I grew up in Easton PA and used to pass by Nazareth Speedway all the time. You could hear the races from my grandparent's house. Not much is left besides cracked up concrete to closed off fences and severely overgrown grass, it's a real shame.
Agreed. My Aunt lives in Palmer Township so in both 2001 and 2002 we went to the IRL practice sessions to feed my interest in racing. Went to the final IRL race ever there and enjoyed myself immensely. Was practically another life ago tho....
I used to live in Stockertown, as well as growing up near Easton and Wind Gap, going up and down the roads between them. I remember getting one chance to go see the last race of Nazareth Speedway near my 10th birthday, and it was a blast, as well as one of my last connections to NASCAR at the time. Years later, whenever I visited my late grandmother or stayed over, we would pass by the stadium when it still stood, even beyond when it was finally torn down. I still remember the awe I felt at looking at such a lively area all those years ago. You can imagine how I felt as well, just seeing a decrepit lot as it stands now, though I haven't been in the area in almost a decade now.
Dodge Raceway will always live fondly in my heart. My favorite part is how you can strand somebody on the tires with cautions off and they will be removed from the race permanently. Its kinda fun to race there alone without a worry of anyone else getting in your way
I love how I’ve managed to have this video game for years and only now do I know of the Lakeshore Dr. road course and its cheat code. Even now, I’m still finding secrets in games I grew up with.
I’ve always wanted to see someone do a career mode where they own their own teams but only upgrade the Engine’s, in theory then every race you’re driving an absolute piss missile down the straights that can’t turn and every pit stop could cost you 5 seconds on track lol
Was playing some NASCAR 07 today. Playing at Atlanta at night is so cool. And something I noticed after the first lap of the race, pack racing at pre-super speedway Atlanta, literally 4 and 5 wide, just instant chaos. Definitely had a lot of fun. Would love for you to play that game.
This was genuinely the peak of NASCAR racing for home console kids. I have returned to this, GT3, and GT4 many times over the years. They kept the right parts simple and the other parts complex, but you never felt a need to dive into the complex to enjoy the experience. It was just there for the die-hards without ruining the casual experience.
Nice to see a fellow racing fan from Ohio most people up here give you a weird look when you bring up racing, especially NASCAR. Greetings from Canton!
Thanks for reminding me about these older Nascar games. Graphics look better than I thought they would after so long. I love the cars they ran back then so I’m gonna fire this up for Xbox.
I do like how EA kept the Nazareth Speedway in the games that followed from 06-09 albeit as a Fantasy Track, but still cool to still include the now abandoned track in those games. If Wilksboro can return, then Nazareth can return, it would be really cool to see the Cup Series race there for the first time.
25:26 Mark: "Look at Scott Riggs!" _(Hits Riggs while he's upside down)_ Mark: "I'm gonna call that one a mulligan." Me: "Well yeah... It's Riggs & not my driver!"
The opening intro could be used as a generation test. I think I named every driver in my head. I'm turning 30 this year lol Great video as always! You make me want to dust off my ps2 and get back into these games.
From my understanding, this games only major flaw is that AI is not affected by tire wear during the career mode. Its honestly immersion breaking but it is what it is. Other than that, great game and hysterical prologue
Hey Mark, big fan of the channel! Don’t know if you’re looking for suggestions or already have a bunch of ideas on the back burner, but I think NASCAR Rumble would make for a fantastic video!
Was playing some more NASCAR 07, and was playing a full race of the Fall Daytona race 100%. Pretty much lapped the field from green flag pit stops, and was trying to stretch my fuel, the next thing that happened, I ran out of fuel after I crossed the start/finish line, so I had to drive around the track, just to hit pit road, literally made it to pit road right at the time my car had 70 miles per hour, couldn’t have scripted it any better, cycled out 12th. At that point I didn’t care what position I was in, just making it back to pit road on an empty tank at Daytona was good enough to me. And yes I won that race, on a green white checkered finish at that.
Hello Mark, your EA NASCAR videos are very entertaining indeed! Guess what? I have these games too! I owned these games on Xbox and I had never experienced with so much content in these NASCAR video games, these NASCAR video games (Including the God Tier NASCAR Thunder 2004) are the best classic racing games I’ve ever owned and it’s still is the best to this day! Great video Mark!
