NASCAR 2003 was the last NASCAR racing game I actively played because nothing has come close for me. Most other NASCAR games, in my library, either did not capture the 2003 experience or had issues on my system (mainly controller setup/input).
I just read that the iRacing team formed a partnership and is working on NASCAR 25, and it seems that the team is leaning on their NASCAR '03 roots. Hopefully, this will be the one.
I’d like to hear other’s thoughts on NASCAR racing games.
The subscription isn’t to bad. Its the cost of the tracks and cars that adds up. Had I not been big into it in the early 2010s, I don’t think I would even consider it.
But since I own most of the stuff I want, Its easy to pick up a Sub every couple of month and Race for a bit.
Its the only place I know of to get the local short track stuff, Late models, Modifieds etc.
I honestly haven’t done an online race in probably 8 years now, But have down a ton of AI races offline.
I really wish we had a good NASCAR sim that had you coming up from short track to the big leagues. Would love a good Indy sim too. As of now iRacing is the only place for that too.
Yes i agree about NASCAR 2003, sadly it aged not so good and it had some issues in modern pcs.
About an subscription, i’m out because after 1 year, 2 years, … if you sum it all its start to be a hundreds of usd sim and when you pay for time available but not all the time you use it, i many times felt that i burned money for nothing, so, sadly i’m out. many times the greed of a subscription killed many games and sims.
Other options, ok, i know i know its not the NASCAR 2003, but give a try with this one that indeed good and with prety visuals:
NASCAR Heat 5
For other oval racing i also recommend you, but now with mud etc, these ones:
Tony Stewart’s All-American Racing
SRX The Game
(both on steam also)
Contrary with other modern nascar racing sims, all these 3 suggested racing games received very positive reviews and my personal opinion about them is very positive.
I did play NASCAR SimRacing 2005 from EA, which I think was EA’s only “sim lite” NASCAR title. It wasn’t up to 2003 standards, but it was a good 2nd place and looked better. It would’ve been a good candidate for a 2006+ that could have met or surpassed 2003, but I guess sales missed and EA gave it up.
I tried one or 2 of the NASCAR Heat games and couldn’t get into them. I did do some off-label racing in rfactor (tracks and cars but fake names/sponsors/liveries) but it wasn’t the same although it raced well enough.
Now that I have my Fanatec DD (and shortly thereafter saw the company go bankrupt ) I’ve been looking to see if there was anything on the horizon. I have Automobilista 2 and Assetto Corsa and ACC, but I’m really out of the modding scene since dropping rfactor a decade ago or so.
) I’ve been looking to see if there was anything on the horizon. I have Automobilista 2 and Assetto Corsa and ACC, but I’m really out of the modding scene since dropping rfactor a decade ago or so.