NASCAR Arcade Rush Review (Xbox Series S)

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For this NASCAR Arcade Rush Review, we play a game that has the thrill of NASCAR meets the rush of arcade racing in a new game that puts us in the driver’s seat of a completely new NASCAR experience with re-imagined, iconic racetracks in unmatched high-speed, wheel-to-wheel action!

NASCAR Arcade Rush Review Pros:

  • Decent graphics.
  • 5.5GB download size.
  • 1000 Gamerscore.
  • Racing gameplay.
  • Officially licensed game.
  • Performance mode – on/off.
  • Tutorial text pops up on your first solo race.
  • Customizable vehicle and driver.
  • Three game modes – solo, split-screen, and online.
  • Help menu lists controls and mechanics.
  • Solo has three modes – cup series, quick race, and time attack.
  • Arcade presentation and controls.
  • Two difficulties – elite and rookie.
  • Emote shortcuts in the d-pad.
  • You have nitro, drive over yellow pads to get a bit back, or drive into the pits to refill it fully.
  • Full camera control so you can see behind and all around.
  • Speed boost strips.
  • Instant restart at the last checkpoint button.
  • Earn EXP and level up to get rewards.
  • Pre-race flyover.
  • Quick race lets you pick any track and race.
  • Podium sequence at the end of a race.
  • Cars are just cosmetic so you can drive any you like rather than the fastest.
  • The split-screen mode has two game types – cup series and quick race.
  • EXP is dished out upon your race position.
  • 13 cars to unlock.
  • Male/female avatar choices.
  • 14 driver helmets to unlock.
  • Car customisation options – wheel trail, emotes, number, number font style, spoiler, wheels, stickers, and car body.
  • 12 locations – Talladega Super Speedway, Watkins Glen International, Richmond Raceway, Phoenix Raceway, Martinsville Raceway, Michigan International Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Homestead Miami Speedway, Darlington Raceway, Daytona International Speedway, Chicago Street Race weekend, and Next Gen in California.
  • Nine cups to unlock, you get points from your final position in a race.
  • The rivals system is where you fight with someone by you or them bashing into you a lot, if you then beat them, you get bonus EXP.
  • Indicators show for opponents coming up behind you.

NASCAR Arcade Rush Review Cons:

  • Initial unskippable intro video.
  • The intro video looks really low-resolution and blurry.
  • Not the best loading times.
  • The text is small but also kind of blurry in places.
  • Cannot rebind controls.
  • Only one camera view of your car.
  • The handling is so light and twitchy corners are a nightmare.
  • Hard to see the track ahead.
  • Cheap AI tactics.
  • Slow restart loading time.
  • The rewards are quite boring, it’s a lot of emotes and helmets for a driver you only see at the end of a race.
  • For a game about speed, there are more elements that slow you down rather than speed you up.
  • The pit lane is just hitting a line to refill your nitro but you are on a limited speed during it.
  • Respawning is nearly always a case of being put at the back of the pack.
  • Touching a wall in any way nearly stops you dead, grass stops you dead, hitting other cars slows you right down.
  • All the cars are just cosmetic.
  • Every menu has like two or three too many clicks, backing out of a mode has you going back over every menu.
  • You cannot edit any race events like laps.
  • A lot of the time it’s almost a pinball game that has you bounce off cars and walls continuously.
  • You get hardly any EXP in time trials.
  • No online leaderboards.
  • You can only pick 1 to 16 for your car number.
  • It’s not as fun to play as you would like.
  • Each race location is just the one-track layout and not the alternatives.

Related Post: Lies of P Review (Steam)

NASCAR Arcade Rush:

Official website.

Developer: Team6 Game Studios

Publisher: GameMill Games

Store Links –

Xbox

  • 7/10
    Graphics - 7/10
  • 6/10
    Sound - 6/10
  • 6/10
    Accessibility - 6/10
  • 7/10
    Length - 7/10
  • 7/10
    Fun Factor - 7/10
6.6/10

Summary

Nascar Arcade Rush is a racing game with decent graphics and a 5.5GB download size. It offers three game modes: solo, split-screen, and online. The solo mode has three sub-modes: cup series, quick race, and time attack. The game features customizable vehicles and drivers, and officially licensed content.

The game has two difficulties: elite and rookie. It uses a nitro system where you can drive over yellow pads to get a bit back or drive into the pits to refill it fully. There are speed boost strips and an instant restart at the last checkpoint button. You earn EXP and level up to get rewards.

There are 13 cars to unlock, all of which are cosmetic. There are also 14 driver helmets to unlock and various car customization options. The game features 12 locations and nine cups to unlock.

However, the game has some downsides. The text is small and blurry in places, and the controls cannot be rebound. The handling is light and twitchy, making corners difficult to navigate. The AI uses cheap tactics, and the restart loading time is slow. The rewards are quite boring, consisting mostly of emotes and helmets for a driver you only see at the end of a race.

Overall, Nascar Arcade Rush offers an arcade experience with simplified controls with a variety of settings and modes yet maintains the official raceways but falls short in areas that make playing the game unenjoyable. With a bit more variety and polish this could have been a real winner but unfortunately, it got overtaken on the last corner.

Jim Smale

Gaming since the Atari 2600, I enjoy the weirdness in games counting Densha De Go and RC De Go as my favourite titles of all time. I prefer gaming of old where buying games from a shop was a thing, Being social in person was a thing. Join me as I attempt to adapt to this new digital age!