I grew up playing the absolute life out of this game! Had it since it came out when I was 4 or so and still play it to this day thanks to the PCSX2 PlayStation emulator. Hold up pretty well, nostalgia glasses on of course 😂. The new "nightly release" version of the emulator allows for texture dumping, so over the course of a week I kind of figured out how to make custom suits and vehicle liveries / export its assets! I run a Huggers Oranges craftsmen truck livery on a truck in Assetto Corsa for circuit racing
You passed the 8 and 9 in Chicago street and it occurs to me…. Both of them boys end up driving Bud cars and both of em wind up teammates of Jeff…. What a weird life we lived from 07-16
05 was a fun game for sure. Finally I was able to play as Jeff Gordon in his classic Rainbow scheme. Something I couldn’t play on Thunder 2004 (yes it’s his 04 All Star scheme, but they could’ve at least brought in his 90s rainbow scheme) career was different, although I wished with this new career mode, they imported the pit crew hire and fire into the mode, as you can own teams, and maybe adding a crew chief hire and fire mode would’ve been much better, also importing how to fix the car would’ve been nice, but the mode alone is different, and I like different. Tire wear is the biggest issue with this game, and pretty much loses its value, with no ai tire wear (even though they do pit, but you only have tire wear) it really takes the fun away from the game, and it can get VERY frustrating. The car feels lighter than 04. Unfortunately the car physics would get much worse in 06.
I really enjoyed this video. Would love to see Fight to the Top Mark edition! Recently I revisited NFSU2 and I've been impressed once again... Any thoughts about a foray into the classic Need for Speed games at some point?
Now I wanna get my version I recently got of this game and do a season mode where it’s similar to the 24 schedule. Gonna have dodge raceway open the season 😂
Oh boy, Chase For The Cup! Even without Thunder 04, Gamecube folks had it made. Edit: The Mr. Clean pit crew became an inside joke in one of my discord servers. We're making a bunch of stupid, RNG aided paint jobs, and one of our pit crews came out looking like a bunch of Master Chiefs, so I joked that it was the Microsoft version of the Mr. Clean crew.
As a Jeff Gordon fan, NASCAR 2005 has his best paint schemes in any NASCAR game. It has his flames paint scheme, Rainbow (my favorite), platinum (really underrated paint scheme), 2003/2004 Pepsi Paint Scheme, and the Black test car. I would really like to know when this game finished production, because the only one missing is his 2004 Pepsi 400 paint scheme, the Million Dollar Pepsi paint scheme. All in all, I never was a big fan of his flames paint scheme, it just looked horrible. So I never raced with it.
Its always a good mark video when you ram someone into the sand barrels and jeff gordon screws with you The ai pitting in ea games is terrible. I think when there's a caution, the game runs a check to see if the car can make it to the end of the race and if not will not pit to stay on the current fuel run, even if they are seconds away from the finish line when they run out. I've noticed on 25% races at daytona, you can crash on lap 27, and none of the ai's will pit despite you being good to go until the end but will run out of gas 5 seconds before the line without drafting. Also sometimes the pits just glitch out and the cars won't pass you on pitroad, that's a thing
A thing most probably don't know is that some of the fantasy tracks were actually based off some real life ones like Old Spice being inspired by Riverside also the retexture mod for Dolphin is good you should check it out
The opening scene never made much sense to me. You’re apparently a struggling race car driver who already owns a Dodge Viper somehow. If they wanted to make it more realistic, they should’ve put your character in a Neon SRT-4 and made you beat Ryan Newman while he’s in a Viper
It's really depressing seeing how in-depth these older games were compared to our modern disgrace of a game.
Hit gas turn left
@@porterde08 That's all us NASCAR fans need :)
And it’s every sports game tbh
Oh how much joy I got through my life just knowing about good ol' Walmart Exclusive
That's how I got this game on Easter one year lol
I grew up in Easton PA and used to pass by Nazareth Speedway all the time. You could hear the races from my grandparent's house. Not much is left besides cracked up concrete to closed off fences and severely overgrown grass, it's a real shame.
