Noah Gragson has spoken out against his driver rating in the newly released NASCAR 25 video game, voicing strong criticism about the accuracy and fairness of the ranking system. The controversy over the Noah Gragson NASCAR 25 rating highlights ongoing frustrations among drivers and fans as the sport’s digital adaptations try to keep up with real-world performances.
Gragson’s Struggles Reflected in Disappointing Game Rating
This season has been especially tough for Gragson, who has managed just one top-five finish and three top-tens, leaving him ranked 34th overall in the real-world driver standings after a series of middling races and seven DNFs. Against this backdrop, iRacing Studios assigned him a 71 rating out of 100 in NASCAR 25, which puts him at No. 31 among a total of 47 drivers featured in the game. Gragson’s performance downturn offers some explanation for the number, but the driver himself clearly found the ranking both underwhelming and poorly justified.
When addressing the controversy, Gragson stressed that he did not genuinely concern himself with video game ratings but expressed dissatisfaction with the logic, or lack thereof, behind how they were calculated. His frustrations reflect broader skepticism in the NASCAR community, where both fans and participants often find issue with the translation of real-life results into digital attributes.
“I don’t really care about that, It’s just you look at who is the best driver in our sport right now? Then why isn’t he 100 overall? It doesn’t really matter at the end of the day, but whoever the guy or girl was that did it, they did a bad job, in my opinion, but I personally don’t care if I’m a 71. I made a joke about it saying, ‘Oh, dang. I’m kind of trash. Is that me?’Â
Noah Gragson said, as reported by motorsport.com.
Drivers Question Logic Behind Rating Decisions
The system used in NASCAR 25 to distribute driver ratings appears to blend custom algorithms with real-life statistical analysis. This year, William Byron was assigned a perfect score of 100, a nod to his dominant showing in the 2025 season, with Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson following closely behind. Still, for drivers like Gragson, these top-end numbers only intensified confusion over consistency in how athletes are compared and graded within the game.
According to Gragson, the ratings appear disconnected from actual performances, and he suggested that even the highest and lowest scores weren’t supported by the true on-track records. Rather than focusing primarily on his own value, he called the entire approach to scoring into question, stating that the process left key details unaccounted for and seemed arbitrary.
“I just don’t think the facts were really real on anybody’s stats, not even saying mine were low or high or anybody else’s was low or high, it just didn’t really make sense when we were doing it, but the rest of the game is really, really good.
Noah Gragson noted
Despite the storm of criticism around the rating process, Gragson did recognize that NASCAR 25 offered a strong experience for racing simulation fans, suggesting that outside the flawed scoring, iRacing Studios succeeded in many gameplay aspects. Even so, the disconnect between digital numbers and actual racing exploits remained a sore point.
Ongoing Impact as the Season Nears Its Finale
With the 2025 NASCAR season approaching its end and the championship finale in Phoenix on the horizon, the debate over game ratings is likely to persist, especially for drivers like Gragson striving to rebuild their on-track reputation. As digital representations become an increasingly larger part of a driver’s public image, being misrepresented can have both personal and professional ramifications. The FRM driver will focus on improving his performance in the remainder of the season, aiming to secure more points and possibly influence future iterations of the game—such as a potential NASCAR 26—where he hopes his efforts are better reflected.
The strong reactions from the NASCAR community about the Noah Gragson NASCAR 25 rating underline deep-seated tensions about how sports and personalities are adapted into games. As NASCAR, iRacing Studios, and key entities like William Byron, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, and the wider fan audience look ahead, these discussions signal growing expectations for digital representations to honor the competitive realities of the racetrack.
