New Multi-Year Deal: IndyCar, Indy 500 Return To iRacing

iR_IC_Announcement.jpg
After the license was not renewed, IndyCar was absent from iRacing in an official fashion since the start of 2023. Now, the prime open-wheel series in North America returns to the sim.

Image credit: iRacing.com

For years, IndyCar was among the most popular content in iRacing. Three Dallara open wheelers used in the series are available for the service, but after 2022, the series’ name vanished from the sim, along with the Indianapolis 500 special event. While the cars were still available, they could not be used in combination with tracks the real series runs for official events.

Motorsport Games holds a license for a standalone game of the series, in a deal between MSG and IndyCar. The agreement between them was not exclusive regarding IndyCar content in general, but despite this, iRacing‘s deal was not renewed when it ended in 2022.

Since then, the official IndyCar game has been put on hold indefinitely, and the developing studio (Motorsport Games Australia) closed. IndyCar is looking to terminate the license as a result, which has not officially happened yet.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1744767183274565829

iRacing IndyCar Return: New Multi-Year Licensing Deal​

Regardless of how this saga shakes out, sim racers can look forward to IndyCar returning to iRacing. A new multi-year licensing deal is in place, meaning that not only does racing on actual IndyCar tracks return, but also the much-missed Indy 500 Special Event. With iRacing generally being regarded as the best sim available for oval racing, arguably the most iconic superspeedway race in the world returns after being absent for a year.

Of course, this also means that official series races on road and street courses are possible again. The US Open Wheel B – Dallara IR-18 Series can return to circuits like Long Beach, Road America or Mid-Ohio. Multiple leagues will do the same. IndyCar branding will also start to appear over the next few days, and the deal includes an extension to the license of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, too.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1744769975674450141

Longtime Partners Reunite​

Both sides are happy about being reunited. iRacing President Tony Gardner stated that “the IndyCar series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway are racing properties that need to be included in iRacing. Whether it’s the IndyCar Series’ Indy 500, NASCAR’s Brickyard 400, or IMSA’s Battle on the Bricks, there is nothing like racing at Indianapolis. I am so pleased to be able to bring these events back to the iRacing community.“

IndyCar’s Senior Manager, Esports & Emerging Virtual Experiences Ben Hendricks added: “We are very excited that our most avid gamers and fans will have full access to the IndyCar Series through this licensing agreement with iRacing. They are longtime partners, and we look forward to official IndyCar Series racing on iRacing for many years to come.“


IndyCar and iRacing have a long and positive history to look back on. Most notably, the service and the real series teamed up during the COVID-19 pandemic to host the IndyCar iRacing Challenge in 2020. The grid of the six-race series featured a who-is-who of IndyCar racing at the time, with Penske driver Scott McLaughlin eventually taking the title. Guest racers included Lando Norris (F1), Chaz Mostert and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (both NASCAR), among others.

Are you happy with IndyCar’s return to iRacing? Let us know on Twitter @OverTake_gg or in the comments below!
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About author
Yannik Haustein
Yannik Haustein
Lifelong motorsport enthusiast and sim racing aficionado, walking racing history encyclopedia.

Sim racing editor, streamer and one half of the SimRacing Buddies podcast (warning, German!).

Heel & Toe Gang 4 life :D

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Comments

M
Rene / GRunner said:
I am not sure that this is what this contract really says.

It lists exclusive access to the series content, that per se does not say that no one else could license an indycar (the car) or tracks attached to the championship (those are individual licenses anyway). Having exclusive access to something (and in this case, it is also not defined that they mean any "game content" but more other digital assets or activations around the championship) is not the same as having the exclusive rights to something.

If you dig really deep into strategy territory (as to why parties do specific things or for example, do not agree on a new deal), there are some very interesting options as to why iRacing might have let this run out on purpose earlier and getting it back now.

