NASCAR 09 (Xbox 360, 2008)

Overall Nascar 09 does a lot of things well and just a few things poorly. When it comes to single player games the ability to create your own driver and progress through the sprint cup as a professional driver the game follows any normal Nascar game progression. However the difference this year is to become competitive you have to complete various challenges and earn points to upgrade your car. Your car can be upgraded in four areas: Engine, Aerodynamics, Chassis and durability. The downside to this is you must collect enough points to do this four times. So each area must be upgraded for Short Tracks, Speedways, Super Speedways and Road Courses. This can be easy enough for the casual single player to accumulate through the spring cup and various challenges that award points however for the casual xbox live racer who wants to pick up the game and play online with friends, they will find they are completely uncompetitive in comparison with drivers who have upgraded their cars.

Also, to the xbox live gamer the default assists that are set for the driver severely slow the car down. Your car will be much easier to drive and will have great traction but you will be severely slowed. The EA Locker is a great way to share setups and custom car paint jobs though however via xbox live.

Overall this is a very fun racing game with a few flaws that can be overlooked by spending some time with the games single player.

The first time I played this game, I got black flagged within 10 seconds, so if you want to have fun, I'd suggest turning the black flag off. Seriously, this game would be boring if you couldn't. Also, I went ahead and turned damage off. It makes the game a lot more fun as well. Now, onto the actual game.

The thing you'll probably spend most of your time on is the career. You start of the the Craftsman Truck Series, but as you gain Rep from winning races and completing team and sponsor contracts, you can pay in the Nationwide Series or Sprint cup. From completing sponsor contracts, you get points that you can add to the stats of your car to make it better. Soon, your car will get so good, you need something to keep you entertained. I find starting 20 car pileups to be enough. My pit chief keeps saying, "Easy, we don't want bumper damage," and I yell back, "That's why damage is turned off!" Maybe yelling at a video game is not the healthiest thing to do, but it sure is fun.

Another thing to do is the challenges. I don't really get the point of them. They'e always something like "Complete a lap on this track without letting your speed drop below 150." I got bored and went back to the carnage of career.

Another thing you can do is own tracks. I haven't figured that out. Whatever.

Overall, NASCAR 09 is a good NASCAR game and a good racing game in general. The controls are simple, the action is good and yelling at other cars feels fantastic. If you're a fan of NASCAR, I'd check it out.

NASCAR 09 is a better game than the previous game. No license test thing that takes forever to get through so you can race on the other tracks. Graphics are great and the game plays extremely well. It is a great simulation game because you can tweak and tune nearly aspect of the car. One downfall is that if you are a fan of the Truck series or the Nationwide series, there is not a lot of the original drivers. Most of the Cup drivers are there though. A must have game if you are a nascar fan.

The game is wicked fun. Fantastic graphics on the XBox 360. However, if one has played other racing games in the past, the game offers challenges unlike any other. The challenges make for an exciting and frustrating play time and effort. I like and love parts of the game. If you have the time to invest in meeting the challenges, you will have extreme euphoria. It is wonderful for children ages 9 and up with an understanding of speed, drafting, and the differences between tracks. Recommend purchasing the game from eBay. The price is steep thru retail stores, even when purchased used.

This game is realistic, but I did not like it as much as as the previous versions. I do not remember which version I had before, but I had it for the original X-Box. While the graphics are obvioulsy better on the 360, I liked the set up better on the previous.
I was able to work with my team-mates and how I drove altered how my opponents reacted to me in future races. As I neared my rivals, I was informed of who it was (which is good for someone like me who does not follow the sport closely) as well as their disposition toward me.
One thing I really liked better was that I could race in all three series' at the same time, and could hire a driver if two races were held on the same day. I could also control the marketing of merchandise, which altered my profit.
I do not want to sound as though I do not enjoy NASCAR 09. I was just surprised by the extreme difference from the game I had played before. If I could recall which game it was or these features were restored in a future version, I would certainly buy it.