NASCAR Racing 2003 Season

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season
Developer(s)	Papyrus Design Group
Publisher(s)	Sierra Entertainment
Version	1.2.0.1
Platform(s)	Windows, Mac
Release date(s)	NA February 13, 2003 EU February 21, 2003
Genre(s)	Driving Racing Simulation
Mode(s)	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: E (Everyone)
Media/distribution	CD
System requirements Windows, 450 MHz Processor, 64MB RAM, 16MB Direct3D compatible video card, 8X CD-ROM

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 2004-09 (parent company Sierra's successor company, Activision Blizzard, reacquired NASCAR rights in 2011, with NASCAR 2011: The Game). 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.

Drivers

While 43 real drivers are present in the Winston Cup Series in NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, fantasy drivers are still present, sponsored by fictional or unused sponsors. 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 allows cars to flip and go into massive barrel rolls. Cars can catch air in what is commonly referred to as blowovers. 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. An addon called Camera Control Master allows players to control camera angles in gameplay and replay modes.

Popularity

NASCAR driving superstars 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^{[citation needed]}. 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.

In a 2010 voting session held on Eutechnyx forums, NR2003 was voted favorite NASCAR game with 40.79% of the 151 votes. A similar voting session on YouTube placed NR2003 as first. The bleacherreport.com placed NR2003 second to iRacing.

It is widely popular due to its addon capabilities, advanced replay editor and realistic crash physics. It has approximately 15,000 videos on YouTube consisting mostly of crash replays and montages.

Motorsports Image used PCs running NR2003 as the central component of their NASCAR simulator products. These included several show-cars and race vehicles refitted as simulators, and a line of single-seat open models with pitch/roll motion bases. The Coca-Cola Company operated a set of them as mobile promotional events relating to their numerous NASCAR sponsorships; one-to-three day stops at Wal-Mart stores and some other retailers in the Midwestern United States were the most common venues.

The game's value has increased dramatically since its removal from shelves in 2004. Its value on eBay is as high as $300 with an average value of $80.

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.