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PlayStation (Games) Entertainment Games

NASCAR Coursebuilders, Drivers Consult Videogame Version 49

Posted by simoniker from the curve-tweaking-trickier-for-real-thing dept.
Thanks to the St.Petersburg Times for their article discussing how NASCAR videogames are giving the real-life drivers tips on a newly redesigned course. According to the piece, which discusses the "$10 million... redesign of Homestead-Miami Speedway", the drivers are checking out EA Sports' new NASCAR title for tips on the as yet undriven new layout: "'The boys playing the video game said Homestead's going to be real fast,' said Busch Series driver Scott Riggs in September... 'With that new banking in there, they could be pushing 180 (mph) in the straightaway'." The coursebuilders at the International Speedway Corporation also got their first look at racing conditions from the game, according to an EA spokesman: "The first time we went down and showed the game to the ISC people they were jumping around the office... [the redesign] was going to add roughly 30 mph to the top speed and shave five seconds off a lap."
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NASCAR Coursebuilders, Drivers Consult Videogame Version More

NASCAR Coursebuilders, Drivers Consult Videogame Version

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  • Stuff like this makes me love technology.

    Practical uses for our tech toys.

  • Not the first time... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Goldberg's Pants ( 139800 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @08:25PM (#7470078) Journal
    WAY back when Geoff Crammond's F1GP came out, there was a story like this. A rookie driver who'd never driven Spa-Francorchamps (in Belgium) was racing in a touring car race at the circuit. To get to know it, he played F1GP and did a load of laps in the game to get to know the circuit, went out next day and won the race.

    I also remember hearing that Jacques Villeneuve, back when he came to F1, played F1 video games to get to know the circuits.

    It's a great idea. If the tech is there, use it, and games are getting SO realistic these days that a lot of racers agree that the sims we play these days pretty much nail what it's really like.
    • F1 has always had the money to investigate any option. Active supsension, banned. Active downforce, banned. One lap tyres, banned. Qualifying engines, banned. Tractions control, automatic start, ABS, banned, oops no re-instated. Mclaren had a car with no driver all computer controlled. FIA banned it. Williams had a CVT almost ready to go, banned. Teams started to build cars with twin seats, suddenly a rule appears stating that a car can only have one driver, obviously a just in case rule as the rul
      • GPL rules! Just got done a mammoth 3 hour online session:)

        To correct you though, ABS IS STILL BANNED. Also, stuff like qualifying engines and super-sticky tyres were banned to keep costs down.

        Traction control and launch control was all reinstated because the FIA couldn't police it.

        F1 is TOO safe now. As Stirling Moss said, drivers need the fear of God shoved up them.
      • Is there away to realistaclly simulate Gs?

        Yes. Turn the car on it's side. Of course, this only works to the extent of 1 G, but you can spin it in a circle, ala astronaut training, if you want, and easily get 25 Gs.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • 5 Seconds (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Usquebaugh ( 230216 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @08:38PM (#7470152)
    Shave 5 seconds, thats not so much a shave as a slash. 5 seconds is a huge difference in laps times.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Really though, how complicated can it be for a NASCAR driver to get to know the course?

      "Okay, left... left... left... left... left... left... left... left... left...... left... left... left... left..." :)
      • I don't particularly care for oval tracks, either, but there's still quite a difference when a track goes from a flat course to having variably-banked turns (which is what the article mentions has happened). It generally means you can go much faster through the turns, but you still have to figure out where the car is going to go when you head into it, and just how fast you can manage it.
      • Obviously, you've never played. Try racing at Martinsville. Yeah, it's all lefts, but damned if I can learn the course.
  • Engineers using computer models... how revolutionary.

    I guess the interesting bit is that they didn't have to develop it.

    Q.

  • I'm sorry, american car racing is the dumbest spectator "sport" ever. They just go around in a big circle. For crying out loud, once you and your competition have both sweated out which is the best spark plug, and you're left on relatively even terms, one might as well just play a good video game simulation of the race rather than actually driving around in circles all day. It glorifies gasoline consumption and pollution, and its about as interesting as repeatedly slamming your head in a car door.