Agreed. My Aunt lives in Palmer Township so in both 2001 and 2002 we went to the IRL practice sessions to feed my interest in racing. Went to the final IRL race ever there and enjoyed myself immensely. Was practically another life ago tho....
I used to live in Stockertown, as well as growing up near Easton and Wind Gap, going up and down the roads between them. I remember getting one chance to go see the last race of Nazareth Speedway near my 10th birthday, and it was a blast, as well as one of my last connections to NASCAR at the time. Years later, whenever I visited my late grandmother or stayed over, we would pass by the stadium when it still stood, even beyond when it was finally torn down. I still remember the awe I felt at looking at such a lively area all those years ago. You can imagine how I felt as well, just seeing a decrepit lot as it stands now, though I haven't been in the area in almost a decade now.
My favorite part of dodge stadium as a kid was running the other drivers into the pit lane.
Dodge Raceway will always live fondly in my heart. My favorite part is how you can strand somebody on the tires with cautions off and they will be removed from the race permanently. Its kinda fun to race there alone without a worry of anyone else getting in your way
1:15 "Hope you have insurance!" *Proceeds to destroy Newman's Viper*
Love your videos dude!!
Yeah... Street racing!
I love how I’ve managed to have this video game for years and only now do I know of the Lakeshore Dr. road course and its cheat code. Even now, I’m still finding secrets in games I grew up with.
I probably have 1000+ hours in this game and I never knew about Lakeshore drive or that there was Grand Am cars?! Wtf!!
This game predicted the Coliseum and the Chicago street race.
I’ve always wanted to see someone do a career mode where they own their own teams but only upgrade the Engine’s, in theory then every race you’re driving an absolute piss missile down the straights that can’t turn and every pit stop could cost you 5 seconds on track lol
If this game would've had dirt to Daytona physics, except on the road courses, and a custom difficulty slider, it would've been perfect.
"Lil bit of bumping, that's how you pass in prototypes right?" Homestead 2004, you're welcome.
Was playing some NASCAR 07 today. Playing at Atlanta at night is so cool. And something I noticed after the first lap of the race, pack racing at pre-super speedway Atlanta, literally 4 and 5 wide, just instant chaos. Definitely had a lot of fun. Would love for you to play that game.
This was genuinely the peak of NASCAR racing for home console kids. I have returned to this, GT3, and GT4 many times over the years. They kept the right parts simple and the other parts complex, but you never felt a need to dive into the complex to enjoy the experience. It was just there for the die-hards without ruining the casual experience.
This game is so much fun. And I love how you know about the codes for the unlocks as well. A+
Nice to see a fellow racing fan from Ohio most people up here give you a weird look when you bring up racing, especially NASCAR. Greetings from Canton!
I was legit like waiting for this video because I knew it’d be peak
I was right, great vid!
never clicked so fast on a Mark Leiffer's video before
same here brotha
Can't believe this channel only has 5k subs. Love your videos dude!!
Dude seeing you drive the square D truck is hilarious as I sell those as my reap life job lol
Thanks for reminding me about these older Nascar games. Graphics look better than I thought they would after so long. I love the cars they ran back then so I’m gonna fire this up for Xbox.
I do like how EA kept the Nazareth Speedway in the games that followed from 06-09 albeit as a Fantasy Track, but still cool to still include the now abandoned track in those games. If Wilksboro can return, then Nazareth can return, it would be really cool to see the Cup Series race there for the first time.
25:26 Mark: "Look at Scott Riggs!"
_(Hits Riggs while he's upside down)_
Mark: "I'm gonna call that one a mulligan."
Me: "Well yeah... It's Riggs & not my driver!"
This game had 4-player online gameplay with the ability to include a certain number of AI - it was really, really fun
This was my first NASCAR game. Thank you for unlocking a memory.
The opening intro could be used as a generation test. I think I named every driver in my head. I'm turning 30 this year lol
Great video as always! You make me want to dust off my ps2 and get back into these games.
From my understanding, this games only major flaw is that AI is not affected by tire wear during the career mode. Its honestly immersion breaking but it is what it is. Other than that, great game and hysterical prologue
1:15 it feels like every video Ryan Newman has to be flipped upside down
also the EA track designers were correct about banked corners on road courses, they rule. wish somebody would port these tracks to assetto corsa
Truly the greatest driver in NASCAR history...
