We now have an official release date for Project Motor Racing, as well as a first look at the plans for the game’s career mode and mods.

After announcing earlier in the year that the title would be coming to PC and ninth-gen consoles — that’s the PlayStation 5/Pro and Xbox Series S/X — in the autumn, publisher GIANTS Software has now revealed the precise date: November 25.

It’s interesting timing as it comes three days before Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year and a period in which lots of games consoles find new homes, and a month before Christmas Day when those consoles are taken out from under the tree and unwrapped.

However the title should be available to preorder from today in the PlayStation Store, Xbox Store, and Steam, along with boxed versions on all three platforms — yes, even PC — from other retailers.

In addition to the launch-date announcement, GIANTS and Straight4 have also revealed some more about two key aspects of PMR: the single-player career and mod support.

Project Motor Racing: Career Mode

Although we only get a glimpse of the finer details in terms of cars, tracks, and events, the career mode trailer reveals the bigger picture — and the goal seems to be making PMR as much like a career in racing as possible.

Described as “an authentic motorsports economy”, the career will see you pick a place in the motorsports ladder and keeping an eye as much on your bank balance as the race track.

There’s no cars, tracks, or events to unlock, with everything available from the start, and it’s simply a case of entering what races you can afford to do. That’s based on your initial “financial backstory”, named Journeyman Driver, Professional Level, and Global Operation in the build in the video, but also influenced by whether you want your base of operations to be in Asia, Europe, or North America.

Where you choose to base yourself affects the prices of cars and entry fees to events, as well as the travel costs involved. Sponsorship helps out there, with eight different sponsorship models that range from a “Rolling Billboard” that offers a flat fee for each event, while others may fund costs like travel and repairs, and some set goals for your payments.

And yes, repairs will be one of your expenses, so you’ll need to watch out for overly optimistic moves — and we hope the AI is up to scratch too! It’s not clear right now what happens when you run out of money, but we can’t imagine it’s anything good.

Project Motor Racing: Mod Support

The game is set to launch with more than 70 cars in a range of ten different racing categories and 27 scanned track locations from around the world. We’ve already had confirmation of five tracks, and the trailer above adds Circuit Zolder and “Northampton” — which looks to be Silverstone with a more generic, and hopefully placeholder branding.

That might not be enough for some, even with potential for more cars post-launch, so Project Motor Racing will support user-generated game mods across all three platforms.

Modding can be something of a Wild West affair, and with highly variable quality, but PMR hooks into GIANTS’ expertise with the Farming Simulator series — where the ModHub has seen 4.5 billion cumulative downloads over the past decade.

Prospective mods are therefore created with the official GIANTS Editor and submitted for testing by the developers themselves before they’re listed in (what we assume to be) the PMR ModHub for free public download. Those with experience of creating mods for the farming titles will also be aware that GIANTS also pays modders a small amount per download — which can be gifted to charity if you wish — so it’s likely that Project Motor Racing will follow suit.

As for what can be modded, it looks like everything is on the table, from cars to tracks and even down to fundamentals of how the game operates. Boris Stefan, CSO and head of publishing at GIANTS Software states in the press release that “racing modders will be able to tweak, tune, and transform their experience however they like.”

If you fancy an early hands-on with Project Motor Racing and happen to be in the UK, there’ll be a playable version for visitors to the Goodwood Festival of Speed from July 10 to July 11.

LONG POND, Pa. — (AP) — It’s time to bust out the brackets, pick an upset or two, and follow winners on the road — a journey over city streets, concrete and bricks — to the final four and beyond.

Totally awesome, baby?

Forget all the upset specials in March.

NASCAR will find out soon enough if its attempt to snap out of a mid-summer malaise with its first in-season tournament is a success with drivers and fans as it strives to boost engagement and build buzz in the staid regular season.

The concept has already juiced enthusiasm in NASCAR to levels not seen since the halcyon days when Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough duked it out in the 1979 Daytona 500.

“To be really honest with you,” 2020 NASCAR champion Chase Elliott said, “I have not paid any attention to it.”

Maybe a look at the matchup will get NASCAR’s most popular driver pumped!

Elliott is seeded fifth against No. 28 seed Austin Dillon in the first round of the head-to-head showdown in the race-within-the-race set for this weekend at the track better known as Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Here’s a refresher for Elliott and any other sports fan who missed out on the specifics of NASCAR joining the in-season tournament party, much like attempts in the NBA, NHL, and, of course, throughout the world in soccer.

