iRacing has unveiled a comprehensive development update, signaling a feature-rich Season 3 that is poised to be one of its most substantial releases. Sim racers can anticipate new circuits, additional vehicles, and a broad spectrum of improvements designed to elevate the virtual racing experience. Here’s a breakdown of the key developments heading to the platform.
New Tracks Await!
iRacing is expanding its global track roster with the introduction of Shell V-Power Motorsport Park, widely known as “The Bend.”. Situated in South Australia, this venue is a prominent host for series like Supercars and GT World Challenge Australia. The iRacing version will feature seven layouts, including the extensive 7.77km GT Circuit, which stands as the world’s second-longest permanent race track.
We think this is an excellent addition to iRacing, especially with the V8 Supercar community getting the new Gen 3 car a few season ago, we’re sure there will be many racers happy to see this addition.
We do think it is worth noting tracks such as this tend to have spotty participation depending on the series, so please consider that before purchasing!
Track Modernization Program: Rescans and Refreshes
A significant number of existing tracks are set to receive major updates. These are divided into fully rescanned and remodeled tracks, or those refreshed with contemporary visual standards. Notably, these enhancements will be provided as free updates for current owners of these tracks.
Rescanned and Remodeled (with releases staggered between Season 3 and Season 4):
Iowa Speedway: Will feature significant repaving in the turns, altering its driving characteristics.
Richmond Raceway: While the pavement remains unchanged, substantial infrastructure updates have led to a full remodel, including the track surface.
Sonoma Raceway: This classic North American road course has undergone a complete artistic and technical refresh, including new scans and the implementation of a 5-layer terrain shader.
Worldwide Technology Raceway (Gateway): Following its real-world repave for IndyCar, the updated iRacing version will initially offer the oval configuration.
Charlotte Motor Speedway: Has been re-scanned to incorporate recent real-world modifications, including updates to the Roval.
North Wilkesboro Speedway: Initially when iRacing scanned North Wilkesboro in 2019 it was expected to be a preservation of the historical 1987 surface and layout vs an anticipated revival after over a decades left sitting abandoned. After a media frenzy and freshly renewed interest in the track it was added back to the NASCAR calendar in 2023 and later repaved. To keep with the time, iRacing has scanned the new track surface to go along with the existing historical version. The updated version of North Wilkesboro is expected to launch soon in Season 3 or 4.
Refreshed and Upgraded (releases planned for Season 3 or Season 4):
The track refresh initiative continues, with a focus on the NASCAR calendar. Venues such as Circuit of the Americas, Darlington, Daytona, Indianapolis, Lime Rock Park, Phoenix, and Texas are currently being updated in the same manner as they did to Lime Rock park a few year ago along with Okayama. Although not full re-scans, updated artwork, new grass and some graphics improvements are always nice to see.
Although not the most popular track, we really hope to see a similar update happen to other tracks such as Mount Panorama soon.
New Vehicles and Comprehensive Overhauls
Much like most new iRacing builds, Season 3 will also introduce new cars and significant revisions to existing cars and classes.
The new cars:
Ferrari 296 Challenge: This potent single-make series car, will be introduced in the Season 3 Build, it features a 700 hp V6 Twin
Turbo and advanced aerodynamics that produce around 2/3rds as much downforce as it’s GT3 counterpart.
The car will be featured in its own D-level series, taking over from the 296 GT3, and boasts a new binaural audio capture for an immersive sound experience when racing.
Gen 4 Cup Cars (2003 Chevrolet Monte Carlo & 2003 Ford Taurus): Two iconic stock cars from the early 2000s will join the service. Each will include distinct “Stockcar” and “Speedway Stockcar” body versions with unique paint templates. These will replace the current Gen 4 car in the C-level Gen 4 Cup series.
Major Car Overhauls:
IR18 INDYCAR: Updated to 2025 real-world specifications in collaboration with Dallara and INDYCAR, the IR18 features a rebuilt physics model and includes a new dry and an entirely new wet tire. They have also revised aerodynamics, worked on creating more accurate setup ranges including new barge board options.
There are also new visual updates. This include a new Cosworth steering wheel and road course-specific aeroscreen, complemented by a completely new sound model with detailed powertrain elements, including an anti-lag system. The introduction of the new hybrid system is planned for a future update as iRacing refines its core hybrid simulation code, however that is not coming in the season 3 build. We would expect the IR18 will be updated with a hybrid model at the same time the GTP’s and Hypercars get their rework.
Gen 7 NASCAR Cup Car: This vehicle receives a substantial update featuring the latest tire model, improved aerodynamics reflecting real-world team advancements, and a new CFD-based drafting model for more realistic traffic dynamics. This could completely change the way intermediate and super speedway oval race plays out, we’re very excited to see this play out.
