NASCAR Racing

aka: NASCAR Racing for Mac, NASCAR Racing für Mac
Moby ID: 1571
DOS Specs
Add-on (official) Included in See Also

Description official description

In Papyrus' third racing game, the focus is moved from open-wheeled cars (IndyCar Racing) to closed-cockpit Nascar stock cars. 640x480 is the highest resolution on offer, on the CD-ROM version.

Nascar Racing is a detailed simulation with realistic car models, accurate controls and room for a distinct racing style. Nine tracks are featured, the Watkins Glen road course alongside oval racing. You have full control over the car's set up and paint job.

To reach a wide audience, various driving aids are available, such as auto-shifting and auto-braking. Races can be fine-tuned with the amount of laps.

One of the notable features is drafting, by which you can position your car just inches off the rear of competitors in front of you. When in this aerodynamically optimal position, you gain acceleration, conserve fuel and place less stress on the mechanical parts. By timing right, you can also make a quick pass.

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (DOS version)

36 People · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 85% (based on 19 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 35 ratings with 2 reviews)

One of the best racing games ever.

The Good
- Race in oval and non-oval tracks with up to thirty-something AI controlled vehicles.

  • Fantastic graphics, specially in the Super VGA mode.

  • Lots of fun to play, difficulty level and car settings can be tweaked easily.

  • Very realistic physics.

    The Bad
    - The Super VGA graphics mode requires a really, really fast computer.

  • The car editor has to be accessed through an external program and requires some adjustment.

    The Bottom Line
    I first heard of Papyrus during my first years of PC gaming. All the magazines would treat the then recent "INDYCAR Racing" as a staple when it came to PC racing games. I ended up buying a budget release just to learn what all that hype was about. And it was well justified. The graphics, physics and gameplay made it one of the most immersive, realistic games ever to grace a PC screen.

When I saw the first pictures of "NASCAR Racing" I knew it was going to kick a**. You can't possibly imagine what it was back then to see highly detailed graphics of a NASCAR car taken from a chase perspective. This time I swallowed line and sinker and bought the game right away, and in CD version.

I never regretted the move. "NASCAR Racing" was as realistic and immersive as its predecessor, but it was two, three or five times more fun. It was very thrilling to compete against so many opponents, knowing a single mistake would make you loose a position or two, and the graphics were nothing short of amazing for its time.

Which takes me to my only serious issue with this game. With a 486/66 PC, you could only play in VGA mode, and even then you had to turn off some of the detail, which I always found sort of offensive. And when I finally got a Pentium class machine, I was amazed to notice that the Super VGA mode also needed some serious tweaking to get things moving. Damn.

The problem really lies in the game engine, it was too much for the PCs of the time, and for some reason more modern PCs can't run it any faster either. Papyrus tried to solve the problem creating some hardware accelerated versions, but at that time 3D cards were just starting and only a few users could benefit of those specific versions of the game.

Still, don't let that let you down. If you can get your hands into an early Pentium with DOS or Windows 98, this baby is a must try. And if you can't, well, there's always Virtual PC or the rest of the "NASCAR Racing" series, which do look more polished, even if they aren't nearly as much fun as this one.

DOS · by Neville (3554) · 2007

The best and earliest NASCAR Racing game for Classic Mac OS!

The Good
This is Papyrus' first entry to the NASCAR Racing series for the Macintosh. Two more versions were released in 2002 and 2003 offering OS X native compatibility. I will be talking about the first entry to this series because it is the only one featuring Classic Mac OS compatibility.

What sets the green flag off in this game is that it's slightly different over its DOS counterpart. It features menu screens that are controlled with a mouse rather than a keyboard. It's often a pain in the DOS version to make a few selections, and the Macintosh version simplifies that using the menu bar provided in the Classic Mac OS, which I really prefer to this version just for that.

The physics are really the best part in the NASCAR Racing series, as their IndyCar Racing games handled the physics already! It also supports a variety of controllers (specifically ADB at the time) for use with the game. (Believe me! I only use a keyboard, but sadly, my iMac G3 only supports USB!)

