Ever eager to try and be a bit educational as well as witty, perceptive and generally rather fab (and even more eager to use up space). Amiga Action is very proud to begin this review by explaining just who Mr Elliott is, and why Nascar is so different to any other car-racing extravaganza. Ready? Right, here goes then. Well, Nascar stands for the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing and has become an American institution thanks to its high speeds and spectacular crashes. And, perhaps not too surprisingly, 'our' Bill is apparently Nascar's greatest hero. Awesome Bill from Dawsonville as he is affectionately known was voted most popular driver for five consecutive years, probably because he won a lot. So there you go. There's the background for you then, so let's now move swiftly on to the game itself. Is it the all-action, ultrafast, hyperdangerous humdinger of a racer we might reasonably expect? Is it heck.
As soon as you get a glimpse of the primitive and really rather sad loading sequence (a Commodore 64-standard car bursting through the title page), you prepare yourself for the worst. And, after ploughing through various course and car selection screens (no doubt car-freaks will relish the chance to adjust their spoilers and stuff, but I couldn't be bothered) it's into a race where it seems your worst fears may well be realised.
Nascar looks pretty dreadful. The main view window is particularly small and is also horrendously dull. You are overwhelmed by a hugely depressing swamp of dingy grey and blue, only slightly relieved by the occasional appearance of a few far-from-impressive cars. Maybe this would be more tolerable if the game actually played very fast, but instead it feels like you're crawling round the track at a Skoda's pace - not that I've ever been in a Skoda, you understand. I'm just guessing.
Crash dummy
As well as being sluggish, Nascar is also spoilt by some extremely dodgy collision detection. This applies to crashes both with other competitors and with the wall running round the edge of the tracks. When you first start playing it seems almost impossible to get round a corner without running into the wall. It's only when you realise that you don't have to look as if you are very close to the wall in order to hit it that you start to improve.
Nascar is not all bad. You can participate in a full Nascar season, which adds a lot of depth to the game. There are also some neat features, like the multi-camera replay system (great to watch your favourite crashes) and the way the driver's names can be seen when you get up close to their bumpers. Nascar not only fails to add anything to an aging genre, it takes it back a few steps.
Many people know the Nascar racing rame from the pc era. But did you know that there were a pre pc Nascar game on Amiga? Yes, is a cool simulator, similar to the well known ones on pc. Vector based graphics fine looking, but a little bit slow on 7mhz...
How to run this game on modern Windows PC?
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