The NASCAR Chicago Street Race didn’t come from nowhere — it came from a computer.
Rather than taking the risk of racing on the roads of a major city blind, NASCAR used a cost-effective alternative: iRacing.
The sim-racing video game has become an essential tool for the real-life racing series, especially when it comes to innovation.
So, when NASCAR began to consider what a street race in Chicago might look like, it turned to iRacing for help. The sim game is the closest replica of what it feels like to drive a race car. Using laser-scanners, iRacing is able to create pin-point details of every car and track imaginable.
“We pioneered the use of laser-scanners, to go to a track and use them,” said Steve Myers, executive vice president of iRacing. “We can collect millions of points of data by taking laser-scanners around these tracks, and get them digitally perfect. Every little bump, every curve, every crack. We can even, from the laser-scan, pick up where the paint is on the track. Paint is a little bit more slippery than pavement, so we can recreate these tracks to be exactly perfect.”
Myers, who has been in the industry since 2000, was one of iRacing’s earliest employees. The company was founded in 2003 by designer Dave Kaemmer and John Henry, who co-owns the Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Penguins, Liverpool FC and RFK Racing.
“We started the company with the idea that we wanted to make the most authentic racing simulation that you could possibly make,” Myers said. “The way that we did that was create truly authentic driving models of cars and digitally perfect race tracks, to the point that real world race car drivers could use the product and actually find value in it.”
The value of sim racing is different from virtual reality versions of any other sport. If you’re playing “Madden” or “NBA 2K,” you aren’t actually doing the motions of football or basketball. In iRacing, you’re able to truly simulate what to feels like to drive a particular race car — from setting up the balance to managing tires and navigating treacherous tracks.
“There is no Dick’s Sporting Goods where you can go buy a race car and do it in your backyard,” Myers explained. “This is done on a computer now. It absolutely has become that gateway for people to experience racing and see if this is something exciting for them.
“In sim racing, you can be on the track with Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. and be competitive with him. William Byron, he was able to take that skill transition to the real world and continue that career and trajectory to where I think he’s going to be a Cup champion some day. That’s what’s really cool about sim racing though — if you were good at ‘NBA 2K,’ you could dominate LeBron James in that game on a console. There’s no chance that you’re going on to a basketball court with him and probably even score a basket.”
Byron is perhaps the greatest example of how iRacing translates to the real world. The Hendrick Motorsports star didn’t grow up racing, instead picking up iRacing as a teenager. His success in the video game boosted his profile and eventually led to a contract with Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Now, the 27-year-old Byron is the two-time defending Daytona 500 champion and leads the NASCAR Cup Series points standings.
As NASCAR saw drivers like Byron coming from iRacing, they have developed a closer partnership for projects like the Chicago Street Race. That venture began back in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when NASCAR broadcasted virtual races on iRacing with real-life stars competing.
That’s when the world was introduced to the Chicago Street Course.
“NASCAR was interested in looking at Chicago as a location for a race,” Myers explained. “We came to the city in November of 2021 and we scanned every road around Grant Park there. Then we took that data back in house, and started mapping out what might be a good race course.
“In 2021, we did the Pro Invitational (virtual race on FOX), where we showed the Chicago Street Course to the world for the first time in the digital space. It wasn’t even a real race yet at that point. So, when we did that race on TV, it was well-received. The racing was well-received. That was the point where NASCAR and Chicago decided to make this a real race.”
That wasn’t the end of it, though. The first street race was held in July 2023, nearly two years later. Over that time in between, Myers and his team worked with NASCAR executive vice president Ben Kennedy to nail down the perfect course layout.
“We worked very closely with Ben Kennedy, who had made site visits and had some ideas of sections of the track that he wanted to see there,” Myers said. “Over a couple of months, we iterated a number of different design ideas and showed them to Ben and we’d have drivers drive it. Ultimately, we settled on the track that’s currently being raced now.”
Even when they finally thought the track was perfect, Kennedy found one more change to make.
“We actually had it going the reverse direction, and then Ben was doing laps on iRacing and said ‘You know what? I think this is going to go better going the other direction.’ So, we switched the direction based on his feedback.”
Now, the Chicago Street Course is a 2.14-mile circuit with 12 turns — going in the clockwise direction around Grant Park.
“We’re very proud of our part in the sport and being able to do some of these changes.”
The third edition of the NASCAR Chicago Street Race will take place on Sunday, July 6.
A street race brings high speeds and tight turns to city streets that are closed off for racing.