*Walmart Exclusive*
Absolutely love your content, delivery, everything! Keep it up brother!
Hey Mark, big fan of the channel! Don’t know if you’re looking for suggestions or already have a bunch of ideas on the back burner, but I think NASCAR Rumble would make for a fantastic video!
Was playing some more NASCAR 07, and was playing a full race of the Fall Daytona race 100%. Pretty much lapped the field from green flag pit stops, and was trying to stretch my fuel, the next thing that happened, I ran out of fuel after I crossed the start/finish line, so I had to drive around the track, just to hit pit road, literally made it to pit road right at the time my car had 70 miles per hour, couldn’t have scripted it any better, cycled out 12th. At that point I didn’t care what position I was in, just making it back to pit road on an empty tank at Daytona was good enough to me. And yes I won that race, on a green white checkered finish at that.
Hello Mark, your EA NASCAR videos are very entertaining indeed! Guess what? I have these games too! I owned these games on Xbox and I had never experienced with so much content in these NASCAR video games, these NASCAR video games (Including the God Tier NASCAR Thunder 2004) are the best classic racing games I’ve ever owned and it’s still is the best to this day! Great video Mark!
Greatest game of my childhood probably. Great career mode
I grew up playing the absolute life out of this game! Had it since it came out when I was 4 or so and still play it to this day thanks to the PCSX2 PlayStation emulator. Hold up pretty well, nostalgia glasses on of course 😂. The new "nightly release" version of the emulator allows for texture dumping, so over the course of a week I kind of figured out how to make custom suits and vehicle liveries / export its assets! I run a Huggers Oranges craftsmen truck livery on a truck in Assetto Corsa for circuit racing
7:49 When you pit and remember your whole crew is Mr. Clean and babe wake up, wake up, please babe wake up
Sticking to your word, love it man!
Oh how I’ve waited for you to upload another piece of gold
Crazy how good it looks for a gamecube game
I always loved how they censored the word Busch in the series but, Bill Webber still says Nascar Busch Series 😂
You passed the 8 and 9 in Chicago street and it occurs to me…. Both of them boys end up driving Bud cars and both of em wind up teammates of Jeff…. What a weird life we lived from 07-16
owned this game since it came out but certainly never beat all of it, I had no idea about the grand am cars
Bro I need you to make another video I have ran out of content lmao love the vids brother
working on it
05 was a fun game for sure. Finally I was able to play as Jeff Gordon in his classic Rainbow scheme. Something I couldn’t play on Thunder 2004 (yes it’s his 04 All Star scheme, but they could’ve at least brought in his 90s rainbow scheme) career was different, although I wished with this new career mode, they imported the pit crew hire and fire into the mode, as you can own teams, and maybe adding a crew chief hire and fire mode would’ve been much better, also importing how to fix the car would’ve been nice, but the mode alone is different, and I like different. Tire wear is the biggest issue with this game, and pretty much loses its value, with no ai tire wear (even though they do pit, but you only have tire wear) it really takes the fun away from the game, and it can get VERY frustrating. The car feels lighter than 04. Unfortunately the car physics would get much worse in 06.
man this game was my childhood amongst others, it was just incredible. The soundtrack is S tier.
It took me till today to realize dodge raceway is basically Raymond James Stadium
Loved the soundtrack. 13 year old me was jammin'.
Best NASCAR game of all time. I loved the street racing and the trucks. Just awesome.
I wont lie the beginning of the game made it feel like a need for speed vibe but still the enjoyment of thunder 2003
Few things in life have been as rewarding as dragging 1 and 2 star rides to victory lane in Fight to the Top mode.
Real life Jeff Gordon: can easily pass Rusty Wallace
NASCAR 2005 Jeff Gordon: He’s too hard to pass.
I don't know about DP but in DPi Bourdais did a sick burnout at Sebring in 2021
I played one of these nascar games, maybe 2006, and if you had a mic plugged in, and sniffled, it would say "hey, watch your language."
This channel makes me nascar
I loved this game and the three games before it. They were never the same after 2005.
I'm flooded with great nostalgia. Faked a lot of coughs to stay home from school to play this all day.
The legend is back let's gooo
I really enjoyed this video. Would love to see Fight to the Top Mark edition!
