NASCAR SimRacing Critic Reviews

"Burnout 3" may beckon for the sheer thrills, but Chase is one of the best sports racing games ever released.

It's a game for the masses, to be sure, but it offers more than enough the way of career, offline, and online depth to warrant a purchase for the enthusiast fan, for the diehard "Thunder" lover, and most importantly, for the person who passed up previous console efforts simply because they were not up to par.

This game is a big step up in visuals compared to the Thunder series of old, which gives even more hope for future titles to come.

Thankfully, they took it upon themselves to overhaul the game and create a NASCAR racing experience unlike any other before it.

With the improved online play, expansion of the popular lightning challenges, and inclusion of Chase for the Cup, NASCAR 2005 has enough horsepower to last you all year.

An amazing game. I am not a NASCAR fan, but this game goes beyond if you are a fan or not.

It re-creates the NASCAR experience in spectacular fashion, and all of the included modes, series options, and extras provide an excellent amount of value for the cost.

EA Tiburon has gone far beyond a simple roster expansion. By making its career mode even more complex, it has succeeded in giving players of all stripes quite a bit to chew on.

There’s plenty to do in the career mode, and players will truly enjoy the ability to define their game based on their personal driving style.

There are some potholes - the graphics get choppy at times, and the retail-car challenges seem tacked on - but the sheer variety is something that even non-NASCAR fans will find addictive.

Intense racing with hair-trigger controls and the option to adjust them to your personal setting. The game also allows you to play online with other racers in a full field of cars in each of the four NASCAR series.

You have the nasty frame rate issue that can’t seem to be shaken. Honestly, the same company that made this is responsible for the Need For Speed Underground series, and we still can’t fix this problem for a game with lower-end graphics and less programming technicalities?

Delivers enough of everything (improved graphics, deep managerial options in Career mode, more vehicles/racing series, cleaner audio, etc.) to keep fans of the sport happily steering their favorite NASCAR racers to the left for another year.

An incredibly valiant attempt to make an accessible NASCAR game, but many will still think it falls a bit short because you can only do so much with turning left.

My biggest gripe with NASCAR 2005 is the lack of polish in the graphics department. The framerate was a bit sluggish at times and I had a hard time getting past the jagged appearance of the cars.

A pack that responds to each race's events is an outstanding concept that should elevate the gameplay, but NASCAR 2005's execution of it is too unbalanced to create the hoped-for effect.

There’s a real sensation of extreme speed, and even with a large number of cars on-screen, there’s only rarely a hint of stuttering or slowdown.

Online support for PS2 and Xbox plus multiple race modes will keep you on the track for days.

Sure, the graphics and physics haven't changed, and this year's release beats you over the head with in-game advertising, but the enhanced career mode, online play, and other additions are more than worth the price of admission.