iRacing Studios and Original Fire Games have announced that iRacing Arcade will launch on Steam on March 3, priced at $24.99. Console versions for PlayStation and Xbox are planned for summer 2026. It’s a third-person arcade racer built around a career mode where you climb from grassroots racing all the way up to premier classes like IMSA’s GTP and the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, colorful and accessible on the surface, but with real fuel burn, tire wear, and a physics model that players are already calling surprisingly addictive underneath.
Between races, you’re building out a fully customizable motorsports campus. Garages, engine shops, R&D buildings, hired drivers. It’s more of a management game layered under the racing than most people expected going in.
What the Community Is Saying
The demo has been available since October and has already crossed 100,000 downloads, landing it in the Top 50 Most-Played Demos during Steam Next Fest. Reaction across Steam and the sim racing forums has been mostly positive. The consensus: handling feels fun and easy to pick up, career mode has genuine depth, and the licensed content gives it a level of polish you don’t usually see in this genre. One Steam reviewer called it “my new favorite arcade racer” and said they’d recommend it at full price. Another noted it runs great on Steam Deck.
The main community wishlist before launch: open online lobbies, wheel and FFB support (missing from the demo), and more car and track variety. The devs have confirmed more content is already in development.
If you’re an iRacer wondering whether this is worth your time, the honest answer is it depends. It’s not a sim. It’s not iRacing lite. But if you want something fun to unwind with that still has real racing built into it, the demo is free and worth 20 minutes of your time.
iRacing Arcade launches March 3 on Steam. Check it out or grab the free demo here.
