The Peak of NASCAR Console Gaming (EA)

[@TheIceberg]

What is your favorite NASCAR game?

[@nontoxicchaseelliottfan9]

Probably NASCAR Heat 5, don't hate me okay.

[@Scarface1602]

Nascar 2005 chase for the cup was my all time favorite

[@turbo_marc]

Does iRacing count?

[@noahcoleman5556]

NR2003

[@saltbombcreations8336]

The Eutecnyx Saga

[@LessGo7921]

Thunder 2004 might have the best EA soundtrack ever. This Time, Chapter 4, Little know it all, Action, etc. All were such bangers 😂

[@jrfan07]

agreed, i still shuffle the nt2004 soundtrack on a regular basis to this day

[@S.K.R.E.Inc.]

The only con it has is not having a Gamecube release. Why wasn't it on the Gamecube when 2003 and 2005 were?

[@TanDawg58]

WHEN I FALL BACK DOWN, YOURE GONNA HELP ME BACK UP AGAIN, WHEN I FALL BACK DOWN, YOURE GONNA BE MY FRIEND

[@jermaineboyd6594]

Absolutely hands down best soundtrack for NT04 like cross the line,down by motorhead Nothing secret (for got the rock band) and quoter by fual.

[@SteamKing2160]

I prefer NASCAR 2005's soundtrack more than NASCAR Thunder 2004's

[@austinemms9772]

The career modes in these games were GOATED! It truly hasn’t been replicated and may never be eclipsed.

[@S.K.R.E.Inc.]

2003 had a more realistic take in NASCAR career when starting out, 2005 had more depth between series but more cartoony physics and stop-and-go action no thanks to Dale Jarett eliminating the racing back to yellow rule. And 2004 never even got a Gamecube release

[@AZYugiohVillage]

2003 I still play. To this day I have yet to win Career mode in my Rookie Year! 😢

[@randallellison6421]

Well, the sad part is, we could have still had this and more, but gaming companies (yes, I include the later years of EA Sports in this) got greedy and lazy, and just start slapping games together and selling them to make a quick profit, and not caring about quality because they developed a, "Hey, it's NASCAR, and people will buy it, even if its terrible" mentality!

[@turbo_marc]

I miss when EA was good, before they found out microtransactions exist.

[@curtisharvey5579]

Before they realized monopolization was easy

[@PointNemo9]

Same with Rockstar and every other mainstream developer

[@turbo_marc]

@@PointNemo9 AAA games kinda suck now.

[@VoltX_1]

08 and 09 were trash without them outside of a couple dlc in 09

[@bonvct]

You know what, if you are going to microtransact fans to death- AT LEAST MAKE IT WORTH IT!

[@x_Odin]

These games are the only reason I’m into Nascar like I am today. Played them to death as a kid, taught me a lot about the sport

[@Daveybird]

Yeah, my main era was NASCAR 2000-2005 CFTC (1999-2004), and also played a big role in why I'm still a fan, and helped me branch out into other motorsports in general.

[@BigOleMatty]

EA Sports was at its peak in 2003-2005...every game was great...NCAA Football and basketball, NASCAR, MVP Baseball, Tiger Woods, Madden...

[@S.K.R.E.Inc.]

Too bad they hated Nintendo in that era and did not release any games for it after 2002 and 2004

[@stevendezwaan5707]

I still have Tiger Woods 2003 and 2005, both of them are fantastic. I may have to look out for 2004 and try it out as it's my favorite year for the nascar series.

[@anakin50137]

My vote has to be for 05, it's the game that introduced me to the lower divisions like truck and modifieds and was something I missed in later games. I probably put over 3000 hours on that game that when the soundtrack kicked in I was hit with a wave of nostalgia

[@DavidJameson89]

What’s sad is that from 2002-2005, gaming had nowhere near the technology it has now. But back then we still had awesome NASCAR games.

[@PaperBanjo64]

Technical limitations made for great games, only current gen system I have is the Switch and I love that thing!

