Review: NASCAR 09

Mike Bantick
Wednesday, 13 August 2008 17:22

Opinion and Analysis

Left, left, left, straight for a bit and then left.  Surely there is more to NASCAR racing than turning left?  Thankfully there is.

NASCAR racing seems to be purely an American phenomenon, to outsiders who get a glimpse of the sport, racing in lines around tight ovals, waiting for the inevitable spin out, yellow flag pace car and then start all over again, doesn't really seem like motor sport.

NASCAR 09
	Developer	Tiburon
	Publisher	EA
	Rating	G
PS3, PS2, Reviewed on Xbox 360

Not when compared to Rally or V8 Supercar racing, in my opinion.

And so it goes with Electronic Arts latest attempt at bringing the good ole sport of NASCAR to the small screen. 

Visually NASCAR 09 looks okay, car internals are nicely presented, with the drivers gloved hands showing the less than frenetic wheel work needed to guide the heavy racer around the banked turns of each race way. 

It is the presentation of raceways that take the graphical award here, and though there are no weather effects to be seen, each raceway has a personality of its own, and effects such as shadows creeping across the track as the race goes on are nice.

The engines of these four wheel brutes sound enormous, drowning out most spectator sound effects but thankfully not your in cockpit crew radio.

The supercharged cars and trucks (we call them Utes in Australia!) do have an awkward floating motion across what must be super flat raceways when viewed in third person, and crash animation and effects (you know the thing we come to the races for) are somewhat diluted and toned down, most likely on purpose.