Recently I revisited NFSU2 and I've been impressed once again... Any thoughts about a foray into the classic Need for Speed games at some point?
Now I wanna get my version I recently got of this game and do a season mode where it’s similar to the 24 schedule. Gonna have dodge raceway open the season 😂
Oh boy, Chase For The Cup! Even without Thunder 04, Gamecube folks had it made.
Edit: The Mr. Clean pit crew became an inside joke in one of my discord servers. We're making a bunch of stupid, RNG aided paint jobs, and one of our pit crews came out looking like a bunch of Master Chiefs, so I joked that it was the Microsoft version of the Mr. Clean crew.
The hours I sunk into this game. Somehow I completely forgot about the prologue though.
That's surreal about the Chicago streetcourse.
Man I used to love this game and thunder 2003
Honestly i loved playing this game
As a Jeff Gordon fan, NASCAR 2005 has his best paint schemes in any NASCAR game. It has his flames paint scheme, Rainbow (my favorite), platinum (really underrated paint scheme), 2003/2004 Pepsi Paint Scheme, and the Black test car. I would really like to know when this game finished production, because the only one missing is his 2004 Pepsi 400 paint scheme, the Million Dollar Pepsi paint scheme. All in all, I never was a big fan of his flames paint scheme, it just looked horrible. So I never raced with it.
holy shit i completely forgot i had this game UNTIL you showed the damn ryan newman intro lol
This video made me find a way to play this game again and man. It's been a blast!
Miss this damn game
03, 04, 06 and 07were my favorite nascar games
I love this game so much
I still play it to this day
I'll always miss nazareth. Hometown track. Was there for the real life race when truex jr won.
6:50 i thought the orange 🍊 truck next to you said something else....
Appreciate the fake Mansfield comment because it's so true
the 007 edit made me laugh so much
Even though they censored busch from the busch series, but they can still say busch series on pre-race
..........................................................How did Ryan Newman get my cell number?
Its always a good mark video when you ram someone into the sand barrels and jeff gordon screws with you
The ai pitting in ea games is terrible. I think when there's a caution, the game runs a check to see if the car can make it to the end of the race and if not will not pit to stay on the current fuel run, even if they are seconds away from the finish line when they run out. I've noticed on 25% races at daytona, you can crash on lap 27, and none of the ai's will pit despite you being good to go until the end but will run out of gas 5 seconds before the line without drafting. Also sometimes the pits just glitch out and the cars won't pass you on pitroad, that's a thing
NASCAR Thunder 2003 needs a review of its own
I have this game on the Ps2 and it's awesome!
Bro it had Magna-Fi in it that’s a W
How did I never know there was Prototypes in this game???
A thing most probably don't know is that some of the fantasy tracks were actually based off some real life ones like Old Spice being inspired by Riverside also the retexture mod for Dolphin is good you should check it out
Move over Petty and Earnhardt, there’s a new GOAT in NASCAR and his first name is Walmart
i use to doorslam drivers into the pits at Dodge raceway stadium
Can we get a career mode for this?!?! Starting from modified all the way up
I miss when games had cheat codes
cant wait for the career series loved the thunder 03 and 04 careers!
Wait wait wait, how did I never realize this game had prototypes in it?
i remember on ps2 online in summer you could win a viper by racing in a cup online
The opening scene never made much sense to me. You’re apparently a struggling race car driver who already owns a Dodge Viper somehow. If they wanted to make it more realistic, they should’ve put your character in a Neon SRT-4 and made you beat Ryan Newman while he’s in a Viper
I loved this game growing up
I miss dodge and pontiac being in nascar, it would be nice to see more manufacturers in the sport
Does anyone else think the "it's in the game" intro feel like a YTP edit?
Sorry, *feels.
The PS2 version of this game has the video for each lightning challenge, but for some reason i guess the gamecube version doesn't
Smaller disc = Smaller amount of space to use
HES BACK
Tony Walker sighting 👀
2024 and I am using my PC to play 20 year old NASCAR and Madden games because somehow EA was actually somewhat competent then.
I wish this game had the in car like the other games
15:48 that's what she said!
YES! HES BACK
Who put Mr. Clean on the pit crew