[@gripen777]

We also had C&C Generals and the Ace Combat PS2 games, all classics

[@NotMattyDYT]

Its amazing how the community has been able to keep giving life to these games especially with the NASCAR 2005 CFTC retexture mod on Dolphin that adds in more drivers that weren't in the game and replaces the fantasy ones

[@PaperBanjo64]

They've even figured out how to rename the fantasy drivers so drivers not in the game are legitimately in the game now and not just as a bozo made up driver. Modders have added Dave Blaney to the game! They've added more legends in their actual original paint schemes!

[@LessGo7921]

The main thing I still can’t get over is difference between the driving in Nascar Total team control and Nascar 07. In TTC, it felt like at some tracks like Homestead, the tires were flat from the start while Nascar 07 felt so much more grounded and you had full control of your car. Then Nascar 08 happened Just wanted to vent about that. I hope I’m not the only one 😂

[@nascarfanatic2425]

Yeah, NASCAR '06 Total Team Control's cars were impossible to drive outside of Daytona and Talladega. NASCAR '08 was mostly bad because of the AI and getting rid of a lot of the features that made '07 fun. Then '09 was worse.

[@samruth240]

Thunder 03 is the reason why I'm a nascar fan

[@S.K.R.E.Inc.]

Nice. If only 04 got a Gamecube release...

[@PaperBanjo64]

There was one planned, yet they released a copy and paste of NASCAR 2001 on the OG PlayStation that was already ridiculously outdated by that point instead...I'd been PISSED if I was a PlayStation owner and paid for the same damn game 4 times!

[@blackhawkarc]

I played all 3, but I only ever owned 1 and that was 2004. Racing in some legacy places like Daytona Beach was an awesome sensation that iRacing really is the only other true source of that nostalgia. (Also in the "Watched till the end of the Video" club)

[@ElFrencho]

NASCAR Thunder 2003 is the first NASCAR console game I ever played. I got it for Christmas back in 2002.

[@TrashHowitzer]

Imagine what absolute masterpieces we would have if not for the exclusivity license. I genuinely think it could have helped NASCARs popularity during the drop, while I didn't first experience it through games, I got 05 when I was 7 and it sealed the deal.

[@PaperBanjo64]

Most definitely, if the original Heat series continued, they would have gotten more tracks and drivers, keep in mind Dirt to Daytona had a better Truck Series than EA ever had...Dirt to Daytona actually had manufacture noses, and a much better driver roster(except Rick Crawford, fuck him) you could actually have multiple grooves and move around the track, not just run the bottom, but, there were a few tracks that weren't realistically designed, especially Bristol and Darlington, Bristol being the less offensive of the 2 as it least was fun to drive on and raced somewhat realistically, and the pack racing at Daytona and Talladega was great until the pack broke up when they pit. I think an EA vs Monster rivalry would have created epic racing games, especially if Monster could have gotten tracks like Nashville, Memphis Tennessee, and Kentucky Speedway, and added the Busch Series, especially if they could gotten driver moves, especially since EA didn't properly implement it except for fantasy drivers either retiring or replacing retired real life drivers.

[@existinginaspace8347]

I want a NASCAR game where not only can I build my own team but there's actually the ability to hire other drivers and build them up as a multi car organization. And beyond that I want the ability to not make the race with bad qualifying times.

[@hunternixonfishing2500]

Some of my fondest memories as a child was playing NASCAR 2005 CFTC. Truly an OG!

[@SHarrell42069]

I definitely didnt expect the very end of the video 🤣

[@theLongPigChef]

Nascar 04' and 05' were sooooooo fun! I missed playing with my friends. They were very accessible to someone who didnt know how to play. Even my dad would play.

[@rcguy902]

Ur a clown 😂😂😂 u have no friends

[@CorgiButtOnWheels]

Truth be told? Thunder 03, 04, and CFTC 05 were some of my all-time favorites. 06 TTC was fun at the time, especially playing around with the voice commands, as primitive as it was! I'd get a kick out of my crew chief reprimanding me for saying "Shoot" or "Dang" like I was cursing. Was super immersive! When it worked, that is... 04 had the best soundtrack, physics, and in-depth career. Improved from 03; but then with 05, it added a lot but also took away some of the depth from 04 in some ways. Like, sure. You had the other series, and also a new killer soundtrack. But the depth of building your cars was sort of gone in 05 from 04. If you could combine the two, and have the handling of 04? Perfection. I want to not only drive, but manage a team with AI drivers! Silly season, car building, all of it! Hope we get there again one day!

