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Cup Series drivers guess, react to 'NASCAR 25' stats and overall ratings

JHby: Jonathan Howard10/09/25Jondean25
Kyle Larson Ryan Blaney
Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

We are days away from the official release of NASCAR 25. This is the first major game for the sport in years, and hype has been building. So, who is the top Cup Series driver in the game by rating, and how does it all break down?

The great folks at iRacing have not just assigned ratings to drivers, but they have broken it down by each track type. There are overall ratings as well as ratings for Superspeedways, Speedways, Intermediates, Short Intermediates, Concrete Tracks, and Road Courses.

NASCAR 25 is almost here for everyone wanting to play at home. So, iRacing had a few drivers play a game of Guess Who? NASCAR Edition.

Kyle Busch is an 83 overall. Ryan Blaney is a 97 overall. Check out how the drivers reacted to these ratings and more.

Reports from early access have revealed that William Byron is the only 100 rating in the Cup Series. In terms of wins, he has the second-most in the Next Gen era. He’s only behind his teammate, Kyle Larson.

Now, Byron is the most prominent driver on the cover of NASCAR 25. So, perhaps being the main cover athlete played a role in this? Being the back-to-back Daytona 500 champion has to play a role in that somehow, too, right?

NASCAR 25 is giving gamers in the fanbase hope. This is the first game that iRacing has put out like this. A console game is different than sim racing on a rig. You have to make it playable and replayable with only a controller in the players’ hands. So, will it be perfect? No. Will your car shoot 500 feet in the air trying to do a bump and run? Hopefully not.

Will NASCAR 25 deliver for gamers and fans?

The point of having video games like NASCAR 25 is to expand the fanbase. It is to deliver a product that your young, passionate audience is going to already be excited by and in turn, that will spread. If it is a good game, then it is a good game.

There are entire communities around not just video games, but racing games. The Forza series is incredibly popular, and there have been a number of racing games that have punched through the ceiling and into the mainstream. You could argue that NASCAR has had those games in the past, too.

So, NASCAR 25 needs to deliver in some part on that. It needs to not only give current fans a great product that they can instantly relate to and latch onto, but it has to be good enough for a non-NASCAR fan to pick it up, play it, and have interest in playing it over and over again.

If iRacing and NASCAR were really wanting to get this game out there to the masses, they would be paying a few streamers to play the game on Twitch and YouTube. Perhaps they are going to go that route, and they should, but they might feel as though they don’t have to. What are your early thoughts about the game? Will it be a success or another flop in NASCAR video game history?