NASCAR Racing 2003 features 43 NASCAR Winston Cup Series cars that raced in the 2003 season. Special paint schemes were not included nor were other series. However, mods are available that add new cars such as the Generation 6 cars and new series such as the Nationwide Series. Here is the video game “NASCAR Racing 2003 Season”! Released in 2003 on Windows, it's still available and playable with some tinkering. It's a racing / driving, simulation and sports game, set in a licensed title, vehicle simulator, automobile and track racing themes.

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, or NR2003 for short, is a computer racing simulator released in February 2003 by Papyrus Design Group 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 to 2009 (parent company Sierra's successor company, Activision Blizzard, reacquired NASCAR rights in 2011, with NASCAR The Game: 2011). The game included all of the 2003 NASCAR season tracks and many of the drivers.

General[edit]

Gameplay
NASCAR Racing 2003 Season contains 39 Winston Cup teams that were anticipated to run throughout the season, as well as 23 Winston Cup series tracks, putting the player behind the wheel of a NASCAR stock car. Players are able to choose between testing sessions, offline single racing, championship, and multiplayer options as well as car setup choices, adding to the realism of the sim.

Ownership[edit]

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.^[1][2]

Community[edit]

In September of 2003, Papyrus released a 1.2.0.1 patch that allowed for community content, such as new racing series and tracks, to be added to the game.

Since then, the community has almost continuously updated the sim with new cars, tracks, and racing series, as well as multiple forums and websites dedicated to the sim.

Although Sierra's online servers shut down in 2004, online racing leagues dedicated to the sim still exist today and can be accessed through the game's server lobby.

Reception[edit]

According to Edge, NASCAR Racing 2003 Season sold at least 100,000 copies in the United States, but was beaten by NASCAR Racing 4's 260,000 sales in the region. Total US sales of NASCAR Racing computer games released in the 2000s reached 900,000 copies by August 2006.^[3]

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season won PC Gamer US's 2003 'Best Racing Game' award. The magazine's Andy Mahood wrote that it 'established a daunting new standard for PC racing simulations that may take years to eclipse.'^[4]

Trivia[edit]

While a large number of 2003 Winston Cup drivers appear in the game, fantasy drivers are also present. This includes a Blizzard Entertainment-sponsored #128 Ford.

Despite only running a part-time Winston Cup schedule in 2003, drivers Hermie Sadler, Boris Said, and Kerry Earnhardt were included as playable options in the game's roster, but the entirety of Chip Ganassi's race team is absent from the game, meaning that the cars of Sterling Marlin, Casey Mears, and Jamie McMurray do not appear in the game's original roster.

References[edit]

1. ^'FAQs iRacing.com'. iracing.com. Retrieved 2014-03-28.
2. ^'Papyrus Design Group, Inc. - MobyGames'. mobygames.com. Retrieved 2014-03-28.
3. ^Edge Staff (August 25, 2006). 'The Top 100 PC Games of the 21st Century'. Edge. Archived from the original on October 17, 2012.
4. ^Mahood, Andy (March 2004). 'The 10th Annual PC Gamer Awards'. PC Gamer US. 11 (3): 38–40, 42, 44, 45.

External links[edit]

• NASCAR Racing 2003 Season at MobyGames

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, or NR2003 for short, is a computer racing simulator released in February 2003 by Papyrus Design Group 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 to 2009 (parent company Sierra's successor company, Activision Blizzard, reacquired NASCAR rights in 2011, with NASCAR The Game: 2011). The game included all of the 2003 NASCAR season tracks and many of the drivers.

General[edit]

Gameplay
NASCAR Racing 2003 Season contains 39 Winston Cup teams that were anticipated to run throughout the season, as well as 23 Winston Cup series tracks, putting the player behind the wheel of a NASCAR stock car. Players are able to choose between testing sessions, offline single racing, championship, and multiplayer options as well as car setup choices, adding to the realism of the sim.

Ownership[edit]

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.^[1][2]

Community[edit]

In September of 2003, Papyrus released a 1.2.0.1 patch that allowed for community content, such as new racing series and tracks, to be added to the game.

Since then, the community has almost continuously updated the sim with new cars, tracks, and racing series, as well as multiple forums and websites dedicated to the sim.

Although Sierra's online servers shut down in 2004, online racing leagues dedicated to the sim still exist today and can be accessed through the game's server lobby.

Reception[edit]

According to Edge, NASCAR Racing 2003 Season sold at least 100,000 copies in the United States, but was beaten by NASCAR Racing 4's 260,000 sales in the region. Total US sales of NASCAR Racing computer games released in the 2000s reached 900,000 copies by August 2006.^[3]

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season won PC Gamer US's 2003 'Best Racing Game' award. The magazine's Andy Mahood wrote that it 'established a daunting new standard for PC racing simulations that may take years to eclipse.'^[4]

Trivia[edit]

While a large number of 2003 Winston Cup drivers appear in the game, fantasy drivers are also present. This includes a Blizzard Entertainment-sponsored #128 Ford.

Shattered galaxy units near me. Despite only running a part-time Winston Cup schedule in 2003, drivers Hermie Sadler, Boris Said, and Kerry Earnhardt were included as playable options in the game's roster, but the entirety of Chip Ganassi's race team is absent from the game, meaning that the cars of Sterling Marlin, Casey Mears, and Jamie McMurray do not appear in the game's original roster.

References[edit]

1. ^'FAQs iRacing.com'. iracing.com. Retrieved 2014-03-28.
2. ^'Papyrus Design Group, Inc. - MobyGames'. mobygames.com. Retrieved 2014-03-28.
3. ^Edge Staff (August 25, 2006). 'The Top 100 PC Games of the 21st Century'. Edge. Archived from the original on October 17, 2012.
4. ^Mahood, Andy (March 2004). 'The 10th Annual PC Gamer Awards'. PC Gamer US. 11 (3): 38–40, 42, 44, 45.

External links[edit]

• NASCAR Racing 2003 Season at MobyGames