[@moneyjoefilms3744]

The chase of the cup was my favorite because you had to build up the modified series and setup your racing business from modified to cup.

[@stevendezwaan5707]

I have all 3 of these games for the original xbox still today. I got them when they were still pretty new and i've put a lot of time into all of them. My favorite is 2004. That one seems like it had great car feel and ai driving. You can put the ai difficulty on rookie and get a pleasant idea on how the game worked. Veteran made it feel like they were going to put up a decent fight. Legend will make the ai really difficult especially at Talladega, Daytona, and the fantasy track Tiburon (which is a beefed up, 3 mile version of Talladega ran in reverse). I have found in a lot of other nascar games, the ai is generally quite rubbish as in sometimes comically easy to beat even at the highest difficulty (I shouldn't be pulling away from them on the highest difficulty at Daytona or Talladega) I spent a lot of time playing split screen multiplayer with a friend of mine from high school I still keep in touch with today. We'd have some races that would leave Darrell Waltrip gasping for air. We both had a copy and we'd ride our bikes to each others places to play this. Overall, 2004 played really, really well and is quite enjoyable for a long time nascar fan like me. Thunder 2004 still remains as one of my most favorite games overall.

[@scottbarnes3116]

Such a shame that the Thunder era wasn’t available to play here in the UK 🇬🇧

[@Ghettocowboy33]

The one down side to 04 was you couldn't bump draft.

[@S.K.R.E.Inc.]

For Nintendo fans, it was the fact that EA gave the middle finger to them when it came to chances of a port of 04 coming to the Gamecube

[@strokeraceventura2550]

One thing I always wanted in the games was to create drivers like create players in madden. I wanted to create my friends and maybe some drivers from movies and put them in the game with different attributes.

[@MrSevsbeasts]

I’ll say up to 07 total team control was the golden years of the game. How they used to make better games in the past compared to now is mind blowing

[@MikeG42]

Excellent video Iceberg. 👍And a nice message for EA Sports at the end. 😆

[@user-nx3zi3eh7w]

Unlocking the outtakes where Tony Stewart is trying to say "EA Sports. It's in the game." was hilarious. But right before he can get to the second sentence of the tagline, he gets hit in the ear with a paper airplane by someone who threw it from off screen and instead Tony said, "EA Sports. It's in my ear.". I laughed for five minutes straight."

[@Thomas.Frasco.Motorsports]

NCThunder 2003 is my childhood 🙌 I got it again on the GameCube recently 🏁

[@S.K.R.E.Inc.]

Nice. IMO it felt more realistic than 2005

[@SuperNASCARrocks]

The fast that those games came out over 20 years ago and people are still playing them today is quite sad. When a game from 20 years ago is better than games today, that says everything about the NASCAR Gaming landscape as a whole.

[@crowley29]

Of those games and as being a harvick fan 04 was and still is my favorite..out of all of them my favorites are 04 dirt and 07

[@CharlieFibrosis]

The interesting thing about Thunder 04 was I didn’t get the game until about 2011 or so. Don’t know why or how but I somehow managed to skip that one but played EA’s NASCAR titles from Chase To The Cup through to NASCAR 09. That being said, my major gripe and why I personally don’t like playing Thunder 04, is because the Ally/Rival system is too sensitive. Even a minor bump, even if it’s meant to push someone down the straight or accidentally hitting someone after they wrecked in front of you, was way too much; go from neutral to a -60 in a blink of an eye. If you implement the ratings from 2005 and beyond, I’d probably play it a lot more. I will praise though that the career mode is much much harder and the presentation from the soundtrack to the Lighting Challenges. Everything that made Thunder 03 my favorite is even better in 04. While I do understand some odd feelings about NASCAR 06, I actually love the total team control aspect. For how many times you may wreck out of a race, to not have it all go to waste by switching to another car is good, and considering how during that time I think Roush and HMS were the dominant teams of that time (I think there was one year where Roush and HMS took 8/10 spots in the Chase) it made sense to want the whole team to succeed.

