Welcome to the official NASCAR 26 Career Mode walkthrough! In this series, we’ll give you the inside line on making the most out of your NASCAR 26 career, working your way up from a start-up team in the ARCA Menards Series to the upper echelons of the NASCAR Cup Series.

Today, we’re going to focus on building your Reputation—the most important prerequisite for working your way up the NASCAR ladder.

Building Your Reputation

There are many ways that a real-world driver builds up their reputation in the sport, both good and bad. If you’re trying to build a positive one, you’ve generally got two ways to do it: be fast, or be clean. That’s how you’ll do it in NASCAR 26, too. The basics are simple—you’ll earn Reputation Points for every lap where your race pace is up to par, and for every clean lap you turn.

That’s not all, though. You’ll also score RP for things like meeting your sponsor goals, leading laps, and most of all, for winning races and championships. It shouldn’t be hard for you to plug away with a couple hundred RP at a time at the start of your ARCA career, but once your machine is up to par, it’s easy to take thousands per race.

Be on the lookout for opportunities to gain additional Reputation points between races, such as opportunities presented to you by your PR Manager or points awarded to you after stories shared by the Dale Jr. Download or Door Bumper Clear. Your PR Manager also provides you with a Reputation multiplier for the points you earn on track.

Reaching a Milestone

Once you reach 10,000 Reputation Points, your Reputation will reach Level 2. It’s a sign of progress, but you’ll still have some work to do to get out of ARCA—you’ll need 25,000 RP in total for the chance to move up to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

Whenever you cross that threshold, your Agent will inform you that a new sponsor is waiting for you next year—and to advance, you’ll need to wrap up the current campaign. Stockpile as much money and all the extra RP you can to get a jump start on the new season! (Note that if your Reputation Points pass the threshold through actions between races, such as a PR opportunity, you’ll have to complete the next race for the new series unlock to register.)

Next time, we’ll look ahead to your first offseason and your move up to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.