NASCAR is set to start the engines on a five-race, bracket-style tournament called the In-Season Challenge in the midst of the summer slate, which comes with a $1 million prize to the winner.

The final 32-driver field was set by results of the last three races at Michigan, Mexico City and Pocono. The drivers are paired in head-to-head matchups based on seeding, with the winners advancing to the next round in a bracket format that mirrors the NCAA basketball tournaments.

Buoyed by a win at Michigan and a runner-up finish at Pocono, Denny Hamlin earned the top seed. He’ll square off — race off? — against No. 32 seed Ty Dillon. Pocono winner Chase Briscoe is the No. 2 seed and is pitted against No. 31 seed Noah Gragson.

Chris Buescher is third, Christopher Bell fourth and Elliott fifth, among notable names.

The format is single elimination with the field cut to 16 at the street race in Chicago, eight at Sonoma, four on the lone concrete track in the series at Dover and the final two over the yard of bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The Challenge is part of NASCAR’s media rights deal that includes TNT, and the Atlanta-based cable network will broadcast all five races in the tournament, starting with the 400-miler in Atlanta.

Aside from a shrug from Elliott and a few others, drivers are intrigued by the idea of increasing the stakes in each race beyond a playoff berth, trophy and the winner’s purse.

“I love it. I think it’s great,” three-time Cup champion Joey Logano said. “I think it’s placed perfectly where it is in the season. This is kind of that moment where the newness is worn off. We’re into the rhythm, we’re racing every week. It’s starting to start a little bit of, who’s going to be in the playoffs, who’s not, the cutoff line all those types of things. But it’s not really the main story quite yet.”

Stories are what sell, of course, and the sizzle in Pocono over the weekend had little to do with which drivers or teams are the ones to beat for the 2025 championship. Rather, it was whether two pedestrian drivers were going to fight, the end of Amazon Prime’s run of wildly-popular telecasts and Hall of Fame driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s win in his first race as a crew chief.

“This really spices up the mid-part of the season,” Logano said.

So does placing a few bucks on No. 11 to win.

But as of Monday afternoon, most sports gambling sites did not offer odds on specific matchups headed into Atlanta. NASCAR is offering $1 million to a winning fan with a perfect bracket in its fantasy game.

There are some quirks to the bracket: Shane van Gisbergen won the Cup race in Mexico City and is not in the field while series points leader William Byron is only a No. 9 seed. The tournament boasts matchups in the first-round of past Cup champions (Kyle Busch-Brad Keselowski), former teammates (Briscoe-Gragson), and even best friends (Bubba Wallace-Daniel Suarez).

The idea for the challenge was largely championed by Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 champion who floated the idea of a mid-season tournament on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast. When NASCAR bought into the idea and announced the creation of the tournament last year, Hamlin called the tournament on social media “such a win for our sport and drivers.” He jokingly added, “I will collect my 1M royalty next season.”

Hamlin’s on deck and clearly a favorite to win it all, with three wins this year for Joe Gibbs Racing and the top seed.

(And let’s not haggle over who gets credit in court.)

“I’m a sports guy, so I’m going to be engaged with it,” Hamlin said. “I’ll know who I will have to beat next week. I’ve told the team, we are going to try and do what we can. We are going to be up against it because we are going to tracks that aren’t very favorable to me. But we are going to try to do our best to beat that one car for the next four to five weeks.”

NASCAR will present the tournament winner at Indianapolis with a ring, jackets, trophy and — oh yeah, a million bucks.

That’s enough cash to get anyone’s attention — even Elliott’s.

“I don’t know what you get. You get anything,” Elliott asked.

“Oh, a million dollars to the winner? Then yeah, we want to win.”

___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Autograph Night delivered in a big way at Oswego Speedway.

While the racing was superb, the draw of Autograph Night turned into rousing support for Mike Bruce.

Bruce was involved in a harrowing crash — his throttle stuck and he hammered the wall during a practice session.

During intermission, the track welcomed drivers to help “pass the helmet,” raising funds to help aid Bruce’s recovery. After the crash, Oswego Speedway reported Bruce suffered fractures to his L1 and T12 vertebrae. After a short hospital stay in Syracuse, he was fitted for a back brace and has been under the watchful eye of a neurosurgery team, as well. He was at the track Saturday night and was comfortable and in good spirits.

