NASCAR 26 does not have terminal damage, and iRacing Studios' Matt Lewis explained exactly why: with 40 cars on track compared to the 12-20 other racing games typically field, giving every car individualized damage states is, in his words, "so labour intensive" that the studio prioritized other systems instead.
What's Confirmed, in the Developer's Own Words
Traxion.gg's August 9, 2026 interview with Matt Lewis, Director of Production and Senior Producer at iRacing Studios, is the clearest source on this topic. Asked about damage, Lewis said plainly: "So there's no terminal damage. It's honestly just a prioritisation thing." He explained the resource trade-off: "It's just really hard to take that actual step and say, 'Hey, we're really going to focus on it' until we get further down the road."
The core constraint is scale. Lewis compared NASCAR 26's field size to competitors: "A lot of these other racing games that focus on damage have 12 cars in the field. 20, maybe." NASCAR 26 runs 40-car fields, and giving all 40 cars individualized, graded damage is, per Lewis, "so labour intensive" given console hardware constraints — he noted consoles "are what they are," unlike a gaming PC where settings can simply be scaled down.
What's Missing, Officially Acknowledged
The same interview lists terminal damage as one of five features developers explicitly said they'd like to add in future releases, alongside: racing all car series on every track, a more meaningful driver market/silly season system, caution replays, and split-screen multiplayer. That's a rare case of a developer publicly naming their own feature gaps rather than a reviewer inferring them.
What Damage Does Exist
NASCAR's official announcement lists smoke, debris, rubber buildup, and DNFs as part of the confirmed feature set tied to this year's physics update, which suggests visible damage effects and race-ending incidents exist even without a full terminal-damage system. The exact rules for what triggers a DNF, or how much cosmetic damage a car can visibly take, are UNCONFIRMED — Lewis's comments explain the ceiling on damage complexity, not the specific in-game rules.
FAQ
No. Matt Lewis of iRacing Studios confirmed there's no terminal damage, citing it as a prioritization decision given the game's 40-car fields.
Per Matt Lewis, individualized damage across 40 cars is too labor-intensive given console hardware constraints, compared to competing racing games that typically field 12-20 cars.
Developers have named it as one of five features they'd like to add in future releases, but no timeline is confirmed.