NASCAR Racing 2003

It's that time of the year again where everyone gets festive and watches that awful adaptation of A Christmas Carol. However, this year I thought why not put a "twist" on the idea (for all of those Dickens fans out there) and turn it into a game I loved, a game I love and a game I am almost sure I will love.

Starting in traditional fashion let's take a step back in time to 2003. The year in which the first Call Of Duty was released along with The Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker. But for Sim-Racers it could have been the most iconic year in the whole of the genre. Papyrus released Nascar Racing 2003. It was the NASCAR sim for the season including all the cars, tracks and the ability to use a wheel with force feedback!

Whilst this all seems pretty ordinary, there are several things which makes this game unique. For those of you who have never played it but passionate fans of iRacing, I do reco

[caption id="attachment_21338" align="alignleft" width="175"] Jimmie Johnson crossing the line to take charge of the cover[/caption]

mmend picking it up as it is made by the same company (just under a different name after the company split) and carries a lot of the same traits. It's almost like NASCAR 2003 is the infant child and iRacing is that child all grown up. The Force Feedback for a game so old is pretty good, it's not too heavy so you feel like you're driving a truck and doesn't have a ON/OFF switch and that's it. (like some sims at the time). The controls are very customisable which makes it even better for the NASCAR enthusiast who wants to find the perfect setup.

Talking of setups, you can customise just about everything on the car that you could expect to customise in iRacing. Again this will make fans very happy. Every slight adjustment affects the handling and speed of the car which again for its time is brilliant. Which brings me on to the physics. In my opinion these are very hard to get right, you don't want to feel like you're driving a weightless blob but also not like you're driving a tank. Again this title delivers and can even rival those of the early Sim Bin titles.

One key feature for me was the AI. The AI in the game are very smart, responsive and very..very..clean. Now that's great but what makes NASCAR so different as a sport is the amount of wrecks and unpredictability. So, how did Papyrus bring this into the game? Easy, edit the AI yourself. By going into one of the files in the root folder, you can customise amounts of mechanical failures, aggression, drafting distance and much more. Meaning you could either set up a demolition derby, a realistic race, or a gentleman's race with no incidents for 200 laps! This made it perfect for every player so that they find their comfort zone or will even branch out to try something new. There were and still are many good times to be had messing around with the AI settings.

The graphics are also excellent and in my opinion are almost up to scratch with those from rFactor. There is a lot of customisation and again you get that sesne of iRacing blood coursing through its veins with the way it looks. The cars look brilliant and at the start of a race you can even see the white stripes on the tires from being fresh out of the paddock which is a really nice feature. The scenery is very well crafted and changes from track to track which again adds a sense of it being an official title.

But perhaps one of the best features of this long lost treasure is the community. It is still extremely strong and every year there are 2 or 3 mods for the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck Series. Bringing you all the cars, liveries, tracks to what seems to be an outdated title. But it works beautifully. For NASCAR fans outside of the USA who do not have a region free console or do not want to spend endless hours on the internet looking for a way to get Eutechnyx' latest console title it is perfect. You get all the drivers, teams and liveries put into a game where you can customise just about every characteristic of the AI. There is even an option in the game for an Opponent Manager. This effectively is a simple version of the .ini file and you can model each opponent as to what their real life counterpart is doing. So if you wanted to see Trevor Bayne at the front of the field (like myself) then you can boost his stats up which for the time is a fantastic feature.

It also carries more similarities to iRacing than first thought. The spotter feeds you the same information, and even the F1, F2 and F3 buttons bring up the Session info, Standings and Fuel!



Overall NASCAR Racing 2003 is a fantastic title, and if you never had the chance to play it then you are truly missing out. Endless mods and endless fun for a game which was way ahead of its time. You still find yourself playing through season after season and not many games give you that burning passion to play it after a long day when they're 9 years old.

But how does it compare to the Game of Christmas Present?

Liam Jenkins
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There is more NASCAR 2k3 in iRacing than people want to admit...

That said, when i picked up this game the day it came out, I never thought that 10 years later i would still play it for hours a week.. Its survived 3 wheels, 4 computers, and i still have the original CD (not DVD!) that it came on.
The new mods, and new tracks, and new graphic updates keep it going strong, 10 years later (well 10 in February).
Its held up against any EA offering, and even makes the new console only game look silly.
Yes it has a few short comings, but they can be overlooked when out on the track, racing at 200mph, door to door with the other 42 cars.
You can pick it up and do quick races, or the full tour of 36, and its still a ton of fun to race.
The community that still supports this game makes some amazing FREE mods with a level of detail that should be included in new programs.
The cars handle as they should, the tracks look and feel right (with the bumps and all).

