iRacing has announced the return of the IndyCar Thrustmaster iRacing Pro Series for the 2026 season.
The sim racing competition will see 33 drivers compete for a share of a $50,000 (~£37,051) prize pool across eight rounds.
The season features the top 12 drivers from the 2024’s championship, which includes Team Redline‘s defending champion, Diogo Pinto. The remaining 21 slots will be filled by drivers from the INDY NXT Thrustmaster Qualifying Series, with the likes of former iRacing World Champion Peter Berryman making their debuts.
Similar to real-world IndyCar, drivers will race across a mixture of street, road, and oval circuits from January 8th to February 26th. Notably, fans will determine the location of the seventh round through a public vote.
All eight rounds will be broadcast live across iRacing’s social media channels, as well as the NTT IndyCar Series YouTube channel.
IndyCar and iRacing are no strangers to joining forces. In January 2024, the two parties signed a multi-year licensing agreement, resulting in the return of the popular iRacing Indianapolis 500 Special Event and the launch of a standalone racing title. The title, developed by iRacing Studios, is expected to release in the second half of 2026.
Is Sim Racing Slowing Down?
Following sim racing’s initial boom during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the genre’s esports ecosystem has plateaued, despite continued investment from several notable stakeholders within motorsport.
In November 2025, the FIA hosted the MENA Esports Championship, the first sim racing event to operate under the governing body’s International Sporting Code, which now includes an esports regulatory framework.
May saw German automotive marque Porsche open a dedicated sim racing facility at its Cologne headquarters, providing a place to practice for its factory team.
The return of IndyCar’s top esports competition is a huge positive for sim racing, which has seen a decline in the number of competitions in recent months. With a large prize pool involved, it will be interesting to see if it can successfully engage fans of the real-world and virtual motorsport.
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