Best NASCAR 25 Settings for Thrustmaster TMX / T150
NASCAR 25 isn't quite what I was expecting. Being developed under the iRacing Studios brand, I was expecting a more detailed simulation like NASCAR Racing 2003 Season. Instead, NASCAR 25 is basically the next game in the NASCAR Heat series. It's much more of an arcade-style game than a simulator.
The Thrustmaster TMX and T150 work with it, but there are some issues to deal with. The TMX doesn't have preset bindings, so you will need to do that manually. And the default force feedback settings overwhelm these wheels, making them feel lifeless.
In this guide, I will show you the settings I use to improve the force feedback and what you may want to adjust for your own setup.
Thrustmaster Control Panel Settings
NASCAR 25 is designed to use 180° as the steering angle. If you set the rotation higher than 180°, the game will only register input up to that point, but the force feedback continues past it, creating a jarring disconnect.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Rotation | 180° |
| Overall Strength of all forces | 100% |
| Constant | 100% |
| Periodic | 100% |
| Spring | 100% |
| Damper | 100% |
| BOOST | Off |
| Auto-Center | by the game |
Spring is used by NASCAR 25 for the Centering Spring setting.
Damper is not used by NASCAR 25, so can be set to any value without issue. As a general rule, I leave it at 100% since there are some games that require it.
BOOST should always be turned off. For an in-depth look as to why, see my BOOST Force Feedback Analysis.
NASCAR 25 Settings
In Settings > Input Mapping:
If your wheel isn't recognized and you can't navigate the menus, you will need to manually bind all of the controls for it.
If you are using the keyboard to navigate the menus, the square brackets [ ] cycle through the menu tabs.
In Settings > Gameplay:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Transmission | Manual |
| Brake Smoothing | Off |
I like to turn off all the assists. The physics are quite forgiving without them.
In Settings > Driving:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Driving Aids | |
| Preset | Expert |
Again, I turn off all the assists, but you can always enable them if you like.
In Settings > Adv. Controls:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Car Handling Config | Custom |
| Steering | |
| Non Linear | 0 |
| Dead Zone | 0 |
| Overshoot | 0 |
| Speed Sensitive Range | 0 |
| Speed Sensitive Non Linear | 0 |
| Reduce Dampening | 100 |
This disables any strange input settings that you don't want when using a wheel.
In Settings > Controls > Wheel
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Rotation | 180° |
| Steering Range | 50 |
| Force Feedback | 100 |
| FF Leveling | 20-30 |
| FF Overdrive | 0 |
| FF Impact Boost | 50 |
| Centering Spring | Off |
Rotation needs to match what you have set in the Thrustmaster Control Panel.
Steering Range should be 50 to use the full 180°.
Force Feedback can be set to the maximum. We will control the force feedback with the next two settings.
FF Leveling raises the lighter forces. Setting this too high removes a lot of the dynamic feeling of the forces, as all forces become quite strong. You can adjust this based on the track, but you will want to keep it fairly low, or the wheel will feel sluggish.
FF Overdrive acts as a multiplier to the force feedback. These wheels just aren't powerful enough to benefit from this.
FF Impact Boost raises the collision effects.
Centering Spring simply pulls the wheel to the center at all times at nearly 100% strength. This essentially overrides the actual force feedback and simply makes the wheel very heavy.
Conclusion
I was hoping for more with NASCAR 25, but on its own merits, it's fine. I have seen some people say their wheels aren't recognized by the game. I haven't had that problem, so it's probably something specific to certain setups and will likely be fixed in an update.
Let me know if you have any questions or comments.