NASCAR Heat 5

NASCAR Heat 5 improves on the previous and successful episode adding new features and modes coupled with very well balanced difficulty modes. It's still got lot to improve in the presentation area and in the multiplayer modes too similar to the ones in previous game, but while waiting for the next-gen jump this remains a very good NASCAR experience.

I think that the biggest thing that will hurt this game is the versions that came before it. I’m not sure people will spend the money on the latest edition if they’re still having fun on the last few entries. The career mode is worth the jump I think, and the more people that do will ultimately find themselves filling up multiplayer lobbies too. While the base price of the game is $49.99, ten dollars cheaper than most triple A titles, it should be an easy buy if you haven’t played a NASCAR Heat title before. But if you’re still having fun with any of the previous iterations you may choose to wait for a sale.

If you skipped last year’s NASCAR Heat 4 and are looking to pick up a new NASCAR game, NASCAR Heat 5 is the one to grab, no doubt. It is indeed the best NASCAR game to date. There’s such a small margin between them, however, that unless you’ve got a wad of cash burning a hole in your pocket, there’s no real reason to pick this up if you do already own NASCAR Heat 4. Hopefully there’ll be some genuine new features and improvements in next year’s inevitable NASCAR Heat 6.

That familiarity with what's lacking is repeated throughout NASCAR Heat 5 in both good and bad ways. Sure, it's a yearly update and to expect too much would be foolish, but this game really feels like NASCAR Heat 4. In a good way, nothing got worse and long-term fans will be able to jump right in and have an enjoyable time. On the other hand...could this have just been a DLC for NASCAR Heat 4?

If you’ve played NASCAR Heat 4, you’ll know exactly what to expect from the latest sequel. I mean that almost literally, as the main complaints from the community is that it’s essentially the same game with the 2020 season liveries and driver updates. If you already own last year’s outing, there’s not much reason to upgrade unless you’re a die-hard fan, but if you’re new to the series or skipped a few of the last ones, NASCAR Heat 5 is a great starting point, even for amateurs to the sport.

With these criticisms in mind, it's hard to recommend NASCAR Heat 5 to players who already own the still-excellent NASCAR Heat 4, but for those who have either never played a racing game or haven't bought one in years, the game is a perfectly fine option. Annoying technical issues and lack of innovation aside, this is a polished racing simulator that takes every gameplay element that worked so well last year and improves them. One could make the argument that that simply isn't enough to justify a AAA price tag, and there's certainly a lot of merit in such an argument. Overall, however, NASCAR Heat 5 is a healthy serving of familiar racing fun that's still head and shoulders above a lot of other sports simulators available on today's market.

It’s a bit of a tough one this. I can't penalise the game for being a recreation of what is. But I do think that NASCAR as a whole will appeal to some, but not others. What I can penalise it for is not making very good sense in the race screens, for its lack of proper tuning to try and make my car faster, for the way nothing is explained very well, and for generally not being above average in terms of being a racer.

NASCAR aficionados will likely love getting more action where they can, especially with the cancellation

Solid racing experience, even for someone who doesn't really even like nascar. I would like to see a few more options available, like more lap options, simulate qualifying, damage for AI and not me, maybe even a rewind option. I had fun with it for 11 seasons, but ultimately glad it was a rental. Challenges are very difficult.

Nascar Heat : A powerful Microsoft exclusive game came out and it's Nascar Heat 5. First of all I would like to say that this game can compete and can be compared against any other car race game on the market easily. Simple user interface makes things easier for players. You can jump in a career mode or multiplayer races anytime you want. Good thing about career mode is you can start a full career mode which has longer story line with you starting from the bottom or you can just skip some part of it and start from the main career mode. Yet when it comes to game play there's a lot to handle here by the dev team. Thousands of players are complaining from the same issues such as glitches and poor performance in some consoles the vast majority of the racetracks in NASCAR Heat 5 are comprised of ovals and you’ll barely have to do more than anything else other than slightly turning the analog stick to the left. Let's hope they show some love to this game and fix the issues for everyone as much as possible with the next generation Xbox Series X just a couple moths away.

honesty pretty fun i really liked how hard it can get sometimes, but i wish there were more classic drivers than just Jeff Gordon

This is the worse racing game ever made. I’m tired of them having people who know absolutely nothing about racing make games like this. The quality is awful and worth anything close to $60.