by Ira Herbold

Created on: September 22, 2008   Last Updated: May 27, 2011

Let's consider this a review of the latest EA Games NASCAR release, NASCAR 09. I played it on Xbox 360, but this can go for any platform.

There is a serious problem with this game. It's not the handling or the driving physics: they're superb. You can customize just about every feature of your car from the weight distribution to the tyre pressure. It's not the graphics either; there's realistic damage and overall it looks great.

No, to put it very bluntly, the big problem with NASCAR 09 is the sport it's simulating. I mean, come on! "Drive around the circle. Now repeat two hundred times." Does that sound like a good basis for a video game to you?

Sure it's great tearing through the opposition in a car painted with your very own distinctive design, but planting your foot (or in this case your finger) on the accelerator and holding it there for the twenty or thirty laps of a race is so boring. There is absolutely no challenge to this game. I am not exaggerating here; you can finish a race by holding down the right trigger (in the case of Xbox) and pushing the thumbstick to full left and holding it there on the turns.

Now, I'm an Australian. The fact that you can count the number of NASCAR fans in this country on one hand is hardly going to help sales here, and perhaps I'm a little biased, but the fact remains: unless you're a die-hard NASCAR fan, there is absolutely no way you'd choose NASCAR 09 over the wealth of other great racing games out there. Even if you're a die-hard NASCAR fan, I don't recommend this game. You run the risk of being turned off the sport forever.
All of that said, the game is not completely without merit. As I said, both the handling and graphics are great, and there is a wealth of customization feature on offer. You can export a template to your PC and decorate your car in your own dedicated paint program. It's similar to the customization in Forza, but without the fiddliness and annoying, time consuming, layer system of that game.

There is also an impressive online multiplayer available, with the option to compete with fourteen friends and own' a track in offline competition.
Unfortunately, unless (as previously mentioned) you are a die-hard fan of the sport, you will get bored and give up before you can discover these features.
NASCAR 09 does simulate the sport accurately, but the sport is so damn boring that who would want to simulate it?

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