iRacing IndyCar Game Built From Scratch, Not Salvaged Code

Good news for anyone waiting on the iRacing IndyCar game: iRacing Studios is building it from the ground up, not salvaging a dead project. The studio confirmed it had full access to Motorsport Games’ cancelled IndyCar code, and the team looked hard at using it. In the end, they decided almost none of it was worth keeping. The 2026 title is a fresh, purpose-built game rather than a patch job.

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➡️The first real IndyCar game in years is finally happening

How the Deal Brought IndyCar to iRacing

Here is the backstory. Motorsport Games had an Australian studio, the team behind KartKraft, building an IndyCar game in Unreal Engine. It played but never reached the finish line, because MSG shut it down to cut costs. A trailer eventually leaked online, and it showed a project with real potential that never got the chance to ship.

Money drove the decision. MSG was carrying roughly 2.9 million dollars in liabilities at the time. A May 2024 deal untangled things: IndyCar took 400,000 dollars plus all of the game’s assets, including the code. That freed IndyCar to find a new partner, and it let MSG focus on Le Mans Ultimate. iRacing stepped in as that new partner.

It is worth remembering how long fans have waited for this. No one has shipped a dedicated, modern IndyCar console game in a very long time, so every scrap of news about the iRacing IndyCar game carries weight. That is also why the cancelled MSG version stung when it collapsed. Fans finally had something on the horizon, and then it vanished.

Why the iRacing IndyCar Game Runs on Orontes

So why toss the code? Part of the answer is the engine. The game runs on iRacing’s own Orontes Engine, the same technology behind ExoCross. That is a completely different foundation from the Unreal Engine build MSG had going, so the old code was never going to drop in cleanly.

The Orontes choice matters more than it might sound. ExoCross proved that iRacing can build a polished, standalone racing game on that engine, separate from its subscription sim. Bringing IndyCar onto the same tech means the studio works with tools it knows inside out, rather than wrestling with someone else’s unfamiliar build.

The Tracks Are Already Handled

The laser scans MSG handed over led mostly to a dead end too. Many of them covered tracks that no longer appear on the 2026 calendar, like the Nashville Street Circuit, which last hosted a race back in 2023. “Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything that really benefited us,” Myers said.

iRacing was not starting from zero on tracks, though. The studio already has every venue on the 2026 IndyCar calendar except St. Petersburg, which it is finishing now. It also built the new Streets of Arlington and Streets of Markham. In other words, the studio already finished the scanning work that matters in-house.

What the iRacing IndyCar Game Means for Players

For IndyCar gamers, this is exactly the outcome you want to hear. A brand-new game on the developer’s own engine tends to age far better than a rushed adaptation of someone else’s half-finished code. It means the studio is tuning the physics, the tracks, and the presentation specifically for this title, rather than inheriting them from a project that never made it out the door.

There is still a lot to learn before launch. The big open questions cover the car and driver lineup, whether the game leans more sim or more accessible, and how the 2026 calendar translates into the final track list. Cross-platform plans and pricing sit in the unknown column too.

iRacing is targeting a release in the second half of 2026. Plenty of questions remain, but what we know so far is genuinely encouraging. iRacing Studios is building the first real IndyCar game in years with intent, and the iRacing IndyCar game is coming from a studio that would rather do it right than do it fast.ent, and the iRacing IndyCar game is coming from a studio that would rather do it right than do it fast.