Entire GT3 Class:
All GT3 cars will benefit the latest dry and wet tires models which are to be based on iRacing’s latest physics model. Traditionally iRacing has had major issues with it’s tires, particularly with cold tires being exceptionally fast, and feeling like they’re on a thermal knife edge during a stint. Many experienced iRacers such as myself have always found that the tire model on GT3’s especially fall off the second slip is introduced. Although we understand that slip can cause over heating, the subsequent inability to get the tire back into a working thermal and pressure window has felt unrealistic.
We hope that this updated model will lead to improved handling at the limit and more realistic tire temperature management, although many, including myself, are somewhat skeptical due to how tire temps are handled on the new GTP’s over the course of a stint despite their far more realistic, although difficult, cold tire performance.
Outside of the new tire model, most GT3 cars have had their aerodynamics overhauled using CFD, affecting ride height sensitivities and rear wing performance. A new tech inspection factor will be front splitter height, likely necessitating higher ride heights, presumably result in far fewer unrealistic setups and exploits.
Existing setups will need to be revised, and the initial Balance of Performance will focus on aerodynamic adjustments rather than mass or power changes.
Other Vehicle Updates:
- Rain tires will be available for the Lotus 79 and Super Formula.
- The F4 is set to receive a full dry and wet tire rework.
- The BMW M4 G82 GT4 will be upgraded to the Evo version, which will be an automatic update for owners.
- The BMW M Hybrid V8 will feature an updated steering wheel reflecting the current year’s design.
- The GTP hybrid system overhaul (Phase 2) has been deferred to a future season to allow for a more comprehensive rewrite of the foundational hybrid system code.
New Features and Simulation Enhancements
Season 3 will also deliver important technical upgrades:
VR Quad-View Fixed Foveated Rendering: This feature, for Nvidia RTX 2000 series and newer GPUs, aims to improve VR performance by rendering the scene with higher detail in the driver’s direct line of sight and lower detail in peripheral areas.
Rain Visuals: iRacing has focused on better synchronizing rain visuals with the dynamic track wetness physics for a more intuitive experience. Enhancements to tire and car spray visuals are also in progress, though their inclusion in Season 3 is yet to be confirmed.
Adaptive AI in Hosted Racing: Following positive reception, Adaptive AI will now be available in hosted sessions, designed to support multiple human racers. The system’s behavior between sessions in a race weekend has also been refined for greater consistency.
Hardware Support: Expanded 360Hz support for various wheels is being implemented, with haptic support for multiple wheels also nearing release.
Future Developments and Outlook
iRacing provided insights into several ongoing and future projects,
New Sim UI: The engineering phase for this complete user interface overhaul is complete. iRacing says the project is now moving into testing, feedback incorporation, and final polishing, which is incredibly exciting to hear. Although iRacing’s UI is very functional, it’s well, dated. EXTREMELY DATED, and has lead many to turning to 3rd part alternatives and overlays.
This ui updated can truly bring some of the last legacy parts of iRacing inline with modern expectations.
New Rendering Engine: Although we’ve head about this on and off for year, the development of the new game engine with more focus on utilizing GPU’s is progressing well, with recent milestones including the integration of the Dynamic Track system. Although with iRacing being so CPU bound it can feel like this can’t come soon enough. This is something we shouldn’t be expecting in the next build or two, although hopefully we get to see it at some point in 2026.
Career Mode: iRacing’s is still actively moving forward on the backend and UI systems for this anticipated new game mode, leveraging core sim and AI system improvements already implemented or in progress.
Infrastructure & Miscellaneous: iRacing has completed its migration to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) to enhance scalability and system uptime. Demo Drive and Maintenance functionalities are now integrated within the application, laying groundwork for future offline modes. New AI templates allow users to select specific cars from a class for multi-class. AI seasons are also being developed, alongside an updated, faster launcher UI.
Preview of Upcoming Content:
Tracks: Development is heavily focused on Mexico City. Updates to Miami are also in progress to more accurately reflect its race-day configuration, and several other city tracks are in development.
Work also continues on new additions for the GT3, GT4, and GTP categories. Enhancements for Dirt Road cars are nearing, with iRacing getting more and more data on the car and getting it to the point where they think the projects are complete.
There is also a new high-performance open-wheel car, representing a new tier of real-world competition, is anticipated in the near future, could this be an all new F2 car or an Indy NXT car??? We can’t wait to find out and test it in the future.
Overall the Season 3 update and these future prospects underscore iRacing’s ongoing efforts to expand and refine its simulation platform.
Although the build itself might not be the most ground breaking we’ve seen, the previews of the continuing work on the new render engine and hybrid systems really excite us.
Although we remain somewhat reserved in our expectations for the new GT3 tires, they could be a massive step forward especially if the overheating cycle is fixed.
If you want you can check out the latest iRacing dev blog that our article was based on here!