The best racing video game you might not know exists

While some of the big-name racing games like NASCAR and F1 are certainly worth it, there’s another pretty big one out there which you might not even know exists.

In July 2020, it was announced that three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart, three-time Cup Series champion crew chief Ray Evernham, sports agent Sandy Montag and former NASCAR executive George Pyne had founded Superstar Racing Experience (SRX), officially known as the Camping World SRX Series, and that it would debut in 2021.

The inaugural season consisted of six races, all contested on Saturday nights in June and July. The series was an immediate hit with fans, and it was renewed for a second year back in January.

Stewart, who won the 2021 title, is set to return full-time in an attempt to defend his championship. The season is scheduled to get underway this Saturday, June 18 at Five Flags Speedway.

But while the series provided the kind of short track action that hard core race fans had been craving for years, one aspect of the series seems to have been somewhat overlooked.

Games such as F1 2021 and NASCAR 21: Ignition dominated headlines in the motorsports video game realm last year, and for good reason.

F1 games have been popular for years, and NASCAR Heat fans were eager to see what the next chapter of NASCAR gaming had in store. The summer announcement of the upcoming 2023 IndyCar game, the first IndyCar game in two decades, also generated plenty of buzz.

But one somewhat under-the-radar release from 2021 was SRX: The Game.

SRX: The Game, developed and published by Monster Games, Inc., was released on Friday, May 28, 2021, just over two weeks before the inaugural season began at Stafford Motor Speedway on Saturday, June 12.

At that point, there weren’t many individuals familiar with the brand-new series quite yet, so it made sense why the game didn’t generate nearly the amount of buzz as the annual NASCAR and Formula 1 games do (and as the IndyCar game should).

The game is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows (Steam), and PlayStation 5. To this day, the game has just 109 reviews on Steam, but 90% of those reviews are positive, as the game offers an authentic and realistic experience for the diehards and a modifiable experience for more casual fans.

For a series that averaged over one million viewers for each of its six races in its first ever season, you would expect there to be far more interest, especially given the quality of the game. However, it may very well be that fans simply don’t know about this hidden gem.

The game features the entire 2021 SRX season and much more. The six tracks from the inaugural season, as well as 18 drivers, are featured in the game, and there are also four other kinds of races in which you can compete: Late Model, Stadium Truck, 305 Sprint, and Super Late Model.

And there are far more than just six tracks available as well. For SRX alone, you have the ability to compete at 24 different venues. For Late Model, that number is 27, for Stadium Truck, that number is 12, for 305 Sprint, that number is 26, and for Super Late Model, that number is 10. Naturally, some venues are repeated for each discipline.

Stewart had worked with Monster Games, Inc. before, releasing Tony Stewart’s Sprint Car Racing on Friday, February 21, 2020 as well as Tony Stewart’s All-American Racing on Friday, September 4, 2020.

Those who have played those games have had very positive reviews as well, and many have compared their quality to the quality of the SRX: The Game.

So if you haven’t tried it out, don’t miss your chance to do so this spring before summer kicks off and the second season of SRX gets underway in Pensacola, Florida.