NASCAR Racing 2003 Season
| NASCAR Racing 2003 Season | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Papyrus Design Group |
| Publisher(s) | Sierra Entertainment |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Mac |
| Genre(s) | Driving Racing Simulation |
| Mode(s) | Singleplayer, Multiplayer |
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 from NASCAR. 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.
The game features a popular multiplayer interface, used by up to 2500 drivers at any one time. This can result in fields of up to 43 human drivers driving simultaneously in online races. There are several online leagues still running, even with the release of countless other stock car sims. Although the Sierra online multiplayer aspect of the game has decreased, many private companies have been started to fulfill the need for professional-grade multiplayer servers and league management software for this game. In addition, downloading of new mods, updated cars, tracks and templates have allowed users to give the program a fresh look and keep up with real-life racing.
Drivers
While 42 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.
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. 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.
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.
After the game was pulled from stores in early 2004 due to Papyrus' NASCAR license expiring, it began commanding prices sometimes exceeding $150 on eBay.
Painting Community
The ability to paint cars using an in-game design tool and professional tools like Adobe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro created a community devoted to recreating paint schemes, and a rendering community designed to showcase these paint schemes. There are numerous paint shops on the internet, such as MasGrafx, that paint for various series.
See also
External links
- Sierra Publisher of NASCAR Racing 2003 Season
- iRacing Company headed by John Henry and David Kaemmer (founder of Papyrus Design Group) and current owners of the NR2003 code