Will be hard to ever really get behind all of this, as the parties will probably never give a statement about this after all.
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Well you really forgot about the rest of the sentence: "to be used in conjunction with motorsports videogame products". This basically gives them exclusive access to any Indycar "series content and digital asset" for the purpose of use in videogame products except anything that is not new (i.e. was created before the agreement). Pretty clear.
 
M
Ole Marius Myrvold said:
However. what new IndyCar Series content, digital assets or initiatives have been produced since MSG did the deal in 2021? Even the windscreen/aeroscreen/deflector was made pre-2021.
Also. "For at least * * * prior to such content (etc.) being made available to any other third party".
So, how long are the three stars? It certainly isn't "forever".
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Well iracing content was made before 2021 and in facts cars remained in use. But any event was to be canceled as yearly events couldn't be considered as "old" unless IMS had a specific "old" agreement for the organization of such events.
From 2021 obviously there couldn't be any events (since MSG manage to pull nothing together) due to the exclusive, nor there could be any car made from new (e.g. the story with Reiza).
It is indeed a fact that Reiza could not obtain a license even though they were discussing it with IMS. If you read the contract IMS would have to ask to MSG before issuing another license and could do it only if MSG agreed to it. Which is probably what IMS asked to MSG and got denied. That is why there was a period in which Reiza was in discussions with IMS before having to officially make the changes to their Indycar inspired content.

Finally the stars were hiding what was the agreed duration of the exclusive agreement. This is because the SEC filings are redacted. Not sure why this is allowed but the non-redacted contract shows when the end of the agreement would have been. Certainly an exclusive agreement would not be forever. Nobody would sign something like that and probably in some countries it would be illegal not to have a termination date for such a kind of agreement.
 
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Rene / GRunner
OverTake
Premium
MadDriver11 said:
Well you really forgot about the rest of the sentence: "to be used in conjunction with motorsports videogame products". This basically gives them exclusive access to any Indycar "series content and digital asset" for the purpose of use in videogame products except anything that is not new (i.e. was created before the agreement). Pretty clear.
Click to expand...

Even that is not as clear as it might look, and that is the nature of such contracts and a lot of discussions behind the scenes.


Just to give a few examples, the NASCAR license for example had a license for a "simulator style product" (iRacing) while also giving out a "video game license" (MSG) at the same time.

Another example is the current ACO/Lemans situation. Even tho MSG has a similar license in place with ACO as the one stated above (actually, even more "to the point"), AMS2 just released a Le Mans circuit and several cars / content that they "share" in that regards with the upcoming Lemans Ultimate.

This is possible due to specific wording and the nature of "series licensing" which is not always the same as "the entire package". For the Lemans case for example, you can license the track itself (from the ACO) and several of the cars directly via the manufacturer. Same happened in some other instances. What they licensed with ACO is the actual Name, Logo, Trademark etc. of the event itself, as ACO does not "own" all the content of the series. This is the same for BTCC and even to some degree Formula 1 (Formula E for example had a huge discussion about that, since teams wanted to be able to license their own FE car to someone else while FE thought they own all of the cars as its build on their design/chassis).

All of this allows several work arounds to get content into a game or even do events. It is a common practice in gaming and also explains as to why most sims don´t license the actual series but the content isntead, as most series really just give you name/logo, as thats the only thing they really own.

Indycar is a special case (similar to Formula E) due to their chassis, but even that is not fully bulletproof in terms of that there could be no work arounds.

I did licensing for sim racing previously and we used such workarounds several times, as you would be surprised by how often another license contract comes up as a blocker (for example, there is/was a deal between Gran Turismo and the Nürburgring Nordschleife/VLN/24h race due to them being the official sponsor of the series which made it harder to get the actual track at that time).

Sorry for the wall of text here :unsure:
 
wolftree
Seems shocking that we appear to just be back to the pre-MSG status quo; no stand-alone Indycar game in the future, just some semi-official Indy 500 races on iRacing. NASCAR really ate Indycars lunch by flipping first.
 
pz666
THK84 said:
Very well it landed in a good place.

