From NASCAR Garages to Sim Racing: Casey Mahoney of Victory Sim

How Casey Mahoney turned a racing background, IT skills, and a niche idea into a business people can actually experience.

In this episode of The Long Game, Mitch Long talks with Casey Mahoney about Victory Sim Experience, the racing sim center he built in Hickory, NC. Casey shares how he got into racing early, worked around NASCAR, and later found a way to combine that background with technology and entrepreneurship.

They also get into the shift from building simulators for other people to creating a space where customers can come race for themselves. It is a conversation about finding a lane, adapting when a market changes, and building a business around experience instead of just equipment.

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT

How Victory Sim Experience works Why sim racing is more realistic than people expect Casey’s early background in racing Working around NASCAR and local race teams How the housing crash pushed him into a career change Combining racing knowledge with IT skills Why COVID changed the sim industry Trade shows, rentals, and building a business around events What makes a sim center work as an experience Why Hickory made sense as the home base

CHAPTERS

00:21 – Mitch meets Casey and asks about the business 00:31 – What Victory Sim Experience is and how it works 01:02 – The different types of racing people can do 01:14 – How the company started building simulators in 2012 01:24 – COVID, trade shows, and the shift into events 02:07 – Turning idle equipment into a sim center 02:26 – Racing events, trade shows, and where the business travels 03:09 – Casey’s racing background and working for Bill Elliott’s team 03:39 – The recession, layoffs, and making a career change 04:00 – Learning IT and combining it with a racing background 04:30 – Building sims, growing demand, and new competition 05:29 – The sim center, reservations, and walk-in traffic 06:11 – How long people race and why 30 minutes is usually enough 06:39 – Why sim racing is not a video game 07:32 – Tracks, skill levels, and how beginners get started 08:34 – Growing up in Hickory and being a Bill Elliott fan 08:50 – What Casey actually did around race teams when he was younger 09:26 – Favorite tracks and how racing has changed over time 10:20 – Why sim racing felt new before it became mainstream 11:21 – The hardware, the cost, and why the experience matters 12:16 – Staffing, family, and Casey’s son working in the business 12:47 – Where the trade show work happens 13:24 – Using simulators to pull people into a booth 14:14 – Whether Casey wants more locations in the future 15:19 – Mitch wraps up and connects Casey’s story back to motorsports