nascar-racing posts

This week it was revealed that game consoles will once again be be getting an official NASCAR racing game. Developer Eutechnyx and publisher Activision officially announced NASCAR The Game 2011 which will be released for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii in February 2011. But is Eutechnyx planning to release a PC version via digital download?

That possiblity is stronly hinted at in a new interview at VG247.com with the game's executive producer Dave Thompson. He stated that there is a lack of retail space for PC games that makes it hard to recoup the money needed to ship a PC version to stores. However he added, " ... we have something up our sleeves that should satisfy the legions of dedicated PC racers – watch this space."

Earlier this year, PC gamers were able to enter official NASCAR sanctioned online racing leagues via iRacing.com. However that online-only service is for hardcore racing sim players while Eutechnyx's NASCAR The Game 2011 is being designed for a more mainstream game audience.

Many racing game fans know the name Papyrus Design Group (also known as Papyrus Software). Founded in the late 1980's the game developer had a huge success on the PC with the NASCAR Racing series of racing simulations. The games, published by the now defunct Sierra, were highly accurate simulations of driving NASCAR rides on the tracks and even some real NASCAR racers (most notably Dale Earnhardt Jr.) were both fans of the game and used it to train for the real thing.

When the NASCAR game rights were sold to Electronic Arts in 2004, Sierra/Vivendi Games shut down the developer for budget reasons. However many of Papyrus' team decided to launch a new venture, an online PC racing simulation service called iRacing. The actual online service launched in August with little fanfare. However this week iRacing announced that it had brokered a deal with NASCAR to launch a full-saction online NASCAR racing series. It will be the first time the NASCAR franchise will be made available to play on the PC platform in over five years.

While the series won't begin until early 2010, Big Download wanted to get more info on iRacing's plans and got its co-founder David Kaemmer (also the co-founder of the original Papyrus) to answer our questions about this new online-only racing series.

Last August we reported on the launch of iRacing, a multiplayer online PC racing sim company that was co-founded by Dave Kaemmer, a co-founder of the now defunct Papyrus Racing developer that created the acclaimed NASCAR Racing sims for the also now defunct Sierra. Well, it seems what comes around goes around (an apt NASCAR metaphor) as iRacing has just announced a new agreement with NASCAR to run a fully sactioned NASCAR online racing series.

The online series will begin in early 2010 and will allow NASCAR fans to drive in multiplayer online races against each other and even against real NASCAR drivers, including Dale Earnhardt, Jr. This will be the first NASCAR licened PC game since Electronic Arts released the horrible NASCAR SimRacing game in 2005. iRacing charges $19 a month for its services with annual subscriptions lowering the amount to $13 a month.

The legendary NASCAR Racing sim games from the now defunct Papyrus Software and Sierra were some of the best racing games ever made. But when Electronic Arts got hold of the exclusive NASCAR game rights a few years ago they pretty much game the PC platform the cold shoulder. They ported a couple of their console NASCAR games to the PC but the last PC specific game they made was the disastrous NASCAR SimRacing, released four years ago this month (that's the box cover on the right).

Now it seems EA's NASCAR exclusive deal could be on the ropes. The Sporting News is reporting that NASCAR is considering that instead if just renewing EA's deal it is "considering a nonexclusive approach that might open the category to other game makers." If such a move happens it could pave the way for a true NASCAR PC racing sim title to be released.