So I haven’t owned a Nascar video game in years. I’m almost positive that the last Nascar game that I owned was Nascar 2005: Chase For The Cup, granted I’ve played a couple throughout the years. I guess you could say I went out on a high note because that 05 video game was the best. The racing on it was great, it had modified race cars which was incredibly fun and the career mode was very solid with the progression from modifieds to the cup series. So, I was getting the itch recently to get a racing game for the PS4. The last racing game in general I’ve had was F1 2014 on the PS3 so I didn’t even have a PS4 racing game. I read some reviews of Nascar Heat 3 and for the most part they were positive, so I picked up a copy yesterday and spent the majority of yesterday and today playing the game with the Masters on in the background.

So here’s what I enjoy about that the game so far:

Dirt racing. While it’s not quite the modifieds that I enjoyed so much on Nascar 05, it’s a close second and maybe the funnest thing to do on the game. Also very cool that there’s so many dirt tracks, even including a dirt Bristol and Richmond track.

The career mode. Starting out on the dirt track and working your way up is always fun. When you start, you get a few test runs in the dirt series and if you accomplish your objectives you receive offers from those teams in the following season. This continues throughout the career. Once you have a full time ride in the dirt series you get test runs in the trucks and so on and so on until you get a full time ride in the Monster Energy Cup Series or own a team. Again, starting out at the dirt level is just so much more entertaining than if you started at trucks.
Owning your own team in career mode. Obviously you need to make enough money through winning to be able to do so but starting your own team and building up your team and car is fun and gives you something to work towards other than just winning races and championships. Anybody can win a championship racing with the best team and equipment but can you start a team from scratch and build it up to a championship.
The racing for the most part is quite realistic and can be challenging at times.
The graphics are excellent.

What needs to be improved:

The options for customizing your car in your career mode. I don’t know if this is something that you unlock the further you get in your career, I feel that it’s not, but there is essentially no customization that can be done to your car other than changing colors. When you start your own team, not be able to customize the graphics of the car beyond the colors is extremely disappointing.
If you don’t get to the front in the first few laps, it is extremely difficult to win. While this may be more realistic, it doesn’t make for good racing on a video game. I’ve noticed in most races, your window for getting to the front is about the first 3-5 laps. After that the the front few cars check out and you would have to run perfect lap times for 10+ laps to reel them in. Again this may be realistic but if I’m running a 20 lap race at Richmond, the cars should be grouped little close together.

Overall it’s a pretty good game and for the price of $28, it’s almost a steal. In a time when most all games are priced at $60, a game that is priced for half that is great. Also the game comes with a $50 off coupon for a Nascar ticket, so if your looking to go to the race you can get a nice chunk taken off the ticket price just by buying the game. Hopefully 704Games continues to build on this latest version and get Nascar video games back to their heyday.

Throwback to this gem of an game intro on Nascar 98 on the PS1

Good Times!! ^_^ Enjoy!! (widescreen)

NASCAR Heat 3 Video Game Review