Kyle Busch is arguably the most talented driver in the NASCAR Cup Series today.

But with real-world racing on a painfully obvious pause, Busch and his fellow competitors have no way to prove their abilities on the asphalt.

As NASCAR has shifted to simulation racing via iRacing’s online subscription service in what is intended to be a fun distraction for fans and the racing industry, the sport’s best sim racers have charged to the front. And for the most part, that hasn’t included Busch.

So, understanding Busch’s fiery desire to be the best he can be behind the wheel of anything – car or computer – it should come as no surprise that Busch, the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion, has devoted much of the last month to practicing and honing his skills in the sim-racing world.

After finishing 29th in the inaugural eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series event at the virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 22 – and yes, it really has already been a full month of this – Busch has steadily improved. He finished 17th at Texas, 18th at Bristol despite running in the top-five most of the race and capitalized with a fifth-place finish Sunday at the virtual Richmond Raceway.

“It does feel good to get a top five,” Busch said. “We’re just having fun out there and trying to do what we can and try to put on a good show for the fans watching on TV. It’s been interesting, that’s for sure. I’ve been trying to get better at this thing and pick it up.”

Busch’s efforts have been noticed by other drivers. William Byron, winner of each of the past two iRacing events, believes Busch is on the short list of those on the verge of breaking through for a win.

“In the practice race that I did, he (Busch) ran third, and then he ran fifth today,” Byron said. “So I think his talent and ability to kind of understand the cars is coming through. I thought Brad Keselowski was really impressive recently. I think he was running third at one point in this race.

“You know, it's just little details here and there that make a difference, and everyone is really close now.”

Even with no purse or sponsorship money on the line in these virtual races, Busch has put in extra time outside of organized practice races on the server.

Joe Gibbs Racing, the team for which Busch drives, fields two entries in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, a biweekly series that pits professional sim racers – not real-world racers – against each other for a $300,000 purse. Busch is taking cues from virtual teammates Graham Bolin and Malik Ray to figure out what he can do better in NASCAR’s live-televised exhibitions on Fox.

“It’s cool to watch them and pay attention to what they are doing and how they drive the cars,” Busch said. “The cars are driven way different in the sim world than they are in real life. You can take advantage of situations in iRacing that you wouldn’t do in real life because there’s no repercussions, no torn-up equipment. So you are trying to figure that out and engulf yourself in the sim and figure out how to be faster and more competitive.”

Perhaps more interesting is how invested Busch has become in other aspects of the sim world. While NASCAR remains his primary focus, Busch has participated in events driving a number of diverse vehicles, including sprint cars, late models and even open-wheeled cars when he joined this past weekend’s IndyCar event on NBCSN, earning a 13th-place finish at Twin Ring Motegi.

“We had a good time doing it and we got (Busch’s energy drink company) Rowdy Energy out there on the IndyCar circuit. Wish we would have finished better,” Busch said. “The race went green for the rest of the race after the early caution that we got caught up in. We had to do a reset there and restart in the back and we were spread so far out that I couldn’t make my way back up through.”

Busch is quick to admit this is not and never will be a true replacement for the real thing, nor is he intending to use it as such. But that doesn’t mean he finds it useless.

“Anything is a tool. You can use a tool any way you want,” said Busch, a three-time Cup Series winner at Pocono Raceway. “It’s no different than running in the sim rig that Toyota and TRD and the other manufacturers have to simulate the real thing. This can be used in the same respect, you just have to know how to use it and how that tool can work for you. Trying to figure out and remember what I am used to doing on the real race track and then coming to the iRacing sim and vice versa.”

As for just how close it comes, Busch said iRacing gets a passing grade.

“When we are at Richmond running around there (in NASCAR), some of the tricks of the track are similar. I would give it 70%,” Busch said. “There’s certainly 30% that either doesn’t work or something you have to figure out differently to make it work on iRacing versus what would work in real life. There’s some differences there.”

Busch has never sat in an IndyCar to make laps around a track but keeps leaving the door open to it. That didn’t stop after this week’s sim race.

“It’s kind of interesting to see what the other 30% would be in the IndyCar in real life I were ever able to get over there and try my hand at that someday,” he said.

What cannot get lost in this is the origin of this idea to take professional drivers and get them sim racing: It’s all supposed to be fun. These are unique times that have caused confusion and disarray in our daily lives, let alone the sports world.

But when you get the most competitive drivers in the world and stick them in a competitive environment – real or simulated – it’s easy to see why so many like Busch are eager to improve.

“It’s definitely getting more serious because I’m working to try and get better,” Busch said. “I struggled in qualifying the first few races and was able to work my way back up front each time, so qualifying has been a struggle point for me so far. I got back into the top-10 each race, but I’ve been caught up in a wreck each time that has not allowed me to finish very well the first three races. It was finally get a good finish at Richmond and get the finish we deserved.”