--- title: "NASCAR Driver Avoids Elimination With Insanely Ballsy Maneuver He Learned From a Video Game" description: "Ross Chastain didn't look like he was going to advance to the next stage of NASCAR's Championship — until he pulled off a move he learned from video games." date: "2022-11-01" modified: "2022-11-01" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nascar-driver-video-game" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "esports" - "racing" - "the digest" - "video games" --- # NASCAR Driver Avoids Elimination With Insanely Ballsy Maneuver He Learned From a Video Game ![Ross Chastain didn't look like he was going to advance to the next stage of NASCAR's Championship — until he pulled off a move he learned from video games.]() *\Image: Stacy Revere/Getty Images\* ## Blue Shell Most of us probably wouldn't admit that we learned something from a video game. But also, most of us aren't championship NASCAR drivers. Ross Chastain is one such driver who was lagging behind at 10th place during Sunday's Xfinity 500 race. Then, in an extremely ballsy move on his last lap, he slingshotted his car along the racetrack's walls and blasted himself all the way up to 5th. The Hail Mary heroics clinched him a well-earned spot in the next stage of the Championship, not to mention widespread acclaim online, with people amusingly [explaining the move in video game terms]() or outright [attempting to recreate it in-game](). And where did he learn that maneuver? From playing video games as a kid, he says. "I played a lot of NASCAR 2005 on the GameCube which I had growing up," Chastain said with a smile in a [post-race interview](). "I never knew it would actually work." https://twitter.com/NASCARonNBC/status/1586834658028703744 ## Game-Breaking The game-breaking bug is called a "wall ride," and in all likelihood could only be pulled off in a track as short as the Martinsville Speedway, the site of the race. At only half a mile long, it's the shortest in NASCAR's circuit, which means its corners are pretty short, too, making the slingshotting especially dramatic. Anyway, to onlookers, it really does look like Chastain activated an unfair speed boost or was just straight up hacking. Just listen to how blown away the crowd is in [this video uploaded to Twitter](). Other racers on the track could hardly believe it either. "I can't believe what I just saw," said one driver [in a compilation by NASCAR](). "That was straight video game." ## Do It IRL But even digitally, it's not easy to replicate. Chase Briscoe, a NASCAR driver who finished in 9th place behind Chastain, [uploaded a clip]() of himself trying to pull of a wall ride in the NASCAR Heat video game, only for his car to clip into a random bit of geometry and get sent spinning. Except maybe in iRacing, a relentlessly realistic and competitive online racing simulator. "I got banned on iRacing for doing it about 10 years ago," Briscoe [tweeted](). "It for sure works on there." *Updated to correct transcription error.* **More on learning from video games:** [*Good News, Gamers! That Screen Time Could Make You a Little Smarter, Scientists Say*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()