The 16 Best NASCAR Games of All Time, Ranked

NASCAR meets Mario Kart might sound strange on paper, but EA Sports did a decent job of mixing the concepts of both. There are power-ups that you can use and there are a bunch of fictional, fantasy tracks to have fun on. This is one of the wackier NASCAR games that was made but it’s remembered fondly enough to earn a place on this list.

This game brought a massive change to the series of games that came before it, mostly to the delight of fans. There was a career/story mode called "Fight to the Top," plus the addition of other tiers meant that players had multiple levels to progress through. The multiplayer left a little to be desired but doesn’t take away much from a stellar game.

Yet another EA Sports NASCAR game, NASCAR 09 came at a time when many were expressing their dissatisfaction with the series. For some, NASCAR 09 was a solid enough entry that it changed minds, but for many, it was too little too late. This game allowed players to tweak their cars to a great extent, plus NASCAR legend Jeff Gordon was part of the career mode.

Developed by Monster Games and released in 2019, NASCAR Heat 4 is the kind of game that many fans of racing games have been waiting for for years. It has great physics that make it feel very realistic and more than three dozen racetracks with over 150 different NASCAR teams and drivers to choose from.

NASCAR Dirt to Daytona had the kind of progression that gamers had wanted for a while, boasting the ability to go from racing on dirt to the big leagues. You do this not only by winning races but keeping sponsors happy and building a reputation for yourself.

As the name of the game implies, EA Sports added an interesting feature to their 2005 NASCAR game that emphasized the importance of teamwork like never before. In this game, players were able to radio their teammates and ask them to block for them and even switch to their car so they could control themselves. It was a cool feature that only widened the scope of NASCAR games.

Perhaps it was the pressure from the other NASCAR game series that was becoming popular at the time, but with NASCAR Thunder 2002, EA Games stepped it up in a few different ways for one of their best NASCAR games ever. They added a bunch of tracks, allowed alternate paint schemes on cars, licensed the entire schedule, and added a career mode.

Developed by 704Games and published by Motorsport Games, NASCAR Heat 5 truly feels like the next generation of NASCAR games. Some prefer NASCAR Heat 4, but for us, this installment only takes what that game brought and adds to it, even if it’s only incremental, which it got some criticism for.

This technically isn’t a NASCAR game, nor does it feel like one, but it was inspired by NASCAR’s Daytona International Speedway event and is a NASCAR game in spirit. Daytona USA, released in 1994, was also incredibly influential for driving games in general, with some surprising features considering its year of release. For example, it would record how you drove in the first lap of a race and use that to determine your skill level and the difficulty of the game for the rest of the race.

When NASCAR Racing 2002 Season came out, it was hard to argue that there was a better racing game out there at all, let alone another NASCAR game. Papyrus knocked it out of the park with their 2002 effort and despite it not selling as well as its predecessor, it was a forward step for the genre.

NASCAR 07 took what the aforementioned NASCAR 06: Total Team Control did and improved on it – albeit only a little. But this is EA of course. The main thing that this game did was add a sense of speed, which they did with the pace of gameplay and a blurring effect that added some immersion and realism to the things.

This might not come as a surprise to many. Gran Turismo 5 is the second game on this list to not be a NASCAR game and although it doesn’t feature NASCAR in the largest capacity – there are only a handful of tracks and vehicles – it does it quite well and of course, has a bunch of other things to offer. It’s a perfect one to try if you want a taste of NASCAR in a more palatable way with more on the table.

Considering it was only released shortly after the turn of the millennium, Papyrus’ NASCAR Racing 4 was a massively important NASCAR game and had a level of detail that’s pretty unbelievable looking back, including but not limited to great car physics like going airborne and flipping, paint schemes and a bunch of famous tracks all available. It also introduced 24-bit color.

For many people’s money, this is the best NASCAR game out there. Truth be told, at this point in the list, you can make an argument that any of these games could take the top sport. NASCAR Thunder 2004 had all of the great features you’d expect from a racing game in 2003. It also introduced something called "Grudges and Alliances," which essentially helped you make enemies and friends during a race who would act accordingly, adding some fun to the races. There are also a bunch of different game modes like the lightning challenge where you’re put in the shoes of a driver in a race and situation that actually happened in the 2002 and 2003 Winston Cup events.

iRacing was first released in 2008 and has since been updated regularly to improve things. This game doesn’t even feature officially licensed vehicles, but the attention to detail and the sheer volume of cars, tracks, and more available here are mind-blowing. If you’re willing to look past a subscription fee and a lack of official licensing, this is easily no worse than a top three option for NASCAR sims. The focus is on online play and allows compatibility with racing wheels and gamepads. Even outside of NASCAR, this is one of the most fulfilling racing experiences out there and is a must-try for fans of racing games.

Last but not least is NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, which a large portion of the fanbase considers to be the gold standard for these kinds of games, influencing even iRacing which it provided the base code for. Despite recently passing its 20-year anniversary, NR 2003 still gets modded today. It included every single one of the 2003 season tracks and it established a new standard with these kinds of games. It was Papyrus’ final game before the rights were sold to EA and to this day, fans lament for what the series could have been.