NASCAR is a popular sport throughout the United States, followed by millions. It’s only natural that videogames based upon it have cropped up since the inception of gaming. The first NASCAR game was released in 1994 from the Papyrus Design Group. They had a good decade, so much so that drivers even practiced using their games, until Electronic Arts took hold of the license. When their license lapsed, it was free reign on NASCAR games with different games incorporating the sports. In 2010, Eutechnyx stepped into the foray and released several NASCAR-themed titles. Despite a pedigree in driving games, going all the way back to 1988 with Speed Ace on Atari, most of their work recently has been met with middling reviews. Now Eutechnyx brings us NASCAR ’14, published by Deep Silver. The odds seem stacked against this racer finishing at the front of the pack but you never know what will happen, especially in NASCAR.

Before going further, it’s time to give this review a disclaimer. I am not a fan of NASCAR but enjoy the occasional racer. Therefore the analysis will be more if someone who isn’t a fan of the sport can get enjoyment out of the game. Now with that out of the way, the game follows the typical racer mantra and is split into the traditional single player and multiplayer options. The single player comprises setting up simple races, delving into a career mode, or reliving NASCAR highlights. Career mode is obviously where a lot of the meat to this title lies at. Here you make a completely new driver and race through events to make money and gain sponsors. With your hard-earned money, you spend it on equipping and researching the very best for your car. If you don’t like the default look of your car, you can take it into the paint shop. You won’t get Forza-level paint jobs here but you will be able to make something that’s unique and cool looking. Finally, for the times you don’t want to delve into the meaty career, you can play through highlights from past NASCAR events to see if you can achieve what the professional did. It’s a nice touch to get you straight into a game.

For those that need a little help in their racer, a tutorial lap in the beginning of career mode will help suggest which assists the game utilizes. These comprise the usual brake and race line assists but they go far to helping to learn how to play. You can even opt to use these assists online which is a nice touch. If you ever find an aspect of the career to bore, you can skip parts of events or just merely turn down the number of laps required. Also you can select the difficulty of the AI competitors before each event. Essentially, as for the career section, you can tailor it to whatever type of driver you are, beginner or expert. Unfortunately for beginners though, the game starts to outclass you fairly soon which will lead to a slight learning curve. It might also be good to read up on some NASCAR rules so when certain things happen, you won’t be confused.

Overall though, the game is NASCAR and not much else. There is a meaty career mode with a lot of options but the presentation is bland. The initial opening shows hope that the game will have some personality but it quickly wears off. There might be plenty for NASCAR fans to dive into, especially the career mode and cool highlight races. For others, the attraction is simply NASCAR so if that isn’t appealing in its own right, not much more is here for you.

With any racer, competing against humans is what will tickle most fancies. Unfortunately here, it feels limited to most the hardcore NASCAR fans. While you’re in a race, enjoying yourself, the game will pull you out if there are any accidents on the field. And after waiting about a half minute for the simulation to clean that up, everyone will have the option to pit. If someone selects that, then there too goes another half minute. While this simulates NASCAR quite well I would imagine, it could be sped up or dealt with better in a videogame environment. If you’re constantly getting pulled out of a game, it’s hard for it to be a compelling experience. These options can be turned off but it doesn’t appear to be popular. If this is up your ally, I imagine you will have an enjoyable experience. You can bring your car into the online space or opt to use a car of one of the NASCAR drivers. You can set private matches and even make a league for you and your friends to compete. And if you have a friend at your place, the game even offers split screen for head-to-head matches. But the online is just like single player, this mode is either specifically for you or it’s not. Most it won’t be appealing but the niche this game was made for will not be able to get this fix many other places.

While the interface feels somewhat sleek, the game’s graphics leave a bit to be desired. If you’re use to the Forza, Gran Turismo, DIRT, or other frontline racers, you may be disappointed here. The cars and world feel a little flat and not incredibly modeled. The textures are fairly low resolution. Not even when you’re painting your car will you be privy to a beautiful, high quality model. A commonplace of racers in general, but fairly bad here too is the amount of aliasing. The loading screen is a little dynamic which is really cool but the statistics are really low resolution and at the end, you’ll be greeted to a static advertisement. The cooler loading screens have NASCAR trivia questions to answer, which is nice. Overall, the game is quite vanilla. The art style is just bland and the low resolution textures and high amount of aliasing just doesn’t help.

From the in-car audio to the announcers, the game makes a fair attempt to bring you into the game and does a good job, for a time. The announcers are obviously limited to the single player and the in-game audio gets repetitive after a while. There is a host that makes your first time in the game quite inviting but quickly gets a little annoying. The game, sounds quite well though. Cars sound like you expect and once you get your speed up, there are little touches that help make you feel like you’re going incredibly fast. When you’re in the garage or in the pit, there is a lot of nice ambience of work being done. Overall, the actual racing sounds quite nice. The attempts at adding style are nice the first time around but get repetitive over time.

When you buy a NASCAR game, you obviously have to expect NASCAR. Unfortunately, not much steps have been taken to bring in anyone else. This game is for the hardcore enthusiasts who want a hardcore NASCAR simulation. If you get this game expecting to play it with friends that are casually into NASCAR or just enjoy racers, you won’t. It won’t be a compelling or entertaining experience for them. In the single player, you can simulate a career for your character or jump into NASCAR highlight moments. In multiplayer, you can take your career character or choose amongst NASCAR greats to play again live opponents. The graphics and sound design are nothing special. The one nice part about the sound is that there is an attempt to make it feel like you’re in a real race or watching one. Overall though, it all boils down to what type of racer you want. If you want NASCAR and absolutely nothing more, this could potentially tickle your fancy. This is a niche product for a niche audience. If you’re part of the demographic, you’re invited in. If you’re not, you’ll get pushed out.

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