iRacing, the racing simulation that exploded in popularity during at the start of the pandemic in 2020, has purchased the developers of the NASCAR Heat video game series. It’s the second acquisition of a game studio by iRacing in recent months as the sim racing platform looks to improve and potentially expand its offerings.

Monster Games, which developed NASCAR Heat from 2016 to 2019 and recently developed a video game dedicated to Tony Stewart’s SRX series, was founded by Richard Garcia, who had previously worked with iRacing executives at a different video game developer in the 1990s.

“We are really pleased to be able to share this news, it’s been in the works for some time now,” iRacing president Tony Gardner said. “Rich and his team are a proven studio with unique skills that will really add to our already fantastic team here at iRacing. We’ll be able to add a lot to MGI’s products as well in the long run, to include assets, graphics, technologies and physics.”

iRacing is currently only available on Microsoft Windows computers and is not available on traditional gaming systems like PlayStation or Xbox. The acquisition of Monster Games, however, opens the door for potential change.

In their statement announcing the purchase, iRacing made it clear that their “development team will remain 100% focused on continuing to develop the core product, iRacing. The iRacing platform is regarded as the most realistic and leading PC-based racing simulation on the market.”

Monster Games is currently working on an unannounced product and will complete that work before transitioning under iRacing’s umbrella for future projects.

“Our studios will really compliment each other’s and I fully expect to see positive impacts on both products,” Garcia said. “To now have tools and resources, and quite frankly time, to build these games and to do it with the leading racing simulation company in the marketplace is beyond exciting for me.”

In December, iRacing announced it had purchased Orontes Games, a small German video game development company that possesses its own dedicated game engine. Most video games are built using a third-party game engine as the foundation and are rarely done in-house.

However, with Orontes Games’ purpose-built engine, the potential for more advanced simulations increases. It could turn out to be a crucial development as iRacing prepares to add rain and improve its simulation of tires.

“They are extremely creative and highly skilled developers, and we are excited to have them join our talented team here at iRacing,” Gardner said of Christian and Thorsten Folkers, the brothers who created Orontes Games.

“Their addition will allow us to further enhance iRacing and position us to potentially expand our offerings in the future,” Gardner added.

The 2022 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, NASCAR’s officially sanctioned eSports series, is slated to begin in the coming weeks.