Nascar 09 - Playstation 3

NASCAR racing is kind of like car racing with Zoolander-complex...except Zoolander could only turn right. Regardless, the sport is extremely popular in the United States, and if you think there's something remotely easy about controlling a vehicle constantly moving at speeds between 160 to 200MPH, with 43 cars on a fairly narrow road, you may want to get your head examined. Additionally, NASCAR is solely based on skill, as all NASCAR vehicles on the track are virtually identical in performance, and the only thing that separates them would be fine-tuning aspects such as tire pressure, transmission gearing, suspension firmness, and downforce. All of those intricacies find their way into EA Sports' latest NASCAR outing for the 2009 season.NASCAR 09 stars Jeff Gordon, who is the game's guide. Upon booting the game up, Gordon will appear with various informational guideline for you to keep in mind. At the beginning of it all, you'll select your drive style, and be allowed to go on a test drive piloting Gordon's very own #24. You can either play the game with a horde of assists (don't do this), or take full control of your vehicle by turning all assists off. Shortly after you've toyed around with game settings, the game will give you a vehicle of your own, by allowing you to customize the livery with sponsors, decals, and colors. As is commonplace with today's sports games, your personal vehicle is the one you'll be using in the career mode, called Chase For NASCAR Spint Cup. Here is where you'll run across three different series, including the Craftsman Truck Series, Nationwide Series, and the Sprint Cup Series.Throughout the career, your goal is to not just win, but to also build reputation. You'll start out with a few generic sponsors and teams, and make your way up through the ranks. Reputation is earned with superb performance, such as leading the most laps, creating large a lead between you and your opponents, running a clean race, setting lap records, and so forth. You'll have goals and objectives handed to you by your team, so in order to advance properly, it's in your best interests to aim for them.Car tuning can be done before races, with slight adjustments allowed during pit-stops. But because the tolerances in NASCAR racing are very strict, don't expect Gran Turismo-like details here, you only get what NASCAR allows. When you're not in the mood for career races, you can jump into the game's Season mode and take control of one of the game's 100-plus drivers across the three series events offered.Other race modes included Sprint Driver Challenge, and the Test and Tune mode. In Driver Challenge, you'll be thrown into a number of specific, and often intense challenges that you'll have to compete in order to gain fame and reputation in the world of NASCAR. Test and Tune is essentially a practice mode that allows you hop onto any of the game's 22 tracks and tune your vehicle accordingly.Online is good for up to 14 gamers, and you are free to have races run anywhere between 5% of a full event, to 100%. Enabling a Did Not Finish filter will prevent gamers who quit excessively from joining your race, in addition to a Laps Per Incident filter that can block pushy/bumper-car racers. The online has been good for the most part, with a few hitches here and there.Visually, NASCAR 09 isn't terribly impressive. Although there are over 40 cars on screen, considering the simplicity of all but two tracks, the game could've looked better. There are some texture issues, as well, as you may notice ground textures ripping occasionally, and the framerate can get sluggish when there are a lot of effects present. For the most part, the game runs just fine, but problems do arise here and there. Car detail feels a bit bland, as well, as the lighting never really makes me feel like I'm looking at next-generation vehicles - there are little to no reflections to speak of. Car damage isn't bad, but perhaps the impacts are too forgiving. Ultimately, you'll find yourself sticking to the game for its gameplay, as opposed to the average visuals.NASCAR 09's audio is made up of the typical EA Trax soundtrack - not a very good one, I might add - on top of Jeff Gordon taking you through the game, your team manager's voice, the burly scream of a 358 at redline, and the crowd cheering you on. I'd have liked for the crowd to be a bit louder, without having to turn down the volume of the engine, the cheers just sounds a bit too low. But the big plus is that voice chat is present for online gameplay, so get those headsets ready.Overall, NASCAR 09 may not be an extremely pretty game to look at, but it's certainly not ugly. What it lacks in eye-candy, it makes up for a solid NASCAR experience that enthusiasts of the sport should really enjoy. There are a plethora of game modes to choose from, which really keeps the value of the game extremely high, in addition to a 14-player online experience. NASCAR 09 should keep fans happy until next year's iteration arrives.

