9.2 /10 1 Votes
4.8/5 eBay | 89% Metacritic Initial release date 4 February 2003 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Mode(s) Singleplayer, Multiplayer Similar NASCAR The games, Racing video games | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, or NR2003 for short, is a computer racing simulator released in February 2003 by Papyrus for PC and Mac OS X. The game was the last to be released by the company before EA Sports bought the NASCAR license exclusively from 2004 to 2009 (parent company Sierra's successor company, Activision Blizzard, reacquired NASCAR rights in 2011, with NASCAR The Game: 2011). The game included all of the 2003 NASCAR season tracks and many of the drivers. The game box featured the cars of Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick on the front cover.
Contents
Roster
This game features the 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Series roster in NASCAR Racing 2003 Season with three notable omissions: Chip Ganassi Racing drivers Sterling Marlin No. 40, Casey Mears No. 41, and Rookie of the Year Jamie McMurray No. 42. Fantasy drivers are also present, sponsored by fictional or Papyrus/Sierra sponsors, and these fantasy drivers appear to be the Papyrus/Sierra crew. Painters in the sim racing community also design and create fictional cars in addition to recreating current paint schemes.
Features
NASCAR Racing 2003 Season features a dynamic physics model which makes cars react differently in a certain environment. After Papyrus released the first patch, the game was enabled to allow mods. Additional car mods, paint schemes and tracks can be added to the game. The game also features videos entitled driving lessons on how to play the game.
Popularity
NASCAR drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Martin Truex Jr. were noted players of the game, and many professional drivers used the game's online multiplayer mode to practice tracks before races. These included 2006 Rookie of the Year Denny Hamlin, who used the game to train for the Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway, going on to win the race at a track notoriously tough for rookies.
Ownership
At the end of March 2004, NR2003 was pulled from shelves when Electronic Arts acquired the exclusive NASCAR rights. In May 2004, Papyrus was shut down, and David Kaemmer bought the source code and assets a couple months later for his company FIRST, LLC where it became the base code for iRacing.com.