    I'm to
    • I'm with you.

      I mean, really, what kind of designer are you when you're trying to make new and better ovals?
    • > I'm sorry, american car racing is
      > the dumbest spectator "sport" ever.
      > They just goaround in a big circle.

      I have to agree... I don't see the point of NASCAR. It's like... hillbilly bumper cars.

      • Re:Flame away friends (Score:5, Insightful)

        by rekkanoryo ( 676146 ) * <rekkanoryo AT rekkanoryo DOT org> on Friday November 14, 2003 @12:54AM (#7471661) Homepage
        Well, what's the point of football, soccer, baseball, basketball, etc? The same arguments can be made against them:
        • Football is basically a bunch of musclebound men running around on a grass field beating the hell out of each other chasing a brown oval-shaped "ball".
        • Baseball is people running in circles on a grass and dirt field hitting and chasing a white ball with red stitches in it.
        • Basketball is a bunch of people running back and forth on a wood floor chasing an orange ball.
        • Soccer is a bunch of people running back and forth on a grass field chasing a white and black ball.
        "Hillbilly bumpercars" is an outdated view. NASCAR is a bunch of teams spending at least $200,000 per week to put a car on the track. Then there's the seven crew members allowed over the wall on pit road, the crew chief that makes the decisions, the spotters trying to keep the drivers out of accidents, etc. And half the time if you hit someone you're dragged into the "Principal's Office," a trailer where the NASCAR brass dole out monetary and championship point penalties for the stupidest things (get pissed off and say "Fuck off!" or "That dirty son of a bitch!" on the radio? $5,000 fine.)

        Racing is a lot of work, and it's the fastest growing sport in the US. It's no more pointless or stupid than any of these other sports that people get so wrapped up in. So NASCAR drivers drive 500 miles and get nowhere. Players in other sports run around the whole game and never get anywhere. No real differences there. The biggest difference is with NASCAR you have 1 winner and 42 losers each race, but in other sports you have 1 winner and 1 loser each game

        Just food for thought.

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion
          • There are actually a lot more rules than that. It usually takes a fan a full racing season to learn all the important ones. You already pointed out the major rules, but then there are templates that a car must match exactly with extremely small tolerances (less than 1/8 inch usually), there are car height requirements, and the list goes on. And on pit road there are 19 different things you can do wrong that will result in various penalties.

            Unfortunately, every NASCAR game I've ever played doesn't take m

            • Actually, NASCAR Racing (the old DOS version) hard-slowed you down, but if you layed on the gas, you could hit 56-57MPH in pit road and get blackflagged for going too fast.
        • Car racing is not a demonstration of physical prowess. Yes, I realize there is a lot of individual skill involved, and that it is physically taxing. But I doubt that the physical conditioning of winning drivers is reliably better than that of losing drivers. You can argue that skill is what people want to see, but I think physical feats speak to something basic in us. Otherwise I may as well be watching some "cyberathletes" frag each other -- it might be an entertaining exhibition, but it is not a sport
        • > "Hillbilly bumpercars" is an outdated view.

          Hey man -- where's there's smoke, there's fire.
        • There are chiefly two differences:

          1) Car racing glorifies pollution to no purpose. (not that other sports don't pollute, but its more a side effect than the main event)
          2) The major part of car racing - the driving - is so easily simulatable, they might as well play it in a simulator.

          (But I do agree, in general, that sports are a lot of running up and down a court for no purpose, and caring about shit that has nothing to do with your life)
    • Actually, I remember reading there is evidence that flight was actually discovered in Australia. The Wright brothers nailed it a few years later. Have no idea how true that is.

      DO NOT lump all American car racing into going in circles. NASCAR != American car racing. Check out any ALMS event. Infinitely more interesting. Same with Speed World Challenege.

      NASCAR and IRL are the "roundy round" racing.
    • you get a gold star, sir.