Logan Rayvals won the 50-lap Supermodified feature over Camden Proud and Dave Shullick Jr. The win paid $2,000. Dave Danzer raced to third ahead of a very fast Tyler Thompson.

Rayvals led wire to wire in the feature, taking his first career Supermodified win.

Dave Cliff won the 350-Supers feature, collecting $2,000 in his 30-laps of work. Kyle Perry was chasing at the line, with Jim Storace, Talen Hawksby and Dawson Hawksby in the top five. Brad Haynes topped Greg O’Connor in the 30-lap Small Block Supers feature; Noah Ratcliff, DJ Shuman and Matt Magner filled the top five.

Looking ahead, Oswego and Team Abold Racing will team next month for the third Kids’ Bicycle Giveaway Promotion, slated for July 19.

This will again be on the front straight, held during Oswego’s next driver autograph night. Children aged under 16 years will be given a free ticket at the front gate for a chance at a bicycle of their choice. Last summer, Abold Racing gave away nearly 70 bicycles, along with helmets and other prizes.

Donations of new bicycles or helmets are welcome and can be dropped off or sent to A&P Automotive in Oswego, or to the Oswego Speedway Office.

Visit OswegoSpeedway.com for more details.

TOURING SERIES

Jordan Poirier won the Empire Super Sprints stop at Brockville Ontario Speedway Saturday. Jason Barney was second ahead of Paulie Colagiovanni, Logan Crisafulli and Davie Franek. The series raced at Cornwall Motor Speedway on Sunday night. This weekend, the Empire Super Sprints (EmpireSuperSprints.com) will be part of a co-headliner at Can-Am Speedway’s Pabst Shootout. Friday’s card will also feature the DIRTcar 358-Modifieds, and DIRTcar Sportsman divisions.

Zach Sobotka went from no 305 wins to back to back victories in CRSA Sprints action, winning Saturday at Fulton Speedway. He held off Bobby Parrow for the win, with Spencer Burley, Johnny Smith and Scott Landers in tow. Sobotka started 11th and picked up the win over Parrow, who started on the pole. Visit www.CRSASprints.com for more.

Weather cancelled the Super DIRTcar Series’ Mr. DIRT Track USA event at Lebanon Valley Speedway. The series will return to The Valley on Aug. 28; tickets and wristbands from the 2024 edition of the race that was rained out after hot laps will be honored.

The Super DIRTcar Series will host a double-header next weekend, June 29-30. First, the tour will visit Cornwall Motor Speedway for the O’Canada 100. Then, on June 30, the Series heads to Mohawk International Raceway for the Summer Shootout 75. Alex Yankowski will head to Cornwall with a 24-point lead over Mat Williamson, who won the last time the Series raced at Mohawk (2019). Matt Sheppard has won the last three SDS races at Cornwall. Next month, the Super DIRTcar Series will visit Land of Legends Raceway on July 3, and then Weedsport Speedway on July 26. For more, visit www.SuperDIRTcarSeries.com.

AREA RESULTS

SATURDAY

At Fulton Speedway, Corey Barker took the 35-lap feature over Ronnie Davis III and Alan Fink. Lance Willix and Billy Dunn raced to fourth and fifth. Wade Christman tallied the B-Main win and took 20th in the feature. Emmett Waldron charged from 12th to win the DIRTcar Sportsman feature. Jimmy Moyer was chasing after 25 laps, taking second ahead of Clayton Brewer III, David Moyer and Mike Fowler. Josh Livingston took the B-main and turned that into 13th in the main feature. Andrew Eaton was victorious in the Novice Sportsman 15-lap feature. Brennan Fitzgibbons won the 15-lap Hobby Stock feature over Nate Peckham and John Pietrowicz.

Daniel Morgiewicz Jr. earned his first Thunder Mountain Speedway win on a night paying tribute to longtime racer Doug Worthington. The emotional win came in the 35-lap memorial feature, with Morgiewicz Jr. starting third before holding off Cody Higbie and PJ Goodwin for the win. Jimmy Zacharias won the 30-lap DIRTcar 358-Modified feature over Darren Smith and Doug Smith Jr. Matt Brewer took the 25-lap DIRTcar Sportsman feature. Jerry Lobdell (Factory Stock), Sam Hubbard(600cc Modified) and Zach Bobbett (600cc Sprint) earned class wins.