[@randallellison6421]

To me, NASCAR Thunder 2003 and 2004 are the gold standards when it comes to NASCAR video games! Both games did nearly everything right. The sad part is, we could easily still have that and more, and I agree, exclusive licensing has caused these companies to get greedy and lazy and develop the mentality of, "hey its NASCAR, and people will buy it even if it's terrible", and I think the lack of competition from other developers is alot of it!

[@justinturley7071]

04, 05 and 07 were my favorites. Nothing can beat them.

[@tylerpuszczewicz2535]

I'm surprised that you left NASCAR 06 Total Team Control because that was also part of the peak of NASCAR video games.

[@Mtbr_Cody]

I broke my ankle at the beginning of summer 2002, and got NASCAR thunder 2003 as a gift. NASCAR thunder 2003 got me into nascar

[@craigjoe8691]

I still play. NASCAR thunder 2004 on my steam deck every day

[@anthonycass5934]

The carreer mode in nascar tunder 2003 and 4 are what we need in a new game.

[@TanDawg58]

Thunder 04 will always reign supreme I have not played 03, but my biggest gripe with the game is the lack there of Front Row Joe Nemechek Chase for the Cup wasnt bad, but certain bits of it are eh, same with 06. The cool thing about 06 was being able to control the whole race team and work to finish in all the top 5 spots

[@PaperBanjo64]

The worst thing is having to unlock every single paint scheme, that's annoying, Joe Nemecheck definitely should have been in the game instead of Todd Bodine, he was in pretty much every other EA NASCAR game, so not sure why he's absent, my guess is because he changed teams a lot.

[@TanDawg58]

​@@PaperBanjo64 I think at the time the game was being made, Joe had just left the HaasCarter 26, and was out of a car for about 3 or 4 weeks before joining Hendrick in the 25. But they could have easily put him in his NEMCO 87 CellularOne Busch car, which was going to come to Cup had he not landed the 25.

[@redxraider0613]

Total team control was my first Nascar game and is still my favorite

[@chrisguardiano6143]

As an F1 fan in addition to NASCAR, I should point out that during this time in which EA was making great NASCAR games, they were also ending their relationship with F1. Unlike the NASCAR games, EA's F1 games were average at best especially when compared to the excellent F1 games that Sony made exclusively for the PS1/PS2. By 2002, EA had gotten so fed up with F1 and the clear favoritism in their view towards Sony by F1 executives that they pulled out of their contract a year early which granted Sony the exclusive rights for F1 which lasted until 2009 when Codemasters picked up the exclusive rights. In an ironic twist, EA & F1 are now partners again thanks to EA buying Codemasters a few years ago.

[@loftisoutdoors7080]

Best thing about those games what you was talking about I love the pre-race was Darrell waltrip and Mike Joy and The national anthem but I wish they could add the prayer That's what I loved about it and playing those NASCAR games that makes you feel like You're watching on TV or at the track That's what I like about it some of the best games NASCAR ever did

[@redguysimracing2382]

Thunder 2004 & dirt to Daytona I still play to this day.

[@S.K.R.E.Inc.]

Gamecube version is superior to the latter game, if only 04 also came out on that thing

[@edwardogle2458]

I loved Nascar 2005! First game I ever had for my PS2. I pulled an all nighter the first night I had it working my way from the modifies to the cup series just to realize I didn’t have a memory card so all my progress was for nothing. 😂

[@drummerbob10]

Give me the career mode of Thunder 2004 with the gameplay of NR2003. Also how was a game from 2003 able to have the rookie strips for rookies and not have them for those drivers in the next "season" but no game since then was able to replicate that. It's small but noticeable detail.

[@shaneharrisnj3484]

5:47 Future hall of famer and 2004 Fall Kansas weekend Sweeper!

[@Eliteprecision29]

Easily NASCAR thunder 2004. That game did a lot of the little things right and was more in depth with some of its features and is the most polished NASCAR game on console to this day. Nascar 05 really eliminated a lot of the things that made thunder 04 great. They got rid of AI tire wear, pre race and post race presentation and the team building in career mode was dumbed down. Nascar 05 was actually the beginning of the end when it came to nascar games on consoles

[@S.K.R.E.Inc.]