      Not only is racing silly, it's also dangerous as hell! Even more dangerous than american football.

      Imagine.. humans.. zooming around in half-million dollar 200 km/hour vehicles made of metal! Absurd!
    • > I'm told, back in the day, americans invented airplanes.

      Actually, they did not. The airplane was invented by a brazilian, Alberto Santos-Dumont, and first flew at Paris, France, in 1906. You might believe the Wright bros did it first, in 1903 - but theirs was not a real airplane. It could not take off by its own means, it needed a catapult; therefore, one can't say it was really an airplane.

      More info: [ http://www.rudnei.cunha.nom.br/FAB/eng/santos-dumo nt.html ]

    • Re:Flame away friends (Score:3, Insightful)

      by pmz ( 462998 )
      I'm sorry, american car racing is the dumbest spectator "sport" ever.

      NASCAR and drag racing, for example, are primarily drivetrain and pit crew competitions. The driver is the figurehead of the team and does, well, the driving.

      I hate to say this, but it's like ballet. I don't personally "get" either NASCAR or ballet, but there are obviously a lot of people who do. Those people develop an appreciation beyond the trivial aspects of driving in circles or jumping up and down like a monkey on a stage. At
  • I don't know much about racing but I doubt the racetrack owners would be happy about letting drivers drive on their course without paying some kind of "rental" time. Not to mention having to replace/repair tires that are worn and pay for the crews to be there.

    From an economic point of view, its a lot cheaper to have your driver play a $300 video game (PS2 system, [insert game name here], and memory card) than it is to get some time on the race track.

    • From an economic point of view, its a lot cheaper to have your driver play a $300 video game (PS2 system, [insert game name here], and memory card) than it is to get some time on the race track.

      The point, though, was that the redesigned track hadn't even been driven and drivers already had an idea of how they would approach it, because EA got the blueprints for the redesigned track from the construction company (in soft-copy, of course) before it was even built. The further point was that the drivers' ini
  • I remember a few years ago they spent millions redesigning a track, only to discover the banking, while improving traction and increasing top speed, occasionally caused the drivers to 'grey out' -- that is, the same condition that affects pilots at their G limit. It wouldn't be too hard to calculate that into the game and have it register on screen as an alpha value. Of course, that might not get the track designers jumping around. or it might.

    What's next? Pressurized drivers' suits to keep the blood in th

    • I remember a few years ago they spent millions redesigning a track, only to discover the banking, while improving traction and increasing top speed, occasionally caused the drivers to 'grey out' -- that is, the same condition that affects pilots at their G limit.

      It wasn't a redesign -- more like a whole new track. That was CART's first (and last) visit to Texas Motor Speedway in April 2001. Twenty-four degrees of banking turned out to be too steep [racinglines.com] for drivers whose cars were running at 235 mph.

  • The EA "NASCAR Thunder" series is not as popular among the drivers as the Papyrus n2k3 [papy.com] sim. Unfortunately, EA has acquired sole rights to the franchise, so this year's Papy version will be the last. There are a great deal of addons for it already--new tracks, Busch and Craftsman Truck Series mods, etc.

    Quite a few of the drivers play the game, especially for practice on the non-oval road courses. They describe the physics as being pretty close to the real thing. Some race online, most notably Dale Earnh
    • I work with a decent amount of drivers and most of them like thunder for the fun, although it doesnt feel as good as the Pap game. The idea of grudges took over the garage for a few weeks as everyone had the game in their bus. A funny story you'll never here in public involves someone driving the #7 car playing his first game and finding the #97 car.

      overall, ea does a better job of making a new version more intersting then the last. pap does a better job at pure driving. I have both, i tend to use thun

  • Maybe it's because I follow F1, but does the top speed on the lap really say much about the course? I mean, shouldn't there be "driver challenge"? You can make a given course faster and faster, just by increasing the banking. Big deal. Is it more interesting to watch, or does it make for a better race for the drivers?

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