NASCAR Racing
| NASCAR Racing | |
|---|---|
Box art
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| Developer(s) | Papyrus Design Group |
| Publisher(s) | Papyrus Design Group, Sierra |
| Designer(s) | Adam Levesque, John Wheeler, David Kaemmer |
| Engine | Proprietary |
| Platform(s) | DOS, Macintosh, PlayStation |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | Sim racing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, Multiplayer using modem |
| Review score | |
|---|---|
| Publication | Score |
| CGW |  |
The NASCAR Racing series of video games, developed by Papyrus, started in 1994 and ended with the release of NASCAR Racing 2003 Season in 2003. Later NASCAR games were released by Electronic Arts who, through their EA Sports brand, took over the official NASCAR license. This article deals with the original series release, NASCAR Racing.
NASCAR Racing was released in the fall of 1994 for DOS personal computers. It featured more than 25 of the 40 regular drivers in the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup season. Notable absences included Dale Earnhardt (who would go on to win the Winston Cup that year), Bill Elliott, Dale Jarrett, Kyle Petty and Darrell Waltrip, although the latter's brother, Michael, was included.
The game let the player race with up to 38 other cars (32 on shorter tracks like Bristol and Martinsville) and it also offered multiplayer action via direct links (one computer connected to another via a LAN) and also through an online system owned by Papyrus called Hawaii.
The CD-ROM version of the game also offered a SVGA graphics mode which was accessible through the command prompt (by entering "nascar -h"), but it was too demanding for many of the computers of its age, mostly 486 and early Pentium PCs. hardware accelerated versions were later created and bundled with the Matrox Millennium and Diamond Edge 3D.
Papyrus did produce a Daytona track only for use exclusively at a fan simulation game at the Daytona USA museum.
Damage was realistically modeled, but could be turned off to make the player's car indestructible. The effect of crashes varies depending on severity. Very minor impacts have no effect. Heavier impacts can cause sheet metal damage, which hurts aerodynamics and may cause engine overheating. A crumpled hood can also make it difficult for the player to see the track. Heavy impacts will damage a wheel or even blow the engine. Damage can be repaired in the pit stop, except for blown engines which are not repairable. Damaged sheet metal is removed, making for an imperfect repair with impaired aerodynamics.
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