Of course it was. It was the last game EA released on the Gamecube a while due to how crappy the system ran and sold. Also, they were starting to focus on microtransactions at that point in time

[@budsutton7343]

Thunder 2003 the monte carlo was awesome in that game

[@larrysnellings7992]

2004, 2003, and then 2005. But I put Dirt to Daytona right there with 2004. Great racing, but poor graphics and almost no stats. I love stats.

[@HoltAircraft]

I never had 03, but 04 came out when I was racing karts, man we loved it so much we would take a PS2 to the track on the weekends and play NT04 and Toca race driver 3 saturday night. Good times! Personally if I were to pick I'd go with 05 because I loved the Modifieds, Tucks and Busch cars, also 05 had a couple fantasy tracks which can be good... PS2 were the best games ever, I don't play any video games anymore now.

[@austincharbonneau1206]

The best nascar games for the last 20 years

[@jc1424]

Thunder 04 was my favorite because it had AI tire wear/R&D in career unlike 2005 Chase for the Cup... also better physics than Thunder 03.

[@dalowryda]

I started online racing on pc on thunder 04 in probably 07 08 ish. Good times

[@darthhull85]

My favorite will all be 98. To this day when I hear Flirtin with Disaster I’m taken back to daycare and playing with my friend Brody.

[@tww9920]

I always found it funny Ryan Newman in the game had you both commiting crimes speeding through the streets risking killing pedestrians or crashing to both of their own deaths just to give you a shot racing for him.

[@Continuum7]

I have a playlist of all the Thunder music, brings back good times.

[@R34Rules]

Can we talk about NASCAR 09 and the paint booth? That was great as woo

[@Regel2008]

2004 gets the nod for me as it was my first nascar game and I played A LOT of. And it’s career mode was perfection you can replay over and over again. CFTC 2006 is right there. Getting to drive all series, owning your team, get to control OF YOUR TEAMMATES so you can have a 1-2-3 team finish

[@S.K.R.E.Inc.]

If only the Gamecube had 06-08...

[@richardbrentlynn9905]

My favorite was 05. Because you had to start in lower levels and earn your way up to the Bigger series But I like that challenge

[@Starfire_Storm]

2005 Chase for the Cup is peak NASCAR gaming and no one will ever make me change my mind.

[@S.K.R.E.Inc.]

Especially the Gamecube version. Its cartoony physics allow you to perform the wall ride at Martinsville that the PS2 and Xbox don't have

[@danieljackett4193]

2003, and Chase for the Cup 2003 because it had all the current tracks...The only drawback was racing at Watkins Glen where the AI slowed the cars down too much entering Turn 1 off a restart Chase for the Cup was great because you started in the modified division and worked your way up

[@kodikennedy8912]

Nascar thunder 2003 was the best one. The competition was great had pre-race intro and had lil bit of post race commentary. My brother and I would spend hours playing it. 2 is nascar 2005 chase for the cup. It had multiple series autograph sessions bigger career mode. Different events also I liked the aggression from the AI when they get mad lol.

[@westonatwood7932]

Chase for the cup would be goated if it had Pocono and the Busch series tracks not included (Nashville, Kentucky, Memphis, Pikes Peak, Gateway, etc)

[@ryantalpey7850]

Man did Nascar 06 dirty, had Whelen modified in it too

[@loganengland8177]

We need a nascar thunder 2004 remaster for next gen consoles

[@nascarfan9724]

*E. A. SPORTS. It's in the game.*

[@justinpaul9200]

EA modeled the games from the current real life NASCAR world..We will never get what had back the 2000s .Now days NASCAR is completely trash and it reflects in the games as well.These old priceless era of games will always hold a place in my heart as I am approaching 35 next month and grew up with these gems

[@S.K.R.E.Inc.]

Out of the 3 peak games, only 2 made it onto the Gamecube, 2003 and 2005: Chase for the Cup. I still wonder why it didn't get 2004?

