Product Description

Fight to the top in a groundbreaking new story mode to achieve NASCAR stardom. Start from humble beginnings by earning Modified Truck and NASCAR rides before grabbing million-dollar purses in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. Develop your racing skills and intimidate your rivals on the track with all-new controls. Off the track force the action with post-race confrontations and settle disputes with NASCAR stars by racing Americas top production cars through city streets. Fans react to the drama idolizing both NASCAR heroes and villains with every move. Owners and sponsors recognize talent and reward success. Its up to you to show em what youve got. -- SPECIFICATIONS -------------------------------------ESRB Rating: E for Everyone Genre/Category : SportsSystem :Playstation2On-Line Compatible: Yes www.ea.com

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10522 in Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Model: P2EAG 014633147759
• Released on: 2004-08-31
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platform: PlayStation2
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .75" h x 5.50" w x 7.75" l, .28 pounds

Features

• Introducing Fight to the Top Mode: Become a superstar owner or driver and decide where and how you want to race. Develop essential racing skills and increase fan support
• All-New Chase for the Cup: The first and only game to feature the new NASCAR point system. This 10-race championship shootout is available in both Fight to the Top mode as well as its own stand-alone game mode.
• Next-Generation Grudges and Alliances: Make your driver a hero or a villain. Force mistakes with the new Intimidator Button as rivalries even spill off the track with post-race confrontations.
• Four New Racing Series: Try your hand at the NASCAR Busch Series, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and Featherlite Modified Series. Opportunities present themselves on all levels youre a few wins away from hitting the main show, the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series.
• American Muscle Cars: Settle bitter rivalries with other NASCAR drivers through the streets in production cars, including the Ford GT and Dodge Viper.

From the Manufacturer
NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup challenges you to battle through a groundbreaking new story mode to achieve NASCAR stardom. Start from humble beginnings by earning NASCAR Busch, Craftsman Truck and Featherlite Modified series rides before grabbing million-dollar purses in the NEXTEL Cup Series. Develop your racing skills and intimidate your rivals on the track with all-new controls. Off the track, force the action with post-race confrontations, and settle disputes by racing AmericaÕs top production cars through city streets. Fans react to the drama, idolizing both NASCAR heroes and villains, while owners and sponsors recognize talent and reward success. ItÕs up to you to show 'em what youÕve got.

Key Features:

• New Fight to the Top Mode: Develop essential racing skills and progress to become the top driver teams wantÑ-battle through multiple racing series in your pursuit to race for the NASCAR Nextel Cup.
• The Field Expands: The NASCAR Busch series, NASCAR Craftsman Truck series, NASCAR Featherlite Modified series, and American Muscle cars join the circuit.
• New Chase for the Cup Mode: Make your own late season drama in the only game featuring the new championship points system.
• Be Hero or Villain: Force mistakes with the new Intimidator Control, but be prepared to deal with the consequences after the race.
• Enhanced EA SPORTS Online: Join the largest sports gaming community featuring all-new four player racing where you take on a full field of cars in each of the four NASCAR series.

Customer Reviews

Great game for what it is
It you're into racing sims, this game isn't for you. If you're into racing sims and say that this game sucks as a sim, that's like saying that Madden 2005 is a terrible hockey game. Yeah, it isn't a good hockey game because it's a football game.

The Fight for the Top mode of this game is fun. You start at the bottom, race your way up, earn money, buy teams (to earn more money), win championships, etc. I could go on with the fun stuff, but now that the price is marked down or you can buy a used one, quit reading reviews and just try it.

The negatives: Two things bug me about this game. First, the autograph signing sessions are a waste of time. Second, once you pick the settings in the Fight for the Top mode, you're stuck with them (unless you want to start new game). That's a problem because, as you progress, you'll need less and less "driver assist" and will want to compete agains better AI competitors (rookies, veterans, legends) and change other settings related to tire wear, refueling, damage, etc. So you'ver earned $2M and now realize it's getting too easy to win. Can't change the settings. Gotta give it all up and start over. You can change the settings anytime in the other modes (e.g. Race Now), but that doesn't carry over to the Fight for the Top.

I just wasted 40 bucks.....
I had some extra money laying around, and i decided I wanted another Nascar game. What a waste of money....2003 was so much better than this crap. So heres what's bad about it.

Graphics: This really doesn't matter much to me, but after playing games like GT3, and soon GT4, and seeing those graphics, EA could have improved a lot here.

Depth: Yes, now you can race in 4 different classes, whoopie. What happened to all the stuff you could do to manage your team from 2003? You used to be able to hire individual crew members, determine salarys, BUy specific upgrades for your car, like new chassis, engins, R&D, ect, now, its all rolled into one boring bunch.

"Intimidator": When I first read about this feature, it sounded pretty cool, and like it would add a lot to the gameplay. What a waste of time, and it totally destroys any sense of fun this game had going for it. While racing, you can make friends and enemys on the track. Although making alies seems to have no effect what-so-ever, if you make an enemy, they'll ram you until you spin out and hit the wall. YOu make enemys if you hit them, or, even if they run into you first. It;s totally off balance.

It's also missing all the other little details that made the career mode fun in 2003. Now all you get to do is get text messages from your cheif...

All in all, save yourself the money, wait for GT4

If you already own this like I do, I found that it;s better used as a frisbee than as a game

NO...NO...NO...Come on EA!!!
I just don't understand what EA is trying to accomplish with thier NASCAR game of the console. I think they are moving twords a total arcade game and phasing out any signs of being a good sim. They also added way too much other junk to this game that has NOTHING to do with NASCAR...I don't care to race production cars on fantasy tracks...I'll get GT4 for that! Here is my list of Pros and Cons for this years PS2 offering. The Cons way outnumber the Pros (at least from a sim standpoint)

Pros
**The Graphics are about as good as they'll get on the PS2
**They Finally got the sounds right and the Music trax are good.

Cons
** They took out cokpit view(that right their negates any sim aspect)
** AI ans paybacks are just as bad as last year...they don't PAY you back...they SLAM you back.
** They tried to institute the new caution freeze the field into the game...boy is this bad...Say you are in 20th and a big wreck happens up in front of you and the lead cars go everywhere and flip and crash...well...they freeze the field and on the restart they line EVERY ONE of those cars is back up in front of you...no matter how bad they were damaged...ALSO almost all the cars always finish the race on the lead lap regardless of the difficulty setting.
** The only way to do the "Chase for the Cup" is in Chase for the cup mode where you only run the last ten races...If you run a season or career...you do it under the old points system...How stupid is that!You also can't do "Chase for the Cup" in two player mode...why not?
** They took out all the cool pre and post race stuff...No more National Anthem...No more "Gentlemen start you engins"...No more flybys...No more through the field...No more Victory lane celebration(other than an occasional short blip)...Instead of making this all better...they took it all out...what to fit production cars on the track?
** My biggest beef...NO POCONO...They should not have released this game until they in some way could obtain rights for this track...YOU CAN NOT have a real career or season without a track that NASCAR visits TWICE a year...I read a lot about people saying it doesn't matter that it isn't in the game because of all the other stuff they added...Well I can tell you to any real NASCAR fan...IT MATTERS!
** They left out almost all the real drives from the other series and added fictional drivers.

EA Needs to do better! Being the only ones with the rights to produce a NASCAR title right now...what they need to do is go BACK to NASCAR Thunder 2003 and start over working from there...

I find myself NOT wanting to play their NASCAR titles more and more every year.