Steam is having their Summer Sale and NASCAR 21: Ignition was for $13, now the game has a bad reputation and I thought for $13 I would try it for myself and see if the game was really bad.

So, I picked the 2022 #6 Ford Mustang and the Indianapolis circuit and away I went, first things first, the old W for acceleration, A for going left and R for going right hurts after a while of racing and the second thing is that Rookie AI is too easy.

Cars were braking way too early going into the first corner upon starting the race, and I went from 24th to 11th by the end of turn two, the first two stages went by, I thought beauty all is running sweet and then I noticed the positions were going crazy and you couldn’t get an accurate fix on where cars were on the track especially as there is no map and you have to rely on seconds between cars.

I won by a mile and then decided to up the test by going to Daytona, it is a beautiful track, but I was hardly making up any ground, it was like the draft did not exist and then when the stage was over, my beautiful #6 Mustang was suddenly pitched into the wall, what was worse about it was I was running on the inside line so the whack was bad.

The same thing happened at the end of Stage 2 and well it was obvious that the YouTubers who were bagging the game certainly weren’t telling fibs, the game has serious problems, I settled for a mid-pack finish.

I tried the 2021 cars next, they were far livelier on Daytona, and I could get somewhere though some draft partners were better than others, but the cars would always check up coming out of turn 2 and if you aren’t on the ball, you’ll wreck.

I played Indianapolis again followed by Watkins Glen with 2022 cars, Indianapolis on Rookie was child’s play, Watkins Glen on the other hand was a different kettle of fish, it was way tougher to get through the field and I blew a tyre trying to get the lead late in the race.

I upped the AI to Veteran and Watkins Glen was a thrilling challenge, the AI at the start of the race is awful, you can gain half a dozen positions by getting off the accelerator and threading your way through to the first corner, whichever line you start on just go all the way to the edge of that side.

Stage restarts help you gain more positions, and you should be in a position to challenge for the win by the last restart, in the above picture I could barely get away from my teammate in the #17 after taking the lead shortly after starting the last stage.

Trying Sonoma revealed the same troubles as Watkins Glen and Indianapolis, the field has terrible starts and if you’re not on the ball, your car is going to be all wadded up before the first corner so get off the gas and go all the way to one side and once you are though the first corner, pick up the pace but stay cautious.

The Daytona Roval was a strange ride as I got caught out by the slow field at the start and quickly developed a wadded up car and two flat tyres so I limped to pit road only to see the computer swing my car to the right and try dive bombing it into my pit stall only to catch the end of it, so it sent my car on its way except on the way out it was going through the grass the whole length of pit road, I couldn’t pit! (this is October 2023 too!) and so I limped the rest of the race.

There’s no doubt that new players in 2023 gotten a slightly better deal than those who brought the game upon release and saw disasters like cars would flip over going when hitting the strips on certain corners (you can do that on the Daytona course), your car would go a lap down if a caution came out and the leader crossed the line before you did (still exists) and so many other problems.

Pit stops are still awkward, your car movement slows down right before getting into your box, so you lose a ton of time when you shouldn’t be.

You can spin in circles in grass at the Charlotte Roval and not bring out a yellow despite having the rules settings on, you can smash into cars at Daytona Roval and nothing happens, there’s always been problems with the game and yellows as you can spin out in certain areas and not bring out a caution.

If there are a couple of overtimes, the entire field will think that the race is over, you will coast to a win because there’s nobody to race against.

I’m saying do not buy the game, I do recommend that you keep in mind that there’s other NASCAR options on Steam and consoles, 80% or more reviewers on Steam like NASCAR Heat 4 and 5 compared to 26% for Ignition and both are under $11 each when on sale just remember if you’re buying Heat 5, stay away from the current Stock Car generation DLC, it will ruin the game.

iRacing has recently picked up the rights to NASCAR console gaming from Motorsport Games so expect a better-quality game in 2025.

Whichever NASCAR game you decide to buy and play, enjoy it and keep on racing.