SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - Feature: Race for the Chase

The physics in the NEXTEL05 update for NASCAR Heat quite honestly blow me away. I never imagined that the old engine had this much potential under the hood. Initially I didn't like the steering much, but by reading a few readme's (yes, there is valuable info in readme's), I changed a setting in the configuration file from 0.150000 to -0.15000 (options.cfg; ff_deadband_width -0.150000) and this gave me the crisper feeling in the center to the steering that I wanted. After further experimentation I've now settled for a value of 0.000000.

Keeping in mind the low system requirements and the age of NASCAR Heat, I find the physics very very good and enjoyable. They feel consistent and that helps obtaining immersion and is conducive the "suspension of disbelief". Rubbin' and trading paint is not a problem in NH, however the AI are a bit too forceful for my tastes, and if you find yourself in contact with an AI driver it is probably wiser to yield and have a comeback at a later stage rather than trying to force the issue.

Upon its release, NASCAR Sim Racing's physics were off in the sense that the simulator used open differentials resulting in extremely large slip-angles and huge slides that were easily recoverable. The first and (at the time of this writing) only patch to NSR corrected this issue. With the patch the diffs are now locked and this results in more realistic handling characteristics. However I have to say that to me the NSR physics feel much the same as the NH physics. While I like the physics in NH, they have to be related to the age of the product and the low system requirements. With NSR's requirements being much higher, the NSR physics are a disappointment to me.

Other issues relating to the physics, as well as bugs that were noted in SimHQ's extensive review series of NASCAR Sim Racing (and by other sim racers) are as yet to be addressed, but hopefully will be covered in a future patch. Again, the engine is capable of accepting some rubbin' and paint-trading although the AI cars are very hard to spin out, while a tap from them sends you spinning into the wall.

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season though, roars to a commanding lead with its physics, which by some have been described as unrealistically fidgety and twitchy, making it necessary to set up your machine to be extremely "oversteery" and loose at the start of the race and when on fresh tires. As the race progresses and the tires degrade the cars become increasingly tight and "understeery". To me, this sounds very much like real life racing. The tire model in NR2003 is by far the most convincing.

The delight and sense of achievement when racing to manage your tire wear and balancing the car on the knife's edge keeping the car on the safe side of a slide through and out of the turns is second to none.

The downside is that you can easily loose control over your car if you start hitting AI or they hit you. Rubbin' and racing is very dicey in NR2003.

With the physics, NR2003 edges ahead of NSR while NH is placed a solid third, still on the lead lap.

Gameplay: Offline

All sims offer offline entertainment in the sense that you can race the AI in single races and championships. While Papyrus´ NASCAR Racing 2003 Season does not offer additional off-line modes, the other two contestants do.

NASCAR Heat offers "Beat the Heat" where you are put into several racing scenarios based on real world races, e.g. try to at least equal race results obtained by real drivers. Furthermore there is "Race the Pro" challenges where you can race a specific driver and try to beat his time.

Bear in mind that to get the full value of these features you do need a complete copy of NASCAR Heat. It is good fun though.

NASCAR Sim Racing offers the career-mode where you earn money by racing and selling merchandise. You spend money on producing merchandise, initiate research and development programs and repair cars that you might have damaged or destroyed in races.

While NSR's career mode on paper looks exciting and in theory covers the CTS trucks the National Series and the Cup Series, in reality it does tend to become repetitive rather quickly as the mode is not very deep. Additionally, yellow-flag bugs and AI behavior can cut your career short as you wonder if it really is possible to complete a season. Tales of the "lucky dog" being sent to the lead of the race during a caution makes completing a career a frustrating experience.

NH is the big mover in this field, coming to the front from a secondary position in the race because of the "Beat the Heat" and "Race the Pro" scenarios that actually teaches some good driving techniques. Sadly, they also teach some bad habits. Most notably a tendency to carry over into banger-racing; moving opponents cars out of the way by driving into them.

NSR has to make an unscheduled pit stop to cure some engine problems.

Go To Page 4

Click here to go to top of this page.