Game:

NASCAR Heat 3 (2018)

Category:

Review

Duration: 37:33

3,218 views

14

I'm playing NASCAR Heat 3, a racing simulation by Monster Games and 704 Games. New features in this year’s version start with a dirt touring series that includes eight tracks (and a dirt road course). The career mode (which starts out in the new dirt series) adds the ability to be an owner/driver, allowing the player to hire staff and choose racing cars to perform research on. Online multiplayer adds tournaments, while the new Charlotte “roval” and Phoenix redesign are included. A racing line is provided to learn each track, but only in practice mode. Also, there are nine pre-made car setups for each track that range between “tight,” “balanced,” and “loose.” The short racing challenges round out the features. As in previous versions, NASCAR Heat 3 handles somewhere between an arcade game and a simulation, which strikes the balance the developers are looking for in a console-driven release. The cars are relatively easy to drive, and the AI is very aggressive and less idiotic as in last year’s game. The sound design is not great (the collision effect is especially weak) and the game still lacks game options during a race (like saving progress for later or seeing what the controls are). Still, NASCAR Heat 3 is an improvement over last year, and is slowly approaching a solid arcade-sim racing game overall.