Video Games

NASCAR followed IndyCAR into the video game world in 1994 with a PC game by the now-defunct company Papyrus Design Group entitled NASCAR Racing. Over the next decade Papyrus, and eventually Sierra Entertainment continued producing NASCAR Racing games. The NASCAR Racing games were universally praised for their accuracy in terms of physics and track feel, with NASCAR Cup and Busch series drivers regularly practicing for upcoming tracks using the games. Many believe that NASCAR Racing 2003 is still, years later, the most accurate stock car racing game ever released. In 2003, Vivendi Universal began dismantleing Sierra, and allowed EA Games to aquire exclusive rights to produce NASCAR games.

NASCAR, however was not a new concept to EA Sports. The company developed NASCAR games for the original PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Nintendo 64 under names such as NASCAR '98. The company expanded into NASCAR games for the PC and the Gameboy Color for their 2000 game and the PS2 for their 2001 model, the last under the old name. For 2002, the series was renamed NASCAR Thunder, and by 2003 has simultaneously been released on GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 2, PC, and the original Playstation. In 2004, the company did not release a PC game, marking the first time in 5 years that NASCAR did not have a PC game released.

EA Sports used this break to split their old "Thunder" titles into two separate racing lines; one for consoles focused on gameplay, and one for PC focused on technical accuracy in the spirit of the old Papyrus/Sierra lines - indeed the PC game used many former members of the Papyrus development teams. The games were given differing names, as to not confuse the two, with the console series renamed NASCAR: Chase for the Cup (released in 2004, a reference to the new NASCAR playoff format) and the PC series renamed NASCAR SimRacing (released in 2005). Sweeping gameplay changes mean that the "Chase for the Cup" name will be dropped from the 2006 edition of the console game. Instead, the game will be titled NASCAR 2006: Total Team Control. The new name is derived from the new feature by which a player who has teammates in the field can actually switch to their teammates' cars and control them during a race. It is slated to be released in September 2005.

There are many NASCAR events to attend. The action at the Golden Corral 500 is second to none. Order Golden Corral 500 tickets and get to the race. Other NASCAR games include Hasbro Interactive's NASCAR Heat; Papyrus' NASCAR Legends (Based off of the NASCAR Racing 3 engine); EA Sports NASCAR Revolution (released between NASCAR '99 which came out in 1998, and NASCAR 2000, which came out in 2000); and NASCAR Rumble, an EA game incorporating some of the features of Nintendo's Super Mario Kart, but with NASCAR car designs.