Land of Legends Raceway was off with respect to Canandaigua Academy’s Commencement Ceremonies. Racing returns Saturday with the Mid-Season Championships. All classes are on the card, with the Modifieds serving as the headline attraction. Grandstands open at 5 pm, hot laps follow at 5:30 and Racing is scheduled for 6:30 pm. Adult admission is $15. Visit LandofLegendsRaceway.com for more details.

FRIDAY

An epic night of racing at Outlaw Speedway was capped by Danny Kerrick. Kerrick won the 40-lap Freedom 40 Hobby Stock special event.

Kerrick collected $2,200 to win the 40-lap race, featuring a strong field of 21 entries. Dundee native Jered Hill struck early, leading the first 19 circuits. Two caution periods through the halfway mark allowed Kerrick to move to second, passing cars by the handful. Passing Hill on Lap 20, Kerrick withstood two more caution periods in the second half of the feature, and motored to the victory. Marc Minutolo was second ahead of Frank Burnell Jr., Mike Stone and Nate Peckham.

Alex Payne won the 30-lap Modified feature in convincing fashion. Mike Maresca was second ahead of Ron Cartwright Jr. Kreg Crooker was fourth with Bobby Varin taking fifth. Blake Parsons won the Sportsman feature, scoring the victory over Dale Welty and Chris Fisher after 25-laps of work. George Schweigart was fourth with Donnie Lawson charging to fifth. Jimmy Grant won the 15-lap Street Stock feature, his second of the year. Shane Wolf was next, with Glenn Whritenour, CJ Guererri and Gene Sharpsteen following. Teddy Moreseman won the four-cylinder feature over Austyn Diaz and Mike Stone. Justin LaDue won the 20-lap Hustle the Highway 600cc Modified feature over Anthony Desimone and Ali Scutt.

At Brewerton, Tim Sears Jr. became the fifth different winner in the Modified ranks at Brewerton, taking Friday’s 35-lap win over Logan Watt and Zachary Payne. Chris Hulsizer was fourth and Chris Mackey took fifth. Watt and Kyle Devendorf were the big storylines behind the fifth different winner. Watt towed from Boyertown, PA; he had never raced at Brewerton before. He started 15th and finished second. Devendorf was on point for 18 circuits of the modified feature; he started outside the front row and had built a two-second lead on the field before a caution period brought the field to his bumper. Sears and Devendorf dueled for the lead for a stint; additional restarts shuffled Devendorf out of contention. He eventually finished 15th. Jimmy Phelps won the B-main, and raced to 10th in the feature.

Tony Finch III won the DIRTcar Sportsman feature. Joe Trichilo was second after starting second in the 25-lap feature. Earl Rudy, Trevor Catalano and Brett Sears filled the top five. Jack Meeks won the B-Main. Joe Isabell won the Mod Lite feature; Mike Mullen was second in the 20-lap feature ahead of Anthony Scott, Thomas Mackey and Roger Olschewske. Nathan Powers won the 15-lap Four-Cylinder Super Stock feature and Belle Hogan won the 15-lap Novice Sportsman feature. Land of Legends Future star Kyle Ridley was fourth.

Can-Am Speedway hosted a fan appreciation night. Billy Dunn won from 10th in the 25-lap DIRTcar 358-Modified feature, a tuneup for the popular Pabst Shootout event scheduled for this week. Remington Hamm was next, followed by Ryan Bartlett, Lance Willix and Tim Fuller. Taylor Doxtater took the 20-lap DIRTcar Sportsman feature over Richard Murtaugh; Eric Neir was third in the 20-lap main. Gavin Eisele and Jessica Power filled the top five. Bruno Richard scored the 602 Crate Sprint Car feature over Ken Klinkowski and Tucker Donath. Corey Valade won the Thundercar feature. Mason Rogers, a kart racer who just recently turned 11 years old, won the Limited Sportsman feature and became the youngest winner in Can-Am Speedway history.

At Utica-Rome Speedway, Matt Sheppard triumphed in the Modified feature. Sheppard held off Brandon Walters and Rocky Warner for the win. Matt Janczuk and Willy Decker filled the top five. David Hackett delivered a popular win in the Sportsman division, taking the checkers ahead of Payton Talbot and Carson Rothwell. Mike Richmond, Tyler Peet and Josh Amodio followed at the stripe. Brett Belden picked up a win in the Pro Stock feature, topping Slater Baker and Devon Camenga. Sullivan Dickey (Limited Sportsman), Stephen Burka (Four-Cylinder, SOHC), Joseph Bouch (Four-Cylinder, DOHC) and Brett Putman (All Star Slingshot) earned class wins. Preston Trautschold swept the Junior Slingshot features, winning the make-up from May 2 and the regularly scheduled main.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell on Monday denied a motion to dismiss NASCAR’s antitrust counterclaim against Front Row Motorsports, 23XI Racing and 23XI co-owner Curtis Polk, a group NASCAR says has engineered an “illegal cartel.”