You need to have enough processing power and memory to play this game at its best! I'm talking about a 350 MHz iMac G3 with 1 GB RAM. I have one of those listed here in this review's paragraph!

Finally, Most of the Macintosh version's portions are linked to the 1996 DOS version of NASCAR Racing 2 (That game is not available on the Macintosh unfortunately, but I'm providing that as a reference).

The Bad
The 3D graphics look a bit pixelated. Believe me, this is 90s stuff after all!

The Bottom Line
This is the earliest NASCAR Racing game out there for PowerPC Mac OS Classic. If you are a NASCAR fan who has an old Classic PowerPC Mac (Wait, your Mac is not ready for the NASCAR Racing 2003 Season? That game needs to have a 1 GHz G4 minimum (my suggestion) and Mac OS X.) then I highly recommend it! Even non-fans will enjoy it too! Papyrus went on to make a few more sequels until 2003 when Electronic Arts acquired the exclusive license for a few more years! But still, it's a fun game to play, even if you are a big NASCAR fan!

Macintosh · by Katie Cadet (10036) · 2017

Trivia

Advertisements

The game followed in the tradition of the toy companies. There were no advertisements for beer or tobacco products. That meant that Rusty Wallace drove the "Ford Racing" Ford and in all releases of the game the banners read "NASCAR Racing Series" instead of "NASCAR Winston Cup Series". However, you could always add the companies using the included "paint shop" feature. However, since it wasn't on the main menu, some people didn't even know that it was there.

CD audio

If you put the CD into an audio CD player, you can hear two rock tracks. Race Rif by Skid Row & The Fastest Sport by The Fat Man.

Licensing

In the releases with the real-world drivers, teams, and car liveries, not all major competitors were in the game, presumably because of those drivers having their own license deals. For example Dale Earnhardt wasn't in the game.

Manual

Dave Marcus & Joe Nemechek gave advice in the manual about how to race at certain tracks. It's been kind of funny with the fans, because both of these drivers have won a combined six races in their NASCAR Winston Cup career.

Mods

Hundreds of user made cars can be found on the Internet.

OEM version

A special Win32 version of NASCAR Racing was packaged with the Diamond Edge 3D video card. This version was optimized to run on the Edge 3D only, and does not run with any other video cards.

Regional differences

Some releases, presumably releases outside of the US, included only fictional drivers, teams and car liveries.

Sales

More than 1,000,000 units were sold, even though the game the required a (then) top-of-the-line 486-66 processor, and the high-res version was only shipped on a CD-ROM, for which drives were not common in 1994.

Awards

  • CODiE Awards
    • 1995 - Best Sports Program
  • Computer Game Review
    • Golden Triad Award
  • Computer Gaming World
    • May 1995 (Issue #130) – Simulation Game of the Year (together with Aces of the Deep)
    • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) - #31 in the “150 Best Games of All Time” list
  • PC Gamer
    • 1995 - Best Sports Program
    • 1995 - Best Simulation

Information also contributed by PCGamer77, Rogee and Sciere

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

NASCAR 07
Released 2006 on PlayStation 2, Xbox, PSP
NASCAR Acceleration Pack
Released 2000 on Windows
NASCAR Pacesetter Games: Dale Earnhardt
Released 1999 on Dedicated handheld
NASCAR: The Game - Inside Line
Released 2012 on PlayStation 3, 2012 on Wii, 2013 on Windows
Bill Elliott's NASCAR Challenge
Released 1991 on DOS, Amiga, NES
Comanche CD
Released 1994 on DOS, 1995 on Macintosh
NASCAR Heat 5: DLC Car Pack
Released 2020 on Xbox One, Windows, PlayStation 4
MacAttack
Released 1986 on MSX
NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup
Released 2004 on PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube

Related Sites +

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 1571
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Neon.

Macintosh added by Charly2.0.

Additional contributors: DreinIX, Patrick Bregger, Charly2.0, villeneuve.

Game added June 9, 2000. Last modified March 11, 2024.