SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - NASCAR Racing 2003 Season: Still Going Strong in 2004

Once again it’s racin’ time here in the good ole US of A! Our most popular spectator motorsports organization, NASCAR, is cranking up it’s 2004 season starting at Daytona International Speedway this weekend with the Great American Race — the Daytona 500. There’s been some changes since the 2003 season, from new rules (a controversial new championship points system), a new sponsor (Nextel), a new fuel supplier (Sunoco), the departure of Pontiac, new tire compounds and an ever-so-slightly altered body shape for the Monte Carlo, but the most colorful and easily recognizable change to racing fans will be the new drivers, teams and the sponsorship colors on their cars.

Personally, I think it was unfortunate for hard-core racing simulation fans last year when video game producer Electronic Arts announced it had purchased the exclusive rights to produce NASCAR game titles. Historically, EA has not put the level of "driving realism" into their previous NASCAR titles compared to the Papyrus offerings, and with their focus on console platforms we shouldn't anticipate that situation to change. Within the racing simulation genre, it’s a well-established fact that the hardest of the hard-core realistic racing sims have always been produced by the outstanding development team at Papyrus. Their 1998 title “Grand Prix Legends” is still considered by most to be the benchmark in racing simulations. The package But Papy’s probably best known (in the U.S.) for its long running NASCAR Racing simulation series, which has brought virtual drivers an incrementally more realistic depiction of the challenges faced by drivers as they negotiate traffic at over 180 mph around the tracks of the NASCAR series. Around this time last year, Papyrus and publisher Sierra released the phenomenal “NASCAR Racing 2003 Season” which added great lighting effects, even more refined physics modeling, better and more scalable AI, and tire wear data provided by Goodyear’s racing tire division. Jasper Racing also contributed information on chassis response and configuration data. But the latest NASCAR Racing release was bittersweet news for racing sim fans, for it was also the last edition of a NASCAR racing title by Papy.

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