EA continues to accurately simulate the sport of NASCAR.

Year after year, EA seems to find new ways to bring the feeling of being an actual NASCAR racer home. In the past, we have seen realistic damage, lap times, additions of yellow flags, and even rivalries between two racers. This year, EA has taken all that a step further with two new features. The first is a voice communication system, which works when you use the PlayStation 2 headset or the Xbox Live headset. This feature allows you to talk to your pit crew and get lap times, leader positions, when you should pit, fuel status, and much more. The other feature is finally getting together with your team members and helping each other out. This is the first time that Squad Based team control has been implemented into the system, and it actually works quite well. Toss in the already solid NASCAR engine with some slight improvements and you have a game that will keep fans happy for quite some time.

Visually, I would be lying to you if I were to say this game looks as good as any racer on the market. In fact, the game is looking rather dated. I appreciate the fact that you have 43 cars on the well replicated tracks at the same time, all running at a nice framerate, with outstanding damage and smoke effects. I hope with the next generation systems EA will be able to pull off at least PC-like visuals, with shiny cars, little to no jaggy pixels or shimmering, and incredible lighting effects. Even the presentation, which is nothing more than some cheesy cut scenes and picture menus, could use some help. In general, if anything, you will not be able to tell much difference between the Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions of the game, which is a shame considering the power difference. In the end, the engine looks very much like last year, but with some fixes in the framerate department.

NASCAR 06 has some excellent audio and really captures the racing atmosphere in beautiful surround sound. The engine sounds really vary between race classes, and it really shows EA cares enough to record each class separately so even the most fickle of gear heads could tell the difference by the sounds alone. The sound effects are also remarkable with all the pertinent rubbing, grinding, and crashing sounds you know and come to expect in a NASCAR title. The game even provides some fantastic pit crew chatter that not only is informative, but also can be rather funny if you speak obscenities into the mic. I say this every year, and I will continue to do so until they add this feature, but where is my play by play? I get that EA wants to replicate the crew and personal experience, but there should be an option for TV style presentation. I am sure I am not the only one who feels this way. What is cooler is that they have even opened the possibility of this feature by the headset voice communication. For example, you can have the crew speak through the headset, while the in game commentary gives you and onlookers the racing play by play. So, what do you say EA, think about it?

Gameplay is where EA will finally set apart the casual racing fans from the NASCAR fans. If you are not a fan of the sport you may have a very hard time adjusting to what makes NASCAR more that just another racing sim. The addition of the "Total Team Control" just cements this fact by giving you the chance to have your team block for you and even provide some necessary drafting to gain more speed. EA has provided a few difficulty settings so new fans who have not quite grasped the sport will be able to be weaned into the dos and do nots of NASCAR racing. For the veterans out there, you can turn off and on all the bells and whistles to make your racing experience as authentic as possible. Car swapping between teammates is now an option where you use the right analog stick to take control of teammates' cars and fight off rivals as you work your way back to the front of the pack. The game also has some very intelligent and most importantly fair A.I. that is more likely to race to position and win, versus grind and cheaply take the lead. You will have your moments of racers who bring up the rear trying to make you lose ground, especially if you are on another racing team, but for the most part, the game is cautious and fair and feels much like a real opponent more this year than any other.

There are tons of new features this year, which will make your purchase of NASCAR 06 a no brainer. You have the driver communication, car swapping, a new interactive crew chief that allows for eight team commands including blocking, pitting, and holding track positions, an expanded Fight to the Top career single player mode, improved online racing which includes all new anti-cheat measures, and an all new Chase for the Cup Mode. Want more? How about the ability to have grudges and alliances, which allow you to drive as a hero or villain, which will result into post race confrontations. NASCAR 06 has the Nextel Cup, Craftsman Truck Series, Whelen Modified Series, and even the NASCAR Busch Series. More than 60 drivers are at your disposal, or create your own persona with the new expanded Create-a-Driver. All 22 official NASCAR Nextel Cup Series tracks are here, as is 13 fantasy tracks and 3 Busch Series tracks. If that was not enough, for those gamers with more time, there are over 30 new Lightning Challenges hosted by Kenny Wallace, which reflects real NASCAR scenarios and features favorite drivers from these events.

If you consider yourself a series NASCAR fan, you must own NASCAR 06. This is the game you have been waiting for and offers more game play options than you can handle. Casual racing fans may be confused by the concept and might want to consider this a rental at best. But hey, it is nice to see EA not cater to the masses and finally create a game strictly for the fans.