NASCAR Racing 2002 Season is the latest incarnation of Papyrus' NASCAR Racing series. The history of Papyrus and racing sim software spans almost an entire decade, with Indianapolis the Simulation, then release of NASCAR Racing 1 in the mid 90's, to the release of NASCAR Racing 2 in 1997, NASCAR Racing 3 in the latter part of 1999, and most recently, NASCAR Racing 4 released just one year ago. While I didn't like NASCAR Racing 4 much, I must say that NASCAR 2002 is the biggest step forward from its predecessor. NASCAR 2002 takes everything that was great in NASCAR 4, polishes and refines it, and fixes most of NASCAR's big problems, especially for myself at least, was the insane level of difficulty. Finally I can enjoy some great NASCAR racing action! :)
NASCAR features all the venues, drivers, cars, paint schemes, and sponsors of the 2002 Winston Cup season, 24 circuits (including the new Chicagoland Speedway and Kansas Motor Speedway, plus an amazing 3-mile fantasy track Coca-Cola Superspeedway with 36-degrees of banking and two massive straightaways), all the top NASCAR drivers, including Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhard, Jr. Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte, Dale Jarrett, and more, an improved photo-realistic graphics show off the new 2002 teams and drivers for the most accurate NASCAR feel, real damage, Replay Editor that lets you add sound, graphics, and special effects, up to 43 players simultaneously over LAN/Internet. To be honest, I don't think all hard-core players and owners NASCAR 4 will be satisfied enough with NASCAR 2002 improvements and will spend another 50 bucks. Anyhow I must say that Sierra and Papyrus have done a good job with this game and it's worth playing. Also don't forget the game is definitely made for people with a wheel and pedal set, so playing with keyboard only quite sucks. Download playable demo (56MB).