NASCAR 25 delivers an exciting and immersive experience that really captures the intensity of stock car racing. The visuals are sharp, the tracks feel alive, and the overall handling model gives each race a real sense of speed and consequence. From career progression to the atmosphere of race day, it’s clear a lot of passion went into bringing this game to life. Whether you’re a longtime NASCAR fan or just getting into the series, there’s a lot here to enjoy.

That said, there are a couple of frustrating issues that hold it back from being truly perfect. The biggest problem right now is the gearbox behavior, especially on restarts. Even when you shift correctly and hit the revs cleanly, the AI often gets a noticeably better launch, pulling away unrealistically as if they have an advantage that the player simply can’t match. It makes starts feel less about skill and more about fighting an uneven system. On top of that, the incident frequency setting doesn’t seem to be working as intended, with cautions and race disruptions happening in ways that feel inconsistent and poorly balanced.

Despite these problems, NASCAR 25 is still a fun and promising entry in the franchise. With a few patches and refinements to the gearbox logic and the incident system, this could easily become one of the best NASCAR titles to date. Recommended for fans — just be ready for a bit of growing pain along the way.