NASCAR 26 AMA: Everything Matt Lewis Told Us
NASCAR 26 lead developer Matt Lewis sat down for a community Ask Me Anything on the NASCAR Discord this week. The session was small. Most fans missed it entirely. We recorded it, and here’s everything he said about the NASCAR 26 AMA.
Also see:
▶ NASCAR 26 Cross-Platform Multiplayer: How It Works
▶ iRacing Studios on YouTube
The game launches September 18 for the standard edition and September 15 for the Gold Edition. All platforms hit simultaneously. Lewis was candid throughout about what’s in the game, what didn’t make it, and what’s coming down the road.
Force feedback got a real overhaul. NASCAR 25 shipped with FFB that was too clamped across the hardware range. For N26, the centering spring is adjustable, more wheel hardware is supported, and iRacing’s sim tuners contributed to the testing. Lewis said the team did significantly more wheel testing than they had time for with N25.
Kyle Busch will be in the game. He’s selectable in Quick Race and multiplayer in the Cup Series. He won’t appear in the AI field. The team worked directly with NASCAR, RCR, KBM, and the Busch family to handle the tribute the right way. There are tribute elements in the UI and a tribute sticker in the car creator. Austin Hill is in the AI field, so the No. 33 car lives on.
Cross-platform play is in for the first time. Xbox, PlayStation, and PC players can all share lobbies. There’s no direct invite system, but password-protected lobbies cover the league and trusted-friends use case. Public lobbies will have some chaos. That’s just the nature of public lobbies.
The physics got a meaningful overhaul, centered on the tire model. It’s now much easier to lock up the brakes, which makes the game harder to drive but more realistic. A dev diary featuring iRacing vehicle dynamics engineer Steve Reese and tuner Mike Berg is coming before launch with more specifics.
Dynamic track surface is in. The racing surface now changes and adapts during a session as rubber builds up. This was a top request from the sim crowd ever since iRacing was first announced as the developer.
Graphics took a big step forward. New particle system, volumetric clouds, dynamic sun and cloud shadows during sessions, motion blur, and grime buildup on cars over a race distance. Lewis called it one of his proudest achievements in the game, and content creators caught all of it from the trailer before he pointed it out.
The paint booth went from 7-8 layers to 50 layers per panel, with left-to-right mirroring. Saving custom elements as reusable decals is not in yet. Lewis described the jump as three or four years of progress in one step.
Career mode did not get silly season or team ownership in N26. Lewis confirmed both features are on the roadmap and that he’s had real conversations with NASCAR teams about how to do it right. Custom cars in Championship Mode are new for N26, which wasn’t technically possible in N25.
Terminal damage and blown tires are not in N26. Lewis called damage the single hardest feature to develop and explained why BeamNG-style physics on a 40-car console field is a different problem than anything else on the list.
The online safety violation system is not the yellow line rule. It’s a point-based system for players being destructive in public lobbies. Cross a threshold and you get removed automatically.
Split screen is not in. Rendering 40 cars simultaneously twice over, plus all mirror views, is too expensive without a major graphics engine rework.
AI improvements include a driver rating variance fix so ARCA races stop being dominated by the wrong cars. There’s also a new slider so you can tune that variance yourself in either direction from the new default. Pit road entry logic has been specifically addressed.
Peak Performance is a new training mode that watches how you drive and recommends an AI difficulty level. It’s aimed at new players but has recalibration value for experienced ones.
At least two more dev diaries are coming before launch, shooting through late August and early September at the NASCAR facility in Concord. Lewis said these will be meatier than the first one, with actual driving comparisons between N25 and N26.
Work on NASCAR 27 has already begun. iRacing is not going anywhere. The franchise is long-term, and NASCAR, the race teams, and iRacing are all aligned on that.
