Nascar 2011 The Game (Xbox 360) Review

There hasn’t been a full Nascar title on consoles since EA’s NASCAR 09.  After the licensing agreement between EA and NASCAR ended last year, it was picked up by Activision.  Today we have the first title, developed by Eutechnyx, released under this new agreement with Activision.  Probably second only to Formula One on a global scale, NASCAR is a pretty big license to hold.

Eutechnyx has focused largely on racing games as a developer and has developed such titles as Pimp My Ride, Hot Wheels: Beat That! and Big Mutha Truckers 2. Not titles I immediately associate with, even as a fan of racing games, so this one kind of came out of nowhere for me.

Let’s get over the whole “all you do is turn left” thing too.  If you’re not a fan of Nascar you’re probably not going to be interested in this one.  Nascar 11 features an impressive 22 of the 26 or 27 circuits raced on in the Nascar season.  While many of them are ovals, there are several road courses. These are fun distractions when you’re playing through a season in the career mode but the real meat in this game is in the ovals.  The oval tracks come in various shapes and lengths from the 1 mile tri-oval “bullring” in Phoenix to the 2 1/2 mile super speedways such as Indy and Daytona. Each track is shaped ever so differently in terms of its layout and banking.  This brings a ton of character into the game given the variance in the tracks forcing you to learn the nuances of each.

As a fan of racing, but more of a fan of open wheel series such as Indycar and F1, the allure of Nascar to me is how these guys race so close together in such a tight environment at speeds close to 200mph.  The amount of skill and tactics it takes to win at Nascar is probably lost on the casual observer.  Thankfully, Eutechnyx does a masterful job of recreating this while maintaining a good degree of playability.  While it’s fun to lead races, this game is best enjoyed when you’re in the pack, jostling for position, using the draft and picking lines and other drivers to work with in order to get to the front.

Using the draft is a key part of Nascar racing and is well represented in the game.  It does a good job of representing the draft with some simple contrails off the backs of cars ahead of you when you get close enough. Staying within the contrails means you’re in the draft.  The longer you are in the draft is represented by a small meter onscreen which also helps you time when you should pull out from the draft in order to slingshot around the driver ahead.  In longer races, using the draft can be more strategic as you will conserve fuel the more you are in the draft.  You can also use the tactic of bump drafting if you dare.  It’s cool to see this in the game. Anyone that watched this year’s Daytona 500 saw a ton of this.

One of the most difficult things in any racing game is determining where your opponents are in relation to you.  This is even more important in a Nascar game because unless you are really, really good (or really, really bad) you will be running in close quarters with your opponents the bulk of the time.  There is an on screen radar along the bottom of your screen which shows your opponents in relation to you.  This is key as it will let you know if you can dive into a corner or make any sudden movements.

You can choose from any of the current Nascar drivers in the main career mode or go with a generic driver of your own creation.  The career mode plays out extremely straight forward.  While there are practice sessions available from the main game menu, career mode puts you right into the qualifying and then the race.  Before each race weekend you can choose various difficulty options to tailor things to your liking.  I really like the fact this is available before each race instead of setting it for an entire season.  I was able to start the first few races on the easier levels and work my way up to the harder difficulty as I became accustomed to the controls and whatnot.  Same goes for race length, effects such as tire wear and fuel and damage. There seems to be quite a serious jump between the medium and hard AI levels though.  I won from pole in my second race on the medium AI setting but then got my you-know-what handed to me on hard.

Even when the damage setting is set to full, the damage seems largely cosmetic.  You have your typical damage indicator on screen but it is extremely hard to damage your car to the point where you are no longer able to race.  Instead you will lose grip in the corners and/or top end speed which will force you in to the pits for repairs because you simply won’t be able to keep the pace with the rest of the field.  The box does tout impressive crash physics and damage.  The crashes are pretty good, especially from inside the car.  The game cuts to a replay after crashes that bring out the caution flag.  This replay isn’t nearly as good as experiencing the crash from the in car view though.

As you race through career mode, you earn XP which unlocks bonus content.  XP is earned for such things as clean passes, using the draft to pass, clean laps, fast laps, leading and dominating. The best part though?  Getting the chance to earn bonus XP by doing burnouts and donuts on the track when you win a race.  You get 30 seconds to earn these bonus points and it isn’t as easy as it looks!

Outside of the career mode there are several challenge events which unlock as you progress through them.  These events are kind of mini-game like and unlock bonus goodies should you meet certain challenges such as “draft ‘x’ number of cars before race end”.  There is also an online portion of the game which supports up to 16 players online (nice).  Unfortunately I was not able to test the online play as part of this review.

Finally, the controls are extremely accessible.  They are not overly sensitive.  I really appreciate this as it lends itself to the game’s overall playability.  There’s just enough play in the thumbstick to allow you to be consistent through the long turns without having to do the tap-tap-tap that’s typical in many other racing games. There are numerous steering and braking assists that you can toggle on and off as well.  I especially liked that you don’t have to rely on a racing line painted on to the track.  There’s no one right line in Nascar and tracks often feature two or three viable race lines.  Instead, you can set it so that a warning pops up on screen if you’re entering a corner too fast.  Its simple but effective and really helped me.

Visually speaking, Nascar 2011’s look can best be described as clean.  Cars and tracks are rendered quite nicely.  There are two in-car views, a hood, a bumper, and a behind the car view to choose from.  I highly recommend the first of the in car views (the one that shows your hands on the wheel).  Most in-car views in games for some reason lose that sense of speed.  I didn’t find that here.  The view is also moderately wide.  You can look from side to side with your right thumbstick too.

Car damage is moderate.  You can really beat the crap out of your car and get away with minor damage.  There’s some decent particle effects but nothing spectacular.  There’s plenty of other subtle effects that add to the overall prettiness of the game such as reflections off of windows and some nice lighting contrasts on the tracks.  These aren’t big things.  You might not even notice them if you’re not looking for them but they are nice details that I appreciated.

Most importantly though, the frame rate and sense of speed is there.  Often I see a drop in that sense of speed when you use the in-car view in a game but not here thankfully.

Two things stand out with regards to Nascar 2011’s sound when I play it.  First, I don’t think the engine sounds are throaty enough or offer enough roar to them.  It does not sound ‘big’ enough of roar when you consider these are big cars with big, beefy engines. Secondly, the spotter can get a little repetitive.  Spotters are members of your race crew that sit above the stands and relay information to the driver.  They’re key in oval racing of all kinds and its well represented in the game.  In a subtle nod to Nascar’s southern roots your spotter even has a ‘twangy’ accent.  My issue with the spotter is that it can get a little repetitive.  Now I realize there’s only so many ways someone can say “you’re clear”, “high”, or “low side”, but every now and then he’ll throw in an odd little comment.  As humorous as these are, you’ll hear them often.  Minor complaint; sure, but it bugged me.

Surprisingly, I really enjoyed Nascar 2011 The Game.  Admittedly I didn’t have much in the way of expectations with it being Eutechnyx’s first effort in the sport, but it is a fun racing experience.  It’s not the prettiest racing game out there and those that can’t get over the whole “turning left” thing might find it a niche title but fans of the sport will love it as it is a lot of fun, and it is fun that counts.