EA Sports NASCAR Series

The EA Sports NASCAR series was a series of NASCAR video games published by EA Sports. The series began with NASCAR 98 and NASCAR 99 in 1997 and 1998. EA Sports released NASCAR Thunder 2002 in 2001, and ever since then, Jeff Gordon (2002), Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (2003),and Tony Stewart (2004) were on the cover. In 2004, they changed the name of the game to NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup and added the new features to make the game more up-to-date with the recent changes to NASCAR. Kevin Harvick was on the cover. The next year, they changed the name yet again to NASCAR 06: Total Team Control. Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson were on the cover. The new features were swapping cars with teammates and voice-recognition support for use with the crew chief. The following year, the game was titled NASCAR 07 and features Elliott Sadler on the cover. The new features include a new speed blur effect and an all-new momentum system, used to describe drivers' strong and weak racetrack types. In 2004, the feature was a "Grudges and Alliances" feature in which if you hit a car, they could hit you back. The feature received a mixed reaction. After the kart racing game was released 2009, EA announced that the series would be discontinued due to budget cuts and the expiration of EA Sport's contract with NASCAR. Polyphony Digital has since bought the rights to develop official NASCAR cars and tracks in their upcoming simulation video game Gran Turismo 5 marking the end of the series under the EA Sports label, but there are rumors that the NASCAR series would return to EA, and would be included in Need for Speed series.