The legal battle between these parties has become a familiar topic in sports law.

Last year, 23XI and Front Row sued NASCAR and its CEO, James France, claiming they’ve unlawfully monopolized premier stock car racing and used charters, which guarantee teams a starting position in NASCAR-sanctioned races but restrict their opportunities to compete in other circuits, to further their alleged conspiracy. In March, NASCAR countersued, asserting 23XI Racing and Front Row have conspired to use threatened group boycotts and other harmful measures to “threaten, coerce and extort NASCAR” into acquiescing. 

NASCAR’s counterclaim included Polk, who owns 23XI with Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, as a defendant. Polk is depicted as largely responsible for the alleged conspiracy. Polk has been an advisor and confidant to Jordan since the 1990s and served as vice chairman of Charlotte Hornets Sports & Entertainment when Jordan was the team’s majority owner. 

Front Row, 23XI and Polk maintain that NASCAR’s counter lawsuit is meritless and a “retaliatory” filing designed to intimidate them and other race teams. A counterclaim raises the possibility that not only could Front Row and 23XI come up short in proving NASCAR violated antitrust law, but they could be found to have violated antitrust law themselves and thus owe NASCAR damages. 

Bell, whose granting of a preliminary injunction in favor of Front Row and 23XI was recently vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, concluded that NASCAR’s counterclaim is sufficient to proceed. 

Bell determined that NASCAR offers a relevant market for antitrust analysis, namely the market of entry of cars into NASCAR Cup Series races. NASCAR, Bell added, also plausibly alleges teams racing in the Cup Series “collectively have power in the market,” and the alleged use by Polk, 23XI and Front Row of boycotts and demands for more money could cause NASCAR harm in the market. In other words, Bell found NASCAR to have adequately stated a claim. 

But Bell emphasized NASCAR has satisfied a “low bar” for proceeding past a motion to dismiss. Further, he noted that Front Row and 23XI “have several responses” to NASCAR’s allegations. The judge went so far as to suggest those responses might prove persuasive later in the litigation. 

Even so, a win is a win for NASCAR at this early stage of the counterclaim litigation. The advancement of NASCAR’s claims could open new terrain for pretrial discovery. 

In a statement shared with media, 23XI and Front Row attorney Jeffrey Kessler said he and his colleagues are “disappointed” Bell did not dismiss what Kessler blasts as “NASCAR’s meritless, retaliatory counterclaim.” Kessler added that while Bell didn’t side for his clients, the judge’s “recognition of many of our arguments, including the efficiency and necessity of joint negotiations and lack of credible evidence, reinforces our confidence that we will prevail in summary judgment.”

Photo credit: Porsche

Porsche Penske Motorsport endured a mixed Six Hours of Watkins Glen, salvaging fourth place with the No. 6 Porsche 963 while the sister No. 7 entry crashed out. The result was enough to move Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet to the top of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship standings, leap-frogging team-mates Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy despite the latter’s retirement.

Rain at the start played to Porsche’s strengths, allowing Nasr to charge from 10th to the lead within five laps. Once the track dried and temperatures climbed to 90°F, however, the 963s slipped back behind Cadillac and BMW rivals. Campbell and Jaminet held steady to secure fourth, but with 80 minutes remaining Tandy lost control in Turn 1 and hit the barriers at 25 g. The Briton walked away unhurt, though the No. 7’s title lead evaporated.

Customer squads also struggled. JDC-Miller’s No. 85 Porsche 963 took eighth on the road but a pit-lane infraction dropped it to 10th, and Proton Competition’s car retired after a multi-class tangle. In GTD Pro, AO Racing’s fan-favorite “Rexy” 911 GT3 R reached the class lead during the early wet stint but finished sixth after late contact and refuelling woes. Wright Motorsports’ GTD entry came home 13th.

Despite the setbacks, Porsche retains first place in the GTP team and manufacturer tables. The top prototype class is idle until Road America on August 3; LMP2 and the GT fields race next at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on July 13.