[@TyCathey]

Used to come home from school and turn on nascar thunder 2003 just to hear sweet home alabama come on 😂

[@kyleotto5446]

I loved NASCAR 05 I can still remember the cheat code for money

[@TheJelly71]

I’m glad I grew up playing those awesome NASCAR games truly the best NASCAR games ever but in my PERSONAL OPINION I would also put NASCAR 06 and NASCAR 07 in with those games but my favorite NASCAR game would have to be NASCAR 04 or NASCAR 07

[@nrrhunt88]

Thunder 2003. The OG to start it off

[@Big_Tuck_Enterprises]

Chase for the cup in my book is my favorite an considered as my goat of a game

[@Big_Tuck_Enterprises]

It had everything as a fan I was looking for in the fight to the top mode and the many routes you could take in your path to the cup series

[@Tmccreight25Gaming]

NASCAR 2006: Total Team Control was also really good in my opinion

[@AmericanRacer07]

I SAW THAT AT THE END!

[@NASCARFAN93100]

NASCAR Thunder 2004 & NASCAR 2005 Chase For the Cup are GTA San Andreas Level when it comes to NASCAR Gaming And Fun Fact: GTA VI Will be The First Ever GTA game to be released without Jeff Gordon competing as a driver

[@siltstridersftw]

Thunder 2003 is very fun on the Dolphin Emulator and especially some great creators making mods or I should say Retextures to the game and they are a ton of fun. Thunder 2004 is a very good game but it's a shame we didn't get a port for Gamecube. CFTC 2005 is very fun as well including the retextures on there as well.

[@S.K.R.E.Inc.]

Blame Nintendo burning that bridge with EA. They were total pricks to everyone for supporting the PS2 and Xbox when also bringing GCN support

[@mofoprada]

NASCAR Thunder 2004 had the better racing & in-game music. NASCAR Thunder 2003 had the better paint schemes & Lightning Challenges. NASCAR Thunder 2005 was solid, but third out of these three. NASCAR Thunder 2004 was the all-around best one, but the 2003 version set a successful foundation.

[@diecastcollector7982]

i feel like something that doesnt get talked alot is Forza 6 and 7 cause they also featured nascar in like 2017 and forza 6 did in 2016

[@PaperBanjo64]

10:07 ha ha ha

[@Clancysway]

I literally just installed N2005 yesterday xd

[@BeautifulAngelBlossom]

I had some them games on PS1 and PS2 However i wish you still play some thunder Games on Modern PC You cant even buy the PC version of game any more also I love NASCAR Thunder

[@stormkelleh]

2003 was my favorite and first ever 2004 I’m still waiting to “pop the cork”. Desperately want to play but trying to get my hands on an Xbox. 05 on the 360 was and is alright. Cheat codes though 🤣

[@josephphillippe8823]

I recently got Thunder 04 for ps2 and while the presentation and features are indeed great, i tried a quick race at kansas to get a feel for the driving and by god that car just would *not* turn. I tried all kinds of stuff with the setup and then it just wanted to drift all the time. So i guess im just missing something

[@BeautifulAngelBlossom]

I remember thunder 04 on PS1 was like other versions I could not get car to turn right so I went backwards lol the PS2 version was bit better OMG I a road course princess on most NASCAR games I went back to play NASCAR 04 many years ago again it was so hard to control the car I thought was old controller lol . And I thought NASCAR 21 was bad with car felt like it was on ice however that game had too many issues on PC where thunder was the better game lol

[@COCarDude]

While the EA games were fun at the time, my favorites were NR2k3 and Dirt to Daytona.

[@DRMF7]

Nascar 07 was a good game and was the last good ea game before 08 and 09.

[@kyleschafer6275]

NT04 has the best career mode by any nascar game. The depth of how much you can upgrade your team has never been matched since. EA really dumbed down the career in 05 and its a shame. All they had to do was include the trucks and then Busch series with said upgrades and you'd have a top notch game.

[@racingaerials4493]

NASCAR Thunder 2004 was so good because EA HAD TO ONE UP DIRT TO DAYTONA. Competition was the best thing that happened to NASCAR console gaming.

[@leoygeal2249]

I got nascar 99' Christmas 99. Thats how old i am 😂

[@cito1101]

The first NASCAR game I ever played was NASCAR 2005 CFTC. But nothing will top NASCAR Thunder 2004

[@S.K.R.E.Inc.]