Just hope this isn't an exclusive deal and we can enjoy some Indycar in other current & upcoming sim titles as well.
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Completely agree...

The lack of exclusivity is highly important...

iRacing may not be for everyone but it was the smart choice by Indycar to return to it, MSGS burned them and the other titles aren't ready for serious oval racing...
 
M
Rene / GRunner said:
Another example is the current ACO/Lemans situation. Even tho MSG has a similar license in place with ACO as the one stated above (actually, even more "to the point"), AMS2 just released a Le Mans circuit and several cars / content that they "share" in that regards with the upcoming Lemans Ultimate.
Click to expand...
This is normal: an exclusive license is for the series package and is contracted with the right owner of the series. Every manufacturer and track owner that enters the series usually when they sign the contract to be part of it, grant the rights to market their IP through the marketing of the series. Basically if Monza wants to be part of WEC, among the other things must allow ACO to market Monza as part of the "series package" whether it is in a video game or something else. It is not 100% of cases (we have seen that Indycar had no such deal with other track owners) but is very common. Probably each manufacturer and track owner is granted by return a percentage over the marketing of those rights, so basically they share the benefits of such marketing to a certain extent (very much like the TV rights with team owners)
This relation between promoter of WEC and track owner or car manufacturer though is not an exclusive one: the track owner or car manufacturer is not granting an exclusive marketing right of their car or track to WEC promoter, therefore they can still market their product as a single object out of the WEC contest, which is why you see Spa in every game even though F1 and WEC have exclusive rights agreement with certain videogames developers, same with Monza and Le Mans. In other words the exclusive agreement between WEC or F1 promoters with a developer does not constitute a similar obligation for the track/car owners which granted non-exclusive use of their IP to the promoters when they entered the series.
Or if you want, the exclusive can be granted by the promoter only in the context of the series they own and can market not in all contexts where they have no business.
You also see that the Indycar agreement included "events" which basically means only MSG could host a "Indy 500" and no one else. Similarly, Reiza could never organize a special event called "Le Mans 24 H" even though they are entitled to have the track.
This mechanism is also a reason why spending big money for exclusive licenses when others can still go and piece meal license the components at the source is probably not a wise move. In facts iracing has not done that apparently. The only exclusive relations may possibly be the "event" Indy 500 but even that is not stated in the PR release.
And then like you rightly say, contracts often have words that can be worked around by lawyers so sometimes definitions can be muddy and loopholes can be exploited by other lawyers indeed. Same with "unusual" clauses like the GT case you mentioned.
 
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T
MadDriver11 said:
This is normal: an exclusive license is for the series package and is contracted with the right owner of the series. Every manufacturer and track owner that enters the series usually when they sign the contract to be part of it, grant the rights to market their IP through the marketing of the series. Basically if Monza wants to be part of WEC, among the other things must allow ACO to market Monza as part of the "series package" whether it is in a video game or something else. It is not 100% of cases (we have seen that Indycar had no such deal with other track owners) but is very common. Probably each manufacturer and track owner is granted by return a percentage over the marketing of those rights, so basically they share the benefits of such marketing to a certain extent (very much like the TV rights with team owners)
This relation between promoter of WEC and track owner or car manufacturer though is not an exclusive one: the track owner or car manufacturer is not granting an exclusive marketing right of their car or track to WEC promoter, therefore they can still market their product as a single object out of the WEC contest, which is why you see Spa in every game even though F1 and WEC have exclusive rights agreement with certain videogames developers, same with Monza and Le Mans. In other words the exclusive agreement between WEC or F1 promoters with a developer does not constitute a similar obligation for the track/car owners which granted non-exclusive use of their IP to the promoters when they entered the series.
Or if you want, the exclusive can be granted by the promoter only in the context of the series they own and can market not in all contexts where they have no business.
You also see that the Indycar agreement included "events" which basically means only MSG could host a "Indy 500" and no one else. Similarly, Reiza could never organize a special event called "Le Mans 24 H" even though they are entitled to have the track.
This mechanism is also a reason why spending big money for exclusive licenses when others can still go and piece meal license the components at the source is probably not a wise move. In facts iracing has not done that apparently. The only exclusive relations may possibly be the "event" Indy 500 but even that is not stated in the PR release.
And then like you rightly say, contracts often have words that can be worked around by lawyers so sometimes definitions can be muddy and loopholes can be exploited by other lawyers indeed. Same with "unusual" clauses like the GT case you mentioned.
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Man, give it a rest. Who cares how your event that you are racing in is called? You are really, really hard trying to create an "issue" where there isn't one. VEC ran 24 Hours of Le Mans long before the MSG/ACO deal so what does it matter. And I hope that the last people - especialy people who seem to have an event-name-syndrome - can finaly draw a line here after this news. Noone is or has been stopping you or your league to organize 24 hour races at Le Mans with the hypercars, GTEs or whatever in AMS2. The only thing stopping you is propably the product itself. Anyway, happy sim racing, if that even matter to you.
 
