Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 has brought competitive air racing back into focus. The National Championship Air Races activity arrived on October 13 as part of Sim Update 7, with courses at Reno and Roswell and a mixture of pylon races and short take-off-and-landing challenges. The main activity is described as a free expansion for players with the relevant base simulator.
Alongside it sits a different product: National Championship Air Races: Racer Pack 1, an optional aircraft collection priced at $39.99 USD in the official announcement. That difference is the essential purchasing detail. Downloading the free update does not mean every real-world racing aircraft in the separate pack becomes part of your existing edition.
Racing at Reno, Roswell and beyond
Microsoft's Flight Simulator team says the update recreates events from the National Championship Air Races, bringing high-speed flying close to the ground into the simulation. The courses include the traditional Reno setting and Roswell, New Mexico, a second venue. The organisers and pilots contributed expertise to the recreation, according to the official development blog.
There are five types of racing in the broader activity. Four are pylon-racing classes: Unlimited, Jet, T-6 and Biplane. The fifth is STOL Drag, which pits short take-off-and-landing aircraft against one another in an especially different format. It is useful to distinguish this last category from the four classes represented in the paid aircraft pack.
The team has also discussed improvements to the experience of managing a racing plane under pressure. Wake turbulence, engine management and wear are part of the simulated challenges outlined ahead of launch. Those features suggest that simply flying a quick lap is not the only concern; maintaining control and protecting an aircraft's systems matter too. That remains a description of announced simulation systems, not a claim to have completed a race.
The free release is tied specifically to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. Owners of another simulator or an older edition should not assume the same activity appears automatically in their library. The developer has separately noted that eligible earlier Reno DLC owners may receive related pack benefits, which should be checked against the current account listing.
What the forty-plane pack buys
Racer Pack 1 adds 40 named racing aircraft, with ten each in the Unlimited, Jet, T-6 and Biplane classes. The official release notice gives historical examples such as the T-6 Big Red, Baron's Revenge and Six-Cat, alongside recognisable Pitts biplanes. These are distinct recreations for the pack, not forty entirely new racing categories.
The pack is listed through the simulator's own marketplace, the Microsoft or Xbox storefront and Steam. The announced $39.99 price is in US dollars; a player in Australia or another market should rely on the price displayed by their own store. No purchase is needed merely to try the free National Championship activity in Sim Update 7.
Microsoft describes private race lobbies and has previously discussed plans for additional scheduled racing opportunities in 2027. Those future plans should not be described as a service already available on October 13 without confirmation from the updated game.
For pilots weighing the new content, the most straightforward sequence is to install the simulator update, explore the included race formats, and only then decide whether the specific historical aircraft in Racer Pack 1 are worth buying. This release offers a free reason to revisit the flight model, with a clear optional collector's purchase alongside it.
Reporting notes