While NASCAR drivers have fairly well in the iRacing world, the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway poses a different challenge compared to the past two virtual tracks.
Speaking to Alex Weaver, NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Rusty Wallace explained:
It’s such a small and short track where we can get super close to each other in real life and almost like lean on each other and be OK.
But when you lean on somebody in the virtual world, you kind of hit a lag, and so you lag into each other and you end up wrecking.
That makes Bristol really tough because it’s so small and such close-quarters racing.
Wallace also pointed out a few things that the drivers need to be careful while iRacing in short tracks such as the Bristol Motor Speedway.
Like with Kyle Busch, we were racing last weekend at Texas and he was jumping around all over the place and the Internet wasn’t that great.
You have to be careful with that stuff because you could be at the wrong spot at the wrong time and (Busch) could blink out for a second and come back in and he’s on top of your car and y’all end up wrecking.
Those things are not what you deal with in real life, and that’s what makes it tough, especially at short tracks.
The last weekend race at the virtual Texas Motor Speedway drew 1.3 million viewers. According to Fox broadcaster Mike Joy, the series has been drawing the attention of not just the NASCAR fans. He explained:
I think we’re drawing two different types of viewers. We’re driving NASCAR fans that are starved for live content. And I think we’re also drawing the people who are curious about racing simulation and how much, or how little, it may look like the real thing.