Most people can only dream of seeing themselves immortalized behind screens in a digital world of video game pixels.
Today, the stars of the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota and their competitors live out that dream as part of the 2023 Season Update to World of Outlaws: Dirt Racing on Xbox and PlayStation.
The 2023 Season Update, made available for purchase on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on Aug. 15, includes each of the full-time drivers on the Xtreme Outlaw Series plus several other national Midget series racers and a few extra surprises. The full roster of drivers included with the update is listed below.
Several drivers on the full-time Xtreme Outlaw Series roster have taken time since the update’s release to try the game out for themselves and expressed their appreciation in being involved.
The Series’ all-time winningest driver – 16-year-old Jade Avedisian of Clovis, CA – said the outpouring of support from her friends and fans racing with her virtual Mobil 1, LynK/Toyota #71 for Keith Kunz Motorsports in the game has been constant.
“I get a few DMs a week about how good the game is and that they picked me to play,” Avedisian said. “To be on a video game is really cool; I would have never expected to be on a video game.”
Like Avedisian, defending Series champion Zach Daum noted the experience of being repeatedly recognized in a new digital world of motorsports entertainment.
“As soon as it was released, I was getting pictures sent to me from people I didn’t even know,” Daum, 32, of Pocahontas, IL, said. “Like, ‘Hey I’m racing you!’
“That’s cool, don’t crash. Hopefully, you win.”
While he’s not the gamer he used to be, Daum recalls his more youthful days in motorsports playing the fan-favorite World of Outlaws: Sprint Cars 2002 title and hopes to pass the fun of gaming on to his own kids.
“I remember being a kid playing that – we’d be at Quarter Midget races, grand national races where you’d be there all week and somebody had it set up at their trailer and you’d play all week,” Daum said. “That was really fun.
“Hopefully in the next couple years, I can get my boy Remy – he’ll play it. I don’t want him playing a bunch of video games, but I wouldn’t mind it if he played racing games.”
Dave Mac-Dalby Motorsports teammates Cannon McIntosh and Austin Barnhill have long been avid players of racing video games and were thrilled with the opportunity to have their own place in the newest and most advanced dirt motorsports game to date.
“It’s cool to not only see us, but other competitors we’ve raced with,” McIntosh, 20, of Bixby, OK, said. “It’s a different deal when you’re in it. Seeing kids online that enjoy it and get to play as you, it’s a cool feeling.”
“Growing up playing NASCAR games and Sprint Car games, it’s kinda shocking that Midgets just now came into the video game side of things,” Barnhill, 23, of Mooresville, NC, said. “On an actual console game, it’s really cool to see it finally take off, especially while [McIntosh] and I are in the middle of running the Series. Getting to be in it makes it that much cooler.”
While the drivers agree the game plays great in their hands, World of Outlaws: Dirt Racing is a hit with the younger fanbase – one that will eventually fill the seats of future Midget rides in real life.
“If that draws in 10 kids to the races now because they play us on their Xbox or PlayStation, that’s cool,” Daum said. “It can only help grow the sport.”
“A little kid that plays and races their favorite car on there, and then they want to be able to watch it on TV, and they tell their parents about It – I feel like you get so many more people involved with the sport of Midget racing,” McIntosh said.
For more information about World of Outlaws: Dirt Racing and the 2023 Season Update, and to purchase your copy of the game, visit WorldofOutlawsGame.com.
Midget Driver Roster
Zach Daum
Jade Avedisian
Cannon McIntosh
Chase McDermand
Taylor Reimer
Gavin Miller
Hayden Reinbold
Austin Barnhill
Mitchel Moles
Kyle Jones
Corbin Rueschenberg
Tyler Robbins
Chance Crum
Ethan Mitchell
Thomas Meseraull
Mariah Ede
Kyle Bielman
Cooper Williams
Daison Pursley
Logan Seavey
Laci Ferno
Daniel Whitley
Bryant Wiedeman
Andrew Felker
Casey Shuman
Gary Taylor
Chase Johnson
Brad Loyet
Rip Jetson
Ryan Timms
Buddy Kofoid