If only Nintendo fans had a port of 04 because EA completely abandoned them in 02 and 05

[@MetallicA94GordoN]

Don’t forget Dirt to Daytona

[@jokool_aid]

I have a bit of a weird history with NASCAR games. My first ones were EA's NASCAR 99 and 2000 for the N64 (also had 99 on the PS1), and when I look back on them, I have no clue how 7 year old me was able to play those. I do have fond memories of them, especially the N64 version of 99 where the tires would just go flying off into space and the spotter would shout "WOAH THERE GOES A TIRE!!!" 🤣 I didn't have another NASCAR game until I got my PS2 many years later, so I missed out on the "peak" of NASCAR games, but I still enjoyed what I had, which was EA's NASCAR 08 (think I also had the "total team control" one? can't remember which one that was). 08 was easily the one I played the most growing up! I played it well past my teen years up until my PS2 died on me... After that, I've only had two other NASCAR games. There was a Wii one I cannot remember (I think Dale Jr. was on the cover???) other than being horrible both in looks and controls... The other is the current one I own on Steam: NASCAR Heat 4 (and yes I bought the Gold edition for Jeff Gordon). I have tried and tried multiple times to get into it, but it just never felt good driving with it... IDK what they did, but it just does not have the same feel as the EA Sports PS2 games I loved... I seriously hope that, whatever comes next for NASCAR in video games, it can at least start to go back to those glory days of peak NASCAR gaming. For now, I think I'll give Thunder 2004 a try.

[@S.K.R.E.Inc.]

The "Wii one with Dale Jr on the cover" was actually NASCAR Thunder 2003 released on the Gamecube. The only reason it looks bad is due to how compressed it is. Only 1.5 GB of disc space isn't helping 3rd party developers at all, and the controller is designed specifically for Super Smash Bros Melee

[@jokool_aid]

@@S.K.R.E.Inc. Hmmm...I don't know. I wanna say it was Dale Jr. when he was driving at Hendrick (so not his Budweiser red car). I could be completely wrong and it was someone else like Carl Edwards. LOL

[@DavidJameson89]

I started with NASCAR 99 on the PS1. I thought all the paint schemes the drivers had were cool, and that’s how I started watching the races.

[@runrafarunthebestintheworld]

@jokool_aid you're talking about NASCAR the Game Inside line.

[@jokool_aid]

@@runrafarunthebestintheworld That's the one! Thank you!

[@jaggerglover2178]

could you say 06 too? I loved 06 just as much as these three.

[@eazyethan261]

I liked all 3 and I liked 06 and 07 After that it started to fall imo

[@TerminalSports45]

It still angers me to no end that NT 2004 never got a gamecube release, EA has zero excuse

[@austin8783]

I'm of the unpopular opinion that yes, these games have awesome career modes and we loved these games as kids. But for my personal taste, the driving is way too wiggly for me. I'm sure these were supposed to be arcade type games and they're great at doing that but coming back to these games years later, the driving for me personally just feels off and hard to enjoy

[@IsaacV24]

Would u ever consider looking at the NASCAR Kart Racing on the Wii?

[@charlespetersonjr1994]

Thunder 2004 is and will always be the best NASCAR game ever. I have mixed feelings about 2005 chase for the cup not because of the gameplay itself but the driver rosters across the three big series' Cup was fine except Jeremy Mayfield, Ken Schrader, and Morgan-McClure's number 4 were cut. Busch's line up was decent but the fact we had no Martin Truex Jr. in the game is a disappointment considering he won the Busch title that season. also why the hell was Terry Cook in the Busch series he ran in the trucks. Speaking of which the truck line up is piss poor while yes Bobby Hamilton (god rest his soul), Matt Crafton, Jack Sprague, Chad Chaffin, Carl Edwards, and Jon Wood were present where were the other big names in trucks at that time? Where was David Starr? where was Dennis Setzer? Where was Steve Park? hell where was Ted Musgrave? if it had all the big name drivers from that era I would put 2005 above 2004 in a heartbeat. Also I should mention this some people may have noticed I didn't put Rick Crawford's name on the list of Truck drivers that should have been in the game...............that was intentional.

[@jonpike9991]

EA NASCAR was amazing. The only good racing game now is GT series

[@JivinJoe1984]

Wish the xbox versions would work on the series x

[@CoryAY82383]

I still play 2004 on my ps2