perfect" run the cars are technically doing quarter mile-long burnouts. If you've ever taken your street car out for friday night drags, drag strips are really unnatural to drive on. It's like driving on grippy ice and the car wanders around on you way more than you'd expect.

If your engine config is too aggressive (which can be anything from blower overdrive to clutch settings), this results in tire shake because the wheels will suddenly spin 2x-6x faster than the car is traveling. The inertia from these tires in a "tire shake" state are extreme enough to give the drivers shaken baby syndrome, which is how Eric Medlen died & how John Force was almost killed in 2007.

Sim racing has been generally good at modelling high HP cars like 2000's CART rockets, but with nitro-powered stuff putting out 11k HP, this is essentially like hacking GTA San Andreas and giving your car a billion horsepower for a giggle, but modelling all of that in a realistic fashion and making sure the tires, chassis, and engine still all do what they should.

We don't have a physics engine capable of modeling this, nor any of the other crazy **** that happens like frames being snapped in half. No sim engine is designed for these level of forces across the board.

 
Knoxstar
RinusDirtRally said:
Can't understand how dragracing can be fun in a Sim. With Dragracing you need the immensive G-forces, rattling and all that to unleash that adrenalinerush, etc.
Click to expand...
If we had the g-forces of a top fuel car most of us would end up throwing up on our monitors.

Mike's got a motion rig. Stick a vibrator under his butt and there you have it. :D
 
Kyuubeey
Austin Ogonoski said:
No dev is ready for the insane challenge that modeling a drag tire requires. Nor any of the forces that are exerted on pro level drag cars.

Based on track prep, the amount of VHT used, the surface temp, surface type.... drag tires don't actually hook up 100%. Ever. Wheel speed is always slightly higher than ground speed, so even on a "perfect" run the cars are technically doing quarter mile-long burnouts. If you've ever taken your street car out for friday night drags, drag strips are really unnatural to drive on. It's like driving on grippy ice and the car wanders around on you way more than you'd expect.

If your engine config is too aggressive (which can be anything from blower overdrive to clutch settings), this results in tire shake because the wheels will suddenly spin 2x-6x faster than the car is traveling. The inertia from these tires in a "tire shake" state are extreme enough to give the drivers shaken baby syndrome, which is how Eric Medlen died & how John Force was almost killed in 2007.

Sim racing has been generally good at modelling high HP cars like 2000's CART rockets, but with nitro-powered stuff putting out 11k HP, this is essentially like hacking GTA San Andreas and giving your car a billion horsepower for a giggle, but modelling all of that in a realistic fashion and making sure the tires, chassis, and engine still all do what they should.

We don't have a physics engine capable of modeling this, nor any of the other crazy **** that happens like frames being snapped in half. No sim engine is designed for these level of forces across the board.

Click to expand...
What part of that tire behavior *can't* already happen on normal sim cars with normal sim tires? All cars when accelerating at all will have slipratio in the driven tire for one, it's not inherent to drag cars, but you make it sound like it is.

Although I do agree most sims don't support the tickrate needed and don't have solvers that'd handle all the drivetrain and chassis flex stuff nicely. I don't think the cars will drive very accurately if the chassis is just one rigidbody with static rates.
 
Knoxstar
My first thought was finally a racing sim for people with very short attention spans. :giggle:

Drag racing starts with reaction time. That as on-line multi-player could be fun. A career mode would be good though so you start in street mod and work your way up. Tuning would make it more realistic as well. Qualifying, elimination rounds, down to the final. 4 wide and 2 wide tracks. Could be fun.
 
FinFan
I was always wondering why there wasn't a decent Drag Racing game already. I follow the NHRA for years and I would be interested if it is more than just the quarter mile race. That's only the end of hours of preperation in reality. I'm not sure how you can make that into an interesting sim as there would be a lot of factors that needs to be put in. And even if they manage to achieve that, would there be enough racers willing to play a game where they work for an hour or more on their car for a 4 sec race ? It's not like working out a setup for a two hour race. And can the hardware that is available even translate a fraction of the sensation ? Do I get better reaction time with better pedals that might react faster ? Many questions.
But I'm interested and I think it would be a blast to play this online.
 

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