NASCAR Heat

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NASCAR Heat is a video game for the Playstation, PC, and Game Boy Advance. It was released in August 2000 Designed by Monster Games Incorporated and distributed by Hasbro Interactive. The PlayStation version was co-developed with Digital Illusions CE. Although it did get a lot of good reviews on release, it has never reached the same status as other NASCAR style games and simulations, and it is almost unheard of in Europe. Over the years, NASCAR Heat has evolved, mostly thanks to a very dedicated mod community, that continues to release new cars and tracks for this game, both oval and road course style. Some of these mods has taken the game to levels far beyond what most thought was possible, and it's safe to say that even though old, it's at least on equal grounds with more modern games like NASCAR Racing 2003 Season and the even more recent NASCAR Sim Racing.

The real beauty of NASCAR Heat is its system friendliness. Almost any computer featuring a 500Mhz CPU is able to run it with a full field of cars on track (43). Together with its fast and reliable net code it is one of the most capable games of handling online play, and therefore an excellent choice for an online simulated race series. Even though it was designed to tun on Windows 98, it does run fine under the more modern operating systems like WindowsXP and it is able to run it on a dual core CPU or a system with two CPU's, so no problem with modern computers.

NASCAR Heat is not sold in any store these days, but it is available as second hand on eBay and other online auction sites. But for those who don't want to wait for a copy of it to pop up, there is a completely free and legal alternative. A software called NASCAR Heat Essentials Package is available for download, featuring only files form the free and legal demo of NASCAR Heat. It will let you install all third party mods and tracks and run them as if you owned the complete game, but it does not contain any of the original tracks and cars, since that would be software theft. Still, even without the original content of the game, you will be able to have a lot of fun with the Essentials package, available at The ModSquad

NASCAR: Dirt to Daytona was originally known as NASCAR Heat 2, but its name was changed at the last minute. As a result, numerous in-game graphics and voiceovers refer to it as 'NASCAR Heat 2'.

[edit] Tribute

The game was also a tribute to fallen NASCAR Drivers Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin, Jr.. It opened saying: "For the Petty Family and the Irwin Family"

[edit] Community

The community around NASCAR Heat has had its ups and downs like most other communities. The strongholds as of today is sites like Texas Speed Racing and The ModSquad, where this game is more or less the sole reason for their existence. Also sites like NASCAR Heat Racing League, SpeedSims, www.score.does.it SCORE, AusHeat, VROOM-Club and Slingin' Dirt are there to support this game, organising a lot of online racing events for it. All of these sites also have mods and tracks for NASCAR Heat.

[edit] The "mods"

Mods, short for modifications and are third party add-ons for a game,both in form of cars and tracks. For NASCAR Heat, tracks comes in two flavours, oval and road course style. The oval tracks are usually divided in two categories, dirt and paved. Paved ovals are those used by the Sprint Cup (previously NEXTEL/Winston Cup) and all the tracks that were officially in use in 2000 were of course shipped with the original game. More have been made by modders of course and more are being made all the time. Dirt Ovals are, as the name implies, made of dirt. They are often short and offer spectacular tight and action packed racing. A lot of dirt ovals have been released and just as with the paved ovals, new are being made all the time. Road Courses are not as many as the ovals, but all the important ones are there. Classic tracks like Monza, Spa Francorchamps, Nürburgring (Including the Nordschleife) and Le Mans are available. The number of road courses is just under a hundred, but it's a still growing number.

Cars exist as mods for all track types and it would take a lot of time to describe them all. However, there are a few that really stands out form the crowd. Quality work with lots and lots of attention to detail. Mods like the NEXTEL Heat series are a must have, as well as the almost infamous Group C mod, featuring sports prototype cars from the late 80's. Another really good Mod would be rpm750's 2006 Craftsman Truck Series or AeroHeat. On the dirt side are worth mentioning the Super Late Model mod. In addition to this, there was a semi official mod pack called BriSCA Heat which was sold with the full game itself through the organisation. The game is set in the UK stock car racing scene and was licensed by BriSCA, the oval racing governing body.