NASCAR 26 has been patched every day since it opened, twice for wheel problems

iRacing Studios has shipped a patch on each of NASCAR 26’s first four days in players’ hands. The first set of release notes went out on September 15, opening with the line that it had been “an amazing first 24 hours”, and further patches followed on the 16th, the 17th and the 18th. [1] Steam lists the game’s release date as September 17. [2]

Two of the four went after wheel faults

The September 16 notes list a “Fix for wheels that would sometimes shutter or vibrate”. [3] The following day’s notes list a separate entry: “Fixed issue with center spring not functioning properly on some wheels.” [4]

Neither note names the wheels affected, says how many players were hitting the fault, or breaks the problem down by platform. Both are one-line entries in a longer list, and iRacing Studios has not published anything further about either.

For a racing game, two force feedback corrections inside the first week is worth noticing on its own terms — a wheel that shudders on a straight or loses its centring is the kind of fault that makes a game unplayable for exactly the audience most likely to buy it.

What else has moved

The September 15 patch updated driver ratings, improved AI pit logic at the end of stages, relaxed the caution setting so that a yellow needs greater impact forces to trigger, fixed offline settings sometimes being applied online, and addressed a potential Career Mode crash. [1]

September 16 adjusted the sun position at Chicagoland, corrected caution display issues, improved AI ratings, and resolved a problem that stopped the Steam GOLD edition reaching its September DLC. [3]

September 17 was the largest of the four by entry count: crash fixes for resuming multi-series races in Career and for receiving “Breaking News”, a fix for the online home screen showing zeros for lobby and racer counts, a fix for cars hitching when driving off pit road, and several interface corrections. iRacing Studios stated that patch went live on Xbox, PlayStation and Steam. [4]

The September 18 patch, posted to the game’s Steam news hub, tuned the AI Skill Range slider, adjusted the default maximum lobby size for All Tracks multiplayer, and fixed Best Lap not always being correct in online lobbies. [5]

What has not been said

The release notes archive on the game’s own site carries three entries — September 15, 16 and 17. The September 18 patch appears on the Steam news hub but has not been added to that archive. [4] [5]

There has been no further patch since September 18, and iRacing Studios has not published a patch schedule, a roadmap, or any statement about what is still being worked on. Whether the pace of the first four days continues is not something the studio has addressed either way.