Online racing looks set to become a feature for Eutechnyx’s newest NASCAR game – a feature that has been lacking in recent iterations.
In a recent blog post, they announced that players will get to line up against a possible 39 other human drivers in three separate lobbies. Which means, for the first time in a NASCAR game you get to experience the thrill of racing as a 40-person strong field where none are AI controlled. It’s not compulsory to compete in such large fields, which is a relief considering none of the cars will be AI controlled and even popular series can have trouble filling their larger lobbies consistently.
Players’ positions on the grid will not be determined by a pre-race lap, but by you previous race times on that track. How they determine start positions if no one has raced on it yet, I don’t know. Fastest players go at the front, so better players will always have an advantage. While this does seem a little unbalanced, it will hopefully offer online players a sense of progression as they increase their times and work through those starting positions.
To make things a little bit fairer, there are three different lobbies you can enter; No Rules, Normal, and Hosted.
No rules is designed primarily for casual players and it has, exactly as it says on the tin, no rules. Normal is closer to a simulation, designed for more experienced players. Hosted allows players to create a lobby with the powered to boot whoever they like. This gives more experienced players the chance to compete in higher quality races without the newer players feeling without a place. It seems to be a reasonable attempt at giving everyone a fun experience online.
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