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B
Premium
If the iRacing group did go after the exclusive license I would think the owners would demand a stand alone game separate from the existing iRacing service... Possible console ports but most importang a game target at a younger audiance and at a price they can aford.
We also don't know if IndyCAR doesn't want o licence exclusive to anyone after the MSG fiasco... I find interesting that they already licence it iRacing when the article states the MSG licence hasn't been officialy terminated. May be it's so exclusive after all :)
 
M
tr1v1um said:
Man, give it a rest. Who cares how your event that you are racing in is called? You are really, really hard trying to create an "issue" where there isn't one. VEC ran 24 Hours of Le Mans long before the MSG/ACO deal so what does it matter. And I hope that the last people - especialy people who seem to have an event-name-syndrome - can finaly draw a line here after this news. Noone is or has been stopping you or your league to organize 24 hour races at Le Mans with the hypercars, GTEs or whatever in AMS2. The only thing stopping you is propably the product itself. Anyway, happy sim racing, if that even matter to you.
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Maybe you should just learn to read before commenting. Or learn to understand what's written. Not wasting my time to explain why what you just wrote has nothing to do with what we were discussing since you keep repeating the same uninformed nonsense every time inventing things that are not in the contracts (=facts).
Welcome to the ignore list.
 
TheRealCeeBee
reminded my my two year subscription expires soon and i have only put 60 hours into the bottomless moneypit of a game, as i wont be renewing best try get some mileage!
 
GP STONER
What is now the deal with rf2 's content like the car and the indy track.. can it still be used "streaming" etc..

Or is it now the same way as it was with iracing when the license was at rf2.. can not be used any more in such ways?
 
M
Injafaz said:
With MSG's I knew I wasn't getting Indycar. Now with I-racing I know I can't afford it.
One had nothing to buy and the other makes you pay their sim tax until you die.
Guess with this new licensing I'm already dead to Indycar.
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If you're open to AMS2, they have 1995/1998/2000 Indy Cars and a semi-fictional "modern" one. I haven't put a ton of time in them yet, but what I have so far I have enjoyed. There are skin packs here too if you want real liveries and driver names - I'm using the 1995 one and they look great and bring back a lot of memories from my favorite era of IndyCar/CART. For appropriate tracks from either the 90's and more recent/current there's the Rio (Jacarepagua) "Roval", Long Beach (modern layout), Laguna Seca, Road America, Fontana, Indianapolis (oval + road), Cleveland, Watkins Glen, Gateway.

I realize this is not equivalent to a stand-alone product covering the entire series with all teams, drivers, tracks, etc., and AMS2 may or may not be to your liking - like every sim it has good and bad things. Also, yes the IndyCar content is part of the "Racin' USA" DLC packs - which also includes other cars (GTE and DPi, if I recall), but you get a lot more for your money than an individual iRacing car or track.

Anyway, just a suggestion for another place to find decent enjoyable Indy Car content besides iR and RF2 (or mods in whatever sim).
 
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