

There are 4 ways to play the game, basically: Single race, Career, Challenge and Online. Race results also sometimes feel random, and are based on where I happen to be when a caution flag is thrown.

It feels like a yo-yo, and it isn’t always due to player-error. By the end of a run, I’ve lost much of the progress I made early on. Every run ends up about the same for me: I start strongly and pass a handful of cars after the midway point, my tires start to go and I fall back. My biggest complaint is that it feels like the tire wear doesn’t impact AI as much. The game does a good job of letting the player feel how tires get less grip through a run. However, due to NASCAR’s silly stage racing, it can still lead to few strategic maneuvers. This gives you a mostly authentic experience, without having to run an entire race. My preferred race length is to play 25% long races, with 4-times the tire wear and fuel usage. The rush of moving up through the field and trying for your best finish the heartbreak of inadvertently sliding into the wall and losing all the progress you’ve made the satisfaction when a strategy call vaults you to a top 5 finish when your car’s actually a bottom 5 car. On the track, it’s a mostly enjoyable experience. That’s not to say that NASCAR Heat 5 is a bad game. The game also just looks better, though that could be because I’m playing this year’s game on the Xbox One X, as opposed to the PS4 Pro.īut, ultimately, I feel like I’m playing the same game I played last year and the year before and the year before… The driving model feels a lot better - my cars don’t just spin with the slightest contact, and I’m finding it easier to get involved in drafts and pushes. This year’s game feels basically like a roster and car paint update compared to previous versions. The same complaint that a lot of annual sports video game franchises receive is (mostly) true with NASCAR Heat 5.
