0 NASCAR 2009

In the track, there is a time and a place for teamwork. Maybe you will never get the chance to hook up with a teammate and draft your way to be front. Or more often than not, you will spend the race watching after your own butt. As such, teamwork on the track may not be a big factor in a race. This puts the focus of this year’s NASCAR game in an awkward position of being occasionally useful.

I am glad this teamwork features aren’t too powerful, but because this game doesn’t explore the depth and importance of teams on a significant scale, it only partially connects players to the critical human factor of teams and the sport. For instance, your R&D program is shallow, meaning that sharing resources is often not very pertinent. In general, the simplicity of the off track team dynamics makes the career mode little different than last year’s. However, while racing the new team controls do change the way you drive, allowing you to seize opportunities on a chessboard that’s moving at dangerous speeds.

Despite the usual bonehead CPU Al, the thought-process for your teammates in deciding to help you or not is usually good. If only they were less one dimensional, then this franchise could really grow and capitalize on the sport’s captivating personalities. EA has touched on most of the elements of NASCAR. Now it needs to draw them all together and blow the whole thing out.