It's a shame I only bought this game around a month ago, because I highly prefer this title, being EA's last NASCAR game as of 2014 (not including NASCAR Kart Racing for Wii which came out a few months later), over any NASCAR game Eutechnyx has developed thus far. The racing is solid, the graphics are great even for a current-gen (soon to be last-gen) game that was released in 2008, and the soundtrack is fantastic and has a much more fitting selection of songs than the generic music that plagues the menus of NASCAR '14. The replay value of the game significantly outweighs NASCAR '14, which is (for the most part) a carbon copy of Inside Line.Jeff Gordon is a very helpful guide when it comes to the different elements that the game offers, and it is a big plus for me, as he is my favorite driver. Of course, those who do not like him might not be too crazy about this feature of the game, which is understandable.My only complaints for this game are the lack of car manufacturers (Chevrolet, Ford, Dodge, Toyota) and the online servers having been permanently closed by EA as of mid-2011. The shutdown of the online servers also included the paint booth feature, which from what I've seen, was a very nifty feature in creating paint schemes of the past, present, future, and even fictional schemes using a program such as Photoshop. Despite this, the pros outweigh the cons for me and I still highly enjoy the game as a whole.I was just starting to get interested into NASCAR when I purchased this title last month, and NASCAR 09 has only increased my interest in the sport by a significant amount. I just wish EA hadn't shut their servers down like they do with other older games in their archive, but sadly we can't have everything we want in life.

THIS GAME WORKS GREAT EASY SET UP AND CAN SWITCH FROM CAR TO TRUCK IT IS A OLDER GAME BUT I REALY LIKE OLDER GAMES

being that huge nascar fan I am..I absolutely love this game. I have all the nascar games, including the bug filled nascar 11. whether your a true nascar fan, or just a gamer looking for a nascar sim, people shoot this game down, but its fun. Only downfall to it, is when your on easy, your on the track for half the race by yourself unless ur short track racing of course. If you find this game too easy on easy, do what I do...skip qualifying and start in 43rd.

This is not the fancy as fancy as those driving games that cost $30 - $60. It's great for NASCAR fans to pretend to be one of the favorites (car or driver). My kids always liked one of #18, #20, #24, or #48. We never tried to customize.The race tracks are nice graphical representation of the real ones. They are your rudimentary computer graphics comparing to GT 5 Prologue...

Of course it's obsolete now that the new (VERY BUGGY version has come out, but it was a fantastic game!! Hubby played it constantly; great for playing online!Buy THIS version if you do NOT play online. It's much better than the new version, which is really full of bugs.Buy the NEW 2014 version if you DO play online... cuz everyone on the online circuit has moved to the 2014 game.

I bought NASCAR 09 before NASCAR The Game 2011 was announced and released, mainly for the online portion because the AI in the single player was very inconsistent, such as the other drivers would not acknowledge you being next to them and cause you to wreck. The online was ok until EA shut down the online portion of the game.

My fiance plays this all the time. It has realistic NASCAR setups and scenarios and gives him the feel of being in the race. It was compatible with his Logitech racing wheel. He usually spends at least a few minutes most days playing this game. He has bought NASCAR games since the 90s and he does like this one.

Waist of money, can only use with 1 player

Good stuff

なかなか、難しいですが、たまにやるとはまります。昔のゲームですが、よくできていると思います。NASCAR好きは、この時代のものをプレイしてみるのもいいかと。輸入盤なので日本語対応ではないのでその点は理解して（笑）

輸入版なので全て英語表記で、音声解説も同じく英語。コテコテの日本人にとってはイマイチ入り込みにくい面はあるが、それらを差し引いたグラフィックの凄さやマシンのサウンド、簡潔な操作やレース展開は◎。特にマシンのカラーリングを豊富に変化させる事が出来、それがレースに即反映されるのがたまらない。NAScarファンなら迷わずに買いでしょう!

最高です\(^o^)/特に気に入ったのは、メインメニューのBGMにかかっている曲です。ゲームとはあまり関係がありませんが最高でした。また、チュートリアルがJeff Gordonだったので初めて見た時感動しました。(勿論、英語なので分かりませんが(笑))とりあえず、文句なしでした。