IndyCar: Could the new video game lead to new rivalries?

With the first IndyCar video game since 2004 set to launch in 2023 and the hype only slated to increase until then, could we see additional rivalries developing from the virtual world once that game arrives?

For almost two decades, IndyCar fans have been clamoring for a new official video game. To this day, the date of Tuesday, June 22, 2004 is the most recent date to see a new official IndyCar video game launch, and there was doubt that this would ever change.

But the day finally came: on Thursday, July 15, Motorsport Games, the publisher of NASCAR Heat 5, announced that they are planning to release an official IndyCar video game sometime in 2023.

This news was quite welcome news for the IndyCar community, and the hype among fans is only going to increase until the game ends up being released (the official release date remains TBD).

And of course, it was also exciting news for the drivers themselves.

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Several drivers were just young children the last time an IndyCar game was released, and had the drought lasted through beyond 2023, we could have gotten to the point where some hadn’t even been born yet. Today’s “old guys” were just teenagers or in their early 20s.

Among those “young children” is 22-year-old Pato O’Ward, the driver of the #5 Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren SP who can’t wait to race as himself in the upcoming game — even though he doesn’t expect to perform as well as he does in the real world.

“It’s cool, man!” O’Ward told Beyond the Flag. “I’m excited to be able to play myself online and see if I can do as well as I have been. Probably not; I’m not the best video gamer! But I think it’s going to be really cool. I’ve always wanted to be in a video game, so that’s going to be really nice.”

However, O’Ward doesn’t see this new game ending up developing any additional rivalries.

“No, probably not, at least not from my side,” he said. “I don’t really take all the sim stuff seriously.”

Felix Rosenqvist, O’Ward’s teammate and driver of the #7 Chevrolet, was only 12 years old when the most recent IndyCar video. He, however, thinks there could be some good competition between the drivers — including between himself and his teammate.

“I think I enjoy the sim stuff a bit more than Pato at least,” Rosenqvist said. “I think after the whole COVID thing, the lockdown, we were all pretty much over it for a while. But I’ve kind of been getting into it a little bit more now. I’m definitely looking forward to the video game.

“I think that’s a little bit of a, as Pato said, like a childhood dream, to be in a game. Yeah, let’s see. Let’s see how it turns out. That’s a very good, a very positive, thing for IndyCar. I think we have had good momentum here for the last couple years, and it just keeps growing and growing, and the numbers go up every race weekend. There’s more interest around the championship, and this is a really cool thing.

“I think me and Pato will probably have a duel whenever it gets out. We’ll see!”