Best NASCAR 25 Settings for Thrustmaster TX / T300
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.
It plays fine with the Thrustmaster TX and T300. The force feedback isn't extremely detailed, but you can feel what the car is doing. In particular, you can feel the weight of the car shifting around. The default settings make the wheel very heavy and rather dull. This can be improved quite a bit with some setting adjustments.
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 | 75% |
| 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 > 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
The best force feedback settings vary based on the track. Driving on a Super Speedway is very different than a road course. FF Overdrive is the primary setting used to control the strength of the force feedback. Set that for the maximum amount of force you want to feel while driving. Then you can use FF Leveling to raise the lighter forces, if the wheel feels empty, particularly when the wheel is close to the center.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Rotation | 180° |
| Steering Range | 50 |
| Force Feedback | 100 |
| FF Leveling | 0-10 |
| FF Overdrive | 2-6 |
| FF Impact Boost | 100 |
| 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. Set this to 0 to get the most range of forces, and raise it a little bit if the wheel feels a little empty when you're not in a turn.
FF Overdrive acts as a multiplier to the force feedback. Setting this too high will completely overwhelm the wheel. This is the main setting you will need to adjust for each track. Start at 2 and raise it as necessary to get the amount of resistance you like for the track. Road courses I keep at 2 since you don't want to be fighting the wheel on every turn. Super speedways can be set to 6. Since the inputs are much smaller, you need to raise the forces to get a heavier feel.
FF Impact Boost raises the collision effects, which are pretty weak on these wheels, so can be set to the maximum.
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.