If you can get it, do it.. its worth every penny.
 
Oh and how could i forget- the paint shop! any car you can dream of can be painted with templates and imported into the game... and best of all its easy to do it (basic photoshop or draw experience needed).
Oh and the endless screen shots and replays i could post.. lol
 
Even after almost 10 years a great game. Can get a good prize for it if you still own a copy as the second-hand market for NR2003 went nuts at some time.
 
Then I'm rich! This was my first PC racer of any kind and the title I purchased my first PC FFB wheel for, back in the days you could actually by them and other useful gaming equipment from your local PC World.

I was never any good at it. Nor did I like Nascar as a sport. It's still far from my favourite branch of motorsport but it was just so compelling and addictive. I always ran full length and it must have been 6 months before I finished a race. Probably another 12 before I completed one without eating the barriers/grass/pit-wall :D

NR2003 will always be the pedestal title for me. I arrived after GPL, the birth-child of it all for many around here.

Great read Liam, look forward to your choice of Christmas present. Bad year for that piece :D

Tom Endres sounds about right, you can have a new in wrapper from the US for $250 + delivery :O unlike GTL which Namco bandai sell for £0.99 :D
 
I am fortunate enough to own a copy of this in its original box with CD and manual. I wouldn't part with it though - it's the best racing game I've ever played.

I'm an F1 fan but this game introduced me to NASCAR. I started racing at Daytona and it was SO hard that at first my objective was to complete a lap then 2 laps... despite the difficulty it felt very real (I know, I know... how would I know it felt real if I've never driven a real NASCAR - well I have driven a real car and it felt a lot more like that, just much harder, than most sims).

When I bought Codemasters F12010 I was hugely disappointed - not because its such a bad game (it's a 7/10 for me) - its because I was shocked that seven years after NR2003, a game was released that except for the graphics wasn't in the same class as NR2003. Not even close.

The interface, the replay studio (yes - full replays, multiple cameras, full editing - awesome!), full car tweaking and set ups, easy-access to game and AI tweaking to get everything just how you like it. And it supports widescreen!!!

Eventually winning Daytona (and Taladega and Richmond and...) was one of the most satisfying moments in sim racing for me.

I have kept an old PC with Windows XP simply to keep playing this game (it won't run on Vista - or at least it won't for me - dunno about Windows 7/8).

Attention all racing game developers - and especially our good friends at Codemasters - hunt down this game, buy it and learn how its done.

You can't have mine though.
 
In those days they knew how to make a sim. Papyrus was one of my favorites. They also had an indycar sim that. Nowadays Papyrus went up in Iracing. I never bought this one and I regret it. And I agree that Codemasters would learn a lot by looking at this sim and also the Microprose GP series.
 
NR2k3 certainly is an excellent choice, I can't believe nine years after this release none of the new ones can't beat this tittle.
I had iRacing, but there is no IA so I prefer to race at NR2003. It's better to support who develop new cars, tracks and mods for NR instead paying every year expecting a great game and get disappointing.
I'm not saying iRacing isn't a great game, actually is better then NR at physics, graphics. The FFB is almost the same. But the NR AI is almost perfect.

LONG LIFE TO NR2k3!!!
 
Re installed my copy after reading this and a couple of the new mods! I forgot how much fun and how good this sim is. They were way ahead of their time.
 
It says a lot about our hobby that it's possible to be nostalgic about old titles. But this really was the heyday wasn't it. I've never enjoyed online as much as single player and it was never done better than with this absolutely classic. You can step into an iRacing stock car and still totally feel the lineage from NR2K3 - and, as others have said, the old game actually has AI. The modding has never stopped and, with Eutechnyx underperforming so woefully, there's a big gap in the market for a Nascar sim on PC. Which reminds me - whatever happened to the long promised ARCA Sim Racing X Patch? - seems to have been in beta forever.
 
Just could never understand why Nascar racing was "shelved" by so many leagues over the years?
I started my sim racing with Nascar 2003 and have tried so many leagues who sooner or later give up on it. As all the comments above, it's one of the most exciting and enjoyable series still out there. As I do not particulary like iRacing as such, but if they are...or planning to run the series, i would join just for Nascar.

Viva Nascar Viva!!!
 
played two full season against AI in this game, loved it to death before online racing came along and even the best possible AI seemed kind of dull in comparison. The best feature for me was, that you could stop and save the game at any point in the race, which was a real boon for a family man like me with kids still rather small at the time :)
Great writeup, sure brought back some memories
 

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