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Race YOUR way with the 2009 edition of the racing phenomenon! Choose a driving model that fits like a glove, create your ultimate dream car with endless design options, and generate unique driving credentials that feature your very own photo. NASCAR 09 is all about you! In fact, NASCAR’s four-time champion Jeff Gordon will even take you under his wing and personally guide you through key aspects of the game. Use his advice to your advantage when racing in the all-new career mode or the Sprint Driver Challenges to earn reputation and become a NASCAR champion. Get ready to race for premier contracts as you work your way to the top with NASCAR 09.

Genre: Racing

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: Tiburon

Online Play:

Local Play:

June 13, 2008 –
To me, the sport of NASCAR is a bit like classic Russian literature. I respect it, but I don’t really claim to understand it. I can never keep all the characters straight, and I eventually just fall asleep during the dull bits.

There is drama and excitement to be found in NASCAR but it’s not easily translated into videogame fun, which may be why Electronic Arts, sole owner of the sport’s game licensing rights, has struggled with the franchise in recent years. People love the sport because it’s an American institution peppered with friendly, colorful personalities who just happen to be highly skilled race car drivers. The races can be thrilling at times, but the cars all look the same, only turn left most of the time and can remain separated by just a couple seconds for most for the race. That’s a recipe for a pretty dull videogame experience.

And it’s a recipe EA followed almost to the letter. Like others before it, NASCAR 09 is just a functional stock car racing game that offers no major innovation. Rather than overhaul the franchise and start from scratch, Tiburon took the basic framework of NASCAR 08, and added a few features, most of which don’t add anything particularly exciting to the experience.

The big sell this time around is the inclusion of a photorealistic Jeff Gordon, whose fully digitized self guides you through the game, whether encouraging you to sign a new sponsor or consoling you awkwardly when your racing team boots you for underperforming. It’s a creepily realistic feature, but it adds nothing except star power to the experience.

In NASCAR, it’s always a close race.


Once Gordon gets you started, it’s off to the races in the Nationwide, Craftsman Truck or Sprint Cup series. In the career mode, called the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, you start out at the beginning of the racing season and make your way through, building reputation points as you go along. Gaining rep opens up sponsorship and team opportunities. But since there’s no currency in NASCAR 09, sponsorship deals don’t make you cash, so I’m really not sure why the rep function exists at all. Performance points are what really matter and you rack them up by fulfilling sponsorship obligations and completing Sprint Driver Challenges.

Each challenge tests you on NASCAR racing skills including pit entry, drafting, speed maintenance, hitting your racing line, passing and avoiding wrecks. Completing a challenge opens up related tests, of which there are 77 in all, and nets you performance points. These points can be dropped into four general categories: speedway, superspeedway, short track and road course. Within those categories are separate slots for more detailed upgrades. It’s a bare-bones system that doesn’t affect your individual vehicles but your overall garage, depending on what series you’re racing.

But NASCAR 09 does let you dig deep to tailor the experience to your liking. There are two basic difficulty levels