There’s probably a super great deep dive article that could be written on the last two decades of NASCAR video games. I won’t be delving into that deep dive (yet), but I do want to make a mention that the last NASCAR video game made for console was absolutely eviscerated by the games media. The NASCAR simulation style video game has been in a pretty bad place in recent years. Hold that thought… (or read the article below!)

from Gamestop; This game was HATED

Since smartphone games have taken off, there was a simple idea that a racing game could easily transition to the smartphone. You can tilt your screen left and right to steer, and accelerate automatically. For any casual racing game, that’s all you need, and that’s exactly what 704 Games did with NASCAR Heat Mobile.

It’s surprising to me that it has taken this long for a good NASCAR mobile game to hit the app store. Mobile games are easy to monetize and pitch the idea of NASCAR to a younger audience.

NASCAR Heat mobile at its base is just about as good as you can get out of a NASCAR mobile experience. Anything too flashy and complicated, you’ll be taking up valuable storage space. Anything too compressed and lacking, and the game feels disingenuous. The game is also free to play and not stuck on being FEE to pay.

NASCAR Heat provides the basis for what makes NASCAR entertaining. You race your car against 39 other drivers in hopes of finishing in the highest position possible. There’s very few laps and the cars stay mostly compact the entire race.

The game has two key components, the actual racing, and your fan zone. The racing is the core gameplay, while the fan zone is your hub where you purchase improvements to your car and improve your fan zone to collect more cash.

The racing has a fair balance of challenge but relative easiness that is playable for any age. The challenge is based upon how many improvements you’ve made in your garage which impacts how fast your car goes in the race. The first few tracks are the easiest levels where you can make your way up from last place up into the top 15, but first place is impossible until you’ve made significant improvements to your car.

from Gamermovil; There is an in car camera view which is cool

The first level starts you at the Daytona 500 and the game progresses on the NASCAR season schedule. After Daytona you head to Atlanta, Vegas, and so on all the way until you get to Homestead where the NASCAR season ends. Each track you unlock by earning stars results in the competition getting a little faster.

The speedways are mostly realistic to the actual tracks with their bankings and grooves quite detailed. The cars of fellow NASCAR drivers are true to form, but are small on my iPhone 5 screen so maybe those on the 6 have an easier time distinguishing Aric Amirola from AJ Allmendinger.

I have two favorite design aspects in the in-game racing. The cars are always in close proximity, meaning you’re almost always two or three wide going through turns. Considering there’s only 4 laps at Daytona, this makes sense. Martinsville is the shortest track on the NASCAR circuit and registers 10 laps.

My second point of praise on the race design is how the cars run on the track usually allowing for openings on the inside and outside line. Because NASCAR Heat is an arcade style experience, real life race logic need not apply. You can take the highest line at a short track and zoom around the scrubs in the back of the pack. The inside line can be more congested, but it’s very doable depending on the track.

Crashes do happen. They occur randomly where a car in front of you will spin out and collect all the other cars (including you) in its path. You can’t wreck other cars nor can they wreck you which may be a disappointment to most but because damage is not a thing in the game and cautions take up a valuable lap of the race I’m okay with more advanced physics not being followed. If you crash into the back or the side of a car the only noticeable effect is that you slow down slightly. Running in the grass or on the apron are the only other two things that can slow you down significantly outside of touching your car on the screen to manually brake.

Where NASCAR Heat does employ real life logic is in the running order. The usual suspects are always at the front: Johnson, Harvick, Keslowski, Dale Jr. Often whoever starts the race in the lead will finish in 1st unless you’re able to catch them.

from YouTube; Dude? You went all the way through the race and didn’t make two high passes?

Progression in NASCAR Heat is done through a star system that provides five in game challenges you must complete in order to achieve a three star rating. As you collect stars, you earn enough to race at the next track in the NASCAR season.

The star system is an OK feature that gives you more to focus on than just passing everyone and going for the highest finish position. The challenges are different depending on the track, but mostly include: running and finishing position, drafting, high and low passes, average and top speed. Avoiding a wreck is also sometimes a star challenge which means you know there will be a scripted wreck and you have to pray that you can swerve out of the way.

Once you complete all the challenges at a track, they don’t really matter anymore so you can focus on achieving the highest finishing position. The better you finish, the more money you are awarded. If you finish in the top 5, you get to spin a Price is Right wheel to earn more money or the gold coins.

Gold coins make up the added economy feature where if you pay real money for it you can install improvements to your car immediately or buy vaunted decorations for your fan zone like the “noodle man” or a “golf cart corral”. The only meaningful function the gold coins serve is to help you buy the cars of actual NASCAR drivers. The more popular the driver, the more gold coins you’re going to need. The more expensive drivers also have cars with more improvements. If you’ve already researched past the point of some of the lesser cars like Trevor Bayne’s, you can improve his car to whatever level of improvements you’re at. There’s a few manageable ways to get coins, but as expected, it’s nothing easy and makes podium reward spins really stressful.

It is a little fascinating to see Dale only worth 50 coins and Danica worth 200. I was amazed that Johnson didn’t have his car stats at the max considering he’s the LeBron of NASCAR.

from Malavida; Yea the fan zone looks like pretty messy garbage

The fan zone is not aesthetically pleasing to me and outside of being a place to earn more money and buy car improvements, it’s not great to look at. You can buy or win buildings for your fan zone that have laughably minute effects like shaving off a couple seconds of install time on your car improvements. I personally think the install time after you bought an upgrade is pretty annoying anyway and I just turn the game off until the installs have been made.

My biggest gripe with the game is that you can’t customize the standard cars you’re given. The three generic cars made by the three different manufacturers are ostensibly ugly, and who wants to race the #94?

from Livemint; Look at how BORING this design looks. UGH!

NASCAR Heat is a recommendable mobile game that is nice for a 10-minute distraction, but doesn’t really deliver anything groundbreaking or special. There’s improvements that could be made if 704 wanted to make the game bigger and better, but for being free, NASCAR Heat is what it needs to be to be good and functional.

So remember that thought I told you to hold at the beginning? Hopefully you’re still holding it. With NASCAR sims being in such a tough spot, there’s now credence to say that a full blown mobile NASCAR mobile game at a $5-10 price point may be worth a shot. As a fan of NASCAR games, I am still hoping for a great NASCAR game to hit the market again. But the arcade style in the mobile version has the basis for a fun experience, and I’m in a support of a game that’s just easygoing fun. Casual NASCAR is a bit of an easier sell than pitching the hardcore experience to the public. I also think if you want to get the younger generation into NASCAR, a great mobile game is the way to start.