There hasn’t been an official NASCAR game since NASCAR 09 (read 2008 installment) and to be honest when I heard Activision and Eutechnyx had been signed to make the first new game in three years I was pretty excited. I had high hopes when I booted it up being an avid NASCAR fan. I can safely tell you one thing, if you are a fan of the series, you will quickly be frustrated by the miscues in the game. Sillyness and a side draft of ranting ensue in this review, read on.

Story: There is no story per se, but Career mode has been dumbed down from what we are used to. Instead of the usual play year after year you only play one year after which you are forced to restart. Its really too simple for hardcore fans but the casual gamers may find it easy to get into. Select a car, and race while the game tracks the standings after each race deciding who makes the Chase and who wins the Championship. Nothing special happens as you make the Chase and finish the season, its simply done and over with, which does leave more to be desired. The game doesn’t even let you choose your own car number, hope you like 53.

Gameplay: To tell you the truth, the game doesn’t play that bad but it isn’t without its faults. There are many crazy cases where things happen when they shouldn’t. For instance when pitting, especially under yellow the cars end up wrecking and even flipping upside-down. During green the cars arn’t even smart enough to pull of the track before slowing down, instead you’ll be following them and they will all of a sudden slam on the breaks, oftentimes causing wrecks. The green-white-checkers are also a little bit messed up. They work in concept but on the third and final one instead of caution coming out and the race ending, everything just continues like nothing has happened.

If you’re typically the type to play the game in any perspective other than first person, be prepared to change. I never race in third person, but I had to when playing this, the spotter is simply not accurate enough to keep you from wrecking yourself every single turn. However, the game does implement a nifty radar at the bottom which can help you judge how fast the car behind you is catching up. The game also has some stupid system where if you run out of gas the race is instantly over and you come in dead last. What the-? We guess you could just be smart enough to coast around with less than one lap left of gas, but their implementation is just plain weird.

Graphics/Audio: The game looks pretty but the anti-aliasing leaves more to be desired, there are a lot of jaggies. Also, the game boasts “night races” which are oftentimes just races that occur at dusk, rarely is it actually night. The cars sound like, well cars, nothing much to complain about there. Damage physics have been overhauled which seem cool at first as its mostly dynamic but then you realize simple bump drafting is enough to tear the front bumper off of your car. Pit stops actually have a loading screen, and its horribly apparent that for some reason your pit stops can up to ten seconds longer than other cars under green. Our biggest complaint however is that the game seemingly merges the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series. You’ll find Danica Patrick and Mark Martin driving the same paint scheme while Robby Gordon uses the same number as Danica, all in the same race. We’re not sure why they didn’t just add the less known drivers to the field to keep it realistic. Instead I’m stuck remembering how weird it is that Danica Patrick did better in the final standings than Carl Edwards (who sat atop the standings most of this year), both outside the top 35.

Multiplayer: The game supports 16-player online, which we don’t particularly recommend. Every match we played contained griefers who simply existed to ruin your race and then quit unless they were in the lead. What are you going to do? Every racing game has them.

Overall: If you’re a NASCAR fan, which you probably are if you’re considering buying this, be prepared to be annoyed by the inaccuracies. The game simply does what it wants, disregarding the reality and trying to make it more mainstream. Heck, at Watkins Glen the developers simply moved the pit boxes to the other side of the cars rather than make a new animation doing the reverse, as it should be to be accurate. We think the game would have been much better had it contained a deeper career mode and focused more on the hardcore NASCAR fan contingent that are the only ones who buy this game annually (or at least when it used to be annual).

Pros:

• First installment in what seemed to be like ages.
• They released an update for only $2 that contains new paint schemes, tracks, and the new points system.

Cons:

• Sillyness always insues.
• No rear view mirror!?
• Shallow career mode.
• We have to pay to get the new points system?

Score: 6.5/10

A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes.