NASCAR Heat 3 Critic Reviews

While the gameplay and consistently improving modes are the obvious strong suits of NASCAR Heat 3, the game is still just a touch short of an elite racing title because it lacks personality and high-level presentation. That said, the groundwork and the second floor are in place for a complete racing experience, the developers and publisher just need to add a rough and some pops of color.

The NASCAR Heat series is three years in and is just now hitting its stride. This year’s addition to the career mode is a solid foundation that pays off in the present and sets it up for the future. I don’t think the game has necessarily locked down each of its main components – gameplay, online, and career mode – but it’s making its way through the pack.

NASCAR Heat 3 is a fun and entertaining stock car racing game that needs to take more steps towards offering a simulation for racing fans. Opening up an eSports division should encourage the cream of the crop to represent the real life sport in a virtual world. Champions of other racing games have literally gone on to win great things. The Career Mode is deep and engaging and the Xtreme Dirt Series is an excellent addition to the series. The visual and audio issues are something that need an update, but there’s enough new content that the fans of this series will really enjoy.

Though Nascar Heat 3 is a solid racing sim overall, it could have raised to greater heights with more exciting content for those outside the niche market, and a few tweaks to the frame rate stability and cheesy voice acting. Despite the lack of replayability and expansive customization options as seen in other games in the genre and in sports games overall, there’s still a whole lot of fun to be had here, especially for those who love racing, Nascar, or both.

All things considered, I've had fun with NASCAR Heat 3. The seasons you take part in can feel draining but there's a charm to the career mode with the fake twitter exchanges and the 'I've only got one take to give' video segments. I'm not sure how long my enthusiasm will last but the arcade handling provides an enjoyable time behind the wheel.

While NASCAR Heat 3 is still a fun racer and a great representation of the sport and its support classes, it just doesn’t do enough to differentiate itself from the previous two games.

The work 704 is doing with NASCAR series is impressive if you look at the games before this third one, there’s such an evolve through the years and little by little they are growing. Gameplay improves every year, but nevertheless It doesn’t offer a truly racing experience, a performance with the quality enough to compete with the greatest games of motorsport. Nascar heat Series have the potential to compete with them, although for the moment, they are stuck in their own progress with no look in the future. Right now is just another arcade cars game, but I’m pretty sure this will change in future games.

While it has some good ideas that are well-intentioned and will surely provide some entertainment to die-hards, NASCAR Heat 3 is missing all those things and, in the wider scheme of racing games, is still several laps behind.

Ultimately, there is a difference between being easy and not very good. NASCAR Heat 3 is severely let down by the anodyne on-track action. Lacking any sort of driver enjoyment undoes the hard work put into the officially licenced lineup and career path options. Even for a racing game fan, this game is as dull as dishwater and extraordinarily derivative.