First Screenshots Analyzed: What INDYCAR Racing The Game Actually Looks Like
For over a year after the announcement, INDYCAR Racing The Game existed only in words. A press release, a name, a promise. Then, on July 10, 2026, iRacing and INDYCAR released the first official gameplay screenshots, and the game became real in a way it hadn’t been before.
Here’s what those screenshots tell us.
The Drivers Front and Center: Palou and O’Ward
The two drivers featured in the early gameplay screenshots are Alex Palou and Pato O’Ward, two of the biggest names in the current NTT INDYCAR SERIES.
That’s not an accident. When a developer chooses which cars to show first, they’re making a statement. Palou is the reigning multi-time champion, one of the most recognizable faces in the series. O’Ward is an Arrow McLaren driver who has become a fan favorite and a genuine title contender. Together, they represent the current face of IndyCar racing.
The fact that both drivers’ cars are apparently modeled in detail in the early build is a good sign. This isn’t a generic livery slapped on a generic car. The screenshots show team-specific liveries and car numbers that match the real-world cars.
The Visual Quality
The screenshots were picked up by Motorsport.com, RACER, Traxion, and Forbes, all of whom noted the visual quality as a positive sign. RACER specifically covered the images alongside the 2027 delay announcement, framing the push as iRacing Studios taking the time to do it right.
The game is built on the Orontes Engine, the same proprietary engine used in ExoCross. If you’ve seen ExoCross screenshots or played the game, you have a sense of what the visual floor looks like. The IndyCar game’s screenshots suggest the engine has been pushed further, with the additional development time being used on visual fidelity for real-world car models and track environments.
INDYCAR CMO Alex Damron used the word “hyper-realism” when describing what the game would deliver. Based on what’s visible in the early screenshots, that goal appears to be on track.
What We Can’t See Yet
Screenshots are a limited window. What the images don’t show: track environments at full render distance, weather effects, night racing, UI and HUD design, or the cockpit view that sim fans care about most.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has been confirmed as a track. But we haven’t seen screenshots of it yet. Street circuits like St. Pete and Long Beach, road courses like Road America and Mid-Ohio, short ovals like Iowa, none of these have been shown publicly.
There’s also no public footage yet. No gameplay video, no career mode walkthrough, no lap around IMS. For a game launching “in the countdown to the 2027 Indianapolis 500,” the full reveal campaign is still ahead of us.
The Bottom Line
What the screenshots confirm: the car models are licensed and detailed, the visual engine is capable, and iRacing Studios is building something that looks like a proper IndyCar game, not a rushed port.
What they leave open: nearly everything else. Which tracks, how many, what the career mode UI looks like, whether there’s a cockpit camera, how the HUD presents race data. All of that is still to come.
For now, seeing Palou and O’Ward’s cars rendered in that level of detail is enough to feel good about where this is heading.
