NASCAR Thunder 2004 is a racing simulator by EA Sports, released in 2003 and available in separate versions for PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC. It features the 2002 champion Tony Stewart on the cover with a scowling look to represent the new Grudges and Alliances feature. It was the only game as of 2002 to feature the previous Winston (Sprint) Cup Champion on the cover. The game had the most extensive soundtrack of the series up from four songs from the previous game. The game also has a career mode, season mode, Lightning Challenge mode, SpeedZone, as well as a tutorial mode featuring Richard Petty. The game is an EA Sports Bio game, and is compatible with other EA Sports Bio games like Madden NFL 2004 and NCAA Football 2004.[3] A Nintendo GameCube port was planned but was cancelled, as the console did not support Online Play.
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I mostly got curious about this game as I am currently in my rewatching old EmpLemon videos mood that I get once a year and his NASCAR videos in particular always interest me. This game was specifically mentioned in one of his videos about the decline of video games as the last good NASCAR title.
And yeah I'd have to agree this is just good old fashioned entertainment. The game allows you to customize your car, cause massive pileups, forge friendships and rivalries on the track and have your engine destroyed six ways from Sunday.
The fact that there are mechanics where debris can fall off from the cars and cause tire damage makes this game so fucking interesting to me, but I've also not played many racers so I can't speak on if this is a unique feature or not, but it's very engaging.
My favorite track is Martinsville, as it easily results in some of the most chaotic racing you can possibly see, massive pileups that take up an entire segment of the track, turning it into a burning hell of steel.
Really isn't much more to say other than that it's making me interested in watching NASCAR at some point. Give it a shot, you'll probably enjoy yourself.