Sim racing continues to influence motorsports, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. on VR highlighting why many dedicated competitors still prefer traditional monitor setups. As advancements like iRacing and virtual reality shape how drivers prepare and NASCAR develops new formats, clarity and precision remain at the heart of the debate over VR’s role in the scene.
Sim Racing’s Impact and the Promise of Virtual Reality
Video games and professional racing simulators have been instrumental in evolving motorsports, offering drivers more ways to practice and giving organizations such as NASCAR cost-effective means to trial new racing concepts. One of the notable tech advancements is virtual reality, which aims to offer an immersive, authentic driving atmosphere. Highly realistic simulation platforms like iRacing feature VR support for the latest headsets, such as those from Oculus and HTC, enabling users to feel truly embedded in a race car cockpit.
Current Limitations in Console VR for Racing Games
Despite this promise, the newest standalone console title NASCAR 25, produced by iRacing, launched without VR integration. While its PC version is built on Unreal Engine, which could someday allow for unofficial VR functionality, native support was missing at debut. This omission has fueled discussion among drivers and fans about VR’s practicality and effectiveness, with Dale Earnhardt Jr.—an icon in NASCAR and a longstanding sim racer—sharing a nuanced perspective on why many continue to favor monitors.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Experience and Perspective on VR
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has spent years experimenting with various VR headsets, praising their depth perception and sense of immersion. As he expressed,
“It’s amazing… I had a couple of different headsets that I went through over the last couple of years. But dude, what you put it on, and you look, everything is perfectly in perspective. Just the depth perception is dead on. You look around in this thing, you’re in it. You’re in the truck, right?”
– Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR driver
But the thrill of VR comes with drawbacks, particularly when it comes to visual clarity at a distance, which is crucial for high-speed racing. Junior points to the significant disadvantage VR experiences in rendering objects far down the track. He explained,
“And the only problem right now with uh VR is how much better triple monitors or even a single monitor is at distance. So, if I come up off the turn, everything in the car is very clear, crisp, sharp,”
– Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR driver.
His concerns continue with the inability for VR to display distant vehicles accurately, an issue he illustrates with:
“But it’s if you’re coming up off of turn two, it’s the car that’s going into turn three that’s just a blurry, fuzzy ball, and it’s just not crisp enough. And when you’re racing on monitors, all that sh*t at distance is very clean,”
– Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR driver.
Why Sim Racers Gravitate Toward Multi-Monitor Setups
Because VR cannot yet match the clarity levels delivered by triple or even single monitors when showing what lies far ahead on the track, many committed sim racers resist moving away from these trusted displays. Monitors enable drivers to accurately judge positions, close gaps, and react quickly, even when cars are several turns away—an essential aspect of competitive racing.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. recognizes the immersion VR brings and its potential in other genres, but for racing, he sees accuracy and sharp visuals as non-negotiable. Until distance rendering improves in VR, he believes sim racers and professionals will remain reluctant to adopt it fully, especially given the high standards set by detailed multi-monitor arrangements.
Looking Forward: The Future Role of VR in Racing
The evolution of sim racing and the technologies that support it continues to unfold at an energetic pace. While Dale Earnhardt Jr. acknowledges VR’s immersive potential and keeps a close eye on its development, current hardware simply cannot deliver the long-range sharpness required by top drivers. As engineers and companies like HTC and iRacing push for further innovation, the racing world waits for VR to close that final gap—combining deep immersion with the kind of precise clarity that makes competitive sim racing possible and truly authentic.
