NASCAR Racing 2003 Season

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, or NR2003 for short, is a computer racing simulator released in February 2003 by Papyrus Design Group for Windows and Mac OS X. The game was the last to be released by the company before EA Sports bought the NASCAR license exclusively from 2004 to 2009 (parent company Sierra's successor company, Activision Blizzard, reacquired NASCAR rights in 2011, with NASCAR The Game: 2011). The game included all of the 2003 NASCAR season tracks and many of the drivers.

Not to be confused with NASCAR Thunder 2003.
NASCAR Racing 2003 Season
Cover art featuring the cars of Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick
Developer(s)Papyrus Design Group
Publisher(s)Sierra Entertainment
Platform(s)Windows, Mac
Release
  • NA: February 12, 2003[1]
  • EU: February 21, 2003
Genre(s)Sim racing
Mode(s)Singleplayer, Multiplayer

General

Gameplay

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season contains 39 Winston Cup teams that were anticipated to run throughout the season, as well as 23 Winston Cup series tracks, putting the player behind the wheel of a NASCAR stock car. Players are able to choose between testing sessions, offline single racing, championship, and multiplayer options as well as car setup choices, adding to the realism of the sim.

Ownership

At the end of March 2004, NR2003 was pulled from shelves when Electronic Arts acquired the exclusive NASCAR rights. In May 2004, Papyrus was shut down, and David Kaemmer bought the source code and assets a couple months later for his company FIRST, LLC where it became the base code for iRacing.[2][3]

Community

In September of 2003, Papyrus released a 1.2.0.1 patch that allowed for community content, such as new racing series and tracks, to be added to the game.

Since then, the community has almost continuously updated the sim with new cars, tracks, and racing series, as well as multiple forums and websites dedicated to the sim.

Although Sierra's online servers shut down in 2004, online racing leagues dedicated to the sim still exist today and can be accessed through the game's server lobby.

Reception
Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
Metacritic89/100[4]
Review scores
PublicationScore
CGM[5]
CGW[6]
GameSpot8.8/10[7]
GameSpy[8]
GameZone9.5/10[9]
IGN9.3/10[10]
Jeuxvideo.com16/20[11]
PC Gamer (US)95%[12]
X-Play[13]

The game received "generally favorable reviews", according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[4]

According to Edge, the game sold at least 100,000 copies in the United States, but was beaten by NASCAR Racing 4's 260,000 sales in the region.[14] Total US sales of NASCAR Racing computer games released in the 2000s reached 900,000 copies by August 2006.[14]

The game won PC Gamer US's 2003 "Best Racing Game" award. The magazine's Andy Mahood wrote that it "established a daunting new standard for PC racing simulations that may take years to eclipse."[15]

References
  1. McNewerson, Newsey (February 11, 2003). "NASCAR Racing Season 2003 Ships". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  2. "FAQs". iRacing. Archived from the original on February 11, 2014. Retrieved March 28, 2014.
  3. "Papyrus Design Group, Inc". MobyGames. Blue Flame Labs. Retrieved March 28, 2014.
  4. "NASCAR Racing 2003 Season for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  5. "Review: NASCAR Racing 2003 Season". Computer Games Magazine. No. 150. theGlobe.com. May 2003. p. 78.
  6. Hermes, Wade (May 2003). "NASCAR Racing 2003 Season" (PDF). Computer Gaming World. No. 226. Ziff Davis. p. 98. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  7. Goble, Gord (February 6, 2003). "NASCAR Racing 2003 Season Review". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  8. Osborne, Scott (February 11, 2003). "GameSpy: NASCAR Racing 2003 Season". GameSpy. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  9. Ovaldog (February 20, 2003). "NASCAR(r) Racing 2003 Season Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on October 5, 2008. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  10. Magruder, Randy (March 11, 2003). "NASCAR Racing 2003 [Season]". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  11. Dinowan (April 2, 2003). "Test: Nascar Racing 2003 Season". Jeuxvideo.com (in French). Webedia. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  12. Mahood, Andy (April 2003). "NASCAR Racing: 2003 Season". PC Gamer. Vol. 10 no. 4. Imagine Media. p. 94. Archived from the original on March 15, 2006. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  13. Jackson, Jonah (February 21, 2003). "'NASCAR Racing 2003 Season' (PC) Review". X-Play. TechTV. Archived from the original on February 21, 2003. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  14. Edge staff (August 25, 2006). "The Top 100 PC Games of the 21st Century (Page 3)". Edge. Future plc. Archived from the original on October 19, 2012. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  15. Mahood, Andy (March 2004). "The 10th Annual PC Gamer Awards". PC Gamer. Vol. 11 no. 3. Imagine Media. pp. 38–40, 42, 44–45.
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