NASCAR brand games have done an enormous amount of revamping over the years to try and attract race fans to join in their gaming experience. By tweaking graphics to give us a more realistic feel for racing, it’s fallen flat for the most part. Perhaps the real experience simply doesn’t translate well. The developers might have stumbled upon somewhat of an exception with NASCAR The Game – Inside Line. Does it equate with the hype that is NASCAR?
What NASCAR: Inside Line Looks Like
To its credit, NASCAR: Inside Line does present itself well. NASCAR is always head and shoulders above any competitive racing game, at least in how the game appears. This one even beats previous racing games that they’ve made themselves. Rather than picking and poking through a boring menu, the selections are made by browsing through a garage.
The whole crew is in the background tweaking the cars and looking things up on a computer. It’s almost fun to simply spend time looking around the place. It gives a dynamic feel to the game.
The introduction to the actual games is incredible, even for NASCAR games. It gives the feel of a televised event with special camera angles and voice announcements. The look of the game is very believable and places you right in the middle of the action. The crash moments can sometimes seem a little jerky, but that isn’t too much of a problem.
How NASCAR: Inside Line Works
There isn’t one professional race car driver out there that MADE it overnight. This game tries to bring realism to play with a longer career mode than previously featured. You can only customize your ride, and upgrade the car and decals by earning it. It takes seasons of racing adventure to make your way to the top.
The better you get, the better the standings and sponsors get. Feel free to go on practice runs before any race. This way you can tweak the car in ways that complement the track to be raced. Make the most of your qualifying lap to find yourself in pole position!
There are a lot of ways to individualize your play on NASCAR: Inside Line. It’s easy to scale up the difficulty by setting the length of a practice run, tire wear, fuel consumption, racing rules, vehicle mobility, and handling, and the internal AI mode. Any variance in the range of details can make all the difference in the world as to whether you win or lose. Challenge yourself by increasing the difficulty as you slowly master the art of winning races.
What NASCAR: Inside Line Offers
Career mode presents some unique challenges as well. You will periodically be “invited” to race in special events. They could be like “Eliminator” in which you stand the chance of being eliminated in each lap against certain drivers. “Driver Duel” forces you to catch up with and win against certain drivers in a required number of laps. Both are extremely difficult, but bring a lot of challenges to the game. There are many other challenges throughout the career mode. It’s anything but boring.
Enjoy over 400 challenges in two separate categories. Use the Highlight challenge to change 2011 to 2013 NASCAR racing history. Continue the fun online by racing against other enthusiasts. You can challenge up to 16 and earn credits towards a car upgrade.
There have been some issues with race dropping when going online, but there are patches that seem to clear up the connectivity problems. All in all, NASCAR: Inside Line is the best NASCAR racing game to date. In overall experience, it gets big thumbs up!
Final Word
★★★★☆
To be honest, even though i never watched any NASCAR race whatsoever, i think this is one of my favorite car racing sport i’ve ever seen on this planet. Too bad in my country, it’s rare to find TV shows racing sport like this. Anyway, the graphics on this game looks amazing. It kind of reminds me with Real Racing on iOS and Android, especially with its driving perspective inside the car. Thanks for reviewing this game Jason. Maybe i’m gonna check this one out in the future. Who knows.