NASCAR 09

"And on the last lap..."

NASCAR 09 on the PS2 will be the last NASCAR game for the aging console. The 8 year-old system gave us new highs for the series back with NASCAR Thunder 2004 and 2005: Chase for the Cup, but after NASCAR 06, the series lost some of its luster. NASCARs 07 and 08 were decent titles, but both came up short of the games from the "Thunder Era". Can NASCAR 09 return the series to greatness?

GRAPHICS
8/10
NASCAR 09 looks the same as NASCAR 08, which isn't that bad since NASCAR 08 did have decent graphics. The cars don't have any reflections, but I don't expect NASCARs to be shiny anyway. If you have a HDTV, you can play the game in high-res mode, but why not just buy a next-gen system then?

SOUND
9/10
Best Soundtrack EVER in a NASCAR game! The mix of rock & roll and country music fits the sport perfectly. I was upset with this area with NASCARs 06-08, but NASCAR 09 fixes this problem. The spotters, as usual, are morons who don't tell you about wrecks until it is too late.

GAMEPLAY
8/10
It depends where you are on the field. It feels great surging through the pack, but for some bizzare reason, once you reach the top 10, it gets much harder to pass and nearly impossible to pass the leaders without going Kyle Busch on them. It was the same way in 2008 and I am confused why this was not fixed. There is a new "Easy Play" mode but it limits your options so much, once I got used to the game, I turned it off.

FEATURES
6/10
Play NASCAR 08. Same thing here. You still can't swap to teammates like in 06 and 07, there are no lightning challenges, and they kept the crappy way to get chase plates from 08 instead of the good way from 05-07. Bummer. At least it has the Modified Series, something next-gen doesn't. Also, the paint booth from the next-gen games isn't on this version.

OVERALL
7/10
NASCAR 09 is just another re-hash of NASCAR 08 with some tacked on features. While it is fun, you will easily and quickly regret it if you spend $50 on it. Wait until the price goes down to at least $25 before you buy this one, or just play your old NASCAR games. Thanks for reading this and keep on racin'!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/09

Game Release: NASCAR 09 (US, 06/10/08)